The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz

I'm a sucker for theatre.  Theatre in smaller venues (community theatre, school plays) are my favourite, but I'm just as happy to go to the big productions as well.

All through high school, I took every drama class I could.  I wasn't so much into the acting part but loved the technical aspect.  Yes, at one point, I was part of the tech and lighting crew and enjoyed every minute of it.  I got a rush being part of a team.  It was so inspiring!

This past fall, Bella and I watched Over The Rainbow, the audition TV show for the role of Dorothy.  Bella really enjoyed watching the show every week and asked if we could see the girl who won the role of Dorothy.  So, when my mom asked what she could get Bella for Christmas or her birthday, I suggested tickets to see the production of The Wizard Of Oz at Toronto's Mirvish Theatre.

On March 27th,  the four of us packed into my mom's car and we drove downtown to see The Wizard of Oz.  We parked at the Eaton Centre which is right across from the Mirvish Theatre.  While my kids have been to downtown Toronto many times, and I grew up in Toronto, I forget that the hustle and bustle of a big city isn't something they're used to.  Seeing Lucas and Isabella in awe at all that surrounded them really entertained me.  We hadn't had lunch yet so we headed to the food court in the mall first before going to the theatre.  They were fascinated at the fast pace of the mall including the indoor water fountain that would shoot up every so often. 

At the Eaton Centre waiting for 

the water fountain to shoot up

After lunch, we walked across the street to the Mirvish Theatre.  We settled down into our seats and the play started.  It was fantastic!  It really caught the kids attention.  Much to my surprise, they even had popcorn for sale which we treated ourselves to at intermission.  It was so good.  Even better than movie theatre popcorn. 

Going to see The Wizard Of Oz was so much fun.  At the end of the play, Bella asked if we could see it again.  I'm so glad she enjoyed it which means more theatre to come.  We all had a great afternoon together!

Library Love

I love libraries!

All the information.

The wealth of knowledge waiting to be consumed.

This past week I've baked a cake with a hen, a cat and a rat. I drew pictures with a purple crayon. I've roamed through a few Japanese gardens. I picked blueberries with Sal and her mother. I think tonight I'll tour England with Madeline, but for now I'll be the Girl Lost In Translation.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Smile!

[sharing a smile at Tim Horton's for lunch]

Project 52 [week 2]

This was one of my views this past week while sitting on the beach in a lounge chair sipping Pina Coladas at Dreams Palm Beach in Punta Cana. Pure heaven and a much needed rest from the everyday chaos around here!

Stay tuned -- more about our trip to come!

Crazy Busy

I thought I better pop in so you don't think I've jumped ship!

The last week has been quite busy. We spent a few days in Montreal visiting Steve's family. We stayed with his cousin who has two kids -- Jack is a year older than Lucas and Kate is a year older than Isabella. The kids had a blast! It was all day entertainment for the kids for three straight days.

The main reason we went to Montreal was for the unveiling of Steve's Bubbi's headstone at the cemetery. There was also an unveiling for his Uncle's headstone. Steve's Bubbi passed away in March 2008 and his Uncle passed away at the beginning this year.

I've been trying to get things ready for the holidays. I'm feeling a bit rushed, as usual. Chanukah is creeping up so fast with it being two weeks before Christmas. I think I've spent, oh, about 1000 hours making my Blurb book this year. OK, maybe not 1000 hours, but it sure seems never ending. I have filled just over 120 pages and still have some of October and a few pictures from November to add. Next year, I am definitely starting the book in January and working month to month. Wasn't that my plan for this year? Well, it's for sure my plan for next year. This is the third year I've been making Blurb books to give to the grandparents as Chanukah/Christmas gifts. Here's sample from last year's Blurb book. I can't believe how many pictures I take. It's crazy. I'm obsessed! I always have to have my camera close by which isn't a bad thing, just a lot of work when it comes time to make the Blurb book.

We have a few Christmas parties to go to so I've been shopping around for something to wear. I'm trying to find a cute top (to wear with a pair of black pants or I can ditch the black pants and find something else), fun accessories and a fantabulous pair of shoes but nothing has jumped out at me yet. I get so tired shopping especially when I can't find what I'm looking for or nothing seems to work. This is the time of year when I need a personal shopper. I can dream!

If anyone has some ideas for some fun holiday attire, send them my way. I'm in need of some inspiration!

Don't Lick The Ice

Finally, a moment to myself. I'm sitting on the couch watching the movie The Devil Wears Prada with a glass of red wine (can you believe it? I think I've finally come to like the stuff. Don't worry white wine, you haven't lost me yet) and a box of those little mini Kit Kat and Coffee Crisp bars that are supposed to be for Halloween but, oh well, I can always buy more.

Sorry, I haven't posted much in the last little while. Things have been hectic lately. Doing what? I don't know but when you have two kids everyday seems to be busy. Good busy, for the most part, but busy none the less.

Steve is out doing some sports pool thing with the guys and watching UFC because I'm sure it's THE BIGGEST FIGHT OF THE YEAR yet again. Bella has been sleeping for the last hour and a half and I just finished watching the movie Beetlejuice with Lucas. Now I'm waiting for him to wake-up in a cold sweat yelling BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE. His last words before he fell asleep, "If I had three blades on my skates it would make skating much easier."

And why might Lucas have skating on his mind? That would be because we decided it was about time we all go to the local rink together as a family and enjoy an hour of Public Skating. While I haven't skated in almost 15 years, I thought it was about time to prove to myself that MS hasn't turned my legs to jello just yet and that I can still stand on ice and glide around like a true Canadian. I actually didn't do too bad. No broken hip. No fingers sliced off by some speed demon on skates. No burnt tongue hot chocolate accidents. It was quite enjoyable.

To add to the excitement, it was Bella's first time on the ice. We put on those little Bob skates (the one's that strap onto your boots) and held her up under her arms as her legs flailed on the ice. She had a blast!

I heard myself more than once tell Lucas "Don't lick the ice". He thought it was fun to scrape his skates along the ice to create snow, touch it with his hand and then lick it off his fingers. Dude, haven't you heard of yellow snow? Shesh. Then he decided it was more fun to toss the snow down daddy's hole in his jeans. The giggles were infectious. Innocent child's play at its best.

I didn't skate long and it was exhausting but I had so much fun being out there with my family. Something I hope I can still do for a long time to come!

Sherkston Shores

We're back from a week at Sherkston Shores with our friends Alana, Pete and their two girls. We had a wonderful time and wished we could have stayed longer.

Our days consisted of lounging on the beach, hanging out by the pool, mini golf, lots of play time, great conversation, watching satellites chase each other in the night sky, barbecues and some cool drinks to wash down our extra toasted marshmallows.

We even managed to get in some sight seeing to see one of the Seven Wonders Of The World -- Niagara Falls.

And who would have thought the bunk bed would be one of the best things that our trailer had to offer. Not only did the bed keep the kids entertained as if they had found their very own clubhouse but Lucas slept through the night without waking up once. You heard me, the boy SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT and slept until 8am! I think it was one of Steve's highlights of the week.

On the last night we were informed by the guys that it was Football Night (oh, great joy). Alana and I managed to make it through the game, just barely (can't say the same for the kids). We watched the time clock tick away, stop a bazillion times, and even add a few seconds. What is the time clock for anyway? Is a minute ever really a minute in sports? A sports minute always seems to end up being at least five minutes if not more....yawn!

A few pictures from our fun-filled week...

Our home for the week

Mini golf, anyone?

The beach at Sherkston Shores

Niagara Falls, ON

The Canadian Falls

The Crew

Toasted Marshmallows by Chef Luke

Manhattan memories

Steve is a big boxing and UFC fan. Every time there's a fight on he always claims it's the biggest fight of the year. I get a chuckle out of this and it has become a running joke -- wasn't the last fight the biggest fight of the year?

For Chrismukkah back in 2001, I decided to be all daring, spur of the moment, non-plannerish and buy two tickets to see Arturo Gatti fight at the Theatre At Madison Square Garden in New York. Little did I know (or maybe I did know but, hey, it's New York) this would be a contributing factor to Steve's obsession of watching people get punched out, ripped open, blood dripping welts -- I will never understand the joy and fascination one gets from this sport. Two guys beating the shit out of each other only to shake hands at the end and train all over again for the next fight. The poor parents who have to watch this. Oh, wait. We were sitting right behind the mother of Vernon Forrest at the match, cheering her son on -- it didn't seem to phase her. Now that's what I call support!

Anyway, we had a blast in New York -- all three nights, four days of it.

It was only a few months after 9/11 so the charred, soot smell still lingered in the air. The memorials on the street were still up in front of St. Paul's Church and parts of New York were still closed to the public.

We used the double decker red tour bus a lot to get around. I think we were too nervous to venture underground to the subway or too chicken to try to flag down a taxi without getting run over. I seriously wonder how many people get run over daily in New York. It must be the jaywalking capital of the world. I also had it stuck in my mind that flagging down a taxi in Times Square was pretty much impossible, even in the movies it seems like a daunting task unless you're smokin' hot in heels and have a whistle as loud as a freight train.

Our first day in New York was the best. We walked over to the International Soup Kitchen -- you know, the one from Seinfeld (it has since closed). It reminded us so much of the episode -- we were Elaine hum-ing and ha-ing over what to get while the guy behind the counter gave us an evil look like we were going to hell if we didn't quickly decide on our order and move along in an orderly fashion -- keep the line moving, chop chop.

We brought our brown bag of soup to Central Park and found a bench. It was one of the best soups I have ever had. It was thick and rich and hardy and warm and filled with lots of mushrooms and barley. Mmm! It's a lunch Steve and I remember fondly. Anytime someone mentions New York Steve and I look at each other and we both know what the other is thinking -- soup in Central Park.

My birthday fell on the day we left to come back home. The day before we left, Steve surprised me by taking me to Le Cirque -- a reservation he made before our trip. Since the temperatures in New York were hitting record highs for January, we were able to walk there without freezing our butts off.

The food was wonderful and we couldn't stop raving about the water. I have no clue why the water was so good but it was, kind of like the water you get at a Chinese food restaurant, it always seems to be the right temperature. We had two wonderful desserts. One was white chocolate clouds floating in vanilla cream with raspberry coulis. The other was a sample platter of everything chocolate. They were both heavenly. It was all worth the $200+US for the two hours that we were there (and when I say that it cost more, well, the Canadians who are reading this will probably understand the cursing and swearing I muffled under my breath as the thought of the damn exchange rate crossed my mind) -- two hours that included two main courses, two desserts, a glass of pop and a glass of white wine. I don't want to imagine what the cost of our meal would have come to if we had ordered appetizers or more alcoholic bevies.

Oh right, the fight -- The fight wasn't all that bad. I think we took the red bus there and then we were able to walk back (I still can't believe how warm it was while we were there).

I had a hard time picking out seats for the fight but they ended up being pretty decent as we were sitting right behind the family of Vernon Forrest (one of the boxers fighting that night). He ended up winning his match (I was told this was a big deal, or a huge upset as it is called in the world of sports or so I'm told)-- his mom and wife screaming at the million dollar plus win. We just watched someone win the lottery!

Arturo Gatti won as well.

It was a win-win situation for all of us that night, that weekend.

Over the last few weeks we have seen the end of these two boxers -- Arturo Gatti and Vernon Forrest. Steve is not a fan of reading or watching the news. The Sports section is all that he takes out of the newspaper when it comes in the morning. I mentioned to him the other day that the paper said something about Gatti's Will. Steve commented about how the reporters are so interested in Gatti's life now but rarely did they ever cover Gatti's boxing life as it was happening -- rarely a story on his win, hardly every publishing the results from his fights. Steve is right. This is why he doesn't like the news. It really is a pretty big downer to read over and over again about all the negative happening in the world.

Anyway, I started this post because I was looking at a few of my favourite pictures from this trip that I have hanging on the wall in our living room. I get compliments on them often and I'm quite happy with how they turned out. Who says you need to spend tons of money on artwork -- just make your own!

Here are the pictures. I took them while we were riding around on the red tour bus. The one on the left is the entrance to John Lennon's apartment (I think), the middle one is the place where we got our soup, the one on the right is a church in lower Manhattan (I can't remember which one though).

Before we had kids

Steve and I in front of our first house in 2001

Back when we lived in our first house, before we had kids, there were many things I remember doing spur of the moment like driving 30 minutes to downtown Toronto on a warm summer Saturday night just to get Chinese food from Hong Shing.

We would jump in the car, roll down the windows, turn up the music and off we went.

When we were half way there, we would use the cell phone to place our order of Garlic Beef with no vegetables, General Tao's Chicken and Mushroom Fried Rice so there wouldn't be any waiting once we reached our destination.

Once we got there, Steve would park the car on the street right beside the restaurant and then run in to get our piping hot, ready to go order.

I loved sitting there in the locked car for the few minutes by myself listening to the hum of the traffic, the muffled voices, shouting and laughter echoing off the buildings and street, the tapping of heels hitting the sidewalk, the nervous excitement of constantly checking the rear view mirror and behind my shoulder hoping that some dude with a big toothless grin on his face wouldn't be standing there at the car window the next time I turned around -- ah, the city life.

The aroma driving home was just too much to handle so we would sometimes open the container ever so carefully to take out a little bit for each of us -- a tease taste. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

It took me about a year to realize that this place was right around the corner from where I used to work. How I didn't realize this before, I don't know. I'm not sure if this was a good thing or not as I'm sure we would have made Hong Shing a weekly meal (if not more) if I had known sooner.

After making this realization, I would sometimes take a quick detour to Hong Shing before getting on the subway to Union Station and then catching the Go Train home. I always had this feeling that people were staring at me with this thought of "who the hell does she think she is stinking up this train". No one ever seemed to move away, turn up their nose or yell profanities at me -- not that I noticed anyway. Or maybe they were all quietly thanking me for masking the scent of the hundreds of people who had just crammed on to the train after being at work sweating in their business suit all day.

As I type this I seem to have developed a craving for some Ginger Beef from Spadina Garden.

I love living where we do but it's these memories and cravings that remind me what's missing from life in suburbia.

Actually, there are some great restaurants out here -- but I'll save that for another day.

Lions and tigers and stingrays, oh my!

Yesterday, we went to the Stingray Bay Exhibit at the Toronto Zoo.

It reminded me of the time Steve and I went to Cuba back in 1999. I was wading in the ocean when I noticed a black object slowly moving below the water not far from where I was. While I'm thinking it's probably just some piece of seaweed bobbing along, others start noticing it too. Not a moment later the buzz in the water turns into "Is it a shark?". Then we can finally see the outline of what appears to be a stingray and we were all like "Oh, thank goodness, it's only a stingray". Um, ya, only. Wasn't that how The Crocodile Hunter lost his life?

Anyway, as I pushed the thought of someone becoming the next Crocodile Hunter out of my mind, we watched these oddly shaped creatures gliding around, lifting up their sides almost as if to wave, that is until two butted heads right in front of us splashing us and our mouths with a good dose of salt water and who knows what else.

I wonder if yesterday will be one of those days that becomes one of Luke's fond childhood memories? I can just hear him the next time he eats a salt and vinegar chip, "Remember the time we saw the stingrays?".

Good times!

Sugar rush

Lucas has swimming lessons every morning this week and then we head off to good ol' reliable Tim Hortons for brunch.

Today, after he finished his usual whole wheat bagel, not toasted, with cream cheese on the side and a vanilla yogurt with berries, he asked if he could have a donut. I told him if he wanted the donut then he would have to go up to the counter to get one by himself. As I passed him a toonie (a Canadian two dollar coin), a proud "I'm a big boy" grin started to spread across his face.

I showed him where the end of the line was. He stood there next to all the other people towering over him, trying to blend in while the giants glanced down below at this mini version of them grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm getting a donut!" he explained as if he had to state his purpose in line.

Lucas got up to the counter, his chin barely touching the top, he opened his hand to display his somewhat shiny coin that looked over sized in his small little palm and asked for his deep fried circle of sugary goodness.

The ultimate sugar rush!

As I watched the red, blue and yellow sprinkles melt on the sides of his mouth, I was amazed at just how big a donut can appear when a kid is eating it. Even next to Luke's head. This was a boy who always needed buttons around his neck or two sizes bigger in hats just for his head to fit. I guess he's finally growing into his head.

Sniff, my boy is growing up.

Next he'll be asking if he can have the keys to the car. He already asked if he could have his own cellphone on the way home.

The T Dot

We went downtown this past weekend to St. Lawrence Hall for my friend's son's Annaprashan. I was so excited and and felt very honoured to wear a sari during the event-- a sari that once belonged to my friend's mother, a mother who was like a second mom to me. Sadly, she passed away suddenly on March 8th of this year. Even though she was dearly missed, the day was very enjoyable. I love learning about culture and getting to experience it first hand -- one of the bonuses of living in a multicultural society.

After the event Steve, Lucas, Isabella, my mom and I walked around the St. Lawrence Market area -- one of my favourite areas in Toronto. I always wish I could have lived downtown for a bit before we moved out to the burbs and had kids. It really is a happening place with lots to see and do.

Some pictures from our walk...

For those of you that don't know Toronto, these two office towers are called BCE Place (you can also see the CN Tower behind the building on the left). Though not as big, many consider these buildings the Twin Towers of Toronto -- if these two buildings went down, it would definitely make a noticeable difference to the downtown skyline and put a halt to the downtown core. The lower redish brick building in the middle of the picture is the Flatiron Building (aka the Gooderham Building). Standing at that interstection with all the people bustling around you really gets you into the downtown vibe. It just makes you feel lively inside.