Apr
14
Tuesdays with Micaela: Easter weekend in Ottawa
Filed Under Family, Holidays, life, micaela, ottawa, personal, random, sisterhood, travel | 9 Comments
Over Easter weekend I travelled to Canada’s capital city, Ottawa to visit my babiest sister Lauren with Kent, Erica, Denis, and our parents.
Here’s a little photo recap.
We took our friends dog, Eve out for a walk:
Coolest house on the block:
On Easter Sunday we toured the parliament. Lauren and I love the parliamentary library so much that we almost bought library shaped earrings at the gift shop.
Kent in front of the parliament:
Erica in the parliament’s Peace Tower (highest building in Ottawa):
We slept over at Lauren’s place. I’m sure you’ll recognize it even in this small picture as a typical student house. This is where we had sleepovers and watched way too much of My Super Sweet Sixteen.
Funny story: Lauren and I had the tv on Mean Girls when we left with mom to go shopping. Our dad was staying behind and when I asked if he wanted me to remote to switch the channel he said, “No, actually can you turn the volume up?” Despite spending a large portion of his life living with six girly-girls, my dad has managed to remain surprisingly manly, but even the manliest dad has his weak moments, apparently.
After Erica, Denis, and Kent left us on Sunday we visited the Nature Museum. Lauren and I had so much fun with all the interactive games where we got to tape ourselves making chimp calls and bird sounds.
Our not-so-blonde momma (don’t tell her that though):
Me, hanging out in a tree:
The photo ops really were endless:
After the museum we had some snacks at a market/bakery where apparently Obama had recently enjoyed some a cookie. Poor Obama probably felt like he had to order a Canada cookie to show his pride, even though the cookies looked pretty unappetizing and everything else there looked soooo good! At least he’s a good sport. Now they’re milking these cookies for every penny:
Thanks for being so much fun, Lauren! I LOVE Ottawa and will definitely be visiting you next year when I’m living only four hours away instead of nine.
That was our nontraditional Easter weekend, a far cry from our usual which always includes a 9am Catholic mass and way too many Easter dinners and easter egg hunts. I did make Kent an Easter basket though. I couldn’t help myself. I “apparently” didn’t warn him (ie. he didn’t remember me warning him!) I didn’t care though, I love giving him holiday gifts even if I don’t get any in return. My parents have always made us Easter baskets (and gave the three of us plus the two boys one to share this year) and later Kent was very apologetic and decided that he liked the basket idea so much that it will be a tradition from now on. Starting new holiday traditions is my favourite.
Check out the rest of our trip on my flickr!
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Feb
24
Tuesdays with Micaela ~ Shrove Tuesday edition.
Filed Under Holidays, food, life, micaela | 16 Comments
For good Catholic girls like us, today is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday or, if you wish, the horrible name, Fat Tuesday. What is the significance of this day? Well it’s the day before Ash Wednesday, but other than that I’m not really sure. Maybe you are supposed to fill yourself up with pancakes before you fast on Ash Wednesday. I could google it, but instead I will let someone feel smart and comment with the answer.
At my school this morning, we all enjoyed McDonalds pancakes. They were delicious. After school my friend Chris that I carpool with said to me, “I’m so full of pancakes. I had seven. And two donuts.” which made me laugh pretty hard.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, in which us good Christians give something up or do good deeds to commemorate Jesus walking through the desert for 40 days and nights. As children, our mom always made us give up television for Lent because she hated us watching it. We weren’t really allowed to watch it much any other time of the year either, but that didn’t really matter when we all had four sisters always around to entertain us. It worked, because none of us (well except Lauren) are big television watchers to this day.
To be honest, I can’t really remember if I’ve given anything up in recent years, so that probably means I haven’t given up anything too significant. This year, inspired by my previously mentioned pancake-loving friend, I will be giving up junk food of all sorts. My working definition of junk food is “anything that I would feel guilty eating.” Since I am a bridesmaid in Erica’s wedding in May, and a bride in my own in August, this is probably a good idea, Lent or no Lent.
What I like about Lent is that there is a set time limit. New Years resolutions are so difficult to keep, I think, because the time limit is something more like “forever.” Nobody can give up junk food forever.
So today I ate my last pancake and tonight I made my last batch of popcorn. Let the fasting begin…
And you? Will you be giving up anything for Lent?
Jan
4
New Years Partying
Filed Under Holidays | 8 Comments
This New Years was the first year where I’ve actually not wanted the new year to begin. For some reason I was dreading the beginning of 2009, I guess I’m beginning to feel old and do not want the time to pass by so fast! I realized time was passing by so quickly when walking in to church on Christmas eve. This Christmas was me and Scott’s 2nd married Christmas! Where the heck did the time go?
Anyways, that is not the point of this blog. This blog is to show you how I celebrated the arrival of 2009. We started it with a jump- right into a warm pool! A great way to start the year if I do say so myself!
Before we went to the party we had a Chinese food dinner party at my house and Mic, Stef and I played with my new camera!
Mic and I partied in the New Year at our friend Shawn’s pool party. His family recently insulated the pool and hot tub room so a pool party was a must. There were lots of people there, many different groups of friends who are now all connected, it was a lot of fun! We spent the night talking, drinking, celebrating 2009, swimming and sitting in the hot tub! Here are some of the pictures from the night.
The party room ^
The boys showed off by doing flips and belly flops into the pool.
The full hot tub!
Mic and Michelle rocking out to Elton John on the big screen!
See how the other FiveBlondes celebrated behind the cut.
Oct
31
Quality over Quantity: Trick or Treating in the Country
Filed Under Holidays, life, random | 8 Comments
For country kids, trick or treating isn’t a matter of getting dressed up, walking out your door, and traveling up and down sidewalks in a quest to hit up as many houses as possible for candy, chocolate, and the occasional toothbrush from the well-meaning dentist down the street. No, for country kids like us trick or treating was a matter of piling into the minivan after your parents have drawn straws to see who would drive you north and who would drive you south and driving from house to house, where your parents would come to the door with you and then discuss their crop yields for ten minutes or so.
Yes, strange as it sounds, for kids in the country trick or treating is not an environmentally friendly activity, and definitely doesn’t offer kids the chance to run around and burn off those candy calories before/while consuming them (as if kids care about that anyway!). Were we to walk, we could probably visit a dozen houses or so within an hour.
Our friends in the city would brag about how they ran from house to house to get as much candy as possible.
We got to brag about how many FULL SIZE CHOCOLATE BARS! we got. And how none of the houses we visited gave us a single Werther’s candy as a treat.
In the country, it’s quality over quantity. If the house you visit is giving away mini chocolate bars you get a handful of ‘em, because it is more than likely that the house will get only a handful of trick or treaters. Fewer visitors = more candy. It’s a delicious equation.
I trick or treated until I was 17. Yes, 17. And no, I’m not short, and most of the houses we visited knew my age quite well. Heck, our grandmother lives next door. How did I work this? Easy. I could drive! Mom and Dad could stay home! I wrapped myself in tin foil, stuck a ski helmet on my head, and called myself an astronaut. Mmmmm…space candy…
We never bought our costumes. Why bother when you can raid your grandparent’s closets for your mom’s old clothes, use facepaint, colour your hair, stick clotheshangers in your hair, and sew cute little skirts out of vintage bridesmaids dresses?
Here we are, getting ready to trick or treat. Pippi Longstocking (Micaela), a hippy (Kate), a vampire (Lauren), a baby (Leah), and Sailor Moon (Erica).
I am Sailor Moon, the champion of justice. In the name of the moon, I will right wrong and triumph over evil… and that means you!
OH MY LORD I WAS A DORK. But we all knew this already…
