Poof….fzzz went the car. Yup, poof fzz. It turns out that there were no technicians working on a Sunday with the abiolity to diagnose the problem. Four of us headed home and three of us stayed to wait until the car was fixed on Monday.
We managed to secure a hotel room (phew) and then headed back out to the Falls. While waiting for my friends to get back from the Behind the Falls experience, I chose to make a candy apple for the girls. (I opted out as I had done it as a child.) It is quite the process and looked absolutely delicious.
Afterwards it was time for some dinner at Shoeless Joes. It was nice again to have a few gluten free options. My flatbread was yummy!
This morning we chose to relax a while before walking over to Clifton Hill for some lunch. After lunch we finally went to pick up the car!!! Yippee!! Then we headed home. Even though the weekend did not unfold exactly as planned, it was wonderful to spend such time with the girls.
Step 1: Insert stick into apple and cover with caramel.Step 2: Dip in luscious, melted chocolate. Doesn’t that look delicious?Step 3: Cover with candy. I chose nerds because they are among the girls favourites.GF flatbread with sauce, chicken, bacon and cheese.
A lot of my friends turn 40 this year and they certainly all have birthdays. Sometime last year I came up with the idea that a girls weekend would be a fun way to honour everyone’s birthdays. Hence, the Niagara Get-away was born. It was suppose to be a one night get-away with only laughs and smiles. Well….it didn’t quite work out that way.
We began with a stop in Niagara on the Lake for lunch and shopping. Lunch was at the Prince of Wales. What a gorgeous hotel. Even the ceilings were beautiful. And the food…MMMMMM. Another delicious gluten free lunch in Niagara-on-the-Lake shared with amazing friends. I am not sure when I have spent a whole road trip and lunch smiling and laughing. After lunch it was time to shop – gluten free goodies and gelato. This time I got to sample vanilla maple. Yummmm!
It was also the Peach Festival. As we walked the sounds of street musicians serenaded our ears while smells of peachy goodness greeted our noses. The street entertainers also gave us something to watch when we were done in a store. To top it off, it was a gorgeous day.
GF chicken ceasar
GF gelato
Next stop was our hotel. 42nd floor with fallsview. It was a wonderful suite that gave us plenty of time to share and chat together. A bit like old times where you would have sleepovers in highschool.
View from the suite
Of course we couldn’t just sit around the room. Off we went to the falls by way of the refurbished trolley. That was a brief but fun ride to the splendor that it the falls.
Trolley view
That was followed by dinner at Applebees. There were a few gluten free options there but I knew we had snacks so I opted for the ribs a la cart. Finger licking goodness.
GF ribs
We woke up to sunshine the next morning and had breakfast over looking the falls. Then we headed off to get a group photo taken. Now that was a lot of fun. I think that we may have frustrated the photographer just a bit. I mean, the poor guy had to get 7 women to stand still and not laugh at the same time. From there we were going to stop at a winery before heading home…well that is where the original plan got derailed by poof…fzzz.
This week Katrine got out of skating early so we decided to do something totally unrelated to ice – rock climbing. Elspeth has been enjoying it so Katrine wanted to give it a spin. Off we went for two hours of climbing with periodic ball pit breaks. Fun was had by both girls. Katrine tackled all but two walls in the place. Her favourites were the ones with over hangs. Elspeth finally made it up to the very top of the yellow wall and was able to ring the bell. She was so proud of herself that she then proceeded to climb the wall three times in succession. A delightful change of pace.
A happy gotchaversary to our travel crew! Three years! What a difference it makes. Yesterday we celebrated with some mini golf, family time and treats at the park.
2011 in Nanchang.Yup, not sold on this people.2014……smiles.
Today was Elspeth’s Forever Family day and the girls decided that they would bake cookies in honour of the occassion. A day of smiles which is a world away from this day three years ago. Time has helped to lay the foundation of trust and love.
How do you spend an August long weekend? Swim class, old friends and a bit of park time squeezed in between showers.
Elspeth is in the middle of retaking her current level at swimming. She is continuing to struggle with any skill that requires her to have her face in the water for any period of time. That is not to say that she hasn’t made gains. Oh no, she certainly has. At the start of the summer she wouldn’t even put her face in the water or jump in. So she is getting there but it is slow going. Her friend from the previous session is along for the ride once again so she has been having almost daily park playdates after swim class.
Okay, gotta fix these goggles. (Spiderman this session)“Maybe I will practise my kicking while I wait.”
This afternoon we set out to try a new park. It has a really cool climbing section. According to Katrine it is quite a challenge as all of the various parts move. Elspeth was not as impressed with that part. Instead, she tried to flip herself over at the hanging rings.
It has also been a weekend for reconnecting with old friends. Today we shared a lovely barbeque meal with a friend who I have had from grade school. The girls had a blast sharing their latest antics with her and then while Glenn took care of dinner we had a chance to reconnect. Yesterday saw us out for Korean barbeque (which as you can see involved too much food of questionable glutenfree-ness) followed by dessert with a friend from Hong Kong. I love my new friends but it is also wonderful to spend time with those friends who  have seen you through stuff and just get you.
While looking into what is going on at the CNE this year I came across an ad for Horsecapades. Most importantly it is FREE. Now who can turn down free activities? In this case it was free-tastic!!
We took Grammy along for the ride.
The girls got a chance to ride a mechanical horse (which is as close as they will get to riding a horse for a while). Elspeth was ready to go until she learned that one of us would have to hold onto to her because she is so small. Katrine decided to name her horse Blackie.
There was also a couple of educational displays about horses (with the exception of a section with general farm activities – hence the pig photo cause they were so very cute). Elspeth was quite pleased with her horse hat and pretended to be Baby Horse for the rest of the day. Katrine enjoyed looking at the life-sized insides of a horse display and was thoroughly grossed about by the section on horse parasites. The girls also got to touch and feed various horses. I think that the Minature Horse named Pablo was their favourite.
Aren’t they cute?Baby Horse
UGH!
The highlight was definitely the horse show. What gorgeous creatures. They both loved the unicorn being ridden by a fairy. Elspeth enjoyed the lasso and trick riding portions while Katrine enjoyed the horse races and musical poles (aka chairs) game.
Here is a blast from our past from July 25, 1998. When we were cleaning to get ready to paint I pulled my dress out of the cupboard and the girls took a look. They found it hilarious that it no longer does up. They also told me that it was super poofy. In fact, Elspeth hid underneath the skirt. They both tried on the veil which was apparently substantially less funny. Don’t think that either of them will be sporting my style on their wedding days. My bouquet was the most positively received item.
When I was a teenager, my mom taught me how to make pastry. Nice gluteny pastry. Flakey, tasty goodness. She had learned from her father who was a baker so you know she is a pastry pro. Way back in the day I could make top notch lard or shortening pastry. Then it happened – Celiac. Since my diagnosis I have not been successful at making pastry from scratch. It just hasn’t turned out right. When Katrine asked to make butter tarts I knew that it was time to contact the pro. This past week while up at her grandparents Katrine made tarts from scratch in all their gluteny goodness. Apparently they were flaky and suitably buttery.
She inspired me to try again. I thought it was going okay but it was an epic fail. The pastry was suitably flaky but way too grainy to be tasty. The key lime filling for the pie was limey but didn’t set. Neither did the egg tart filling. Sigh. Time to try again.
First, some random cuteness which I could not bear to leave unposted.
Cuteness too sweet not to share.
Glenn has a few weeks of holidays this summer. This week the girls are up at their grandparents for a few days and we are not relaxing. Nope. We are painting bedrooms – pink. Before dropping off the pair, we put them to work helping to tape the trim and then paint the closet. Pain got in the hair, on the hands but they had a bit of fun until they lost interest. I will post some photos of the finished rooms.
Our very own handyman.“Mommy, I got some on my hand.”
Totally into it until she almost stepped in the paint tray. Oops.New wall colour.
