tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13272103572294769112024-03-05T09:28:50.769-08:00Just Mommying Around...Laughter, smiles, and tears on our journey to parenthoodSusanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.comBlogger479125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-88757533917899757572012-12-09T21:37:00.001-08:002012-12-09T21:39:49.954-08:00My Last PostIt's been great having this space to document my parenting journey with Tristan. The time has come for me to stop blogging here and to start living a little more privately offline.<br />
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Over the past four years, I have grown a lot as a blogger and a writer. Thank you to all those who followed me and to all those who stopped by to read and comment on my posts. Thank you for your kind words and support. Although this was mainly a private blog for myself and those close to me, it was still nice to know that other people came by to read it from time to time. I hope you were able to find what you were looking for when your searches landed on my blog :)<br />
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I also want to thank you for your <i>not</i> so kind words. Yes, I got a few of those too! The negative comments definitely made an impact on my writing style moving forward so I want to thank everyone who cared enough to be honest with me, even if it made me feel downright crappy at first. Lol. I learned from all of you! Thank you.<br />
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Each of my top five posts had significantly more views than any other post. At No. 5, was my post "Already tired of being a stay at home mom." Many of you searched for that and found my blog. Somehow that news is reassuring to me :) I definitely like knowing that I am not alone. It's the sad truth really. We all know it is hard to be a parent but when we confess that we don't like it sometimes, people are quick to judge us. Why do we have to smile through it all when in reality we sometimes just want to run away? Don't be so hard on parents. That's something I learned when I became a parent.<br />
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My top 5 posts of all time (by far!):<br />
<ol>
<li><a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2010/02/our-14-month-old-fell-down-stairs.html">Our 14 month old fell down the stairs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2011/04/homemade-cake-pops.html">Homemade cake pops</a></li>
<li><a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.ca/2010/04/getting-passport-for-baby-under-3-years.html">Getting a passport for baby under 3 years old</a></li>
<li><a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2008/11/patient-care-at-burnaby-hospitals.html">Patient care at Burnaby Hospital's Maternity Unit</a></li>
<li><a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2009/04/already-tired-of-being-stay-at-home-mom.html">Already tired of being a stay at home mom</a></li>
</ol>
The following pictures are the most recent ones of Tristan. Big boy Tristan! Thank you for visiting and take care :)<br />
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-88652028339848287872012-11-28T10:18:00.000-08:002012-11-28T10:18:53.121-08:00Developmental update at 4 years oldI still can't wrap my head around the fact that Tristan is 4 years old. When it comes to small children, every year that goes by is astronomical! Tristan is so different and so much bigger now. As adults we may age but we are pretty much no different than we were a year ago. For kids, it really is astronomical. Throwing kids huge birthday parties may seem excessive but it's such a huge milestone that I really love doing it. Tristan's <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/11/construction-party-for-4-year-old.html">construction party</a> was his biggest party yet! It will be hard to top that one. Parents tell me that kids grow out of the parties as well and they don't get excited about them much as they get older. Right now all the kids are so young and excited and that makes me even more excited to throw a birthday party! One day, we can all look back on all these special occasions with fond memories. The experiences are priceless :)<br />
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<b>Speech</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Showing his white teeth after a dentist cleanup.</td></tr>
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Tristan is a little person who you can have clear conversations with. His pronunciation of letters is improving all the time. Anyone can understand him most of the time. He used to have problems saying the sound of "f" but now it's fine.<br />
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He is developing his own personality but a lot of Jean-Louis and I are in him as well. He copies us and often says "aw, man!" "that is so cool!" and "what the hell?" It's not the best thing but we don't swear (or at least I never) so you will never hear him say anything worst than "hell."<br />
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He can seriously listen to you and understand what you tell him, if you have his full attention. I had a conversation with him about how bad it is to eat things that are burned such as burned toast. I told him it tastes awful and it can also lead to cancer and cancer could lead to death. The first time I told him that it just stuck with him. He knows that I yell every time his dad eats burned toast and so when Tristan sees this, Tristan tells his dad not to eat it because he will die.<br />
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When I explain something to Tristan, he repeats what he learns to his dad. He explained to Jean-Louis how some of the African's have no money and no food to eat and that is why they have no meat on their bodies. We do not want to waste food here because we are lucky to be eating so well. That was the lesson there :)<br />
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Tristan sucks at keeping secrets. I have told him plenty to test him and so far he has only kept one or two. He blabs to his dad all the time!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tristan's signature.</td></tr>
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He can write his name and copy his phone number. He remembers his phone number from memory as well. He can read numbers well but he gets a few letters mixed up. He also gets French and English pronunciation of letters mixed up some times.<br />
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Tristan likes to talk. Some times there is no shutting him up. He's your typical little 4 year old! Blah, blah, blah. But it's so entertaining and he has such a sweet and innocent voice :)<br />
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<b>Eating</b><br />
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Dining with him has been great lately. He is eating a bit more now but I think he is still under eating for his age. He eats everything we give him. If he doesn't like it much, he still eats it because he knows he has too. For instance, he doesn't really like bittermelon so we don't give him much but he will still eat what we give him. I love bittermelon :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Being goofy with a funny looking carrot.</td></tr>
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He just left his highchair this week! I know we took forever doing this but it was only because he was making such a huge mess. We don't feed him at all and he had to prove to us that he could sit at the table on a regular chair and not make a mess. This week, we had plenty of water spills on the table and on the floor :( One time it was milk too. He still wears a bib to protect his clothes. We may lose the bib soon, depending on how it goes. Then again, even Jean-Louis still wears something on his body to protect his clothes. Ahem.<br />
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<b>Sleep</b><br />
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Tristan sleeps from 9 or 9:30PM to 7:30 or 8AM. That is about the same as usual. He went from not napping at daycare to going back to naps. When he is home with me, he doesn't nap at all. We put him down earlier around 8:30PM or so.<br />
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<b>Physical Development</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM2ir4nup1TGMzbDdtFyEwuwDk7FmwnjIxWQW7aNgl8rUSaL4aX_JSrijs7aL9W2EgCbEb339Ov8vBfZnLqvxdsK9GJlNy3HJen5hq4IWMKRNlKxOo8lYer4CuUC7s29bH-EVo-Fgj-057/s1600/P1100297.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM2ir4nup1TGMzbDdtFyEwuwDk7FmwnjIxWQW7aNgl8rUSaL4aX_JSrijs7aL9W2EgCbEb339Ov8vBfZnLqvxdsK9GJlNy3HJen5hq4IWMKRNlKxOo8lYer4CuUC7s29bH-EVo-Fgj-057/s320/P1100297.jpg" width="240" /></a>Tristan is 37 pounds. We are looking forward to when he is 40 pounds so we can put him in a booster seat in the car. That should make things a lot easier.<br />
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Tristan is around 40 inches (or 102 cm) tall. He is finally tall enough to reach the bathroom sink to wash his hands if he tippy toes. We still have to carry him for the kitchen sink. He is also tall enough to turn on any light switch in the house. I believe at 40 inches tall, he is now tall enough to go on Disneyland rides! Assuming he is brave enough to go on them.<br />
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Tristan is wearing anything from 3 to 5 year old clothes. The 5 year old clothes need folding in the sleeves and pants but they don't look overly huge. For clothes that are 3 years old, we just let him wear them as undershirts under bigger shirts. It's cold right now so the smaller shirts are coming in handy! Since he is short, 3 year old pants are just the right length.<br />
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<b>Potty Training</b><br />
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Tristan still pees in his pull up at night. At one point he went almost 2 weeks dry at night. We thought that was the end of pull ups but we were wrong. He just went 4 nights dry and then peed again. Since he is our only child, we haven't felt the urgency to push him much. Now that he is 4, we are having more conversations with him about this because he can understand more. Hopefully he will decide to stop all pull ups soon.<br />
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During the day, we can trust him to go potty by himself. He pees and washes his hands by himself. When he has to poo, we normally go assist him.<br />
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<b>Behavior</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxXcKWPOp-lbEjrXGWgTcWg91933p882dNgJVIfsSvJBeL1Wq5e29uWciUWMEKjIkVtZ1q4vA2sSx4gqZ4WSqkpZfDAMxa1ncBpiG8KFf6bFQHyx_nkwCBU3bEn0GivZtvDRheZsPGxD24/s1600/IMG_1867.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxXcKWPOp-lbEjrXGWgTcWg91933p882dNgJVIfsSvJBeL1Wq5e29uWciUWMEKjIkVtZ1q4vA2sSx4gqZ4WSqkpZfDAMxa1ncBpiG8KFf6bFQHyx_nkwCBU3bEn0GivZtvDRheZsPGxD24/s320/IMG_1867.jpg" width="238" /></a>Tristan is a fun and imaginative child. He likes to pretend play and he tells crazy stories or sings funny tunes all the time. We sort of do that ourselves so he definitely gets some of it from us.<br />
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When he does something bad and we yell at him, he gets mad and tells us that he will hide under the table and never come out again. We need to control our yelling some times but he is going through a time where it is some times really hard to get him to listen and do what we tell him to do. He likes to stall things he doesn't want to do right away such as go to bed.<br />
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Tristan is a very fortunate child. We shower him with nice toys and great food all the time and I'm not sure if he is spoiled or not but some times he forgets how lucky he is. When we go to the store, he some times asks us to buy him things. I tell him that I don't like it when he asks for things and that really nice and good boys don't ask. Good boys just get things some times. I tell him it's okay to tell us what he likes and show us but don't ask us to buy it. Now when we are at the store, he grabs toys and brings it to me and says "this is really cool." See? He's learning!<br />
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Lately, we have found that he has been over opinionated and stubborn a lot. For instance, when he doesn't want to put on his coat himself and wants us to, we could be standing there arguing for 10 minutes. Sometimes we are able to convince him to do it but other times, he will throw a tantrum. Yes, a tantrum! We haven't seen these sorts of tantrums since the terrible twos. Luckily, these don't occur as often and don't last as long as the terrible two tantrums. It's still pretty awful though :(<br />
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Tantrums aside, I think Tristan is at the age where he can be a lot of fun to be with. He is mature enough to have conversations with and smart enough to rely on for help some times. He corrects us many times when we talk to him and we don't even realize we made a mistake. He likes to be useful so he helps where he can with things around the house. For instance, he helps set the dining table and this past weekend he helped put up decorations on the Christmas tree. He did break an ornament along the way though. It was the first one we ever broke:( Oh well. It could have been worst.<br />
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Tristan is very affectionate. We shower him with kisses and hugs and tell him we love him all the time and he does the same to us. His grandparents in France noticed how affectionate he was when we were in <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.ca/2012/06/3-year-old-bonding-with-his.html">France this past Spring</a> as well. I hear that kids grow out of this affectionate phase so I want to enjoy it as long as I can :)Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-53628570609286571142012-11-20T23:39:00.002-08:002012-11-21T10:11:04.788-08:00Happy 4th Birthday Tristan!Exactly four years ago, my life changed. I became a mom. Jean-Louis' life changed. He was a father. We were parents. Today, our baby turns four. FOUR!!! Hard to believe.<br />
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Today is the first day of Tristan's 4 year old adventure in life. We already threw him a big party but since today is his actual birthday, I couldn't help but make him something little. For the birthday picture, you know? :) Since we had plenty of chocolate cake lately, I decided to make my favorite nutella cake and use vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream on it. I took the opportunity to get rid of more Halloween candy as well. I crushed up some Halloween candy and used it as topping for the cake. Then I added a few more sprinkles. It turned into this big candy covered cake!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCIsVF7y4o11VxqBMxejwQCbo_ruqeFsBGMMwRnkGnl8veP7cQreuTw1MevIUy51hp1HRXV2fS7rdK-3Sm2_s0wly2NtHmeAGwcBKcgqAsDh_em4uUTCPzW2v6tDmaJLyMt08ghGMMTzc/s1600/P1110021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCIsVF7y4o11VxqBMxejwQCbo_ruqeFsBGMMwRnkGnl8veP7cQreuTw1MevIUy51hp1HRXV2fS7rdK-3Sm2_s0wly2NtHmeAGwcBKcgqAsDh_em4uUTCPzW2v6tDmaJLyMt08ghGMMTzc/s400/P1110021.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We upgraded him to the dinner table & used the new mat.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhGG95wTzX4WSCVnukcM4uOdHHRvXcIyPtcQhqVvORmqkQ677GbOmNwUfOaK9ffD4HpEZCTtZn29fnNPwWjKyNdG9sVoYXiJSQGD6pdQZFLXh3lT8aGtWaUGms1jiUFWNnZajavxlUSEA/s1600/P1110050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhGG95wTzX4WSCVnukcM4uOdHHRvXcIyPtcQhqVvORmqkQ677GbOmNwUfOaK9ffD4HpEZCTtZn29fnNPwWjKyNdG9sVoYXiJSQGD6pdQZFLXh3lT8aGtWaUGms1jiUFWNnZajavxlUSEA/s320/P1110050.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Upon opening this...</td></tr>
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/53996399?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="400">.</iframe></div>
Um, I think he liked his gift :) Star Wars Lego with Darth Maul. We couldn't help but film his reaction. Priceless.<br />
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-41347349818654775332012-11-19T12:59:00.002-08:002012-11-19T12:59:20.402-08:00Construction Party for a 4 year old<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9sqXRYsfJmZ_A58FX2d7Wp9DlWqaX9h8AAaQyeaI9SRPaPoCogwjgvIcc0qf2Vp_B3OUOy-dQzzbLdhyphenhyphenX22umUlo2IoaKb_Fqxsif1HV5S73V8ZHTHoaFCAAOyYMqn7LvQhIINOY_riM/s1600/P1100870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9sqXRYsfJmZ_A58FX2d7Wp9DlWqaX9h8AAaQyeaI9SRPaPoCogwjgvIcc0qf2Vp_B3OUOy-dQzzbLdhyphenhyphenX22umUlo2IoaKb_Fqxsif1HV5S73V8ZHTHoaFCAAOyYMqn7LvQhIINOY_riM/s1600/P1100870.jpg" /></a></div>
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This weekend we threw Tristan a construction party for his upcoming 4th birthday. It was sort of a full time job this past week planning and implementing his party. Seriously. It was also a last minute scramble to accommodate twice as many guests. We anticipated half the number of guests but then to our surprise everyone but one child accepted their invitation. Last year we had trouble getting enough kids so we invited a lot this year. I was very impressed that everyone RSVP-ed back on time as well:) You can never predict these things but you need to be ready at all times to do whatever you can! The last 24 hours before the party was a grind.<br />
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<b>The Preparation</b><br />
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I spent the last few weeks here and there thinking about the party and slowly coming up with ideas. Every time we went shopping, I would browse for things that we could use for the party. I even picked up a couple of things during Halloween because black and orange were good "construction" colors. I wish I had gotten more stuff though because once Halloween came, everything was gone:( You know how hard it is to get orange and black decorations? Hard! Yellow, on the other hand, is available everywhere.<br />
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Last year was our first theme party for Tristan. When he turned 3 years old, we had a <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.ca/2011/11/happy-3rd-birthday-tristan.html">"monkey" party</a>. It was also the first time <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.ca/2011/11/monkey-cake-and-cupcakes-for-monkey.html">I baked a cake for his birthday</a>. I didn't really have the skills to do it before. Since then I had a bit more practice and now I have the confidence to bake more theme cakes and will probably never buy another one again. Lol. For this year's theme, I chose to throw a "construction" party because it is something I've always wanted to throw for him and I thought 4 years would be a good age for it. He already has a lot of construction toys, which made it perfect for using as decoration at the party :) Thanks to <a href="http://pinterest.com/">Pinterest</a> and the popularity of theme parties from a lot of creative parents, there are tons of ideas out there. Construction parties are indeed very popular, but not popular enough to find supplies for at the Dollar store yet. Luckily, <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-weekend-in-seattle.html">we were in Seattle</a> recently and were able to grab some cool construction party supplies at one of the big stores down there :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJwfAzsGTtmq5kVEOocKZvaT9ZOKZ9wAZHQyrNVmEtl1bX67-jCATtlkatMXiVk5J0E7H4J4UD32H5Lv2fm6Q27SMGQlKLK3EjI_OaN8Rkm_AuGcGqncuoPmk62l8Zw4QJhh3lwABpR5qe/s1600/P1100774.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJwfAzsGTtmq5kVEOocKZvaT9ZOKZ9wAZHQyrNVmEtl1bX67-jCATtlkatMXiVk5J0E7H4J4UD32H5Lv2fm6Q27SMGQlKLK3EjI_OaN8Rkm_AuGcGqncuoPmk62l8Zw4QJhh3lwABpR5qe/s320/P1100774.jpg" width="320" /></a>We had store bought decorations and I made some on my own as well. I customized them to read "Tristan 4", "Kids At Play," "Kids At Work," and "Party Zone" etc. The signs were easy to photoshop and I just used yellow and orange construction paper to print them on. They turned out better than I thought. I initially created them with a black marker but the computer printed ones were faster to create and they looked so much better! Then I went a bit crazy with photoshop and decided to photoshop the food labels, food picks, and thank-you tags as well. It was pretty straight forward and all the computer printed stuff just made everything look a bit more professional. You know how I like to pretend to be professional, right? :) Lol.<br />
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We had ton of game ideas but when we found out we had so many guests, we had to change our games at the last minute. We had three prizes for three games. We had other activities planned as well, like <a href="http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/dump-truck-box-coloring-page/">coloring the dump truck</a> and <a href="http://paperboxworld.weebly.com/uploads/2/1/7/1/2171472/bulldozer.pdf">building paper construction vehicles</a>, but there wouldn't be prizes for those. It was so cool that I found so much stuff on the Internet for our construction party :)<br />
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The week leading up to the party was kind of crazy. When we realized the challenge we were up against, I just laughed so hard. I absolutely love planning parties but even I freaked out at the thought of having to plan, host, and cook for more than 30 people. Could I really do all that by myself? I ended up delegating some party tasks to Jean-Louis. I just couldn't
handle doing EVERYTHING. Jean-Louis had no choice but to help me with
the games. He also helped with putting up the decorations, putting up
signs to direct guests to our party site, and of course driving me to the store to fetch things. For a couple of nights, Jean-Louis and I both lost sleep over the stress. Lol. The day of the party, I had to ask my parents to come by 1 1/2 hours earlier to help out. They helped with the tuna sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, veggies and fruit and they helped carry everything over to the party site. We used a bigger room in our building, which was a minute walk away.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik13wGn_hKGiSJdc-Tjb5wSJlJXvJPW5GGvm3y7fYFKKhFakIYLreGn7-qB7EgKC4hyphenhyphenl1CfPMShemtdIg6_l8hHlznbTvK-dAFHgpjtVsaV1BnQm_pL1YgA8iUCt6SPjgB-fVuGghJ5EbD/s1600/IMG_1624.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik13wGn_hKGiSJdc-Tjb5wSJlJXvJPW5GGvm3y7fYFKKhFakIYLreGn7-qB7EgKC4hyphenhyphenl1CfPMShemtdIg6_l8hHlznbTvK-dAFHgpjtVsaV1BnQm_pL1YgA8iUCt6SPjgB-fVuGghJ5EbD/s320/IMG_1624.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Signs/clues to lead guests to party site.</td></tr>
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<b>Party Day</b><br />
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There were around 12 kids, including Tristan, and many more adults. There were well over 30 people at the party. My family was there too but there were only a few of them. I have never hosted such a big party or fed that many people before. Ever! We were maybe 30 minutes late, which is always embarrassing, and I realized the next day that I forgot to serve some food. Doh! Even without that missing food, I was still able to fill pretty much the entire pool table with food and that didn't include the dessert either. I guess I really do cook too much food! Haha.<br />
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Two words come to mind when I think back to our construction party: epic and chaos. It was the biggest party we have ever thrown! So much work and detail went into bringing it to life. Some times I wonder if anyone notices all the details, besides me :) The whole place was transformed into a construction site using signs, caution tape, and colors yellow, black, and orange. We went all out to create a wonderful construction party for our little boy. He loved it and so did we! I hope our guests loved it too. I overheard that one mom called me a "supermom" for cooking, baking, and doing so much by myself. Someone asked if I was a professional cook or baker so that was a nice compliment too :) I am none of those things but it's always nice that some people think I am.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVuySNiXFaRr-gmOTtEqffVD6wpG4kwazbJahJsAMh9QL_JAHOaqU1Aktq13lLLsh2e_h065eXEgZSVF7NeMtJVhyphenhypheniqiUL9xym-VX0kYKVTI_z4EjoJOi_iZgFLEV46asHQF_HS8Ywl1E/s1600/P1100833.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVuySNiXFaRr-gmOTtEqffVD6wpG4kwazbJahJsAMh9QL_JAHOaqU1Aktq13lLLsh2e_h065eXEgZSVF7NeMtJVhyphenhypheniqiUL9xym-VX0kYKVTI_z4EjoJOi_iZgFLEV46asHQF_HS8Ywl1E/s320/P1100833.jpg" width="320" /></a>The party was chaotic with kids going a little wild with balloon fights because the "entertainment department" kind of broke down for a bit. I wasn't there to conduct games and control was lost for a bit. We actually used the <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.ca/2012/10/we-bought-cow-bells-for-our-cheering.html">cowbell from our marathon</a> to get people's attention. Lol. I had to dash off for 15-20 minutes to deal with camera and camcorder problems. If I didn't, we wouldn't have been able to film anything for the party and that would have been devastating. All that work and we can't even document it? Unthinkable. I also had to find something to blindfold the kids for the pinning game since Jean-Louis couldn't find anything and kind of tore the house apart looking. Chaos. Everyone was waiting for me! Luckily, I was at my computer and was able to check my email because one of the moms had emailed me because she lost our address. I called her right away and they came. Phew :)<br />
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We played 3 games, which we implemented in the few nights leading up to the party. We had other games in mind but they were only suitable for half the children. When we found out there were going to be so many kids, we had to change everything. Jean-Louis ended up conducting all the games during the party and did a good job :) I love team work!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl9qr4qyjb9AlgzqJol9D638cd7ru7ZbpvkOHwUpgZJRa89ko4iUfl4PVvqvSwtMqWYOwIQkiZlsJlcP2PPBuLg6Goc3eaOU-yCTtxN1cRWmXebB466Q3xw-GIpvx5OlM27jBvzmatgG18/s1600/P1100800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl9qr4qyjb9AlgzqJol9D638cd7ru7ZbpvkOHwUpgZJRa89ko4iUfl4PVvqvSwtMqWYOwIQkiZlsJlcP2PPBuLg6Goc3eaOU-yCTtxN1cRWmXebB466Q3xw-GIpvx5OlM27jBvzmatgG18/s400/P1100800.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Game 1 was "pin the wheels on the dump truck." This one was Jean-Louis' idea. Easy enough. He also created the dump truck. Only 3 kids were interested in playing. I think we had a lot of shy 3 and 4 year olds.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqYvqQhDxx4jXDzmA33n6pGdQzn-QUhiSKe1zzu2CWD11VAQjajzvsHmgtEhyMErqwMr1F2ZjL_OCHWrAUzAMoMLIaYb2XEiyyw5oTqNfgTs9gVp51_6bayDZ7RUnYmtDxowtAOOWfOnBE/s1600/P1100775.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqYvqQhDxx4jXDzmA33n6pGdQzn-QUhiSKe1zzu2CWD11VAQjajzvsHmgtEhyMErqwMr1F2ZjL_OCHWrAUzAMoMLIaYb2XEiyyw5oTqNfgTs9gVp51_6bayDZ7RUnYmtDxowtAOOWfOnBE/s400/P1100775.jpg" width="400" /></a>Game 2 was picture bingo. I came up with the idea of picture bingo and Jean-Louis came up with the idea of using stickers to implement the game. We had little construction stickers and we had a big enough set for each child. All the kids received a 4x4 grid, 16 construction themed stickers, and 16 plain white round stickers. They had to place each sticker on the grid in whatever order they wanted. We photographed all the stickers and then printed them big on a sheet in color. We cut out each sticker from the printed sheet and then placed them in a construction hat to be randomly picked out. Each child had to look on their sheet for the image drawn from the construction hat and then cover that image up with a white sticker. Using the white sticker was my idea :) It was a bit transparent and removable, in case we wanted to check for accuracy. But we didn't - ha! Also the sticker wouldn't shift around, unlike playing chips. All the kids were into this game so that was cool.<br />
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Game 3 was "throw the rocks (or balls) into the dump truck." Jean-Louis drew another dump truck and we stuck it to the front of a big box. Each child was given 4 balls to throw in. Whoever could get the most balls inside won a prize. Most of the kids were into this game.<br />
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We had coloring sheets and crafts but the kids were not really into sitting quietly for a long time to complete any of those. Some of the kids colored a bit. We just sent each child home with the sheets to do it themselves. We had a little TV in the corner of our party site so we borrowed some <a href="http://www.bobthebuilder.com/ca/english/index.asp?origref=">Bob the Builder</a> shows from the library and played that during the party. Kids would come watch a bit and then leave. Some watched while they ate their food. It was fine.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoa0wGBVYo38dt9EXpa-uQSdghJMQyrVYLQiPlR8xSv5EZDqekQB7YEMxFB9-q_zJUGxtHyh0BlqpIQ0sguZvmws0frqqUIjrTxJoMkPzUG-jsj3RBqFV7aaGLWbarCcrsFPOcIqppm03T/s1600/P1100794.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoa0wGBVYo38dt9EXpa-uQSdghJMQyrVYLQiPlR8xSv5EZDqekQB7YEMxFB9-q_zJUGxtHyh0BlqpIQ0sguZvmws0frqqUIjrTxJoMkPzUG-jsj3RBqFV7aaGLWbarCcrsFPOcIqppm03T/s400/P1100794.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Made a runner for the table so the cloth wouldn't move too much.</td></tr>
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PARTY FOOD MENU<br />
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Appetizers:<br />
<ul>
<li>Veggies, specialty chips served with onion dip & dill dip</li>
<li>Ham sausage, bread crackers</li>
<li>Pretzel sticks (labeled "logs")</li>
<li>Veggie chips, kettle chips</li>
</ul>
Main dish:<br />
<ul>
<li>Macaroni and cheese</li>
<li>Tuna sandwiches</li>
<li>Samosas (only thing that wasn't homemade)</li>
<li>Pineapple, mandarin oranges, persimmons </li>
</ul>
Apple juice, other fruit juices, Orangina pop, ginger ale, Aloe vera juice<br />
<br />
(Things I forgot to serve: black grapes, all orange cheddar cheese sticks)<br />
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Dessert:<br />
<ul>
<li>10 inch Construction cake (chocolate & white cake with caramel & chocolate buttercream)</li>
<li>Chocolate cupcakes, with fondant toppers</li>
<li>Lemon vanilla sugar cookies</li>
</ul>
People ate but we had so much food leftover still. I always find that the parents are a bit reluctant to eat at parties. I did indicate on some of the emailed invitations that food would be provided for everyone, including parents. The kids seemed to have likes the macaroni and cheese. The macaroni and cheese, tuna sandwiches, and onion dip were new recipes I tried for the first time at the party. They all turned out well I thought.<br />
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I was so pleased with our "cake zone." I thought it looked super cool. The hanging decorations were overshadowed by all the sweet treats though. There was too much happening in the room and I think those decorations were lost in the mix. I shouldn't have bought them :( It was one of the few things I did buy. Oh well. The lighting was also bad in the area since one of the wall lights were burnt out. We didn't know. Boo :( It was a rented room and we missed testing that out. All the desserts turned out nicely, both in the way they looked and tasted. I thought the sugar cookies were particularly tasty :) I think it's because I used more vanilla bean seeds this time. The cake was super moist and delicious. I screwed up the cut a bit when I assembled it but hopefully people got the idea :) I'll blog more about the cake on my <a href="http://www.swoonforfood.com/">food blog</a> later for those who want more details. Only 5 people chose to have a cupcake instead of cake. The kids also got to choose whether or not they wanted to eat a construction cone or rock on the cake. My nephew requested the "dirt" on the cake. Lol. In my experience so far, cake usually wins over cupcake.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx5Uvmn2BEmnnjGF5SMnzFr4m5Hkx9Pt6GAkq6NGtB3MiwocDVsUMWVuJtc4wGbdVFVRZNBF4SQO5QW8ngpb2eIfWpBEsRG8n7o1bMsQsfvaMA1G_DuCXI-4N4PyBcEfXElPfjGOKJvuwi/s1600/P1100904.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx5Uvmn2BEmnnjGF5SMnzFr4m5Hkx9Pt6GAkq6NGtB3MiwocDVsUMWVuJtc4wGbdVFVRZNBF4SQO5QW8ngpb2eIfWpBEsRG8n7o1bMsQsfvaMA1G_DuCXI-4N4PyBcEfXElPfjGOKJvuwi/s1600/P1100904.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Messed up the 45 degree cut inside - oops!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Each child got to take home a wooden construction kit and a cookie for
their party loot. I found the cement trucks and backhoes at <a href="http://www.dollarama.com/">Dollarama</a> and pretty much bought them all. Score!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OaYfSYBONoiGe10pFrbts5ka-NKMT08_im3fJWLNhPfof6d7xWFw82lYWwVG_W5cuItnH9HeMIcKBcfa1MXnPWPH4UL3iPWQ6X5vTI026WipqsyJXfxN9r_a3FeVImz4CBncQs1rCQj3/s1600/P1100771.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OaYfSYBONoiGe10pFrbts5ka-NKMT08_im3fJWLNhPfof6d7xWFw82lYWwVG_W5cuItnH9HeMIcKBcfa1MXnPWPH4UL3iPWQ6X5vTI026WipqsyJXfxN9r_a3FeVImz4CBncQs1rCQj3/s320/P1100771.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loot gift wrapped in tissue & taped with caution tape.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP36fUu7g6g2QlnD4Gf623yyIL8uXRLo5veQj5j4vg8XkRTbAuXmt41uI-WB1i2FuBsxC3Q0JGm0ssr0B6MjQM2Gi_Zg9TYoK0yGO1uetBzor2TMDL1a2HCjXtqI3fdqUJF6Q27jz8HDmn/s1600/P1100778.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP36fUu7g6g2QlnD4Gf623yyIL8uXRLo5veQj5j4vg8XkRTbAuXmt41uI-WB1i2FuBsxC3Q0JGm0ssr0B6MjQM2Gi_Zg9TYoK0yGO1uetBzor2TMDL1a2HCjXtqI3fdqUJF6Q27jz8HDmn/s320/P1100778.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Thanks for stopping by" cookie.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHaxDxDTPvZ6ZwPlZsrQ6bULiyngh-tz98186kkFGjlUJiu5gZ14wF6LBQ7sNeF57o5JRaAJpGpHdva-KDd-PIlGvadJksBDJyyg4u00PQhQ0DIZN8CS7h4P_nXTKHuq_JEFeLffzJ24tY/s1600/P1100952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHaxDxDTPvZ6ZwPlZsrQ6bULiyngh-tz98186kkFGjlUJiu5gZ14wF6LBQ7sNeF57o5JRaAJpGpHdva-KDd-PIlGvadJksBDJyyg4u00PQhQ0DIZN8CS7h4P_nXTKHuq_JEFeLffzJ24tY/s400/P1100952.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We kept mess to a minimum. Nothing was damaged and cleanup was fast. The
party was a success. Jean-Louis and I were so pleased and relieved
after the party concluded. Omg.Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-31956890405495802932012-11-12T22:38:00.001-08:002012-11-12T22:38:45.778-08:00An end to "mommy" blogging<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLahyIPddeMFgFoeqUkvkFRv4G2Ut1jdSLeqiO6mnzGUJvq9nJU3YfRuqWjs-c4L6W-Iej2RGbvRey54QRiUi6NG7V4wB0HOlps1vivcc7xd7_sdaxg3MxrqCkuS8J-zZrlvbifERFqtSO/s1600/sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLahyIPddeMFgFoeqUkvkFRv4G2Ut1jdSLeqiO6mnzGUJvq9nJU3YfRuqWjs-c4L6W-Iej2RGbvRey54QRiUi6NG7V4wB0HOlps1vivcc7xd7_sdaxg3MxrqCkuS8J-zZrlvbifERFqtSO/s320/sunset.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
I knew one day it would come. One day I would no longer feel the desire to blog about "mommying around." One day Tristan would be old enough for me to move on to other things. I mean who still wants to hear me report and document what it was that he ate or refused to eat or whether or not he still fits in his adorable French clothes? Come on. Like every family out there, we do a lot of things and we are discovering new things all the time but I no longer feel the need or desire to write about those things. We are all busy in our own way and I admit I do miss the days where I could just <i>enjoy the moment</i>. I'm the one that takes 95% of the photographs and records 98% of the videos. And of course I am the one that blogs and shares all of this with others. It's tiring, yo!<br />
<br />
My final post will be about Tristan's 4th birthday party, which will be taking place soon. I've decided months ago that this would be my last post for this blog. When I first started this blog, I was very excited about parenting and I had a lot to discover and report about. This is no longer the case and over the past few months, blogging has felt more like a chore than anything else. As you could tell, I blogged a lot less and less. It took me more than one week after <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.ca/2012/11/a-weekend-in-seattle.html">our first trip to Seattle</a> to write about it! I have never delayed a post that long before! It's just not like me. I loved that in the past I felt the urgency and was anxious to report on things right away. Now, I just don't feel it :(<br />
<br />
What will happen to this blog? I thought about deleting it all together but for now I think I will keep it up since most of my visitors arrive through organic searches. Some of my posts do provide helpful information. I plan on looking into the possibility of getting my blog printed out in book form. I remember hearing about that a long time ago and there are companies that are specialized in doing that. If you have recommendations, please let me know! :) I put a lot of work into the blog and it would be nice to read it all again one day in a hard copy.<br />
<br />
I will continue to blog at <a href="http://swoonforfood.com/">swoonforfood.com</a> so if you are visiting my blog because of the food or you are interested in cooking and baking, visit me over there :)<br />
<br />
My blogging days over here are coming to an end but it's not over quite yet! I plan to post at least a couple more posts before disappearing. Tristan is turning 4 so obviously I have a lot to say about that :)Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-86127837922883161072012-11-04T22:08:00.001-08:002012-11-04T22:10:33.304-08:00A weekend in Seattle<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zBvpK_kltQEKLFgKQpyCnlOCJ1QlEqwCZiZrzEfneM6zJgdqswVLvrM-9Y1d5H3jwXLe76-dcqW4bAKkpdbDUrMX7lk1SOLNO1XxnTp1SWr5CYAIVfzcPBUoiBWkxZxXtB0f49R2A6h1/s1600/P1100594.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zBvpK_kltQEKLFgKQpyCnlOCJ1QlEqwCZiZrzEfneM6zJgdqswVLvrM-9Y1d5H3jwXLe76-dcqW4bAKkpdbDUrMX7lk1SOLNO1XxnTp1SWr5CYAIVfzcPBUoiBWkxZxXtB0f49R2A6h1/s320/P1100594.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pike Market Place, downtown Seattle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We have never visited Seattle before. We stopped over briefly for a coffee break on our <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-we-did-in-portland-area.html">road trip to Oregon</a> but that was it. It is kind of crazy because we have lived in the Vancouver area for 9 years now and Seattle is only a 2 hour drive away.<br />
<br />
I'm reporting our trip late since it was a week ago that it happened. I'll write more in an upcoming post to explain why I have taken so long to blog about it.<br />
<br />
I had a bunch of stores I wanted to visit and a list of restaurants for use to try close to our hotel. The main thing I wanted to check out downtown was the <a href="http://pikeplacemarket.org/">Pike Market Place</a>. We went there and hung around for 2 1/2 hours. I couldn't believe how expensive the parking was! We parked at the City Target and the parking was $18. I made myself spend $20 at Target so that they would reimburse us for the first hour of parking. At least! Oh my gosh.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original Starbucks, Seattle</td></tr>
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Pike Market Place was cool. The flowers (fresh or dried) were the best buy I think. If I lived there, I would totally buy some. Everything else was kind of expensive. There were lots of cool stuff though. We saw the original Starbucks but there was a HUGE lineup so we didn't bother.<br />
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We stayed at a hotel in the University district, which was just a 10 minute drive from downtown. Apparently, it was a hip neighborhood with lots of vegan cafes and restaurants. I knew Jean-Louis would be happy :) We had some hotel problems, having booked through <a href="http://www.hotwire.com/us/index.jsp">Hotwire</a> for the first time but in the end it worked out for us. We were within walking distance to the <a href="http://www.uvillage.com/">University Village</a>, which was totally awesome. I loved that place! So many of my favorite stores were there and right next to each other too. The layout was fabulous because when you enter, you can see the stores right there, without looking up a directory.<br />
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After shopping, we dined at <a href="http://www.veggiegrill.com/">VeggieGrill</a>, also nearby in the University Village. It was all vegan and we ate until we couldn't walk anymore. You could tell it was not real meat but the quality was so much better than what you could buy at the grocery store. Plus, it was so cheap! We stuffed ourselves silly for just $35. Tristan got the best deal of all for being a kid. For just $5.99, he got a main dish (Mac & Cheese), a side (sweet potato fries), a dessert (chocolate pudding), and a drink (soy milk). The service was excellent too. Once we ordered, paid for our food and sat down, I barely had time to go wash my hands and Tristan's hands before all the food arrived. They messed up brought us an extra order of buffalo wings and said we could just eat it anyway. Yay! Now these were vegan chicken strips so they were actually really filling. Big, no bones, all "meat," if you know what I mean :) It was all good. I read good things about the place but I was still a bit skeptic. Next time we are back in Seattle, we will definitely stop by again!<br />
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The main reason we wanted to go to Seattle was to visit the Museum of Flight. Jean-Louis is a plane geek and Tristan is a little boy so he would definitely love seeing planes and other flying vehicles. I wasn't that interested but if I didn't have to pay to go, then I wouldn't have mind tagging along. We got to use our Entertainment book coupon from Vancouver for the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Cool, right? I think it's the first time they included a few Seattle coupons in the Vancouver book. It was a 2 for 1 deal so I was basically free :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fdrmjgFuICVNozI8zPDYXZWNOYXn-k0NRUDl7uI9aosdxWoFkhxC3fj_xMV870OcNBsp_1-BDRakvXvb4w6HTbcld59pv0tF3KskA3Ex9FIxKW7Ayt5xPFDUqQjneduIy3YNR2hFKLIc/s1600/P1100664.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fdrmjgFuICVNozI8zPDYXZWNOYXn-k0NRUDl7uI9aosdxWoFkhxC3fj_xMV870OcNBsp_1-BDRakvXvb4w6HTbcld59pv0tF3KskA3Ex9FIxKW7Ayt5xPFDUqQjneduIy3YNR2hFKLIc/s400/P1100664.jpg" width="300" /></a>The Museum of Flight was really cool actually. We got to go in several planes, including an Air Force One for the President of the USA. That's some serious perk for a President! The Museum was really big and although we spent around 3 or 4 hours there, we couldn't do much since we had to chase Tristan around. Two hours would have been plenty for our first visit but since we stayed so long, we all got a bit cranky near the end :( That weekend we went it was very crowded too since they had a Halloween event. We got Tristan to dress up in costume to join in on the fun. There were so many kids in costumes there, some ridiculously great costumes too. Surprisingly, Tristan was the only Darth Vader. There were lots of crafts and games but he wasn't too interested. Boo :( Tristan didn't sleep enough the night before and he totally crashed when we left the place. Instead of stopping for lunch, we decided to just drive straight to Bellingham for a Trader Joe's stop and then home to Vancouver. The border wait at Blaine was around 10-15 minutes, which was great. On top of that, we had a super easy customs guy. I don't think we have ever encountered such a nice and easy guy. We had a bad experience in the past where we were booted out of our car and sent inside to pay duties for things we bought. We're still sort of new at this so every time we cross the border by car I get super nervous.<br />
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We sure picked the right weekend to go over. I had a feeling a lot of people wanted to stay put the weekend before Halloween, which was why I chose to go then. Overall, it was a great trip and we got to do some serious power shopping. I got plenty of stuff for Tristan's upcoming birthday party too :) I can definitely see us going over again. Maybe when the weather improves.Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-66396942686572356782012-10-30T20:52:00.000-07:002012-10-30T20:52:03.600-07:00This year's pumpkin carving is...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can you guess?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How about now?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You know, don't you?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darth Maul, people. DARTH MAUL.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With 2 tea light candles inside.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darth Maul and tiny Ironman. Both Tristan's favorites this year :)</td></tr>
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-218608235322070222012-10-24T20:12:00.000-07:002012-10-24T20:14:41.286-07:00Had an early Halloween party<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My little M&M</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi__FA9lVZO37i5C_HYc3QdZ6C91xG9pmMweZE6y2vBC2X7Fviic1rUwxB3so63OaHPbcpJMZM-0RpBvGfyYczE46pYcXFZ34FJt7_6pnDzgdQOhVtfUZDm27gARaDgeYyYdulVNH7VU902/s1600/P1100518.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi__FA9lVZO37i5C_HYc3QdZ6C91xG9pmMweZE6y2vBC2X7Fviic1rUwxB3so63OaHPbcpJMZM-0RpBvGfyYczE46pYcXFZ34FJt7_6pnDzgdQOhVtfUZDm27gARaDgeYyYdulVNH7VU902/s1600/P1100518.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first Halloween party table! Details on my <a href="http://www.swoonforfood.com/2012/10/my-first-halloween-party-table.html">food blog</a>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdO06NkUW1fBdZh2iQ5R-zWPWsQyHVuVSi6UiAIy7Aa-492cl7J9UeqNrO4nlV-oq5gmwoYweOrTbA-Si10wWoX756H4cD3bwdUfdxKngQ7qQ0fOljsgxd7f_p5GeNQZ7h7Vl2yfjiCwx/s1600/P1100564.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdO06NkUW1fBdZh2iQ5R-zWPWsQyHVuVSi6UiAIy7Aa-492cl7J9UeqNrO4nlV-oq5gmwoYweOrTbA-Si10wWoX756H4cD3bwdUfdxKngQ7qQ0fOljsgxd7f_p5GeNQZ7h7Vl2yfjiCwx/s320/P1100564.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Costume change to the dark side:)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-28964339137035265222012-10-17T12:59:00.000-07:002012-10-17T12:59:11.103-07:00We're Introverts and our son might be tooJean-Louis and I are definitely <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_5235983_make-friends-introvert.html">Introverts</a>. We have a history of being alone with just a few friends or none at all. The big difference between the two of us is that I want to be more social and I want to hang out with existing friends and I want to meet more friendly people. Jean-Louis is convinced he is happier alone. We actually call ourselves <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/antisocial-personality-disorder/DS00829/DSECTION=symptoms">anti-social</a> but we're "goodie goodies" so it's not quite accurate. We may not have many friends or go to many social outings but we would certainly not harm anyone, which is sort of the case with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-social_behaviour">anti-social behavior</a>.<br />
<br />
Thanks to this parenting blog, I recently received two invitations to take part in special events in Vancouver. One was an invitation from the <a href="http://www.bcliberals.com/premier_christy_clark/">Premier, Christy Clark</a>, to join in a round table discussion about issues important to families on October 23rd. This would be held at her office downtown during a day where Tristan would be at daycare. I declined on the invitation for various reasons but I did offer to give my input on their blog or article, if they choose to write about that meeting. The second invitation I received was for the <a href="http://www.thedaileymethod.com/vancouver.html">Dailey Method Vancouver</a> and <a href="http://www.inspirehealth.ca/">InspireHealth</a> event on October 18th. The event would feature tips on nutrition, exercise and stress reduction as well as advice on cancer prevention and self-empowerment. Sounds interesting right? But it's a week night and it's all the way by <a href="http://www.ubc.ca/">UBC</a>, which is too far for me to go at night. It's a $30 event with food included and I was invited to go for free but once again, I declined.<br />
<br />
So why did I decline on both great events? Part of it I think is that I'm an Introvert. The more time I spend alone or with just the family (Jean-Louis and Tristan), the more socially awkward I feel around other people and in social gatherings. Unless it's very easy and tempting for me to go, I would probably decline. The only reason I went to the <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/06/vancouver-mom-blogging-event.html">Vancouver Mom's blogging event</a> was that I was able to go with both Jean-Louis and Tristan. I would have not gone alone. I'm such an Introvert that I even added "<a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.ca/2012/01/my-big-goals-for-2012.html">meet another virtual friend in person</a>" on my new year's resolutions! Funny, eh?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioLNnomSlE3u62jeSh3jXYCQdXsrceRKfwX5HK534_dI_s_JTb0Z0pY_-06xEnLO3vC05zW2zXfXed_t_QfjmB21OAFeAkLZ7Eehux6x7IHbkFhY81_svOyWYBsmR0XJTRrIDNCegWVx5V/s1600/IMG_0279.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioLNnomSlE3u62jeSh3jXYCQdXsrceRKfwX5HK534_dI_s_JTb0Z0pY_-06xEnLO3vC05zW2zXfXed_t_QfjmB21OAFeAkLZ7Eehux6x7IHbkFhY81_svOyWYBsmR0XJTRrIDNCegWVx5V/s320/IMG_0279.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
Last night during dinner, we asked Tristan who he played with at daycare besides his best friend. Tristan has an upcoming birthday next month and I want to invite all his friends at daycare. I know there are people he likes and some that he doesn't so I wanted to find out who I could add to the invite list. He told us that he only plays with his best friend. I kind of knew about this already. When his best friend is not at daycare, he apparently plays on his own. He used to play well with just about everyone but now that he is getting a bit older, he is starting to show signs of being an Introvert, just like his parents. Yikes :S Obviously, <a href="http://www.autism-help.org/communication-autism-making-friends.htm">we want him to be more social</a> than us and we figured going to daycare would help him. It probably has helped him but part of it might be genetics as well. How are we suppose to encourage him to be more social when we don't do it ourselves? I do try to plan events every so often but it's hard when you don't have close friends and everyone is busy. The Halloween party I tried to plan fell through the cracks. The only plans we can rely on are the ones involving the three of us. Lol. That doesn't help though, does it?Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-64586862381640708372012-10-09T23:00:00.001-07:002012-10-10T13:56:28.845-07:00We finished the marathon with personal best times<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVbaP5f4EmhkK8g_aMW-Qjqe_mMhp43NX54zN65fv1yY8CxjbSHSZHJF_DSwnNJxUKuJ0y2dT08FD44EP8cPw45-djnkTzXA1mqDItUZD_WuJtqHlleMEuNoue_-0ShwK2-z9OyGxBKvu/s1600/P1100339.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVbaP5f4EmhkK8g_aMW-Qjqe_mMhp43NX54zN65fv1yY8CxjbSHSZHJF_DSwnNJxUKuJ0y2dT08FD44EP8cPw45-djnkTzXA1mqDItUZD_WuJtqHlleMEuNoue_-0ShwK2-z9OyGxBKvu/s400/P1100339.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The victory photo.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>The Good News...</b><br />
<br />
We finished this weekend's marathon in Victoria with personal best times. I barely made my personal best time but Jean-Louis blew his away. Holy moly is what I said! Notice how I actually beat him in our first marathon?? Hard to believe now.<br />
<br />
April 6, 2003 Le Marathon International de Paris:<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<tbody>
<tr><td>Jean-louis</td>
<td>04h 16' 15"</td>
<td>9010th/25806 Males</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Susan</td>
<td>03h 59' 54"</td>
<td>652th/4339 Females</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
October 7, 2012 Victoria Marathon results:<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<tbody>
<tr><td>Jean-louis</td>
<td>3:22:07</td>
<td>158th/1076 Males</td>
<td>10km mark: 45:29</td>
<td>21.1km mark: 1:34:48</td>
<td>30km mark: 2:16:28</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Susan</td>
<td>3:57:47</td>
<td>182nd/837 Females</td>
<td>10km mark: 49:29</td>
<td>21.1km mark: 1:48:06</td>
<td>30km mark: 2:39:35</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><br /></b>
<b>The Bad News...</b><br />
<br />
I never quit and I didn't quit but in my mind I did kind of "cheat." I had to walk and jog the last 8 kms :( For the record, I have NEVER walked before during a run in my life. Not even during training have I walked. It doesn't count if you walk. So obviously I feel sad that I had to. When I say I "had" to, I really mean it too.<br />
<br />
As you can see from my times, I started out well and as each kilometer went by, I got slower and slower. Most amateur newbies do this actually. Lol. I ran non-stop until around 34 km. It was then that my left calf went into spasm, along with my upper right thigh and front lower part of my right leg. It was so painful I thought my muscles were going to burst out of my flesh! I came to a complete halt and started pounding on them with my fists. I walked a bit to try to shake it off. Each time I tried to run, the spasm would occur again in the same places. Of course! I thought I was toast. I thought the race was over for me. This has never happened to me before. I never get leg spasms! Never. So then I had to walk, jog, walk, jog until the end of the race. I was not happy walking. I was embarrassed to walk. I used to judge people who walked but now I understand that some people may be walking because they simply can't run due to severe cramps, not because they were too exhausted and wanted to rest. Although that was the case for me too. I was exhausted of course but I would never walk just because of that. I would just run super slow.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So cute! I love this picture :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
I was discussing cramps and spasms with Jean-Louis. I told him that cramps you can run through, spasms you cannot. At least that is the case for me. I had chest cramps early on and ran with them for awhile. They would come and go and would occur in different places. But I kept running because in my experience they would always eventually go away. When I got the leg spasms, my legs just buckled and I felt like I couldn't move really. I had to stop and deal with them before moving on. It was awful! Even with just 2 km left in the end, I could not jog all the way. I still had to walk and jog through it. For the final few hundred meters, I tried my hardest to give it my all and when the spasms came again I kind of freaked out because I knew all the spectators would see me limp through the finish line in agony. So awful. So glad it's all over.<br />
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<br />
The cramping and spasms could be from a number of things. I believed I did train enough, especially since recovery right now seems to be going so well. I had half a banana the morning of the race for the extra Potassium. From what I have read online, other possible causes could have been extreme exhaustion, heat exhaustion and heat cramps, sodium depletion, or lack of Magnesium. I was drinking water at every station and pretty much energy electrolyte drinks at every station as well. It was really hot out that day! To be honest I'm not sure what I could do differently to avoid this next time. I would try again to run the first half slower and maybe look at eating more Potassium and Magnesium foods. All this could simply just be due to the unusual hot weather in October. It appeared that many people were suffering from cramps. Or maybe I just noticed them more. Jean-Louis and his boss, who also did this race, also complained about cramps during much of the race.<br />
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<br />
42.195 km for the marathon is a long race. Running it is hard. Even walking the entire route is hard. I
walked two marathons in the past and it hurt. Running it is worst but
at least it will end sooner. After a few hours your mind plays tricks on
you and you question whether or not you are going to make it to the
finish line. Your feet hurt so much that if you accidentally step on a
twig, you weep in pain. The only thing keeping your body moving forward
is your brain. Someone on Twitter asked me why I even bother doing marathons if
they are so brutal. I told her that I choose to run marathons because
they are hard. I like the challenge and when it's all over, I feel a bit
more victorious. I did get my medal so yeah, I kind of do :)<br />
<br />
Despite my unfortunate encounter with leg spasms, I was still able to finish the race faster than almost 10 years ago. I think that is amazing. Considering I took a big break from running and racing and I weigh at least 15 pounds more now. Lol. My target goal was under 4 hours and I got it. If I was spasm-free, I may have been able to do it in 3:45 even (which was my secret wishful target goal - doh). Guess we will never know now. That was so hard that I don't think I will be doing any more marathons again. My bucket list is already complete in the marathon department!<br />
<br />
<b>Bucket List:</b><br />
<br />
<strike>Run a marathon</strike><br />
<strike>Run a marathon after going through childbirth</strike>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-10967390758863447762012-10-01T10:24:00.000-07:002012-10-01T10:25:49.167-07:00We bought cow bells for our cheering squad!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEoi-F4R0BoUOtev8140f7T1H86A7lEoLTBTCFvprr4dCLDdBU_wJsacNHWDUoUncg2EveGwVJ6UbpxMMjPtEivBh9bV9agvSoemlZJbhhUNT4y6YGA0M36gURoNWnWFd8_ETD-bY_rcH7/s1600/Image+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEoi-F4R0BoUOtev8140f7T1H86A7lEoLTBTCFvprr4dCLDdBU_wJsacNHWDUoUncg2EveGwVJ6UbpxMMjPtEivBh9bV9agvSoemlZJbhhUNT4y6YGA0M36gURoNWnWFd8_ETD-bY_rcH7/s320/Image+3.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>
I finally got my hands on some cow bells. Boy are they hard to find! Some people suggested for me to check out music stores but I was looking for them at toy stores. Luckily, I found one at a local toy store in Vancouver called the Toy Box and Toy Jungle. They put their last cow bell on hold for me and this past weekend, we went to pick it up! It was $5.99 and then we got 25% off since it was during their annual anniversary sale. Score! They also threw in a toy blue one that doesn't make as much noise. I'm so excited about them!!! Now Tristan and my parents can make noise when they see us and for all the other runners in the race :)<br />
<br />
We are all pretty much set now. Cow bells have been acquired. Training is pretty much over. Carbo-loading and operation "eat well" is in progress. Next weekend we head over to Victoria to the expo to get our numbers and Sunday morning we <a href="http://runvictoriamarathon.com/">race</a>. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEEiWK_qlG1O-fl2YNwytY8dADfBBQwZB0r_xexuDYASHR5ErQ8-DdmBRk12WQzpdE6GGFMmiH_w0QgA2PtuaNa4EJkU7gpOfgzJEih45atlPunf0HNWOOf7q-Gc-ctIudorM0cXMq0CXi/s1600/Image+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEEiWK_qlG1O-fl2YNwytY8dADfBBQwZB0r_xexuDYASHR5ErQ8-DdmBRk12WQzpdE6GGFMmiH_w0QgA2PtuaNa4EJkU7gpOfgzJEih45atlPunf0HNWOOf7q-Gc-ctIudorM0cXMq0CXi/s320/Image+2.jpg" width="240" /></a>Yesterday we ran a 14km route that included two hills. It was a great route because we barely trained on hills this summer and we really needed to. This was our second hill run. The run was easy, thank goodness. It is only 1/3 of the marathon we have to run next weekend. It better be easy, right?! :)<br />
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This is our resting week. Today we take a break from running. Tomorrow we do a 11km run. We break again the next day. Then we go on our last run, just 8km, which will fall on the Thursday after work. That's it! In the meantime, we are eating well and carbo-loading all week. It takes the body 2-3 full days to carbo-load without any exercise. Our race is Sunday morning.<br />
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Overall I'm feeling pretty good. If I'm not ready now, it's too late. The biggest advantage I can give myself now is to eat properly, carbo-load, take care of myself and rest this week. I was close to becoming sick with the common cold late last week. I had an increasing big headache, sore throat, and was very tired for a few days. Thanks to daily prevention cold-fx, I'm feeling more myself again :) I initially thought maybe I should go on a diet this week and try to lose a couple of pounds but now that I think about it, I should keep everything constant. It's just too late in the game for any changes! Although running a couple of pounds lighter could really help me :) But it could also present new problems and I already tested everything out that works so, yeah bad idea.<br />
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The one thing I am a bit worried about is my left foot. The spasm at the bottom has not gone away. It has been there for over a month now. It starts to hurt after about 20 minutes of running now. Sometimes right after starting. It definitely worries me but I can't do anything about it right now. It's unfortunate I will be taking this 'injury' into the race with me. I know it's going to be a big source of pain for me during the race. After the race, I plan to stop running for at least one week to see if it goes away. If it doesn't, I'll go see my doctor. That's the plan anyway.Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-82079169483358914232012-09-25T22:03:00.000-07:002012-09-25T22:16:49.318-07:00Summer Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This summer has been a busy one for us. While other parents and kids were attending birthday parties, we have been running and enjoying sights in Vancouver. Weekends are also the times where we do the bulk of our grocery shopping and cleaning.<br />
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Since we <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/06/we-loved-florence-and-tuscany.html">traveled a lot in the Spring</a>, we spent our whole Summer at home here in Vancouver. It was great actually! We have been very busy and the summer just flew by. Even with all the <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/08/training-for-marathon-with-small-child.html">training</a> we had to do on the weekend, we still got to do most of the things on my Summer bucket list.<br />
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2012 Summer Bucket List:<br />
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<a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/07/3-year-old-does-grouse-grind.html"><strike>Do the Grouse Grind with Tristan</strike></a><br />
<strike>Outside picnic at a park</strike><br />
<strike>Boating at Deer Lake</strike><br />
Symphony at the Park (Deer Lake)<br />
Redeem fish/chips voucher at Pajos in Stevenston Village<br />
<strike>Take Tristan swimming at least once</strike><br />
<strike>Aquarium</strike><br />
<a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/07/burnaby-mountain-bike-skills-park.html"><strike>Visit another bike skills park</strike></a><br />
<strike>Go to the beach</strike><br />
<strike><a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/07/berry-picking-at-emma-lea-farms.html">Go strawberry</a>, blueberry, blackberry picking</strike><br />
Go camping<br />
<a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.ca/2012/08/fire-hall-open-house.html"><strike>Attend a fire station open house</strike></a><br />
Weekend in Seattle<br />
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As Tristan gets older, there will only be more and more things we can do with him. My Summer bucket list will only be growing! Summers really are the best times in Vancouver. Some times I forget how lucky we are to live in such a great city :)<br />
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How was your summer? Were you able to accomplish everything on your bucket list? <br />
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-61579054102391913272012-09-10T10:55:00.002-07:002012-09-10T10:55:57.780-07:00Countdown is on for the Victoria marathon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We have less than 1 month to go. 26 days today to be exact! Ready or not <a href="http://www.runvictoriamarathon.com/">Victoria marathon</a>, here we come!<br />
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Today I am still sore. Yesterday I was very sore. I'm recovering from Saturday's 30km training run with Jean-Louis. It took me around 2 hours 45 minutes of continuous running to reach that distance. After the run, Jean-Louis was all smiles and said that he felt great. Me? I think I hit <a href="http://running.about.com/od/marathontrainingfaqs/tp/avoidhittingthewall.htm"><i>the wall</i></a>. I'm not certain but about 4-5km from the end, my left foot had a killer spasm and was throbbing with pain, my back ached, I was thirsty and had no energy, my muscles and joints were sore and I was running really slow. I kind of felt like dying. If that isn't hitting the wall, I don't know what is :(<br />
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I've had a spasm at the bottom of my left foot for a week already. It never really heals since I keep walking and running right on it. Obviously it hurts more after I finish a run. I was worried about it when we started our long run this weekend but it didn't really start to hurt until about the 15km mark. Then the pain just intensified from there. Yesterday I was limping most of the day. I bought a compression band to wrap around it since something is better than nothing. I read various sources online about how dehydration and lack of potassium can cause spasms and cramps. Oh yeah, I bought bananas yesterday for the extra potassium! But I did eat more bananas during the week so I'm not sure it's that. The weirdest remedy seems to be pickle juice, which Jean-Louis mentioned to me before. It seems that the vinegar in that helps, not so much the pickle. I haven't looked into it too much but it's just odd to drink pickle juice.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My body covered in salt after running. I sweat A LOT!</td></tr>
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Yesterday I enjoyed a full day off. Hooray!!! Today I'm going to have to drag my poor spasm recovering foot out on a 10km run. Overall, I'm more sore than usual :( I'm pretty sure it's because I slacked a bit in training the past week, almost got sick with the common cold, and ate somewhat badly in the past two weeks. It really does make a difference in my performance and recovery. Sadly, this weekend's run was a bit of a wake-up call for me.<br />
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Last time I ran a marathon (my very first one) was 9 1/2 years ago. Jean-Louis and I both did it. We trained by running races every weekend. I'm not sure if it's because I was much younger or not but I trained and raced without any particular problems. I didn't even get a single blister. I had a bit of a sore knee and had to wear a knee brace as a precaution during the race but that was all. It was kind of a breeze. Now many years later and after becoming a mom, I find that I'm sort of starting over again. This time I'm experiencing many problems common to new runners. Stuff I never knew about! I just can't believe it. Here is what I have encountered (so far - gasp):<br />
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<ol>
<li>Chafing everywhere! Under my arms from rubbing against my fat or clothing. In between my legs from rubbing there and other places I would rather not mention but also due to rubbing of clothing. I didn't buy new clothes to wear but all of a sudden I have problems. What the heck?! Okay so I'm at least 20 lbs heavier now than I was 9 1/2 years ago. <b>Solution:</b> Apply Vaseline in all areas that get rubbed during running. This works like a charm :)</li>
<li>Blisters from wearing cotton socks in hot weather and sweating profusely in them. <b>Solution: </b>No more cotton socks for me!</li>
<li>Black bruised toe:( This one was a killer. It started about 3 months ago(?) My toe was getting bruised more and more after each long run. It hurt so much I thought it was broken at one point. There was blood underneath the nail and the whole toe was red. It wasn't even my longest toe being affected either. I have worn my shoes for the past 3 or 4 years with no problems until suddenly. What the heck?! Then I started googling and it scared the bejesus out of me. Did you know that there are people who run often that lose nails all the time? Someone claimed they only had 6 toe nails left. It's only a matter of time before my toe nail falls off. I can see the new one growing underneath already! TMI? <b>Solution:</b> I bought new shoes 2 weeks ago! I specifically looked for the best running shoes for long distance running. No more black toes for me! I'm soooo happy :)</li>
<li>Ongoing foot spasm, as mentioned above. I'm still waiting for this to go away! Please go away. <b>Solution:</b> Compression band during rest, potassium, pickle juice???</li>
<li>Back ache. This has only happened lately on the long runs. I think I hunch forward a bit running when I'm super tired. Yeah, I'm going to have to work on good posture to correct this one. <b>Solution:</b> Focus on good posture?</li>
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I sure hope that is the end of it. OMG. Now that the 30km run is over with, we're dropping our distances. They say runners should run at least a 20 miler (32+ km) during marathon training but 30km is good enough for us :) With just 26 days left in training, we don't want to risk injury either. Next weekend, I want us to do a 10km mountain run. It's going to be a killer pushing the jogging stroller up a mountain. Luckily Jean-Louis is better uphill and since I suck maybe we'll actually get to run side by side. Lol. When the weather cools down even more the next few weeks, we're probably going to start stressing about getting sick. I almost got sick this past week since Tristan was sick. Jean-Louis did get sick around mid week and his nose is still running today! But he still kicked my butt during our run! He's at the top of his game. Yay for him :)Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-34375102961886239832012-09-03T21:24:00.001-07:002012-09-03T21:24:53.527-07:00Play date of the year<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg00ex0hN_BthGe5c3r1UArAElz2FIKbvLtj6VxRc8CtuwQ0f-0BrfwMzhBLA7ebqgyKocZLyn0poG3ZGUrmmXtx-4n1lVyFKFg5IQw0fdBajM6XaLdTzrN9lbR1wxmAkJEEq1b7gCDnJy/s1600/P1090822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg00ex0hN_BthGe5c3r1UArAElz2FIKbvLtj6VxRc8CtuwQ0f-0BrfwMzhBLA7ebqgyKocZLyn0poG3ZGUrmmXtx-4n1lVyFKFg5IQw0fdBajM6XaLdTzrN9lbR1wxmAkJEEq1b7gCDnJy/s320/P1090822.jpg" width="240" /></a>Last Thursday and Friday, Tristan had a play date with two boys, age 3.5 and 5.5. These two boys were my friend's children from Victoria. We have been friends since Junior High so that makes her "the friend I have been friends with the longest." We have been meaning to do this for awhile so when we finally picked a date this summer, it finally happened! Also, I haven't seen her in a year.<br />
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She took her two boys and came over to Vancouver as foot passengers on the ferry. After a bus and skytrain ride, she arrived Thursday in time for a lunch picnic I had organized for us. That morning I made us frosted soft sugar cookies for treats and vegan cassava tortillas for our picnic. We skytrained to <a href="http://www.burnaby.ca/Things-To-Do/Explore-Outdoors/Parks/Central-Park.html">Central Park</a>, had our lunch picnic and the kids played at the playground while my friend and I talked. I got to socialize and Tristan had so much fun playing with his two little friends. He was so happy! He gets like that whenever he has little people to play with :)<br />
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After a couple of hours at the park, we walked to Metrotown where we rode the train in the mall. Then it was off to <a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/14/181734/restaurant/Vancouver/Burnaby-South/Sushi-Garden-Burnaby">Sushi Garden</a> to pickup sushi for dinner and skytrain back home. The kids love sushi as much as us. We all stuffed ourselves full! That night after the cleanup, the kids played together with Tristan's toys until 11PM. My friend and I looked at photos and talked about recent vacations.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFMKlhqrLIojnc0Yky8WFT6dBKRCt9Xbw9-rCvhGHSvHe3ilpuHCUJpQlc9rp1WoH5XGeKELq6CpY2vYQgkU0TBM7_BKbRpa99qtpk5ZlSOCoS2BcRImrRnPLgQOZ2v10i8tegl0AGBZSa/s1600/P1090858.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFMKlhqrLIojnc0Yky8WFT6dBKRCt9Xbw9-rCvhGHSvHe3ilpuHCUJpQlc9rp1WoH5XGeKELq6CpY2vYQgkU0TBM7_BKbRpa99qtpk5ZlSOCoS2BcRImrRnPLgQOZ2v10i8tegl0AGBZSa/s320/P1090858.jpg" width="320" /></a>On Friday, Tristan was up around 7AM, his usual time really. We were all awake around 8AM. I did a bit of planning while everyone was getting ready. We headed to <a href="http://littlenest.ca/">Little Nest</a> for brunch. I have never been to Little Nest during a week day before. It was still busy but much less chaotic compared to the weekend. We all liked our meals and my friend really liked the place :) It's one of our favorites too.<br />
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After brunch, we walked along Commercial Drive and checked out some kids stores. Then we crossed the street into a big playground where the kids ran and played for at least an hour. We ended up walking up and down Commercial a bit more before leaving for the day. My friend had never explored Commercial Drive. In fact, she doesn't come over to Vancouver often. When she does it's usually just for quick stops and she visits with people and doesn't really get to tour much. All the places I took her were new to her and she seemed to have enjoyed her stay. We weren't the only ones enjoying ourselves, the kids had a blast too! They got along so well and were all so well behaved :) It actually dawned on me that her kids were more obedient than Tristan. When it was time to say good-bye, her 5.5 year old was first to say bye to Tristan. He gave Tristan a hug and said "I love you." Haha. It was so cute though.<br />
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Tristan was sad to see them leave and they were sad to leave too. This was probably only about the fourth or fifth time Tristan has ever seen them. You wouldn't have guessed though since they played and interacted so well together. You would have thought they have been friends all their lives. Well all 3 1/2 years of their lives :)Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-1409060723290398152012-09-01T21:41:00.000-07:002012-09-01T21:41:40.610-07:00Tristan's 3rd haircut<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlpDEGhm9XxC3QfNBkYsyRRG1W5d-HOB-DSq2Dk_juxVNV19xhwh5c9Jdj85CRkhGQ9DHJGrjUFZ6_rJuudUrryzDyzHT84tOH4gOaePVT3GyqHFRbRReCbDQi8p7luzomnqCT0l0ESFnJ/s1600/P1090916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlpDEGhm9XxC3QfNBkYsyRRG1W5d-HOB-DSq2Dk_juxVNV19xhwh5c9Jdj85CRkhGQ9DHJGrjUFZ6_rJuudUrryzDyzHT84tOH4gOaePVT3GyqHFRbRReCbDQi8p7luzomnqCT0l0ESFnJ/s320/P1090916.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiom5tA9w-ccMO4MQC5u-UNo-o6O2i-NcnO5x3zAhhpH3SwZKItZH_75hG5dibiz5YDTW8lsHmMminCtj8iKwaadkBDopz_iyg9e6UTFZYHJn9pcb4BzGZVJQmW05VapnovYmS9wgvt27uW/s1600/P1090927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiom5tA9w-ccMO4MQC5u-UNo-o6O2i-NcnO5x3zAhhpH3SwZKItZH_75hG5dibiz5YDTW8lsHmMminCtj8iKwaadkBDopz_iyg9e6UTFZYHJn9pcb4BzGZVJQmW05VapnovYmS9wgvt27uW/s320/P1090927.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-48811539034747810912012-08-20T11:52:00.001-07:002012-08-20T11:52:47.494-07:00Fire Hall Open House<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn0l-kfRiUpmXuoAv7bsv7AYENNqDN1uYzXPPiDJcLQTQrKgjFFIzqmxzRByBwZFXy-13u0at4O5rRZsx8XlOXYEXteucWqGXPn8hkhyphenhyphenj2-7078MJhLWEW0YtTMZQv8CPnLhjXB-V0EkPL/s1600/IMG_9367.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn0l-kfRiUpmXuoAv7bsv7AYENNqDN1uYzXPPiDJcLQTQrKgjFFIzqmxzRByBwZFXy-13u0at4O5rRZsx8XlOXYEXteucWqGXPn8hkhyphenhyphenj2-7078MJhLWEW0YtTMZQv8CPnLhjXB-V0EkPL/s320/IMG_9367.jpg" width="320" /></a>Like any typical little boy, Tristan likes fire trucks and firemen. He has a gazillion toys related to fire and fighting fire. When I heard that the fire halls were holding open houses for the public, I knew I wanted to bring him there. Every time we walked or drove by a fire station, Tristan would stare. Stare for a long time. Imagine the joy he felt when he finally got to go inside and tour an actual fire station? JOY!<br />
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Today we went to the <a href="http://vancouver.ca/news-calendar/fire-hall-13-open-hose.aspx">open house for fire hall #13</a> in Vancouver. We got to tour the inside of fire trucks, inside of the fire station, and we even had a personal guide who so happened to be the Fire Chief! The firemen were giving out juice boxes, Kashi granola bars, stickers, tattoos, red fire hats, coloring books, and build your own fire truck sheets. Tristan even got to see the fireman go down the fire pole! He was super shy the whole time but when it was time to leave, he didn't want to go. He was even too shy to sit on the driver's seat in the fire truck. Jean-Louis wasn't too shy though :) Tristan barely spoke during the tour but you could tell he was very interested in hearing what the fireman had to say :)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguIvxD6iuYj_8RozHtRCOnagOyiImdsNTHOUt89G5x7rI3xOA1h6HG_TQDyLL4BiwQZYzDXy0BNV4vA5M9nrV8uWG5-z1x-ylU4AdJVlKeyxKpwbQZt7heIjO8IFmU6RWuQyXcu2Zlo-ck/s1600/P1090761.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguIvxD6iuYj_8RozHtRCOnagOyiImdsNTHOUt89G5x7rI3xOA1h6HG_TQDyLL4BiwQZYzDXy0BNV4vA5M9nrV8uWG5-z1x-ylU4AdJVlKeyxKpwbQZt7heIjO8IFmU6RWuQyXcu2Zlo-ck/s320/P1090761.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look at Daddy!</td></tr>
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There weren't a lot of people at this particular fire hall. All the visitors were also babies, toddlers or preschoolers, like Tristan. I was a bit surprised there weren't more older kids. I have never visited a fire station before and I was even amused :) I think older kids and adults could learn a thing or two and have fun visiting a fire hall.<br />
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-48847090169220620012012-08-08T09:09:00.000-07:002012-08-09T22:56:39.937-07:00Long weekend staycation in VancouverWe were thinking of going to Seattle or even going camping this past BC day long weekend but in the end, we decided just to have a staycation in Vancouver.<br />
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<b>What we did Day 1:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_RjYl-d7_dNEOvQ4mjxsxqdtaCI7ALVv50yXsC4oZ_hF1g-I2AEwMHQPMeMXitCVgOMzjXyLbE3Is7VpNxJIbG4kVyCUpgdYXf84APlRTAa_dkMjWKHKUMfXCZe3oyZNyfW3_Ry4Oxq3c/s1600/IMG_8931.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_RjYl-d7_dNEOvQ4mjxsxqdtaCI7ALVv50yXsC4oZ_hF1g-I2AEwMHQPMeMXitCVgOMzjXyLbE3Is7VpNxJIbG4kVyCUpgdYXf84APlRTAa_dkMjWKHKUMfXCZe3oyZNyfW3_Ry4Oxq3c/s320/IMG_8931.jpg" width="320" /></a>Jean-Louis and I wanted to go to the Veg Festival downtown so we ran down there. <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/08/training-for-marathon-with-small-child.html">We are training for a marathon right now</a> and 17km to downtown seemed like a good distance. When we arrived, we wanted to have lunch at the Veg Fest. To our disappointment, there was only one actual food stand. I mean there were quite a few stands but they were stands giving out flyers, information, and a few bake and health bar stands. The one food stand sold <a href="http://www.gardein.com/index.php">Gardein</a> food, which we have already tried. Somehow I thought some of the vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Vancouver would be represented there with food for tasting. Sadly, the festival was kind of lame. We decided to just run our errands and leave.<br />
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We stopped by Chinatown and grabbed some Vietnamese sandwiches (aka <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1nh_m%C3%AC">Banh Mi</a>). We got a couple of the usual cold cuts, a chicken one, and a tofu one.<br />
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We got home, showered, and then took Tristan and his bikes to a nearby park. It was so hot! Tristan got to try his pedal bike for the first time. He had trouble starting on his own but once he was on it, he did great! Yay!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Strider running bike</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2 wheel pedal bike</td></tr>
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After biking, we went to <a href="http://www.marbleslab.ca/">Marble Slab Creamery</a> for some ice cream. This was the first HOT day of the summer here in Vancouver. We stopped by Price Smart after wards to grab some fruit and then rented a dvd on our way out.<br />
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<b>What we did Day 2:</b><br />
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Jean-Louis made us a vegan pancake breakfast. It was good. Then it was off to Metrotown for our weekly grocery shopping. We dropped off food at home and headed to North Vancouver for some shopping errands. On the way back, we stopped by at <a href="http://www.newwestpcr.ca/parks/community_parks/queens_park.php">Rainbow Playland at Queen's park</a> for a late lunch picnic. Tristan got to play in the water park there and we visited the petting zoo. I love how that park was so shady! That was one of the reasons we chose to go there. It was another toasty hot day.<br />
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<b>What we did Day 3:</b><br />
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Jean-Louis went for a long bike ride in the morning. Tristan and I slept in and took our time with breakfast. I prepped some food for our dinner barbecue and then we headed out to the Burnaby Village Museum. We stayed there for a bit and played. Then it was back home to cook. We fired up the grill and feasted on a ton of food. What's new, right? :)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_g0Yyo0APhVrj_vuL_glBJHHz54x8_Z9WKbi94zK38p2c1YP_5TYE0_W69xddC2mKxY65t4vKe_KC1svyI6F5XQy3uJgtuI8v96ck-bGdpaI7Bxef8fGQKh3nvfdHIBi_3_AaZ168nIg/s1600/IMG_9041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_g0Yyo0APhVrj_vuL_glBJHHz54x8_Z9WKbi94zK38p2c1YP_5TYE0_W69xddC2mKxY65t4vKe_KC1svyI6F5XQy3uJgtuI8v96ck-bGdpaI7Bxef8fGQKh3nvfdHIBi_3_AaZ168nIg/s320/IMG_9041.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade shrimp burgers with chipotle yogurt sauce.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXf8hxAiYSzMlv-6KaoSdG1U38fj7cvArJtr0kPVfpA2hLlVUm8LL2uCnqjSzI-e3OkBEfH5FITIMfyTMPXkc3S8-D53Amzkc3t9CIRiwV6Cxfs8LON1lDMA8FcHEohCm8TpievvhXKDf/s1600/IMG_9046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXf8hxAiYSzMlv-6KaoSdG1U38fj7cvArJtr0kPVfpA2hLlVUm8LL2uCnqjSzI-e3OkBEfH5FITIMfyTMPXkc3S8-D53Amzkc3t9CIRiwV6Cxfs8LON1lDMA8FcHEohCm8TpievvhXKDf/s320/IMG_9046.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jean-Louis' vegan hawt dawg...whatever he calls it.</td></tr>
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It was just the 3 of us this weekend but we had a great staycation. I even got to watch some Olympics. Most of them were replays but still :) I didn't know what the big deal was but staycations are actually pretty cool :)Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-67089778941088718642012-08-07T10:04:00.000-07:002012-08-07T10:04:02.540-07:00Training for a marathon with a small child<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3otnLKBWrVSD2wenl_7zEqo27uT6PfjaglPrkn-TFsyJO_CmJAMzRcZnMGRdbuv2RjM6IzMSj6Rulojtbj6ge2oT-tGBb9hj2oqAkqUKZ9dcnmnFBUrKZQ7BRUxiC-Seq7s6bCB0cSCM/s1600/IMG_8911.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3otnLKBWrVSD2wenl_7zEqo27uT6PfjaglPrkn-TFsyJO_CmJAMzRcZnMGRdbuv2RjM6IzMSj6Rulojtbj6ge2oT-tGBb9hj2oqAkqUKZ9dcnmnFBUrKZQ7BRUxiC-Seq7s6bCB0cSCM/s320/IMG_8911.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
In exactly two months from today on October 7th, Jean-Louis and I will be running the <a href="http://runvictoriamarathon.com/">Victoria maratho</a>n. OMG.<br />
<br />
How are we doing in our training? Just alright. We had two long runs so far. One 21km three weeks ago and then 17km just this past weekend. Next weekend, we are scheduled to run 25km. Yikes! The night before every long run, I kind of get scared. Honestly, it never gets easier. Every run is hard work. Our time may improve but it is always hard.<br />
<br />
Two and a half weeks ago, we both injured ourselves. Jean-Louis hurt his leg from too much biking and running and now has to run with a compression band. He was limping around the first few days after his injury so it must have been bad. Then again it was reckless of him to run 21km and then go on a 85km bike ride the following morning. As for my injury, it was probably equally dumb. I threw my back out throwing heavy garbage. GARBAGE! I couldn't run for about a week. It hurt so bad, I could hardly take care of myself. I had to apply heat to it several times a day. When I started running again, I was so tensed Jean-Louis said that I looked constipated. Lol. With both our injuries we had a bit of a set back in our training. Unfortunately these things do happen :( Fortunately for us the timing was just about the same time. We train together so it worked out well that we both had to rest at the same time.<br />
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For those who don't know, Jean-Louis is my husband and we have raced together and have always done so since 2002. With the exception of the <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-first-solo-race-half-marathon.html">Vancouver half-marathon this past May</a>, we have been in every running race together. This marathon in Victoria will be our second marathon. We ran our first marathon nearly 9 1/2 years ago in Paris. Since then we have been running a lot less but what really makes this a challenge for me is that I'm a mom now and quite a bit heavier than before. I have also been eating more sweets in the past few years since becoming a mom and I'm much older. Ahem. Jean-Louis, on the other hand, is in top shape. He has never been more fit and he weighs less than me now! I'm not kidding. He's totally going to kick my butt in the race!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8eFcs8y45hM_RpBuk3m4KIx1nTXwyRs5YAA7WQOpKKyXXek4g1MXfU44_MXMgbYOl952bL3dilPx21Vzzhzs8ND19UTjhI2Tob2mdB3tdIF8JF-A-33bMJXcENTVEGYjLGiHjik6hzH19/s1600/IMG_8909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8eFcs8y45hM_RpBuk3m4KIx1nTXwyRs5YAA7WQOpKKyXXek4g1MXfU44_MXMgbYOl952bL3dilPx21Vzzhzs8ND19UTjhI2Tob2mdB3tdIF8JF-A-33bMJXcENTVEGYjLGiHjik6hzH19/s1600/IMG_8909.jpg" /></a>There are many marathon runners out there who are also parents of small
children. Some times it's just the one parent who runs, which would mean
the other parent could stay with the child or children. If both parents
are runners, they could take turns running marathons. I think taking
turns training and running the same marathon would be too time consuming
since that would take twice as much time. If both parents run, the
child or children have to come along for the training runs. I think that
is the only simple solution. That is what we do when we go for long runs.<br />
<br />
When <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2011/10/training-for-victoria-half-marathon.html">we trained together for the half-marathon in Victoria last year</a>, I thought it was hard. We were running 5km and no more than 10 or 11km to train for that. Finding time to run was hard since we are parents to Tristan and we didn't want to drag him along for running all the time. Running 10km would mean about 1 hour in the stroller for him. Luckily, we only had to do that maybe once some times twice a week and he didn't complain very much. We thought even if we wanted to, there would be no way we could possibly find time to train for anything bigger than a half-marathon. A full marathon would be totally out of the question! Sigh. When we registered for the race, we told ourselves we would worry about finding the time to train when the time came. Apparently, if there is a will, there is a way.<br />
<br />
Here is how we are training for our marathon with our 3.5 year old in tow:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLkr0IOE1TCzD09vEXhPsSXL44fP2wO1uBz24Im-yfO8h02LkXANPtJkNFqgVi2go4hXIGXE3oXqmPTdIKno9U1coxKhDk-P-HPXxU6wq4IpqSCKQGYnNuYmWgcbJ-njCI6NIyQzjxqfsk/s1600/IMG_8622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLkr0IOE1TCzD09vEXhPsSXL44fP2wO1uBz24Im-yfO8h02LkXANPtJkNFqgVi2go4hXIGXE3oXqmPTdIKno9U1coxKhDk-P-HPXxU6wq4IpqSCKQGYnNuYmWgcbJ-njCI6NIyQzjxqfsk/s320/IMG_8622.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Second Beach in Stanley Park</td></tr>
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<ul>
<li>We continue to run twice a week after Jean-Louis gets home from work. We do between 8-10km during those days and as usual, we run directly to daycare to pick Tristan up. The daycare staff are used to seeing us covered in filthy sweat but so what? :)</li>
<li>Every other weekend, we go for a long run from home all the way downtown to <a href="http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/">Stanley Park</a>. We push Tristan in our jogging stroller. For the moment, he seems okay with it. We stay mainly on the BC Parkway trail under the skytrain and then we take the river run to the park. When we arrived at the park, it's 20km. By the way, the route we take is a beautiful run going from east to west and slightly downhill along the way :) The idea is to add 2km to every weekend run until we run 30km non-stop. 30km would mean arriving at Stanley Park and then continuing to run once around it. After the 30km milestone, we go down in distance.</li>
<li>We carbo-load during the week we are scheduled for a long weekend run.</li>
<li>We take our 3.5yo out for a lot of outdoor activities like biking and playing at the water park to make up for holding him hostage in the stroller. No, it's not that bad! :) He hasn't complained much at all since we have been telling him about it in advance and have been explaining to him about our race. With Stanley Park and downtown as our destination, he is able to have fun when we're all done. The first time we ran down, he played at the playground and then at the spray park. The second time, we went to the veg festival downtown. We always skytrain back home and he loves riding the skytrain! Next time we run down, we might go to the <a href="http://www.vanaqua.org/">Vancouver Aquarium</a> at Stanley Park.</li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Fm86rNvO1_EXtVm7iXTZygSpqx5z13HA7Ar75SkHU0R7mmJwAmB2J7hOD5cEl7SCrqoKIxYBIzXENEsvJHJYP7PlHq6TJMiJ-wf7sM_0_h53V6MY-nbOVC7YN-8kZctGdM8YBlT2u9o9/s1600/IMG_8646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Fm86rNvO1_EXtVm7iXTZygSpqx5z13HA7Ar75SkHU0R7mmJwAmB2J7hOD5cEl7SCrqoKIxYBIzXENEsvJHJYP7PlHq6TJMiJ-wf7sM_0_h53V6MY-nbOVC7YN-8kZctGdM8YBlT2u9o9/s400/IMG_8646.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spray park in Stanley Park</td></tr>
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We never thought it would be possible but so far it's going well. We are very lucky to have a 3.5 year old that will sit patiently inside a stroller for over 2 hours. We bring books and snacks for him. We usually set out first thing in the morning so he eats his breakfast cereal and fruit in the stroller. We get him to drink his milk and pee before we leave the house though. Some times I feel bad for keeping him in a stroller for so long but then again, we have taken road trips where he has been in the car for even longer. I think sitting in a stroller would be more fun than sitting in a car seat anyway. Don't you agree? :)<br />
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We're no pros. We are not following any training program. Everything we do is just based on what has been working for us in the past. The list above is actually a better training plan than the one we had back when we were still in our twenties. Back then we ran races to train. Since we couldn't find any races past a 21km half-marathon, we never ran anything more than 21km before running the full marathon (42km). We did fine but it's kind of dumb now that I think about it.Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-43281560251918458642012-07-31T23:16:00.002-07:002012-07-31T23:19:31.318-07:00Burnaby Mountain Bike Skills Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bike skills parks are super cool. We watched experienced bikers jump the big bumps <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2011/05/vacationing-in-whistler-with-2-year-old.html">when we were in Whistler</a>. It was fun to watch. Tristan was only 2 years old at the time and totally fascinated as well. We are fortunate to have a bike skills park that is a 15 minute walk
from our home. It's a small one and we bring Tristan there often. He
loves it there and we love watching him ride.<br />
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This past weekend, we went to a new bike park. It's not new but it's one we haven't explored yet :) Compared to the one by our house, this was HUGE. It was the <a href="http://www.burnaby.ca/Things-To-Do/Outdoor-Facilities/Mountain-Air-Bike-Skills-Park.html">mountain air bike skills park</a> at the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area. Areas were marked as easy, intermediate, and advanced skill levels for biking. At 3.5 years old, Tristan is intermediate on his strider running bike. He had his bike since <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2010/05/17-month-old-is-one-cool-toddler-on-his.html">17 months old</a>, although he probably didn't start really riding it outside until he was at least two. We actually bought him a pedal bike a few months ago since we think he is ready for it. We haven't taken it out yet though. The strider is good until his is five so I don't mind him riding that a bit longer. He is so confident on it right now.<br />
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The bike skills park at Burnaby Mountain was super cool. The area could use some maintenance but the wooden parts were all in good condition. Tristan had fun, despite falling twice. On the last fall, we went home. Sigh. Before the unfortunate incident, we took plenty of happy pictures above and this small video :)<br />
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<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/46600066" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/46600066">Biking at Bike Skills Facility at Burnaby Mountain</a></center>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu2IDh81M5uJnwKqnLalVU_HMWaS_ZsXBjp-R70I9OyQvX4XpZM8RYOwB_p_LS4Wem1xZFd9FxX6d9RKZpwEt8FZ5iBZyVHpSk3PmD5U5fQNimfy10O4TbSlmZ95R5GKIRNMGyisyGgX7L/s1600/P1090527.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu2IDh81M5uJnwKqnLalVU_HMWaS_ZsXBjp-R70I9OyQvX4XpZM8RYOwB_p_LS4Wem1xZFd9FxX6d9RKZpwEt8FZ5iBZyVHpSk3PmD5U5fQNimfy10O4TbSlmZ95R5GKIRNMGyisyGgX7L/s320/P1090527.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The slope he rode a few times before finally falling.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I know why he fell. He was overly tired since he only slept maybe 8 1/2 hours the night before (for those who don't know, that's 1 1/2 hours less than what he normally gets) and he didn't nap yet. It was around 4:30PM when he fell. His body was getting tired since he had already biked maybe 1 hour and he was going down a steep slope and was scared. He did it many times already but this time he was scared. When you are physically tired and scared, THAT is when accidents will occur. Sadly, I was right. It must have hurt a lot since he cried for a long time. He bit his tongue on the fall as well so it bled a bit. Jean-Louis warned him about that one. He has a dark blue bruise under his chin now and it will probably be there for at least another week:( Poor little dude.Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-65627837877224397122012-07-25T09:31:00.000-07:002012-07-25T09:31:00.269-07:00Edmond's City Fair and Car Show<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexHpiAFPwH8fenNv81E78rUHmkmztl9qAuK6gjz52g06mnzhQYWV_a-xwchBk1NFpZwYMXcPqDeA_RPB6McHe8e0y6FUXExerH_dGLW5DTYmYWgbpzZ-dKcag-yW7D6zEBZm_cDIlH0We/s1600/IMG_8776.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexHpiAFPwH8fenNv81E78rUHmkmztl9qAuK6gjz52g06mnzhQYWV_a-xwchBk1NFpZwYMXcPqDeA_RPB6McHe8e0y6FUXExerH_dGLW5DTYmYWgbpzZ-dKcag-yW7D6zEBZm_cDIlH0We/s400/IMG_8776.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-19768294899516762572012-07-23T11:57:00.000-07:002012-07-23T11:57:35.919-07:00Our first ever garage sale at the Highgate Village community garage sale<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixUjw6UehQ2AOIb1_1qT_PBjTDRbE1vR_X13mDryIMZixRWLr97KeWO5kOgY98O55HZru9Egeor4mrpNsyYBcEeKp7Zs2gF0tMGCQe48s2UqtGgVU-J1dJ68uX27AlKfe6t1qJ8VqUdEPF/s1600/Photo+2012-07-21+9+38+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixUjw6UehQ2AOIb1_1qT_PBjTDRbE1vR_X13mDryIMZixRWLr97KeWO5kOgY98O55HZru9Egeor4mrpNsyYBcEeKp7Zs2gF0tMGCQe48s2UqtGgVU-J1dJ68uX27AlKfe6t1qJ8VqUdEPF/s320/Photo+2012-07-21+9+38+12.jpg" width="320" /></a>On Saturday July 21st, we took part in <a href="http://www.saveonfoods.com/store/highgate-village">Highgate Village's</a> first community garage sale. Proceeds from the table and parking stall rentals went towards the BC Children's Hospital. We are always in need of decluttering our house so this seemed like a good chance to do it. Community garage sales seem more attractive to those who are looking for good garage sales and since <a href="http://saveonfoods.com/">Save-On Foods</a> was hosting it, we figured they would do all the publicizing and advertising for us. We registered and got 1 table to sell our goods.<br />
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The morning of the event it rained:( The organizers decided at the last minute to move the setup from the outside parking lot next to the shopping center down to the dark underground parking. We had to setup our tables by 9:30AM because the event started at 10AM. They decided to tuck us all near the back of the parking lot maybe because we wouldn't be so intrusive(??). Very few people came by to check us out. To make matters worst, I only
saw one sign that was written on the white board in a faint marker near
the entrance to Save-On Foods. Most of the people shopping at Highgate Village
just didn't know there was a garage sale taking place underneath. That
would be my guess since there were barely anyone walking around. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmRmT2TTSbLjTs3KqzzXAXVNHuQVabbphMCh3Ruao-bw4jDJ62Fe0Vr-ad5G3t5JG6P7KHt0yYt-9GgBhE49m-sAmy6faXzTNGAvqZN1GW_gEeCoGQ2j9_NqLXkCAClRky_HnxD3ASBARt/s1600/Photo+2012-07-21+9+44+47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmRmT2TTSbLjTs3KqzzXAXVNHuQVabbphMCh3Ruao-bw4jDJ62Fe0Vr-ad5G3t5JG6P7KHt0yYt-9GgBhE49m-sAmy6faXzTNGAvqZN1GW_gEeCoGQ2j9_NqLXkCAClRky_HnxD3ASBARt/s320/Photo+2012-07-21+9+44+47.jpg" width="239" /></a>When the decision was made to setup underground, a very upset vendor told the organizer that no one was going to know we were down here. The vendor tried to get the organizer to allow us to setup upstairs. He said that the weather was predicting sunshine later in the day. The organizer didn't believe it and said it didn't look that way. The organizer was wrong. Shortly after 10AM, the rain stopped and by 10:30AM the sun came out. The sun stayed out the rest of the day. We were already all setup and there was no way we were going to move. Too bad:( The garage sale ended at 2PM and it was a beautiful day when we went outside. Doh!<br />
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This was the first year Save-On Foods has hosted a community garage sale to fund-raise. They didn't really know what they were doing but they could have definitely helped out the vendors a bit more. The weather cannot be controlled obviously but they could have helped publicize the event a bit more. Where were the big signs ready to place by all the entrances to the parking lot? Where was the big sign by the hot dog stand at the top they were using to fund-raise? Where was the big banner by the Highgate Village entrance? Why the heck was it not even advertised on their website? Why were we tucked so far back in the dark in the underground parking? The underground parking area by the entrance upstairs got way more traffic than the underground parking further away. Sadly for us we were one of the tables further away:(<br />
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Having a community garage sale is a great idea. Unfortunately it wasn't well organized and it hurt both vendors and shoppers. Everything we were selling were $5 or under. I <a href="http://www.aslobcomesclean.com/category/garage-sale-advice/">researched about garage sales</a> beforehand to make sure I was setting prices right. Our prices were pretty much right since only one person asked for a lower price. Our main goal at the garage sale was to get rid of our things. If we
could make a few dollars in the process, that would be great! This was
our first garage sale so it was a bit of an adventure for us. I advertised our sale on <a href="http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/">craigslist</a> and I tweeted often about it. That might have gotten us a few extra visitors. Things that sold well were children books, toys, and cupcakes. The cupcakes were made to lure people to our table but in the end, at least half our of profit came just from cupcakes! I heard cupcakes and bakes work wonders at garage sales and it's totally true :)<br />
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There were a ton of bargains everywhere. It would have been a bargain shopper paradise if people knew about it. We ended up buying a couple of things too:) I was actually joking with the girl next to me saying that we were "negative" since Jean-Louis walked around and bought something before we even made our first sale. There was a table selling lots of DVDs in great condition for just $1. There were also lots of books going for $0.25 to $1. There were over 20 tables and maybe 6 or more parking stalls worth of goods.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioEE04X_FX9bIq-ecG6Py8sheDtzu_eqkkgONhT00rOPLHMM4JIBwSZVHB0QDA3tHhbmo7hFFfL4x8uTVhwTIKW3PMiweosJE6AJNGEzlT-8UE7ostGK4vprqy-Jd2rjFHpLn-Ckt3XVfp/s1600/Photo+2012-07-21+9+44+40.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioEE04X_FX9bIq-ecG6Py8sheDtzu_eqkkgONhT00rOPLHMM4JIBwSZVHB0QDA3tHhbmo7hFFfL4x8uTVhwTIKW3PMiweosJE6AJNGEzlT-8UE7ostGK4vprqy-Jd2rjFHpLn-Ckt3XVfp/s320/Photo+2012-07-21+9+44+40.jpg" width="320" /></a>We still had an adventure and Tristan got to learn a thing or two about garage sales so there's that :) We
explained to Tristan that we were playing store that day. His job was
to greet people and ask them if they wanted to try some cupcakes. If
someone bought something we would pass him the change and he would give
it to them. Despite being in the dark underground for most of the 4
hours, Tristan was really well behaved and was even helpful. I made
conversation with a lovely lady at the table next to me. She was by
herself and she had a newborn with her. Tristan talked and played with
the baby a bit too. To him the baby was like a live doll! So small and
so adorable. If it wasn't for good company, I think the garage sale
would have been very long and boring.<br />
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Most of what we didn't sell, which was maybe 70% of our stuff, ended up being dropped off at the nearby donation center at <a href="http://www.valuevillage.ca/Where-to-Donate.aspx">Value Village</a>. We tested out the garage sale but that didn't work out well but at least we tried, right? Now we know. Maybe things would have been different if the weather was better or if there was more publicity. Weather is such a big factor in these events that I'm pretty sure it would have made a big difference. Unfortunately, we will never know because that was our first and probably last garage sale:(<br />
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I don't think garage sales are for us. It's not worth the organizing, time, or even baking. The table rental was $15 so when you consider that we only made $34.57. That's kind of pathetic. Lol. We did it for the experience but now that that is behind us, we don't really have any good reason to hold another garage sale. The big things can be sold on craigslist and the rest will be donated. Our biggest take away from all of this is that it is <i>very</i> hard to sell things, even for $0.25. We will definitely be more careful of what we buy now, especially toys and clothes.Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-73713333542318642492012-07-11T11:44:00.000-07:002012-07-11T11:44:32.795-07:003 year old does the Grouse Grind<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi__nLx4hiBeui4rAKl2XYffiXOWXX3Kg6F38ejAaMCzwyQC1FVLi_fqSCuumEQ2pdjkjOOtvCpCbROdrTLS6vLrm5MgL0sz5KO3ghCForc-c1eIcbJIKJX2_-WzZU7Ttqekaeeq-T8615I/s1600/P1090183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi__nLx4hiBeui4rAKl2XYffiXOWXX3Kg6F38ejAaMCzwyQC1FVLi_fqSCuumEQ2pdjkjOOtvCpCbROdrTLS6vLrm5MgL0sz5KO3ghCForc-c1eIcbJIKJX2_-WzZU7Ttqekaeeq-T8615I/s320/P1090183.jpg" width="240" /></a>I have to remind myself that it's Tristan's accomplishment and not mine but I can't help it and I'm totally going to brag here. Tristan doesn't really know how to brag yet and couldn't care less. As his mother, it's my duty to brag for him! :)<br />
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The <a href="http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/grouse-grind/">Grouse Grind</a> is a difficult hike. It's about 3km of stair climbing really. They have t-shirts at the gift shop at the top that reads "I survived the Grouse Grind." It is kind of a big deal to climb it.<br />
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We took Tristan to do the Grind with us this past weekend. As much as we wanted him to do it all on his own, we also agreed that we would not push him very much. Whenever he would be tired, we would take a break. We would even carry him a bit if he really wanted us to. We would take as long as he needed. We agreed on this because we have done the Grind before and we know it's hard.<br />
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Jean-Louis and I have not done the Grouse Grind in over four years. Back in our childless days, we used to do it almost every other weekend. This was Tristan's first Grouse Grind. The goal of any first is just to finish. That is exactly what he did :) In 2 hours 11 minutes.<br />
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It was all Tristan! We didn't carry him one bit. We had to lift him here and there since there were rocks bigger than him. In fact most of the steps he had to take were as high as his knee. If you think about how short he is, it really was an amazing accomplishment. When I say he has short legs, I mean he is SHORT. The other day he was wearing 24 month old shorts and they fit him perfectly! He's 3 1/2 years old. Imagine if you had to climb 3 kilometer of steps that were as high as your knee to as tall as you were. That's what it was like for him. He did whine on and off a bit saying "it's soooo long" but that was about it. He did great and he was quite entertained by all the hikers going up.<br />
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It was very busy on the Grind last weekend. We spotted a lot of small children going up as well. I think it's so great that families are going up with small children! Last year we would have probably had to carry Tristan up the Grind a bit. He was just 2 1/2 and was even shorter. To be honest, I wasn't sure if he was ready for the Grouse Grind this year. He sure proved us wrong! :)<br />
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The day after, he wasn't even sore. We asked him several times to make sure he was fine. I guess we didn't work him hard enough?! That kid just amazes me. Now that I
think of it, he barely broke a sweat going up. I think I was sweating
more because it was so hot! It was a beautiful day in Vancouver and we had a blast at the top as well. Tristan really enjoyed the bears, the lumber jack show and then afterwards, we stopped by Starbucks and the water park. It was a banner day!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GDCj4MenL2Xh6fz9qXM717uApjSD3Wj8FqBUqwYcGgsXIC_F1ot-T7ZE-2WI8USg51CT-QzBio8HvsO0-96E3AlSWqeUTyoZH9l_F11Yvedmni7Fr09YkA8uC5lRVbyULpcrf8Xm6Pws/s1600/P1090257.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GDCj4MenL2Xh6fz9qXM717uApjSD3Wj8FqBUqwYcGgsXIC_F1ot-T7ZE-2WI8USg51CT-QzBio8HvsO0-96E3AlSWqeUTyoZH9l_F11Yvedmni7Fr09YkA8uC5lRVbyULpcrf8Xm6Pws/s320/P1090257.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As promised, we took him to the water park afterwards.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-6981811062794457152012-07-09T11:58:00.000-07:002012-07-09T11:58:43.838-07:00Berry Picking at Emma Lea Farms<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jZ9A19f_LEHF1RBiqU-vMO3BJzkXEZ9eY5kvp1GoEO4GIlsF3PNXYUg2v2hl7imsVWi2g75yzalrgGernZTvWJf5b1ZeEb2EpWTgWhv7_3Z16oCG3s8mdUrdl5A9ZtOhikwLMXfhJaHF/s1600/P1090121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jZ9A19f_LEHF1RBiqU-vMO3BJzkXEZ9eY5kvp1GoEO4GIlsF3PNXYUg2v2hl7imsVWi2g75yzalrgGernZTvWJf5b1ZeEb2EpWTgWhv7_3Z16oCG3s8mdUrdl5A9ZtOhikwLMXfhJaHF/s320/P1090121.jpg" width="320" /></a>Last year we went to <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2011/07/strawberry-picking-at-w-farms.html">W&A Farms</a> to pick strawberries. It was close to us and when we were there in June, there were a ton of strawberries. This year we decided to go to <a href="http://www.emmaleafarms.com/">Emma Lea Farms</a>. It was a bigger farm but it also took us around 35 or 40 minutes to get there. I heard good things about this farm and I liked that strawberries, raspberries, and tayberries were all in season right now. I had never picked raspberries or tayberries at a farm before.<br />
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July is actually a bit late for strawberry picking. This was actually their last weekend for u-pick. It totally showed! It took us much longer than <a href="http://mommying-around.blogspot.com/2011/07/strawberry-picking-at-w-farms.html">last year</a> to fill our two buckets. The berries were still very good but you had to work much harder to find them. We may have been a bit late coming out to pick strawberries this year but apparently we were too early for the raspberries and tayberries. It took even longer for me to fill my tray half way with raspberries. I would have to say that at least 80% of them were not ready to be picked. As for the tayberries, the ones I saw were not ready at all. I tried one and it was no good. Yuck. I wasn't sure because they looked quite red but they were SOUR! Maybe in a week or two they will be awesome. So even though their website advertised that raspberries and tayberries were ready for picking now, they really are not:(<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three eagles flying overhead.</td></tr>
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I was bummed we didn't get any tayberries but look at all the raspberries and strawberries we got!<br />
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What the heck are we going to do with all this? In fact, we always find ourselves in the same situation year after year. We are so greedy that we absolutely have to pick berries until our buckets are full. It's silly because we can never eat or bake with this many. So far we have frozen some, ate lots and I made a raspberry tart. I also plan to make berry mousse, maybe freeze more, and the rest may just go into berry lemonade. Thank god for the freezer, eh?<br />
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<br />Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-32835437037590690762012-07-04T11:42:00.001-07:002012-07-04T11:42:58.801-07:00Canada Day celebrations at Ron McLean Park<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0vMZiE2o6eS9tRunETAP9WGZK0uR7FH37zEZEa_l5PCb1yNssuGBVg-yudvnS40qdyqqKNGBndI8D5p2Z45hUzcCdjP2KacrHXl-h5jc2bFr_5iApOqdAz198zftpaghBj55UqVbQn0N/s1600/P1090065.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0vMZiE2o6eS9tRunETAP9WGZK0uR7FH37zEZEa_l5PCb1yNssuGBVg-yudvnS40qdyqqKNGBndI8D5p2Z45hUzcCdjP2KacrHXl-h5jc2bFr_5iApOqdAz198zftpaghBj55UqVbQn0N/s320/P1090065.jpg" width="320" /></a>This year we considered going to <a href="http://www.stevestonsalmonfest.ca/">Stevenston for their annual salmon festival</a>. I heard their barbecue salmon was delicious but what we really wanted to do was to have Tristan take part in the children's bike parade. We just couldn't decide so we ended up not going. It would have been nice to dress Tristan up and decorate his bike but we couldn't do it at the last minute. Plus, we had to be there at 8:30AM, which is super early for us! Maybe we'll be more prepared next year.<br />
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We also considered <a href="http://www.granvilleisland.com/event/canada-day-celebration">Granville Island</a> and <a href="http://www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca/EN/main/visit/events/events/canada-day.html">Burnaby Village Museum</a>. There were so many things happening everywhere for Canada Day. In the end, we just wanted to stay close to home and the closest festival to us was actually at <a href="http://www.bclocalnews.com/community/160709445.html">Ron McLean Park</a>. It was a 8-10 minute walk from our home and it was probably as good as anywhere else. The other nice thing about this park was that the celebration didn't start until 11AM. I got to sleep in until almost 9AM! Woohoo!<br />
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It's pretty crazy. We have been living in this neighborhood for years and we have never been to the Ron McLean Park Canada Day celebration. We ended up spending a couple hours at the park. There were lots of games for kids. I tried to get Tristan to swing the hockey stick at the goalie but he wasn't interested. He wasn't interested in any throwing game either. We sat and watched some entertainment on the stage. They had folk dancers, music, and people came out doing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%27ai_chi_ch%27uan">tai chi</a>. There lots of food stands as well. All the food was a bargain and everything was for fundraising. I bought a smokie and pop for $3 and Tristan and I shared the smokie for lunch. Jean-Louis drank the pop. I also noticed watermelon slices were $0.25 each but Tristan didn't want any.<br />
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There was a playground and Tristan was more interested in that than the other activities. He saw one of his daycare friends there and was sort of following her around. He was too shy to say hello since she was playing with a group of other kids. We noticed so many kids were dressed in red and white for Canada Day!<br />
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There was a fire truck and Tristan got to look inside. There was a police car and all the kids were taking turns sitting inside. Some pretended to be criminals and sat in the back seat. Every now and then the police siren would go on. Lol. What can you expect when you let little curious kids sit inside a police car?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZCTbcdeag6p5I86396EuKFMlJ5ZirE-EWj2qvMlFtGkqRDgS3AXHggfCHcCmFsbTTHtoUjRHwYkY0tvaSczy-uwMXvhljB1fEBVXbQaYlLEawneP1CcI9bU0Hacf07IgsOI3eQQW39Dl/s1600/P1090087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZCTbcdeag6p5I86396EuKFMlJ5ZirE-EWj2qvMlFtGkqRDgS3AXHggfCHcCmFsbTTHtoUjRHwYkY0tvaSczy-uwMXvhljB1fEBVXbQaYlLEawneP1CcI9bU0Hacf07IgsOI3eQQW39Dl/s320/P1090087.jpg" width="240" /></a>We lined up for the bouncy castle but Tristan was scared when he was inside. He tried to climb up but had trouble and we told him he didn't have to leave yet. Anyway, he cried a bit so we just removed him. We ended up lining up for the pirate ship bouncy castle. It was an open ship so he wasn't as scared. He could also see us too. After bouncing around, he wanted to go again but we ran out of time. It's funny because last year we went in a bouncy castle just like the enclosed one at this park and he wasn't scared at all.<br />
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We got home nice and early and started our little barbecue. Just the three of us. Hot dogs, veggie dogs, grilled bananas/mangoes, tomato salad, chips, and lemon/fruit tarts for dessert. By 6:30PM we were done eating and done cleaning up. That's an entire hour earlier than what we are used to! Hooray for celebrating Canada Day near home! :)<br />
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Hope all my Canadian readers had a fabulous Canada Day too!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUZ5nMFucjx6QrXxo0hv93NHyFBKXYiKL39cjgteb2KbDMhIwCVq8_IGCFoHdNlNOnzWmMxI8WLk4xDhEYSpy9KIwWrHD9_w_EPLh3mwCfvzA9bSykGJ7iWF589CDtQYOzZpJ00BVn5J5/s1600/P1090103.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUZ5nMFucjx6QrXxo0hv93NHyFBKXYiKL39cjgteb2KbDMhIwCVq8_IGCFoHdNlNOnzWmMxI8WLk4xDhEYSpy9KIwWrHD9_w_EPLh3mwCfvzA9bSykGJ7iWF589CDtQYOzZpJ00BVn5J5/s320/P1090103.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1327210357229476911.post-43701816106184581582012-06-29T23:55:00.000-07:002012-06-30T00:04:18.783-07:00We loved Florence and Tuscany<b>Florence</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIp6wv8lGafKej0Yhz8Bn-HY9UIBKK3QGt1wxJAu6jSm-c4TICuZB_tResXej-V5mwcrLentooZILt06JwSf965AfWfq7lsnvdmWfy86rEmXe8M-RFF4hlLZe1SIRTteTe0MpdrWX7Jf7-/s1600/P1070908.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIp6wv8lGafKej0Yhz8Bn-HY9UIBKK3QGt1wxJAu6jSm-c4TICuZB_tResXej-V5mwcrLentooZILt06JwSf965AfWfq7lsnvdmWfy86rEmXe8M-RFF4hlLZe1SIRTteTe0MpdrWX7Jf7-/s320/P1070908.jpg" width="320" /></a>There are three words that come to mind when I think about Florence: art, architecture, and leather. Walking in the city was like visiting an outdoor museum. It is the city for art lovers! The architecture was stunning and a lot of it was in color, which surprised me. Paris architecture is beautiful too but most of it is black and white. If you like leather, you will find leather stores splattered throughout the city, as well as cheaper leather goods in the outside market. My sophisticated mother-in-law bought a leather bag at one of the stores. I bought mine at the market :) That's how NOT sophisticated I am! But seriously, the bags are nice and the market prices are a bargain. I didn't even need another bag but I just couldn't pass the opportunity to buy one being in Florence. There are bags everywhere! Ladies be warned!<br />
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We only went to one museum since we didn't think Tristan was going to like it much. We went to the <a href="http://www.uffizi.com/">Galleria degli Uffizi</a>, which is the main art museum there. Nearly everything in the museum is considered a masterpiece coming from famous artists such as Michelangelo, Giotto, Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo di Vinci, etc. We were right. Tristan couldn't have cared less and we had to carry him a lot to prevent him from touching everything. The art was impressive and so were some of the frames holding them. We got to look at pretty much everything but just not in detail.<br />
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We spent two full days inside Florence. Florence was beautiful. Florence was also super busy and noisy. It was such a relief to go back to our quiet farmhouse at the end of the day.<br />
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<b>Siena</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRzcHleXjfQoy8gjhwccFB5jRFmgOym1PBQyC_PvSGzNz6y7vtchYDqM5KwousETq0FnpYNDuKUfL1eeNGJuTS3oWoD6THQptCrl9RFG9J-5jctp1_8UdFAYTyulXUj8mEp2VJuCLjZrzH/s1600/P1080062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRzcHleXjfQoy8gjhwccFB5jRFmgOym1PBQyC_PvSGzNz6y7vtchYDqM5KwousETq0FnpYNDuKUfL1eeNGJuTS3oWoD6THQptCrl9RFG9J-5jctp1_8UdFAYTyulXUj8mEp2VJuCLjZrzH/s320/P1080062.jpg" width="320" /></a>Siena is an old town in the Chianti region of Tuscany. It actually ended up being one of my favorite towns in Tuscany. Once again, the architecture was stunning. The main duomo there was smaller than the one in Florence. Walking around the town reminded me of old Italy. There was the Romanesque church, the Piazza del Campo, the great food and the candy and wine stores. It was just a charming little town. The day we went to Siena was also the day we were supposed to do San Gimignano but we ran out of time. I was totally bummed:(<br />
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<b>Pisa</b><br />
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The main attraction in Pisa was the Leaning Tower. It was cool to see. The town has a big university by the river but it wasn't as nice as Siena. There were two good restaurants I noted down but when we finally found them, they were closed. It wasn't even a Sunday. Maybe they just open for dinner. We ended up settling for mediocre food.<br />
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On the way home, we stopped by the <a href="http://www.swoonforfood.com/2012/06/visiting-amedei-chocolate-factory-in.html">Amedei chocolate factory</a>. Amedei is home to the world's greatest chocolates. I have been tweeting about Amedei for awhile now and I already blogged about it over at <a href="http://www.swoonforfood.com/">Swoon For Food</a> so if you like chocolate, you can read more about it <a href="http://www.swoonforfood.com/2012/06/visiting-amedei-chocolate-factory-in.html">there</a> :)<br />
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<b>Lucca & Viareggio</b><br />
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Lucca is a walled city and that alone made it interesting. There were few cars inside the city but there were cyclists everywhere! The wall was actually a walkway and cyclists, runners, and walkers strolled up there all around the city. We totally wanted to walk around up there but the fastest way was to rent bikes. We were only planning to visit Lucca for a couple of hours. We ended up renting one of these, which we thought was way cooler. It allowed us all to be closer together and it was not built for speed so it was good to take Tristan on it too.<br />
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We made the mistake of leaving the wall and then roaming around the city aimlessly with it. We totally got lost but luckily we could have cycled all the way in any direction and hit the wall again. We just had to find an entrance point and go back up the wall. Unfortunately, our bike time was almost up so we ended up racing in lightning speed past everyone just to make it back to the rental place on time. Remember how I said the thing was not built for speed? We went so fast, we thought the bolts were going to come off. Piece of junk. Or maybe it was us abusing it. Anyhow it was totally fun :)<br />
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Viareggio was a disappointment. We brought bathing suits but didn't know they built this whole industry around the beach. You had to pay for a change room in order to swim at the beach. Since it was near the end of the day it would have been 10 or 15 Euros for our group. Every part of the beach was blocked off by restaurants and businesses that collected fees for access. We ended up just going in to sit down for a drink. We decided not to swim after looking in the water. It was somewhat dirty and we only had maybe 30 minutes to 1 hour to swim before going home. The beach was huge though. Thousands of lawn chairs or sunbathing chairs were lined up along the beach leading up to the water. It's just too bad you had to pay for all that. It's sad really.<br />
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<b>Greve in Chianti</b><br />
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The day we drove to Siena through the small countryside road, we didn't have time to stop in Greve. We decided to create a spare day in our schedule to go shopping and hang out at the farm. On this day we drove to <a href="http://www.swoonforfood.com/2012/06/wine-tasting-at-le-cantine-in-greve-in.html">Greve to taste and buy wine</a>. I don't drink much myself but if you are ever in Tuscany, tasting wine is just one of those things you need to do. We also visited a nearby big grocery store. We ended up buying a lot of our food souvenirs there and I also shopped for things I needed to cook that day. We got plenty of rest and I made us a <a href="http://www.swoonforfood.com/2012/06/spinach-pasta-with-chicken-and-porcini.html">lovely pasta dinner at the farmhouse</a>. For not doing much, that day ended up being a really nice day.<br />
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Places on my original agenda that we didn't visit were San Gimignano, as mentioned above, and Cinque Terre. We simply did not have enough time. If it were just the three of us, we probably would have done everything but we were traveling with my parents-in-law too. They were pretty tired from everything we already did. They were not used to traveling at all and it totally showed. I'm still bummed about Cinque Terre but it was too far and I was getting sick of being in the car as well. Traveling to a new foreign city with a 3 year old and seniors was no easy task either. Overall, I think we still had a great time in Tuscany. Weather-wise spring time was definitely the best time to visit!Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951100256433425136noreply@blogger.com0