Montreal Traffic

This post has been 18 months in the making. One of the first things I noticed about Montreal was the traffic. There is a lot of it at any time of the day or night. Case in point, last Thursday I had an appointment downtown at 10:15 - you would figure all the rush hour traffic would have been over - guess again - it took me 2 hours to get downtown, good thing the appointment I had was flexible and able to take me at 11:45 instead of 10:15! It is not like we live that far from downtown so it shouldn't have taken that long. And in the Summer it gets worse since this is when they supposedly do construction on the roads. In my opinion, it seems like they put out the construction cones, but you never really see any workers around. I guess all this traffic is the price we pay for living on an island...I am just happy that I am not working here and having to make a commute into Montreal on a daily basis! Take a look at all the traffic mid-day...it is as far as the eye can see and in every direction!

Thursday's Thoughts

Hearing: Light summer rain falling outside my open office window.


Tasting: Crisp, cool water.

Seeing: A sink full of dishes and a mountain of schoolwork that needs to be completed.

Smelling: Freshly baked brownies that I will be making into brownie pops for a very special Birthday party tomorrow.

Feeling: Love from Arabella...she has been a snuggle bug today and has given me the best hugs just when I needed them.

Martha Moment

On Friday, I went to a D&B at my friend, Carrie's house. We all bring something fun and yummy to eat or drink. Most of the time we just hang out and relax sans kids, which is a great break for all of us. I decided to make something sweet - brownies in the shape of Popsicles! I randomly found them here http://loveandtwentytoes.blogspot.com/2011/03/brownie-popsicles.html They were pretty easy to make and they were a hit. Laura even asked me to make a modified version for Allyson's birthday later this week!

Making Croissants

After spending Thursday with Cynthia and GiGi, Arabella woke up from her nap asking for croissants. She didn't have any at Cynthia's house, we did not have any at our house and she really wanted one. She asked for them on Friday, Saturday and on Sunday morning...which resulted in a trip to Tim Hortons since it was the only place open that early in the morning. She she had been asking so sweetly, I checked to see if one of my cookbooks had a recipe...how hard could they really be to make?? I found a recipe in my Larousse Gastronomique cookbook and sure enough it seemed simple, only about 5 ingredients and it looked as if most of the recipe time would be spent waiting for the dough to rise. So on Monday, Arabella and I decided to finally make them.


After a lot of waiting for the dough to rise, and a lot of rolling, dotting with butter, rolling out again, they finally begin to take shape.

The final product, not too good looking or tasting...


My friends may call me Martha Stewart, but apparently the only thing that Martha can't make are croissants. They just didn't come out right, too doughy, at least we tried. Needless to say, croissants are the one thing that I will leave to the patisserie!

Wordless Wednesday

Slide, Slide, Slippity Slide

On Saturday, we had an impromptu playdate at Laura & Allyson's. It was perfect weather to set up the slip-n-slide and there was even a little hill in the yard that made the slide even more fun! The kids loved it! Although, after a little while, they complained that the water was too cold and wanted us to make it warmer - if only there was a way to make the hose deliver warm water!
Arabella slides!
Allyson goes on her bum!
Cristina twists and turns!
GiGi splashes down!

And while the kids had fun, the Mom's enjoyed a nice, cold refreshing drink - frozen pina coladas - YUM!

Happy Summer Solstice

To ring in Summer, we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the sun today. Arabella looked so cute in her pretty pink sundress and cute flip flops. I love this picture of her checking out her outfit in the mirror.

While I was getting things ready for outside, Arabella decided to vacuum up her playroom.

After clean-up, it was time to get out and enjoy the afternoon. Arabella took Olivia with her and they had fun running and playing in her sprinkler and then lounging in the sun. She just loved it and I loved hearing her laugh, giggle and talk to Olivia.




Here's to a great Summer!