camping. camping. camping.

July 16, 2012 by mama lola

we went on an overnight mini camping extravaganza vacation with friends this past weekend. it was one night of laughs, booze, camp food and lotsa fun!

because our area of canada is experiencing an unusually dry and hot summer, there was a fire ban at the grounds. there have been lots of forest fires, so i completely understand the ban, but i will admit i was slightly saddened. what’s camping without a fire?
It’s ultimately my own fault as I should of done more research into the camp ground. Lesson learnt. In future, I’ll definitely be reading up on how to find the perfect campground for your RV. No longer am I taking our RV and just randomly choosing a camp site in the hope it has everything we need.

we had meal planned our dinner to be cooked with the fire, but luckily a couple of weeks before we decided to purchase a stove top. After reading lots of camping products reviews, we have spent quite a bit of money upgrading our camping gear! So… we did it all stove top instead and it all worked out fine. our to be fire roasted potatoes, became stove top taters instead and were yummy as heck! We recently bought a new RV Battery which meant we could cook all this wonderful food. It saved the day!

[ new potatoes, garlic cloves cut in half, generous chunks of butter, cut yellow onion and a generous sprinkle of sea salt. i had wrapped them all in lots of foil as we had hoped to cook them in the fire. this is how we do taters at the cottage on the BBQ! ]

there were six kids and six adults so it all balanced out. the kids played in the woods where we set up dear hubby’s beloved brazillian hammock and as dusk settled in the kids explored everything with their flashlights. it was so funny and cute and hilarious to listen to their excitement. the little ones had a harder time getting to sleep. dear hubby walked around the campground with lion on his back, which worked out well. however, we got off to sleep absolutely fine in our RV as we have comfy beds and even an amazing skylight to which we can see all the stars glistening from. last year when we went camping our skylight was damaged a little from being so old, but luckily we had a dome skylight replacement to fix it on the spot so we didn’t have to panic about not having a view of the stars!

once the kids were finally asleep the real party started, and the booze came out in generous pours and were slurped in generous gulps. it was a perfect summer night for sitting around our pretend fire, where the chatter and drinks flowed and then as the night progressed the laughs became slightly louder and longer.
good times.

morning dawn brought with it a few rain drops that luckily didn’t amount to anything. it brought with it super hungry kids who had to have some fast granola and fruit to rid them of the morning grumps! just look the differences in the two pics of the kids… before granola and then after!

and then after some team work we all ate fantastic breakfast burrito’s and sipped on the best coffee ever! food tastes to great at camping, even if it car camping!
so yummy!

lots of summer love to our friends. we had a blast and can’t wait for next summer’s camping trip!
*******
today is monday and incredibly hot. tomorrow they are predicting +36c, which midas well be the boiling point. we will hunker down inside with craft projects and friends and ice cream!

what’s the weather like where you are?

…

July 13, 2012 by mama lola

~ this moment ~

as inspired by souleMama; one photo from our week, no words. only an image to sum up our time as a family, one that captures a moment in time and is a visual reminder of where we were at this moment.

camping grub!

July 12, 2012 by mama lola

we’re going on a simple car-camping trip this weekend with friends. yesterday the weather said 90% chance of rain all day saturday, today it’s dropped to 20%, so we’ll see what mother nature actually serves up for us! i’ve been thinking about food for this trip as we have three families of four, ranging from 1years to 39:ish, so ti satiate twelve people can be tricky! here’s what my research unveiled on pinterest…

we’re going to roast some potatoes with onions, garlic and butter topped with a sprinkling of sea salt and pepper.

and hot dogs of course! we’re going to load ’em up with all sorts of goodies, not just ketchup!

look at this fabulous idea; smores in cones baked in the fire! cannot wait to sink my teeth in one of these! teh kids are going to get a pretty serious sugar high, but hopefully they will just crash afterwards!

we’re making yummy breakfast burrito’s for breakfast on sunday. the meat eaters will include eggs and bacon in theirs, while us veggies will include tofu and veg as our insides. there will of course be salsa and sour cream for dipping!

what are you up to this weekend?

burlesque dancing!

July 12, 2012 by mama lola

our lovely patty and bubba will be tying the knot this coming august and to celebrate a bunch of us ladies went out dancing. and not just any ol’ dancing, but burlesque dancing! Now before you get any ideas, no we’re not going to become like Alexandra performing on Babestaton on here, but I want to share the story anyway. it was a hot and sticky friday afternoon when i drove to the big city in rush hour. i had my defences up and held my own against the cabbies and other aggressive big city drivers as i made my way to pick up the sassy divas from the hotel!

it was so, so hot in the studio, but it was so fun. there was no A/C, but instead a dinky little fan sat in one corner of the studio! our instructors were dressed in fabulous, glittery, lacy barely-there kinda corsets and brassiers and things; it was perfect!

we were all gifted little boas to dance with and lent satin, lacy fancy gloves. it was all very sexy! i bet some of us felt like we could have wandered on to a hdpornvideo.xxx film set we were looking and feeling that sexy!

here is a slide show of the dancing to tom jones’ “sex bomb”. just a warning in case you’re at work taking a quick sneak peak at the blog!

** people may not able to view the video on mobile phones, due to some rule youtube has.

lots of love to all the talented, amazing women who strutted their stuff! Like the ladies who work the escort düsseldorf circuit, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to throw yourself into this sexy a lifestyle. it was such a fun afternoon dancing and then wining and dining in the evening. i am so excited about this wedding and actually just bought my dress tonight!

xo

lion’s birthday par-teh!

July 9, 2012 by mama lola

we had a small and simple birthday party for lion’s second birthday. we invited everyone to join us at a local park, next to the river and a playground.
it was perfect.
we found a picnic table next some big ol’ shady trees and set up our party.
there were carrot cake and chocolate lion cupcakes.

rainbow fruit kabobs.

beautiful handmade pinwheels made by dear hubby. inspiration from HERE.

balloons for all the kids to take home!

colourful bunting flags quickly sewn up by your truly. see instructions HERE.

we had flowers from our backyard.

drinks sitting in a bucket of ice.

signing happy birthday and paljon onnea!

we ate all the goodies with goodie friends!

and lion was spoiled with lots of wonderful new toys and gifts!

and, lion was the recipient of lots of special birthday hugs and kisses!

lion’s birthday was a success! it wasn’t nearly as emotional as i had suspected, although i did have a few good sobs in the days leading up his birthday. and, as usual, i got a lump in my throat when singing paljon onnea; i am such a sop sometimes!

…

July 6, 2012 by mama lola

~ this moment ~

as inspired by souleMama; one photo from our week, no words. only an image to sum up our time as a family, one that captures a moment in time and is a visual reminder of where we were at this moment.

two requests, with a side of sangria.

June 24, 2012 by mama lola

i have TWO requests of you, my readers…

1. the brain tumour association of canada is still accepting donations for their spring sprint campaign. if you are interested in sponsoring me, please follow this link. the event already took place, but brain tumour research needs funding, trust me i know.

2. i have been reading cornerblog for a while and loving all of tiffanie’s pictures and tales. today, she has a serious request for a little friend of hers who is looking for bone marrow donor in the states. please, please, please read her blog, sign up as a donor or at least pass jake’s story along so that he can receive the help he needs to get strong and healthy again. no child should have to suffer.

****
last night we had a lovely, boozy night in our backyard with friends.

we started the evening with wine sangria and ended it with potent vodka sangria! i made some fancy ice cubes inspired by tiffanie at cornerblog: lemonade, blueberries, lemon wedges, yum!

we ate burritos and devoured ice cream sandwiches. summer fun!

it was a night filled with non-stop conversation, laughter and the sharing of lives. for a change, us adults talked more about our own lives than the kids’. we chatted for hours about travelling and it was the kind of talk that made me want to run inside, pack a pack and head straight to the airport, buy a ticket and just go. just go somewhere new and exciting with my family and live out an adventure.

one funny travel coincidence that revealed itself in our boozy haze… can you believe we stayed at the same absurdly tiny and freaky hotel (chunking mansions) and ate at the same aussie restaurant in hong kong? our visits were only a year or so a part and long before we had kids or were friends. but, what the odds?

the big kids played and played and played. when the sun set and it got dark, we gave them flashlights and the boys turned into avid owl explorers. it was the funniest and funnest game to watch. the littler kids crashed out; one up in bed, the other with his mama.

but, instead of buying a plane tickets, today dear hubby bought us a sofa. sigh.
so it goes, i suppose.

pictures of the sofa chaos to follow.
lotsa boxes and giggling little dudes!

hot tamale!

June 21, 2012 by mama lola

we here in southern ontario, canada are experiencing a bit of heat wave. the temperatures are over +30c, but then throw in that typical oppressing, summer humidity and it feels like about +40c!
too hot for me.

the humidity makes me grumpy. heat i can tolerate, but not with humidity, unless of course i am at the beach! the kids suffer too. today, we headed out early and went to the splash pad one town over. our city doesn’t open splash pads and wading pools until after school is out, which is end of june. and even then the wading pools don’t open until 11am, which for us is late to heading out, i mean that’s almost lunch and then nap time!

[ SOURCE ]

today, it felt like it was too hot to cook.
so instead of baking the scrumptious piece of salmon i bought, i made a simple lentil and veg soup. chucked everything in and let it simmer on a low heat for a while. we also had some yummy homemade bread with salmon cream cheese and dill, a fresh green salad with all sorts of goodies like chick peas, raspberries, cucumber, tomato, and then we also shared the tiny bit of my famous cucumber and dill salad.

so good. i actually served the soup warm, instead of hot, which made it more enjoyable to eat. that caused a light bulb to turn on above my head and i have decided to find some cold soup recipes! summer yum!
we threw back some water and (alcoholic) apple ciders as well.

the kids had homemade yoghurt pops for dessert. i made yoghurt/banana/blueberry smoothies and poured them into these silly rocket ship moulds and voila, a yoghurt pop! the boys love them, especially on these uber hot and muggy days.

well, the weather experts are predicting cooler temps, so fingers crossed they are right. this mama needs a break from this!

family picnic.

June 18, 2012 by mama lola

on saturday we had an annual family event with dear hubby’s side of the fam. the family picnic was thank-fully held in our community this year, so we were able to over pack and get home quickly at the end of the day.

these events are fun, but exhausting as well. with so many people and so many names and families to remember, i kind of go blank after a while. i’ve been attending these gatherings for about ten years and have been to most of them, and still i can’t get the who is who; my brain just can’t connect the dots that make up the family tree.

we got home late. the kids were exhausted from the long day. bear was asking to go home at the end!

the last time the family picnic was hosted here five summers ago, i was pregnant with bear and grandma was with us. what a bittersweet memory.

*****
it’s going to be a hot week for us! expected highs in the +30c!!!
YIKES!!!

maternity leave bye-bye’s.

June 13, 2012 by mama lola

it’s always hard to say ~~good-bye,~~ or more accurately see you later to friends when their maternity leaves come to an end and they head back to their jobs outside the home. another MAMA friend of ours went back to work at her office this week and i am left to explain to bear why he can’t see his friends as often.
we’re going to miss you MAMA j, you’re AWESOME!

it’s tough.
it’s hard, because my kids have no idea what day care is. it’s tough because my kids miss their friends and i miss mine, and we lose the weekly play date routines we have established over the past year or so. it’s so different being a stay-at-home-parent and being a stay-at-home-kid.

and finally,

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY MISSe!!!

our lovely, little friend has grown into a smiley, intelligent, observant, hilarious, and loving little lady. every gal needs her own boat and sand toys! missE loved the toys and gave us her chewy, drooly approval!

i’m leaving you on this hump day with a plank off! it was a competition between dear hubby and MAMA j to see who could hold a plank the longest or at least a minute. missK was judging form and ensuring there was no cheating!