birthday

Beer-licious birthday

Another year has passed and Big Ring is still alive! Last Thursday was Big Ring’s birthday and we celebrated over three days: presents on Thursday; cake and friends on Friday; and my I-Only-Cook-Once-A-Year Birthday Feast on Saturday. Because this year had beer prominence for us throughout (a craft brewery opened up five minutes down the road; several of Big Ring’s rides with his riding group this summer had beer stops along the way; and when my Belgian cousins (Hi Martin and Cristal!) came for a visit, we designed a beer tasting with several stops throughout the Lower Mainland for them to compare their top-notch beers with our local ones), I decided to make Big Ring’s birthday a beer-themed birthday. What goes with beer? Salty snacks. Cheeses and salamis. Chocolate stout cake. Growlers of beer. Bottles of beer. Even beer floats. Yes folks, we had beer floats! And, last but definitely […]

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My Birthday: National Running Day

I have long believed June 5 was the greatest day of all. Forget Christmas. Forget Valentine’s. June 5 is all about me. One hundred per cent me. And well, I kind of love me 😀 so obviously I love this day and I always will regardless of the new age that approaches. Thirty five for those keeping track! But the thing is, this year I had to share my birthday with another super special day: National Running Day. (Held on the first Wednesday of June.) I’m no stranger to sharing my birthday; with my brothers’ birthdays 3 and 10 days apart from mine, we’ve shared our celebrations for as long as I can remember, and I’ve always loved it that way. And so, when I discovered National Running Day would this year land on my birthday, I didn’t cry about it, I didn’t gripe about it, I didn’t shun it.

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June

What I love about this month: I love that I can eat as much ice cream cake as my heart desires. I love the phone calls, the emails, the text messages. I love the song. I love my birthday. But most of all, I love that I share this month with two incredibly amazing, loving, caring, totally awesome big brothers. LOVE.

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A princess perfect vintage

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!! And you know what that means… A deliciously insane amount of DQ ice cream cake! I might share 😉 A whole lot of Princess perfect spoilage: Seriously, alien thumb-sucker is loving the Lululemon these days, which is crazy because before pregnancy I was anti the product, but now, I can’t get enough of it… or pretty new shoes! A crazy amount of Big Ring spoilage: Season 4 True Blood… iPad… tickets to John Mellencamp… oh my! And new birthday adventures … whether they be exploring new restaurants (for me at least) like Chambar in Gastown, where Big Ring took me for my pre-birthday, birthday dinner, which features a deliciously tasty Belgian menu (I highly recommend the lamb shank and rhubarb-infused salad), or reminiscing about old adventures ala Belgium style, or making plans for another European adventure next spring… Big Ring exploring the Belgian beer… they actually had one

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Kitchen nightmares

[Note: this post was meant to be published yesterday, but because of a surprise three and a half hour visit to the hospital last night, it was delayed… more on the hospital visit tomorrow] Thank heavens my one-day-of-the-year cooking fiasco is over! There is a reason I am not a regular fixture in our kitchen day in and day out. It’s not because the rapid fire of F bombs exiting my mouth offends me, or because I’m too lazy to lift a ladle or saute onions, or because I’m a horrible cook. That’s not true at all, I’m actually quite decent at it when I put my mind to it. Nope, the reason I choose not to cook is because it’s a bloody marathon! Seriously, four hours slaving over a hot stove (and that does not include the dessert aspect of the evening) left me so drained, achy and exhausted

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