canada day weekend

We are right at that age with Owen where we are able enjoy all the wonderful things that go along with getting out with your children. He's talking, running, playing, swimming and couldn't possibly be more fun. I said to Nuno, if I knew how much fun Owen was going to be while expecting him, I would have been even more brimming with excitement than I already was! 

I'll share a few photos of this past weekend, but I honestly didn't even come close to capturing everything which included carousel rides, stroll along the beach, midway fascination, playing & climbing at parks, splash pad play, food festival, steel drum in a band shell, pool swims, cake decorating, stroller jog along the canal, pony rides, fair games, barbecue, Owen running, playing and squealing for joy at the top of his lungs with cousins.

And, ice cream, ice cream and even more ice cream! Owen doesn't stop to take a breath - I'm serious. 

We all know about hot dog eating - well, is there such thing as an ice cream eating competition? I have a strong candidate.

canada day

Our plan this year was to spend Canada Day afternoon at Inniskillin Winery where my sister Katie works. Oh my gosh, we had such an amazing day!

They brought in a 'skating rink'. It was actually a bunch of plastic mats that you can actually skate on.

Not as great as a real ice rink, but it seemed to work, especially for this kid who skated circles around me.

At least I can pose like a profesh!

Anna & Michael Olson gave a cooking demonstration.

It was awesome! I absorbed so much information about farm fresh produce including where to buy it, how to store it and above all, how to cook with it and make it taste great. The recipes they shared were crazy delicious. My personal favourite was their corn and blueberry toss. I'll be sure to make it later this summer and blog about it.

Baby's first Canada Day spent at a winery, it must have made him feel patriotic because it didn't take any coaxing to get him to wave this flag. I'm shocked it didn't end up in his mouth!

curiosity got the cat

We're going on almost 2 months without a working oven. I finally called for a service on it and it looks like it's toast and we need a full replacement. All this time without baking steered me into the direction of no-bake desserts such as tirimisu, ice cream, chocolate covered bananas and Magnolia banana pudding. I ventured into Kraft Canada's site and became all too enticed by their layered dessert concoctions. I broke down and decided to do what all other gals before me have done and make a dead-simple assembled dessert. I figured if I'd do it up, I'd have to do it right! That meant buying all my ingredients at Wal-Mart. I had no idea where to find Cool Whip and once I found it I didn't realize it's frozen! After I worked out the initial kinks of starting something new I decided on, of course, a banana dessert.

This is Easy Banana Pudding Parfaits. Minimal time, minimal effort and Maximum Flavour! Holy cow, I LOVE this dessert. It's like the Magnolia Banana Pudding, only way less effort, time, cost, fat & calories. The best part is you can make these in single-serving portions so you're not at all obligated to eat the entire recipe - which is how desserts around here go. I just love that my Riedel Ice Wine stemware got some use. Classy move!

Now for the utter and total disaster of a recipe. Strawberry Whipped Sensation is one of the highest rated on Kraft Canada's site. It appeared to be a great way to enjoy fresh strawberries. Well, I took this one as far as freezing the assembled dessert when I snuck in a taste. What the? This is WAY TOO SWEET!! Like kill my teeth type of sweetness. I guess an entire can of condensed milk will do that. And Oreo cookies, yuck, yuck, yuck! I decided to salvage what I could. I scraped off the god awful broken Oreos and then mixed more Cool Whip into the strawberry creme. Then made a layer dessert using graham cracker base, strawberry creme layer, Cool Whip topping with strawberry Canadian flag. It tasted and looked great for our Canada Day celebration.