Mmmmaple Syrup!

There are many things Canadians can be grateful for (too many to list!) but what tops my chart has got to be Maple Syrup. To be clear, I ain’t talking about the Aunt Jemima syrup sauce commonly found at lousy breakfast joints, I am talking about the real stuff. Maple syrup is just so quintessentially Canadian, just like beer or hockey or even our favorite filler word, “eh”. But, unlike those other things maple syrup can be poured on almost anything, baked or cooked in almost anything, and is enjoyable in any form, from liquid to solid state! I mean what kid doesn't love liquid sugar, this is actually Max's preferred food choice (along with honey, maple syrup is basically nitro fuel for kids, so portion judiciously and it's best used in conjunction with outdoor activity) but the truly neat thing about maple syrup is the simplicity in its origin, extraction, and processing. The Sugar Maple sap is taken straight from tree (no additives! No filler! No surprises!), boil it down (preferably over an open fire pit outside for the full experience) and voila, a wonderfully delicious treat. This beautifully simple process connects us with our Canadian heritage and thus lends itself to an adventure in time travel, back to a time of fur trading and confusing territories like Upper and Lower Canada!

For the last two years we’ve taken Max to Bronte Park's March break Maple Syrup Festival. Here he gets to see how the stuff was originally made by the settlers (who were taught by the indigenous people) and also enjoy other things like eating frozen and candied maple syrup and of course, spending some time checking out the farm animals. Dixon will be old enough to enjoy the spoils of the day but Max is at that perfect age where his imagination runs rampant (will be in overdrive due to maple syrup) and I can’t wait for the Spanish inquisition (because three year olds ask the funniest things!) coming my way when he sees the full costumed actors tapping trees and boiling the sap.

If you’re not lucky enough to be heading off to some warm and sunny southern destination for March break, and you are looking for something to do during the week off, then this is a great activity for the family because you spend the day outside, learn a little about our unique history and also enjoy a sweet treat (or several…) And for the really courageous, and assuming you have the right trees on your property, you can make maple syrup yourself - check out this website for everything you need to know.

Bronte Park Maple Syrup Festival March 2015

 

Where's the Romance!?

The plan for my third blog was to write about Valentine’s Day. This plan almost got entirely sideswiped by the madness that ended up being last week. A stomach bug along with a head cold made their way through the household, leaving in its wake a couple of tired parents and grumpy kids. Alas, we made it through to the otherside and everyone seems to be regrouping for another week. Anyway, back to the main point,  I thought it would be fun to explore how having kids changes the whole romance dynamic in a relationship (don’t worry, change doesn’t mean for the worse)! Also, and staying true to my gemini nature, there was another more pragmatic reason for wanting to write about Valentine’s Day…I thought it might just nudge me along to be a little more proactive. Well, it didn’t, #epicfail! Who likes pragmatism anyway!? Where was I…kids…romance…right. There are two big changes once you have kids, in the sphere of romance anyway, and the first is that you have significantly less time than you once had and secondly, and perhaps quite naturally, the focus of your relationship becomes that little nugget you so happily brought into the world. So, for us it's always a matter of making some time for our relationship, maybe a night out for dinner (see below) or maybe even something simple like watching our favorite show together after we put the kids to bed. The point is, make time! 

What happens if you don't make time? Well, before you know it days turn into weeks and weeks into months, your little nugget becomes a bigger nugget and you realize you haven’t even had a normal, adult only dinner with your wife – and trust me, this is critical to maintain the sanctity of your relationship (oh and so is wine, lots and lots of wine). It's important because meal time with toddlers is more akin to an episode of Fear Factor than an opportunity to talk to your wife about normal adult things. Take a recent “normal” Sunday night dinner as an example. Max decided to give a full demonstration on how to regurgitate his pasta while Dixon ended up rubbing his sauce into his eyes so that they became as red as the tomatoes! Normal adult discussion, or even no discussion, just preferably no throwing, crying, screaming, puking, or fielding demands from Max to see the “Giant Octopus” (don't ask), during dinner is such a marvelous thing and it does wonders for romance! I guess what I’m saying here is that make sure you make time for each other outside the arena of food throwing and diaper changing.

Equally as important than any dinner out is making sure you find those little moments during the course of your day to day where you can show your love – yes, in between those glorious moments of diaper changing or snot sucking - and remember that there’s nothing wrong with keeping the gestures simple.  After all, what matters here is that you focus on what the point is, showing you love her!

 

P.S. Try this survey with your spouse, it’s a great tool to help you understand the “language” of love you each speak. It’s quick, easy, and a lot of fun and at the very least it will give you something to talk about during your dinner out!

Maternity Leave is Over!

  The celebration for my second son’s birthday was a ton of fun but for my wife it also marked something perhaps just as smash-worthy, her looming return to work. Life during maternity leave and “normal” life are very different and not only because you now have a little nugget (or two!); your schedules, your finances, your household are all turned on their heads. Maternity leave takes time for everyone to figure out and get into a groove, and it takes a lot teamwork with solid lines of communication. Of course you are only getting a fraction of the sleep you once had, making everything a little fuzzy. Don't worry though, it's also a lot of fun and a deeply special time to bond with your newest addition.

It seems that the case for most families in Canada, ours included, is for the dad to take some vacation time to help get everything settled at home and then head back off to work. Though paternity leave is certainly an option, the Canadian government splits EI Benefits between maternity leave and parental leave (17 weeks for maternity leave and a maximum of 35 for parental leave, for a total of 52), dads do have the option to stay home for up to 35 weeks. There are lots of things that come into play when sorting out who/how the leave will be split (this topic requires its own blog post!) but we decided as a family that it was best that my wife stay home and use all 52 weeks.

Now that maternity leave is over and we are tackling our first full week back to the “new normal”, it’s a matter of adjusting to new schedules, less time with the boys, and less time for things like making dinner! Team planning our week in advance is now vital to ensuring our meals and groceries are ready to go so that we don’t end up broke and only eating fast food meals all week! It looks a part of every weekend will need to be set aside for planning our week ahead, but a little bit of time spent planning saves a lot of time in the long run -- which also means maximizing time with our two crazy boys, the best part of it all. 

Dixon is all geared up for his first day at school!

It’s amazing how 52 weeks can pass by so quickly! We’re lucky here in Canada, though not as lucky as some Scandinavian countries, that mom or dad can take the first year off and spend it with the wee one. It could certainly be a lot worse, our friends in the US are one of only 4 countries in the entire world that don’t have a federally mandated policy to give new parents time off! How crazy is that?! So, enjoy the 52 weeks as much as possible, it will zip by like your three-year-old practicing his flying high kicks!

1st Birthday Party! The story of a DIY Rainbow Theme Smashcake Party!

For a baby, learning to smash happens somewhere between learning to roll over and sitting up, and it seems to be a natural part of a baby’s development. My youngest son, Dixon, is certainly a testament to this as he has refined his smashing ability so much so that even the Hulk would be impressed. He’s been honing his smashing technique for months now with anything he can get near to, including (but certainly not limited to) ALL food, plush toys, blocks, trains, cars, and even his occasionally surprised older brother. So, for those unfamiliar with the tradition of celebrating your little guy's 1^st birthday with a smash cake this might seem a little on the savage side, but heck, it's a lot of fun to watch your kid rain down destruction on such a pretty cake (if you’re looking for an awesome bakery that makes beautiful and delicious, but also smashable, cakes then check out Celena’s Bakery). The good news is all that destruction did come with several delicious fistfuls of cake and icing, so not all was lost in the wake of the smash.

Throwing a party for a one-year-old is no easy task – especially when you are blessed to have enough family and friends to fill the lower bowl of the Air Canada Center. Our older son’s birthday is in August which allows us to use our large backyard which can handle big groups. However, a backyard party in January just doesn't carry the same luster… look out for the brown and yellow snow (we have a dog, don’t worry, we let our kids use the potty)! So where to turn? If you are like me, you have a wife who is full of ideas and endless inspiration… or really, Pinspiration -- thanks, Pinterest! So we decided to rent some space at a local community center, Tansley Woods, knowing it would be much better to move the chaos off-site from our home. We planned a rainbow theme complete with menu and décor, and then marshaled all kinds of help (lots and lots of it!) from our family to make it all happen!

Back to Pinterest - it’s like a Sarlacc Pit for DIY, it’s never-ending and it will take a thousand years to digest all the content on there! Despite the serious possibility of Pinterest Fails (I am generally wary of my wife's sometimes overzealous Pinterest project plans...), we nailed down some projects which totally rocked. From a homemade cake smashing outfit (crafty wife!), to rainbow colored hummus and salsa, to a rainbow balloon arch and rainbow photo banner, we nailed it all. Check out some photos from the day:

Boom goes the cake! - Check out the "homemade" shirt! Iron on rainbow "1" and handmade bowtie - under $10!

Cake... before the destruction.

 

 

Delicious cupcakes! Thanks Celena's Bakery!

                                                                      
In the end, when the cake was smashed and the sugar high wore off, we ended up with two exhausted kids, an exhausted mom and dad, and a day full of great memories! That's always what makes the insanity worth it in the end, isn't it?


Check out the links for some menu ideas:
Rainbow Salsa
Colored Hummus
Antipasto Skewers