You know those weekends that are just perfect? Those weekends you don’t want to end, that everything is just clicking along and that nothing could derail your spirit? That was last weekend. True, it happened to be a long weekend here in Canada, so that made it extra good, but still–it was just fun.

Friday night I met my brother-in-law to go look at trees for our backyard as he is a landscaping genius and did some awesome drawings for us. After trees were decided on, we headed back to my place where Erika’s sister joined us and their little guy, Owen. We put the kids to bed and ordered in Chinese food, chatted over chow mein goodness, and then watched TAKEN–an entertaining albeit short film. It could have used another 10 minutes on the end, but Liam Neeson rocked it like Jason Bourne.

Saturday I took the family to the tree farm to confirm the selections from the prior evening. It was crazy-muddy, but Charlotte liked splashing in the puddles. Then that afternoon Charlotte had a birthday party to attend in a nearby town, a town that Erika’s cousin Marcy lives in. We dropped Charlotte off at the party and went for shawarma with Claire and Madeleine. After the party we headed to Marcy and George’s so the kids could play with their kids and us adults could–well–drink and be merry. Dinner and conversation were great, even though I failed in my attempt at getting the ladies to cover themselves in green body paint so I could live out my Star Trek fantasies.

Sunday was a stay-at-home day, where we got caught up on chores, watched the Grey’s Anatomy season finale, and pretty much relaxed.

Monday we got up early (like every day) and headed to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the day–one of my most favourite places to spend a day. The weather was drop-dead gorgeous, with a perfect Spring breeze and clear blue skies. We did our usual walk of hitting all the shops, like the fudge factory, and the bakeries, jam shoppe, the Christmas Store (where it is Christmas 365-days a year), one of the countless ice cream parlours, wine stores, well, the list goes on. It’s a wonderful place.

We took a great picture of the girls standing in front of some flowers while we were walking around.

And then Charlotte volunteered to take our picture, so we gave her the camera and she took two great shots of Erika and I. All that time she has spent with her own camera has paid off. Maybe now we won’t always have single pictures of us while travelling with the kids. 

More pictures here.

After we got home from Niagara-on-the-Lake, we put the kids to bed and I fired up the BBQ. Grilled some steaks and asparagus and enjoyed some quite dining time with Erika over wine.

So that was the weekend. Fun. And one I wasn’t quite ready to let go of. Maybe next weekend will be just as entertaining.

The weekend:

Friday night was spent watching Coraline in digital. And it was awesome. Kudos to Henry Selick and his talented team at LAIKA. The level of detail in this stop-motion production was truly breathtaking. And Henry Selick did a superb job of adapting and tweaking Neil Gaiman’s source material. I can’t wait for Coraline to come out on DVD so I can watch, watch, and re-watch a film that will surely become a modern day classic similar to The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Saturday was spent running around on errands, making homemade lasagna, and cleaning the house. Later that night we had friends come over for a visit and dinner. Wow, was there a lot of food. I can’t believe how fast our friends’ (and our own) kids are growing up. Liz and Jay have a 14-month-old boy who I thought was born a few months ago. Crazy, that thing called time.

Which brings us to Sunday. First we had my Dad come over for a visit and breakfast, and then when he left, we got ready to head to a birthday party–a 1st birthday no less. And again, I thought Julie and Brent’s boy was born month’s ago, but nope, he’s turning 1 and running around their home like a whirling dervish. Good times were had by all, with lots of food, conversation, and of course, a grand assortment of alcoholic beverages. Yum!

After getting home and putting the kiddies to bed, I finished reading a chapter of a friend’s WIP in order to get ready for our crit group meeting later that night.

The entire weekend was a blur. I’m sitting here at the day job wondering where it went. But spirits are high (today anyway), and I’m eager to dive back into the WIP, if only to distract me from other projects, like FEVER and its sequels.