super sweet 16th...+20 ;)

This year I was celebrating my sweet 16th...+20, and as you can see I had my cake and got to eat it too :)

The cake, a chocolate guiness delight with irish cream cheese frosting (...mmmmmmm sooooooooo yummmmmy!) was made by my friend Elaine, pictured below looking just a bit frightening with the knife! lol

Monica got a great pic of the rainbow that ended outside our place, which was a welcome sign after an afternoon of scattered showers.

Here are just a few random shots of the wonderful group that came out to celebrate with me and I had a blast! (the sangria helped a wee bit, hehe) Every year there seems to be about a dozen people or so who show up, which is a great size to ensure a little quality time with everyone! Love the ladies gettin' their vogue on (nobody comes up with more original poses than Ali, hehe). I was thrilled that Rob came along with his guitar 'cuz he not only provided some beautiful music for us on the patio, he also provided some back up when I played my guitar for the first time with an audience (excluding my practice runs with Sasha and her stuffies, lol). I was glad to not send everyone running with my beginners skills, and felt such gratitude to have finally shared my songs with some of my friends...'tis why I wanted to learn to play guitar to begin with and 6 months later I'm not doin too bad so far ;)




My birthday (and Che who turned 15 a couple of days later! oh my gosh...he was 3 when I came into his life and now he's a full on tall teen - mere inches from surpassing Mark in height!) was a beautiful end to the month of June. The extra icing on the cake for this month was going to see Les Miserables at the Stanley theatre on the 30th!! Fantastic performance and it was a great treat to each other for our 9th anniversary this month. We'll have to find something extra special for the big 10 next year...

Also through this month we enjoyed a night out (thanks again to Granma Penny who regularly gives us a night out and a sleep in the next day by having Sasha sleepover at her house) to attend the Codev fundraising dinner, where we got to eat fabulous latin american cuisine while catching up with some great people (roping a couple of them into my Zero Waste challenge at Brit, hehe. more on that later) A few of the folks I got to hug were Kirsten, and a couple of my fellow PEPpers Glen and Jane (and I was happily reunited with the PEPpers for a lovely evening after my bday too. haven't seen most of them since the municipal election last november!)...I love events where I get to share hugs with people who inspire me. Instead of staying to dance Mark and I opted to enjoy a nice leisurely walk home after dinner as it was a gorgeous sunny evening. :)

Random walk to work shots. I find I'm starting to post more and more scenery pics...my mom has definetly rubbed off on me. love you mom for instilling in me the apprecation of the beauty of the world around me. smooch


Dad & Liz spoiled us with another wonderful meal one night which was followed by a gorgeous walk on the beach. Across the water you can see the tents from Bard on the Beach which is behind the Museum building...


and from across the water here are some more pics of my new lunch break scenery at the museum, as well as some new bird friends. They swim in the fountain out front and live in the vast stretch of park along the waterfront of Kits. There is a beautiful little open roof atrium space within the adminstrative building of the Museum, where there is one duck who always lays and hatches her eggs. When it is time for the babies to start getting their wings flapping she knocks on the glass door and the staff hold the inner and outer doors open while the ducks parade through to the world of Vanier park outside. I really can't wait to see that next spring!! In the mean time, here a few of the babies I have seen...including one almost grown duck who tried to eat my toe which tickled :)



The last noteworthy thing we did this month (That doesn't require its own post to tell the tale, like our journey to the landfill) was to visit the car free festival on Main St. We have been to the one on the Drive in previous years, but Main is a bit closer and we want to start exploring this side of our neighbourhood a bit more now.

The Main St organizers (Che's mom was one of them) did a great job providing a diverse range of music on various stages between 12th and 25th ave - a super long stretch of street with only one break for east/west car traffic along 16th (which Che was irritated by...he is a hard core bike activist! yeah! but we told him it wasn't right to get mad a the cop who had been delegated the job of whistling at pedestrians to stop them for the cars to get through. hehe) We enjoyed a dinner together in a new burger joint near Che's place and then headed home to rest our legs after all our walking about in the streets.

So happy we have a city council that supports opening a few streets to the people more and more! Every sunday for the summer is car free on the Drive and we'll be sure to check that out at least once by walking around after a sunday morning swim sometime! Other than the Drive we'll be sure to check out the Summer Spaces fun available on Main St (Collingwood and Gastown are the other neighbourhoods that get to enjoy the extra open space on choice Sundays through to the end of August) Love walking and dancing on the streets with the people...hope we'll bump into you on the streets soon!

For fathers day we had a brunchy lunch (Sasha's favorite mealtime - brunchy lunch - can be anytime for her) at a diner on broadway, and for my birthday Mark and I had an organic yummy and healthy brunchy lunch at the Foundation (after our sleep in the next day...thanks again to Penny!!!). Still so many restaurants to check out in Mt. Pleasant, but this month we seemed to hit quite a few which was a nice treat.

I've noticed as Sasha continues in her evolution, so do I. And this blog which I started to keep everyone updated on her development in the womb and beyond has actually become a blog about my own development as a mother, a writer and an agent for positive change in my daughters world. This blog helps me stay focused on the positive things in life, such as the friends and family that are such a big part of who I am...and what I aim to be both for myself and for Sasha. I didn't really know I could be a good story teller type of writer until I had an audience of loved ones to urge me to keep posting for them! So thanks to you, my loyal 20 or so who find our story interesting enough to follow along, for you have helped me connect with myself in ways I never could have imagined without your support and encouragement! :)

To end I share a pic of Sasha in her cave and the toally adorable fathers day gifts Sasha made at daycare for Mark. awwwww. The poem on the shirt made my heart melt:

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls,

But every day I'm growing
I'll be grown up someday
And all those tiny handprints
Will surely fade away.

So here's a final handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

I gotta say: this month was super sweet indeed! :)