claire, carly, corrie and brenton

I'm back to share another photo shoot!  Sometimes (maybe always) I struggle with finding just a few favorites to share here.  I think that I need to be more decisive when showing my pictures.  Pick out the really good ones to show.  But I find this task really difficult.  Maybe the focus isn't perfect in one image but I love the expression.  The lighting may not be ideal but the interaction is so genuine.  Honestly, this is tough for me.  But then I think about when I'm looking through other photography blogs and how I appreciate photographers who are generous with the number of images that they share.  So, I am going to go with that.  I am being generous (but mostly I am too lazy to narrow down my personal favs).

Okay, back to my latest photo shoot.  Oh, this one was so much fun!  These girls are the sweetest and so incredibly cooperative when a camera is in front of their face.  Meet the two beaming stars of last Saturday morning....

Carly and Claire.  

I'm going to steal from my prop here and truthfully say that Carly was just going with the flow during our whole morning together.  If the girl had a rock in her hand she was happy.  She was so full of smiles and such a delight.

I love finding random stickers on kids.  She was oblivious to this sticker on her foot.  She was too focused on the rock and what her big sister was doing.

Back to the rock.

And then back to me.

This is where I was a bit more decisive.  There are three different family portraits that I loved but I had to choose this one with the tree roots.  Don't be surprised if you see this location used again and again.

Time for some playing.  

Claire came with her two sticks that she really wanted to include in the pictures.  It was time for a quick lesson on fire making.  I don't know if she bought the whole rubbing sticks together to start a fire....

but she hid her skepticism really well.  (And I know as a mother I would be cringing at the dirt on her shirt, but as a photographer I love it!)

Claire was contemplating what funny face she was going to show me here.  Love Carly grabbing on to her sister's hair at the top of the photo.

Love this family shot.

Despite the playground being just meters away, these girls did so well keeping up the smiles and having fun together.

Claire got to sneak away for a quick swing and I got some alone time with Carly.  What a sweetheart!

And after a rejuvenating swing at the playground, the two of us ended the session with some time in this crabapple tree.  A perfect ending.

our weekend

Busy, busy weekend.  I'll let most of the pictures speak for themselves.  It all started with our Friday evening.

A bit of a freaky street performer.  But Jesse was very intrigued.

Our Saturday.  Spent the afternoon and early evening at Grand Bend.

Sunday afternoon.  A fundraising concert for Silver Lake by the amazing House of Doc.  I have wanted to see this band for years.  They finally held a concert at a family friendly time.  We walked away with all 4 of their CDs.  Yep, we're definitely fans.

That's a wrap.  We are now into our last week of holidays...

cheese, avocado, tomato and arugula sandwich

A good sandwich can be so simple.  I had the right ingredients to make this sandwich last week and I am definitely making sure to have these around this week too.  It is almost silly to make this into a recipe, but I wanted to share this amazing combination of toppings.  It was so good!

Cheese, Avocado, Tomato and Arugula Sandwich - serves one

1 crusty roll, sliced in half
basil mayonnaise (see recipe below)
havarti cheese, sliced
avocado, halved and sliced
tomato, sliced
salt and pepper
arugula leaves

Spread both halves of the roll with herbed mayonnaise.  Arrange slices of cheese, avocado, tomato over the the bottom half of the roll.  Season the tomato with salt and pepper.  Top the tomato with arugula leaves.  Sandwich with the top half of the bun.  Cut in half with a serrated knife.  Enjoy.

Basil Mayonnaise


Fill a small saucepan with salted water and bring to a boil.  Wash a handful of basil leaves (1/4 cup) and place in the boiling water for 5 seconds.  Remove and dry on a dish towel.  Chop the basil leaves and mix into 1/2 cup of mayonnaise.

carrot and red pepper soup

I bought 4 pounds of carrots at the market last Saturday, returned home and saw another 4 lbs. sitting in my vegetable drawer.  Carrot soup was definitely on the list of supper meals this week.  When I first tasted this soup warm, I wasn't overly impressed.  I didn't take a picture because I knew it didn't pass my test for making it onto my blog.  The next day for lunch I tried the soup cold.  I immediately dug out a china bowl and got ready for a photo.   This soup is delicate and worked much better as a cold soup versus a hot one.  But you can be the judge.

Carrot and Red Pepper Soup - adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

Serves 4-6

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

2 cups diced onion

1 red pepper, cut into1-inch pieces

1 pound carrots, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons white rice

Salt and freshly milled pepper

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange

6 cups water or vegetable stock * (see below)

Finely chopped dill or chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a soup pot and add the onion.  Cook over medium heat until the onions are softened.  Add the pepper, carrots, rice and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Continue cooking for approximately 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add a grind of pepper, the parsley, dill, orange zest, juice, and water/stock.  Bring to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, until the rice is cooked, about 25 minutes.  Let cool briefly, then puree with an immersion blender or in batches with a blender.  Taste for salt, season with pepper, garnish, and serve.

*  I rarely (never) have fresh vegetable stock handy when I'm making soup.  As I began chopping the vegetables for the soup, I started a quick stock with all the trimmings of my soup ingredients.  I filled a medium sized pot with water and added in the onion peel, red pepper stem/ribs, carrot peel and some extra parsley.  I let this simmer away until I needed to add the stock to the recipe.  I simply drained the stock through a sieve, measured the contents and poured the 6 cups into the soup.  The stock was already boiling, so I didn't need to waste time waiting for the soup to come back up to a boil.  This is a trick that I learned at a cooking class last year.  Apparently many chefs do this.  It didn't take any extra time since I was dumping everything into a pot of water versus the compost bin.  Genius!

tea party

Before our week at the cottage, the four of us (my mom, Abigail, my niece Marlana and I) went to tea.  My mom discovered that there are weekly teas at Woodside National Historic Site (the childhood home of William Lyon Mackenzie King - Canada's longest serving prime minister) and arranged for us to experience an early 1900's tea.  There was beautiful music being played, a relaxing setting and servers dressed in period costumes.

First we looked over the menu.  We chose our teas and waited for the goodies to arrive.

We had a lot of fun talking about the differences between our young ladies of the 21st century and the ladies in the early 20th century.  We pretended to be ladies at tea and discussed how our lives would be so very different.  

We decided that our sweet girls certainly wouldn't have conformed to the rules of the day so many years ago.  But, I'm alright with that.

the cottage

There was a reason I was so quiet last week.  We were busy cottaging.  Our week away was relaxing and the perfect thing for our family.  The kids got lots of time to swim, boat, fish and generally spend every waking moment with their cousins.  The perfect holiday.  And with Jesse a year older, things just got easier for us as parents.  We could read by the water as the kids swam and splashed around.  I didn't need to worry about him travelling from our cottage to Grandma and Grandpa's.  His independence makes life and holidaying much more relaxed.

Our week began with me flying solo as a parent.  Thank goodness for amazing inlaws that came to hang out while I packed up and got ready for our week away.  We departed Sunday morning with 2 destinations.  First, we were off to Toronto to pick up Andrew after his hernia surgery (he's doing fine).  Jesse decided that we needed to add an extra destination to our day.  The side of the 401.  Thank goodness I packed the potty. And just as Jesse climbed back into the van, a cruiser pulled up behind us.  The friendly police officer was checking to see if things were alright.  He saw the potty (thankfully the lid was closed) and went along his way.  We quickly followed, picked up Andrew and made it to the cottage just after lunch.

The summer has been very warm and on our first day at the cottage the water was so inviting.  After that it was mostly inviting for the kids.  That's all I'll say.  But we were never bored.  We usually do a day trip or two but this year we never felt the need to leave.  Us girls did head into Huntsville for a morning to do some shopping and have lunch.  The sky cleared when we returned and we were back on the beach for the rest of the afternoon.  We all had a wonderful week.

This table was the beading table for the first two days, then took over as the puzzle table.  Didn't get any shots of this year's puzzle.  It became a bit of an obsession at the end for me.  I couldn't walk away until that last piece was in place.

Abigail took this picture of her cousins playing horseshoes.

How sweet are these boys!

Most of the kids really look forward to fishing.

Especially this one.

My sister Chris and I took the kids for a walk into town.

Jesse spent a lot of time drilling into the sand.  I really need to find one of these toys.  He was so into it.

And the girls played hairdresser with Grandpa.  My dad was so accommodating to their crazy styles.  He just sat patiently and let them create.

Cottaging usually means you don't always get as much sleep as you need.  How sweet.

And this was our first year of finally have a campfire.  I know.  I have no idea why we haven't done it in the past.  Should have had more marshmallows.  Mental note for next year.

And before we could roast our marshmallows, Jesse found something to kill time.  I don't think he got any of the nails in though.

Andrew introduced Nathaniel to the pocket knife.  Nathaniel has really taken to this.  We're still working on some of the safety rules around knife use.  Like no walking around with the sharp blade sticking out.  He'll get it.

We're already looking forward to next year!