quatre

On Tuesday June 14th, Nathan and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. He had schemed with my friend to surprise me after class with a picnic at our local park :) We found a shady spot under a tree and had ourselves a relaxing afternoon sipping on lemonade and stuffing ourselves with hummus and pâté.

 Nathan layered our berry dessert so that it'd look like a cake - after the picture was taken, I destroyed the layers by picking out all the raspberries

the raspberries tasted like candy

 there is something extra delicious about drinking ice cold lemonade out of a re-used Grolsch bottle

 the bird that hung out with us all afternoon

 baking on a giant rock

Later in the evening, Nathan brought me downtown for dinner at a secret restaurant. At first I thought he was going to take me to Mercatto's (the new location at Eaton Centre) because we went to the mall to kill some time. But then I later found out that we were going to Terroni's instead! I've been wanting to try this restaurant for quite some time now.

cool wall decor

 our lightbulb

a pear nectar drink that ended up tasting a bit like raisins

I had thought that dinner was the last surprise of the day because it was a weekday and we old folk need to rest early, but Nathan said that we were going to do a bit of walking before heading home. I was thinking we'd head somewhere outdoors for an evening stroll, but after 2 minutes of walking, he stops in front of the Canon Theatre. He had bought us tickets for Billy Elliot! I was surprised and thrilled and squealing like a high school girl! Although we were 10 minutes late for the show (Nathan had thought that the show started at 7:30) and some people stole our awesome seats (we got them back after intermission), I had an amazing time. What a great show and a great day! It was definitely the perfect kick start to year 5 :)

did I mention that he had flowers waiting for me in the car seat when he picked me up from school?
dreamy sigh

♥

kicking it old school (at the R.O.M)

 Nathan's birthday clues

I had planned out a pretty packed day for Nathan's birthday. He was actually able to guess one of the places we were going with the hints I gave him, but of course I lied and said that he was way off.

First stop was at the R.O.M for their Water exhibit! It was a fun exhibit but we didn't have enough time to wander around the rest of the museum because we had short films to catch (Bromance series). After the movies we went for burgers at Craft Burgers. I had the organic burger paired with some Boylan's Root Beer. It was pretty tasty! I only have pictures of the R.O.M because cameras weren't allowed in the theatre for the short films so we had dumped them in the car.

This was the first time I've visited the R.O.M since they built the crystal during my camp counselor days. I was a bit unsure of the whole crystal when they first decided to go through with it, but I have to admit that it really lights up the museum on the inside.

 staircase shot

 the gang

I swear we didn't plan out our outfits 

♥

sugar and ducks

What does a feuding couple do after three days of silent tension? They go to a street festival at their regular date spot for a rubber ducky race. How can you possibly stay upset when there is cotton candy to be eaten? We ended up buying 2 tickets for the race cause Nathan said he wanted his own duck. I had duck #1313 and I was so sure that I'd win one of the five prizes (it didn't happen).

 waiting for the duck race to start

here come the blurry ducks!

duck #1313, I believed in you...

We visited a bunch of vendors scouring for potential snacks and ended up getting a lamb pita, ketchup Chippery chips, and some free vitamin water. By the end of the afternoon, we were back to our old selves and the awful feelings of the past 3 days were stored and locked away where they belonged - in the past.

 ♥ ketchup chips

 Nathan thought it'd be a good idea to document my sunblock application

 so I thought I'd document this

sushi, tea and pastries

Larry brought back some yummy pastries from his trip to Shanghai a couple of weeks ago. Karen and I, of course, took this opportunity to "surprise" him with birthday goodies during our monthly ayce. We got him:

1. a birthday pin
2. a tubey noise maker
3. a bug catcher
4. a banana scoop set
5. a bag of rainbow chips ahoy cookies

 at TenRen's for tea after aycing at Wasabi

As per usual, I ate entirely too much that night. But nothing feels better than some hot tea after a full meal with good company.

an off-green thumb

a garden toolkit from the lovely Karen who bought it for my birthday 2 years ago
as you can tell by its pristine condition, this was the first time I've used it

 ♥♥♥

Several weeks ago I finally brought my tomato and watermelon plant into the wilderness (my backyard) to give it a new home. I had asked my dad where I should put the plants (this year, he decided to fill the entire backyard with flowers) so he marked out a tiny spot for me to plant everything. I told him that my watermelon plant needs a 3 metre radius around it to which he replied "Oh, it doesn't matter. It won't grow anyway". I think that's the reaction I get from everyone about my watermelon which is why I'm determined to make it grow more than ever!

 literature on how to plant a tomato

 trying to unwrap the plant. I might've pulled out some roots...

 Yoshi decides to come hang out

Nathan was there for moral support

 dear unborn watermelon, grow already ♥ me

 one of dad's plants

I think Yoshi needs a haircut

I should probably go water my plants. Seems like I haven't done that since I planted them...

there's no going back

In order to force my brain to stop thinking about my impulsive purchases from the previous weekend, on Saturday, I finally took my scissors and cut the tags off my boots. At first I felt a burden lifted off my shoulders. I will no longer have to weigh the pros and cons of tall vs. short or red vs. yellow or size 6 vs. size 5. The tags are off. However, to fill the void left by the burden of indecisiveness was an even greater burden of regret. What if the size 5 does fit better? What if the tall boots look better? Now I can't even return them!

So what does a girl do in a situation like this? She goes to a store that carries tall hunter boots in size 5 and tries them on where she luckily discovers that the 5s are too tight and the tall is too difficult to get in and out of. She then lived happily ever after with her short red rain boots. Finding peace with purchases is one of the best feelings in the world.

Next burden to get rid of: last month's credit card bills.

red treasures with a side of lemonade

Up until a year ago I hated raw onions and avocados, but now, I can't seem to get enough! It's funny how time and a little internal push can change the way you feel about something. My next conquest: the durian! I've been trying to acquire the taste for this fruit since the age of 8, when I first decided to fight the smell and to just try a piece. To me, it still tastes a bit like garlic, onions and wet socks. Maybe in a year, I will be posting about durian cravings...

On another note, I've been spending a little frivolously recently. My current shopping mantra has been "buy now, return later". I think I saw that at an H&M somewhere. My purchases of the weekend were a pair of red dance lace chucks and a pair of wellies. The entire rain boot shopping process reminded me of how indecisive I can be and how I fret over the smallest, most insignificant things sometimes. I had to first decide which colour I wanted - yellow? red? After staring at the mirror in the store for a good 10 minutes, I settled with the red. When I brought them home, I started to entertain the idea of exchanging them for the taller version. I spent, in my opinion, too much time weighing the pros and cons of tall vs. short, but decided to keep the ones I had in the end. But now I need to decide whether or not I should go a size smaller. My solution at one point was to exchange the short red ones for short yellow ones and then buy the tall ones in red. This solution was quickly abandoned when I remembered that the tuition fees and books for my current (and last, yay!) semester of the HR certificate program has created a drought in my bank account. Maybe I should've saved more during my stint as a teacher. The woes of an impulsive shopper... 

at least I have lemonade