This weekend was my brother’s girlfriend Sam’s birthday, so we volunteered to make the cake for our family dinner celebration. We attempted a pink ombre layer cake, and it turned out pretty well!
Details: We used this recipe from Epicurious for the layer cake (doubled), and this recipe from Martha Stewart for the icing.
We turned control of our Saturday this weekend over to our friends Sara and Jamie. Given that we are committed West enders, and they are East enders, Sara put together a “Explore the East Adventure” for us; taking us through their Cabbagetown neighbourhood, to the Distillery and then ending at The Beaches. They also included two other list items (Allan Gardens and Riverdale Park – more photos to come!), which we loved. So much thought was put into the details of the day, it was amazing. We loved all of it, and couldn’t possibly pick a favourite part of the day, but we did love The Scullery, putting a lock on the Love Sculpture in the Distillery (we have a lock on a bridge in Paris for us, so it was lovely to do a lock for the wee babe), and Moo Milk Bar! It was such a fun day, and we so appreciate them taking the time to put together this wicked itinerary for us!
Explore the East – An itinerary for Sam and Adam
10:30AM: Brunch with Sara and Jamie at The Scullery (YUM!) http://thescullery.ca/menu/brunch/
11:30AM: Walk to Sara and Jamie’s place to meet and pick-up Charlie
11:45-12:45: Walk Charlie around the Cabbagetown. Stops include:
o Dollarama to buy a lock
o Labour of Love
o PetValu to get Charlie a treat
o Riverdale Park/Park Snacks
12:45PM: Say bye to Sara and Jamie and drive (or walk) over to Allen Gardens
1:00PM-1:30PM: Explore the greenhouse (take a photo in your favourite room)
1:30PM: Drive to the Distillery District (south on Parliament until Mill Street)
o Paid street parking on Mill, or there is a Green P on the west side of Parliament at Mill. There is also parking in the south lot of Distillery, but it’s a more expensive option.
1:45PM – 2:45PM: Explore the Distillery District and shops.
o Go to Brick Street Bakery (get a snack or sandwich and sit outside)
o Visit the Love Sculpture (and put a lock on it dedicated to the bebe)
o Find Distillery Lane (go south until the parking lot), walk west down the Lane (toward Parliament) until you see #36. You should be able to go inside. Look up! You’re in the building where Sara works – also a tourist stop with lots of interesting information about the original use of the building.
2:45PM: Drive to ‘The Beach’ (eg. the Beaches)
3:00PM – EOD: Park your car by Queen and Woodbine – go for a stroll to the east into the neighbourhood.
o Poke around in some cute shops or just take in the atmosphere
o Visit Moo Milk Bar for some milk and cookies (1918A Queen Street E)
o Bring your snacks over to Kew Gardens (just east of Queen/Waverley), walk south through the park to the beach. Find a bench and enjoy the summery weather! Take a selfie on the sand.
o If you’re peckish/want an early dinner – stop in at Lion on the Beach (back toward where you parked – 1958 Queen Street East) for some delish, low-key pub grub (with lots of veggie options)
Until I started looking up recipes, I didn’t realize there was no butter involved in apple butter. Just delicious apples cooked down with sugar and spices into concentrated deliciousness. We went back to Pine Farms Orchards to pick some apples (a combo of Spartan, Corkland, Honeycrisp and Red Delicious), Adam’s sister Martha helped us prepping the apples, then they went into the slow cooker for 12 hours. It made our apartment smell amazing, and the results were pretty darn tasty.
Details: We more or less followed this recipe from My Baking Addiction. I say more or less, as we don’t have kitchen scale, so we’re not certain about exactly how many apples to use.
Pine Farm Orchards are in King City. Hours and location can be found here.
At the very top of our wish list is our own canoe. Adam found and added this one to the list. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it was super awesome, we loved it. Really interesting museum, with lots of great exhibits. My favourite was the entire exhibit dedicated to old school courting, romance and canoeing; so cute. There were also lots of hands on areas, and activities for kids. We got in some embarrassing parent practice in at the Canadian animal puppet show.
Details: The Canadian Canoe Museum is in Peterborough, about an hour and a half outside of Toronto. Hours and location can be found here. They also have a ton of workshops, tours and are free on Thursday nights. We might be coming back in 2015 for a workshop, we were really impressed!
We knocked this one the same day as the batting cages at Pickering Playing Fields. So much fun!
Details: Pickering Playing Fields info can be found here.
We weren’t sure we’d actually manage to do this one; but when we passed through Pickering on our way home this weekend and saw the Pickering Playing Fields with both mini putt and batting cages, we were determined.
I’ve never been in a batting cage before, and the last time I held a bat was in 9th grade gym class. Not something I’d rush to do again (pregnant or not); Adam likes batting cages but wasn’t crazy about this one, maybe it was the machine he was using, but the timing was off.
Details: Information about the Pickering Playing Fields can be found here.
On our way out of town for a wedding on Friday, we swung by the Scarborough Bluffs. We walked through a trail in Scarborough Bluffs Park, and then went down to the beach at Bluffers Park.
Details: Information about the Scarborough Bluffs can be found here. More details about the beach can be found here.
Our friend Scarlet tipped us off about the retro photo booth in the Drake Hotel (that girl knows all the coolest spots), so we hit up the Drake Cafe for brunch and then the photo booth. So vintage-y cute, so fun. Such a tight fit with that enormous bump. 
Details: The Drake is at 1150 Queen Street. Info can be found here.
This past Sunday we hit up the last free yoga class of the year in High Park, sponsored by flow-active.com. To be totally fair, Adam did a yoga class, and I did a lot of child’s pose; I’m so enormously pregnant at this point that with avoiding all the ‘don’t-do-while-pregnant’ poses, plus trying not to squish the little guy, I couldn’t do a lot. Other than that though, it was a really nice experience; the terribly hot weather had just broke, it was a cool, sunny morning and the class seemed great. I will definitely keep it in mind for next summer.
Details: There doesn’t seem to be an official site for this program, but most information can be found here.
Way back during the Labour long weekend, when it was too hot to do anything, we went a bought a watermelon for a seed spitting contest. Even buying a “seeded” watermelon, the seeds were a little puny (remember when we were kids and they were giant and black? I’m officially old), but we went for it. Adam technically won, but he does admit that on average I did better. Not sure this is something to brag about.
100 Things in 2016/2017 