Gardens and Home

This past weekend we went to the Botanical Gardens. They have a special exhibit going on now through the fall.

There are 48 different "Mosaics", or topiaries, that are pieced together with different plants. 

They are amazing!!

While we were wandering through all of them, we came across the British Isles section. They had the Green Man, wild boars, Hern the Hunter, and the Huffington White Horse.

 I recognized the music playing in that area, it was songs from the cd "Celtic Voices: Women of Song" (one of my favorite cds!). That was definitely our favorite section.

  

Just before we left the Botanical Gardens, Jason bought me a Rabbit's Foot Fern. My mom had given me two of these plants several years ago and they were perfect for adding a bit of lacey green to our living room. Unfortunately, the Canadian government threw those plants away when we moved here. I am thrilled to have another one now! :)

On Sunday I managed to drag Jason into IKEA for the second time ever. (He thinks it is "") We finally purchased the baskets for Viggo's toy shelf there. After that we discovered the Canadian version of Marshalls! It is called Winners. :D There we found a large wire and burlap basket to hold Viggo's stuffed animals. 

Now all I have to do is hunt down a barrel to hold his weapons and the perfect bedding, and his room will be complete! Viggo's bedroom is the first room that we have ever completely decorated together. (Jason had already bought all our furniture before we ever met.) It only took us 6 years to figure out how we wanted his room decorated! :P

Summer Time!

This past week we had a heat wave of upper 80s to low 90s. It was amazing to feel the warm sun! I felt like the summer had finally arrived! I tried to soak up as much of the warmth as I could. 

Viggo and I spent almost every afternoon at the playground. He rode his bike back and forth every time, and is getting better at it! The main attraction at the playground is the splash pad. Viggo loved playing in it! It's a pretty popular spot, so there are often other little kids for him to play with there.

Canada Day

Yesterday was Canada Day. The country turned 146 year old. We were invited to to a picnic with Jason's co-workers. It was a perfect day for hanging out in the park! We enjoyed lots of grilled food (cheese brats, rabbit sausage, corn, lettuce, pineapple, watermelon, etc.). The Canadians called the grill a "barbecue" and thought that we were funny to call it a grill. We also roasted marshmallows. However, stores in Canada don't sell graham crackers. So for the s'mores we had to use chocolate topped cookies (also known as: biscuits). Someone brought Smarties, which are not the same candy as we have in the US. Canadian Smarties are M&M knockoffs. The candy shell is just a tiny bit thicker than M&Ms. One other interesting thing we learned yesterday is that "baguette" is not just a long, skinny loaf of crusty bread. It can also mean a wand or any long skinny thing. Strange, eh?