Bananagram for you....

I have been absent around blogland lately. No reason. Just savouring summer. We just spent a better part of a week hosting some friends from Nova Scotia who stayed with us. We had so much fun sharing meals, visiting parks and water slides and playing fun games like this one: Bananagrams.  My mother gave one of the children this quite awhile ago and we just started playing it. And....

this game is so addictive.

Every night, as least 3 of us would spill out the chips to play a game or two. It was so curious to me that my friend's 11 year old son could beat us with his three and four letter words.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes the challenge of word games. It's also an excellent size for travelling....it barely takes up any room...it can be squished into a shoe!

Next week I will be back with the rest of our camping recipes. And soon I will be featuring a week of posts on school lunch planning and recipes. Yes...it's that time again!

Have a great weekend!

Skinny Legs & Cowgirls...

Intriguing isn't it?

Skinny Legs & Cowgirls.
Such an interesting and fun phrase.

It's a resturant...themed after some old giddy up Cowgirl inspirations taken from a novel.

Super fun. Super chic.

A great watering hole, so to speak.

Some girlfriends & I finally ventured to this place for lunch.

It did not dissapoint.

Except on one point....I did not leave with skinny legs.

Dang it.

This place features mostly organic meat & produce.

And a few fish dishes to round out the menu.

We started with 2lbs. of PEI mussels.

And 2 of us being from the Maritimes, we know our mussels.

They were truly delicious...cooked just right in a wine & tomato broth,

With bread for sopping up that broth left in the dish.

And on one's chin.

Next came chicken in a mushroom cream sauce..with risotto.

And a salad.

It was so very juicy & tasty.

No ladies' lunch would be complete without chocolate.

We shared a delightful chocolate mousse pie.

We can't wait to whoop it up again at this place.

It was totally a 'happy trails' experience.

the one where I share one of my BFF's travels....

I just have to share this email that I got this morning! Although I love my life....just a teeny bit of me wants to be here and have this vacation.....just for one teeny little week!

Costa Rican Short Story ~ Pura Vida Baby!!
Well so much has happened in the few short weeks that I have been here that I could write a novel...but alas time only permits snippets of my adventures thus far. So, let’s start with a summary of the last few days...wowsy!
Sunday morning...with the sunrise comes the sounds of the wildlife, numerous types of birds, geckos and of course howler monkeys...and yes they howl!! There is no going back to sleep and in the last couple weeks Linda and I have gotten into a little routine that who ever is up first has to put on the coffee. Luckily for me, Linda is an incredible cook ~ she cooks for me and I am the chief dishwasher!! Oh yeah, Sunday...after fresh fruit we set off for and hour and a half hike around the area. After walking up Playa Brasilito we stopped and ate our wonderfully packed lunch, compliments of Linda of course!! That evening we went to a local Fiesta full of Costa Rican bull-riding cowboys and the prancing horses with lasso-riders...as Linda put it, “This a gong show!”
Monday...I think Linda is up first, and I wake up to the smell of fresh ground Costa Rican coffee and after a healthy bowl of oatmeal and fruit we are off to the gym. We have been very diligent going every other day to keep our muscles intact and it is only three minutes away from our casa at Villa Ferlito. The afternoon consisted of another stroll along the beach...perhaps there were five other people on the beach that day. There are sooo many beaches close to our place that I am losing track of them, more importantly, they are clean, they are sandy, they are secluded and they are Pura Vida! Dinner that evening was at a beautiful restaurant on the beach, the special that night was 'whole grilled red snapper!!' Amanda, it beats the Star Chef tenfold and that was excellent food!!
Tuesday...up at the crack of dawn and gone Deep Sea fishing, which was a first for me!! We spent all day on the ocean with turtles, dolphins, and manta rays, and I reeled my first fish in ever!! After a full day on the ocean we went to friends for grilled Tuna steaks and fine red wine, gosh, what else is possible!!
Today...Wednesday was much of the same...a little swim in the ocean...fitted with our scuba gear, another walk on the beach to an incredible restaurant to watch the sunset. Needless to say, it is going to be really hard to leave this place!!
Gotta get some sleep now because I am going diving tomorrow!!
Muchos besos y muchas sunrises from Costa Rica Baby!!
Love and hugs,
Susan

a sleepover....

My friend Joanne spontaenously invited us to stay for the night with her family, so after we finished dinner, Aaron & Amanda drove us over to Joanne's house. It was great to spend some time with her. We chatted and had some wine. The kids played. Joanne very graciously drove us back to the Valley the next day.( Mom & Dad had gone home the night before.)

let the games begin...

Since Tyler had a special day on Tuesday when we went to the Science Museum, Hunter had a special day yesterday with a board game party. We decided she would invite 5 friends for an afternoon of board games, and everyone made it except one friend. Each friend was asked to bring his/her favorite board game, and we had games and snacks. They played: Silly Sentences, Charades, Kids Trivial Pursuit and the game that Tyler got for Christmas: Piraanha Panic. Seriously, everyone had a great time, played board games that were new to them, and no passive electronics like mp3 players, ipods, game cubes, tv and the like were involved. Sometimes I feel the children we are bringing up today don't have enough opportunites to just hang out with their friends, enjoy each other and find things to entertain themselves. We are such slaves to schedules of extra-curricular activities and homework, that kids don't have time to hang out and just be. I also like that a game board party didn't cost anyone any money. (Unlike the Science Museum where it was $50 just to walk thru the door.) Tyler had a fun afternoon as well, as two of Hunter's friends came with little brothers to play with. And one mom joined me for tea for the afternoon and we chatted about scrapbooking and other stuff. Her son is a great friend of Hunter's. He is in her class at school, in her Book Club and hangs out with the girls quite often. He is what I call an "old soul" in a young body. Just a great all around kid.

I try not to post pictures of other people's children on my blog without permission. The creative challenge was trying to capture this day with the camera but without faces, which is I how I came up with the shot of the hands on the game board, which I really like. Sometimes thinking outside the box works out so well.