Well, we’re finishing up the weekend with a quiet evening at home.  My love is speaking ‘up on the mountain’ tonight.  (There’s a church gathering up there, and the regular pastor is at camp.) We girls are staying put with the wee one…probably watch a chick flick together.

We began our celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday with a visit to the Tall Ships Regatta.  Though the day called for rain, we braved the forecasts and headed out to see the ships.  The weathermen were spot on.  It rained.  Sometimes it rained hard.  However, being the troopers we are, armed with our umbrellas, we went down to the wharf to see the beautiful ships and tour them.

We stopped for lunch, then meandered our way home stopping at a few shops along the way.

Next, we prepared cookies for our neighbourhood backyard barbecue the following day.  For the benefit of those who are not from here, that just means we were grilling–not the yummy Southern barbecue, unfortunately.  We just passed our first year in this home and thought it would be a good way to meet some of the folks on our street we hadn’t spent time with.

We weren’t sure how many would show up, so we kept it pretty simple: hot dogs, chips, maple leaf sugar cookies and freezies.  I painted faces, had some stickers and ‘tattoos’, Canada pencils, bubbles, glow bracelets and other small trinkets for the kiddos.  Our cb girl’s hubby played some games with them, as well.  The adults chatted, and we got to know them a little better.  Overall, it was a fun afternoon.  Best of all?  The rain held off!

The cookies were delicious. I’ve never had great luck with sugar cookies, but this recipe from wholefully.com was great. The dough was easy to work with and the finished product was soft and tender.  I followed The Pioneer Woman‘s trick that I’d seen on her show of dipping the cookies in icing instead of frosting them.  Just make sure your icing is a little on the runny side.  I used 2 cups of icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of corn starch, a teaspoon of vanilla and enough milk to make a thin paste.  Just dip, tip to let the excess slide off and place on a rack.  I had a rare moment of genius, when my son-in-love came in to help. I suggested he just poke holes in the foil seal of the sprinkles, rather than removing it completely. He then sprinkled red sugar on top. It worked perfectly!

A fantastic fireworks display completed the evening.  It was a total bonus that we could watch from our back deck!  No fighting traffic.  Comfortable.  And baby could sleep.

Today was a regular Sunday at church, with a fellowship lunch (we brought leftover hotdogs, chips and cookies–so no cooking this morning!) Now for hanging with the girls. ❤