Mommy-Symmie Night

Sym was supposed to be away all this week, first at her grandparents’ house, then her dad’s, and finally a visit to her stepmom’s parents’ house this weekend. All in all she was going ot be gone for a week and a half, but yesterday I decided I was missing her too much, so I borrowed her back from her dad for a mommy-Symmie evening.

We painted polka dots on our nails…

Symmie's Primary Polka Dots
Symmie's & My Primary Polka Dots

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Peachy Keen & Right Said Red; Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow and Blue Me Away! Also please don’t forget to vote for me in the StyledOn Hard as Nails DIY Manicure Contest!

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… we watched the second half of the third season of our favourite show, Parks and Recreation (Symmie likes April best)…

… and finally we went down to Sunset Beach to watch the second night of fireworks for the Celebration of Light! Taylor was supposed to come with and take pictures, but he’s been working 12 hour days (nights) this week so he was too tired and grumpy. It’s unfortunate because the fireworks were AWESOME and Sym and I had a really great time, although next week she wants to wear ear muffs!

Earmuffs!

And the Winner Is…

I want to thank everyone who entered my giveaway. In my mind you are all winners. Except there’s only one ACTUAL winner, and that winner (generated by the random number generator on Random.org) is….

And the Winner Is
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LUCKY NUMBER 31, ERIN!

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I guess you’ve got some deciding to do 🙂 To everyone else, thank you so much and remember, you can still order your own banner at a discount by using the code UNICORN15

note: I started the numbers at 3 instead of 1 because the first two comments on the post weren’t entries.

This Whole Weekend

I there anything better than a long weekend? In the middle of the summer when it’s sunny and gorgeous and there are tons of amazing events going on? I didn’t think so! Luckily after complaining about being sick and sore I became miraculously healed by the power of the internet so I was able to go out and have fun!

Friday night was the Davie Street Pride Weekend Dance Party, which I wanted to go to but then these happened…

Friday Night
Mint Lemonade + Gin

Hendrick’s gin + my own homemade mint lemonade of deliciousness (recipe at the end of this post) + club soda. This is LITRALLY my favourite thing I’ve ever had to drink, and after a couple few of them all I wanted to do was eat junk food and watch Tom Cruise movies. If that sounds like your kind of evening you should totally drink these!

I decided not to go to the farmer’s market this weekend and instead spent most of Saturday lazing around; I think we ran some errands and I must have eaten something but I can’t even remember now. I think it all got wipe out by the four-hour nap I took in the evening, oops. I woke up just in time to get down to the Sunset Beach Park to watch China’s entry in the Celebration of Light, which is a fireworks competition Vancouver holds every summer. Unfortunately Taylor chose not to bring his camera so the only pictures I have are from mine, and they all look like this:

Poorly Shot Fireworks

Sorry, China. Okay I have some that are a teensy bit better.

Poorly Shot Fireworks
Poorly Shot Fireworks
Poorly Shot Fireworks
Poorly Shot Fireworks

Wow, look at that bokeh. OKAY DON’T WORRY I’m pretty sure Taylor IS bringing his camera on Wednesday night so I’ll have some better pictures to share of Spain’s entry later this week.

Vancouver Pride Parade 2011

Sunday was everyone’s favourite day of the summer: Pride Parade Day! Okay confession time: I had NEVER been to the parade before. I KNOW IT’S CRAZY. I’ve always either been out of town, or lazy, or dating someone who hates parades. This year I was like FORGET IT I’M GOING and I got myself and Kichou all ready

Pride Dog

Just kidding Kichou didn’t come. But I wore my rainbow striped tank top with my bright orange maxi skirt and later I put Kichou’s rainbow lei around my topknot and felt like the Mymble’s daughter in the play Moominpappa writes in Moominsummer Madness (if you didn’t get that reference you should just really go read all the Moomin books).

Happily for all of you Taylor DID bring his camera, and took hundreds and hundreds of pictures, many of which you can see here (begrudging warning: there are boobs, scantily dressed dudes and local politicians in that link).

Vancouver Pride Parade 2011
Vancouver Pride Parade 2011
Vancouver Pride Parade 2011
Vancouver Pride Parade 2011
Vancouver Pride Parade 2011

This parrot was Taylor’s favourite costume.

Vancouver Pride Parade 2011Vancouver Pride Parade 2011

A unicorn!

Vancouver Pride Parade 2011
Vancouver Pride Parade 2011
Vancouver Pride Parade 2011
Vancouver Pride Parade 2011

After the parade was over we went shoe shopping, then went home to cool off by eating a million pounds of watermelon before taking the dogs to the park and for a long walk around the seawall.

Dogs in the Park
Dogs in the Park
Dogs in the Park

Since Sym is away this whole week we didn’t have our usually Sunday evening junk food & tv night, although she did call me to sing the “Make a Man Out of You” song from Mula (one of my personal favourites).

Mint Lemonade Recipe
1 cup sugar
24 mint leaves
5 cups water
3 cups fresh lemon juice (Martha Stewart seems to think you can get this much lemon juice from, like, 8 lemons, but it took me 20)

In a small saucepan over high heat combine sugar, 1 cup of water and mint leaves. bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat, allow to simmer for ten minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Strain out mint leaves and combine resulting mint sugar syrup with lemon juice and remaining 4 cups of water.