As a light snow came down this morning, I was reminded of the snow storm that blew in the day our youngest was born. This time of year is often like that. The following year on her 1st birthday it was 33 degrees and the hottest day of the summer!

When you have three kids 25+ birthday celebrations over the years are a blur. I never really considered myself a successful birthday party Mom. I always focused too much on the food and not enough on the activities or logistics.

I would say that now, I think we finally have the formula right. D and I cook the requested menu and dessert for the birthday dinner. And what is really fun is how the Wee Ones contribute to the event.

They joined us Saturday evening so that they could help make chocolate trifle but also so that J1 and J2 could have one last evening out before their new baby arrives later this month.

The youngest was put on chocolate pudding duty with Poppa and the eldest on whipped cream with me. The latter doesn’t care for chocolate (if you can believe it) even though she did enjoy chocolate Easter eggs recently.

The requested menu was Meatballs in Bolognaise Sauce and Carbonara pasta. The latter being D’s specialty. Good thing we cooked Keto the last time we all were together.

As the Wee Ones helped Poppa put the candles on the trifle, one of them said “Rainbow-my favourite colour”!

These two have a very special bond. The Wee One organizes the time when we share what we love the most about the birthday person (the key factor why birthdays are always a breeze these days…). She said that Boo “lives in her heart”. No matter how great the food or fabulous the presents, it is this sharing time that is always the most special gift of all.

I think that the Wee Ones were surprised when they successfully blew out all the candles in one breath!

Kath’s quote: “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I am living, my baby you’ll be”. Robert Munsch

Love never fails.

 

 

 

 

This was the day that the other half of my family arrived on the island. Unfortunately, as I wrote in my journal that day, Sister #3, Brother #3 and his wife were already two hours late. 

So instead of heading to the ferry dock we changed our plan and went to church instead.

We took in an 8 am church service at Guadalope Church across from Mango. We almost tried the church café but opted instead for Mango.

D couldn’t resist the pablano chilies.

I had Mango quesadillas. They were stuffed with potato, bacon, onion and cheese. I could only eat two triangles and took the rest home.

We have enjoyed watching the growth of Mango over the years. When we first started going, we would stand in line down the sidewalk to get into their little seating area. D orders the same thing, each and every time we visit.

I enjoyed a nap in the hammock and then a long stare at the ocean’s blues and then we were off to the ferry.

It was a busy day in town.

We met our DIL’s parents D and V who we also expected that day and then on the very next ferry my siblings and a new friend Rena arrived.

We walked Sister #3 and Rena to their Air BnB which I was very impressed with. Check out this gorgeous kitchen!

Mango Margs and Fish Tacos at Bally Hoo were in order-a long standing tradition for many of us.

Later that same day, we met Matteo at his fabulous pizza restaurant-Pizza and A…More. Check out the adventure with this link. Pizza and A …More.

Kath’s quote: “Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity”.-Voltaire

Love never fails

 

 

When my side of the family gets together for a family celebration, it is no easy fete to pull off. On this occasion two sisters and a sister in law got together for a planning meeting over lunch (courtesy of the latter).

We were treated to fancy sandwiches, a orange almond salad and strawberry angel food cake! I think that there is some irony here: we are certainly a family who uses food as a love language.

Since we are a family of 45ish, we had to rent a room for our Easter dinner! In the foreground are our recent transplants from Australia with more on the way later this summer.

An egg hunt was arranged by A and A and the little girls had a blast.

The youngest of the grandchildren (a boy!) was too little to participate this year.

One of the Wee Ones didn’t make the little girls pic so here she is feasting on watermelon! And another is missing that I didn’t get a picture of.

We had access to a rooftop patio and enjoyed one of the first balmy days of spring. Pictured here is the Frenchman and…another Frenchman!

My handsome brother and my handsome husband! There sure are handsome men in my family!

The food, as is typical of our get-togethers, was amazing; ham, peppercorn meatballs, vegan meatballs, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, non dairy mashed potatoes, pasta salad, broccoli salad, Greek salad and more!’

There were so many desserts too: death by chocolate, rice krispie bars, skor bars, a brown sugar and almond wafer that I have loved all my life and these delectable cupcakes!

My amazing brother-in-law went through the frustration of getting the live stream of the Jet’s game (frustrating in more ways than one). When food doesn’t draw us together, sports does. So we were meant to be together either way.

Sister #2 and her husband were away for Christmas and they missed the family get together so much that she arranged for us all to be together at Easter. She added that we assembled to honour our late Momma and her desire for us always to find a reason to gather. I sure hope Mom knows that there will soon (next month) be another baby to add to the assembly. And so goes our family legacy.

Kath’s quote: Our family is a circle of strength and love…with every birth and union the circle grows, every crisis faced together makes the circle stronger.-Anonymous

Love never fails.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1 February 23

We typically stay in the little apartment style unit at Luna D’Miel with it’s separate kitchen/living/dining area, bathroom and bedroom. But the year previous when we were making arrangements for the current year, we were informed by Mario that Isabel the owner might be renovating and adding a second floor. If this was going to happen we wouldn’t have access to the special apartment unit.

So we stayed in Unit One which felt kind of like a second honeymoon as the first time D came with me to the island, we occupied that room.

We love everything about Luna d’Miel. To be right on the ocean side of the island is splendid: always a breeze, staring at the crashing waves and privacy.

But we love the street side of the apartments too. There is a natural canopy of trees which protects us from light rain showers and offers some coolness to the hottest part of the day. There once was a time when we could see the sunset in all its glory from our lawn chairs in front of Unit 1. Now trees and bushes on the south end of the airport strip have obstructed our view so we have to walk a couple of spots to the north to get a good vantage.

I had a reasonable sleep but D did not.

We were up with the sunrise and saw its first light from our bed.

We walk into Centro for a small grocery shop and then to Bally Hoo for breakfast since we missed meeting friends there when we were so late the evening prior.

D thought that there were too many peppers in his western omelet and I thought that there was too much raw garlic in my Spanish omelet. 

But the view was wonderful and once again we felt like we were home. I took a cab back to Luna with a small grocery bag. D waited for our youngest daughter and her husband to arrive on the ferry.

In mean time he bought a ¼ chicken for us to have as a snack since neither of us really ate our omelets.

Boo and the Frenchman joined us at Luna to sit in the sun and get caught up. Then they headed home (Xbulu Ha) for naps and showers.

Just like that….it looked like rain.

We all met later for dinner at Lola Valentina’s (see bog post here) including one of my SILs and her sister. We had a lovely evening with them and the food was amazing.

Kath’s quote: “I believe in the Ocean curing all bad moods. I believe in the waves wiping away worries. I believe in seashells bringing good luck. I believe in toes in the sand, grounding my soul.”-Mystic Mermaid

Love never fails.

 

Since we had purchased our flight and our accommodation months in advance, we had a very long time to anticipate what our arrival day would be like. Up early, a quick flight to Calgary and then onto Cancun soon after. We had no way of knowing that our departure from Calgary would be delayed for so many hours. The pilot and his first officer made a routine walk and visual assessment of the plane and decided that it would require repair. We found this interesting as we could tell that it was a brand smacking new plane. This decision was made while we were sitting on the tarmac. When the crew found out that it wasn’t a quick fix, we were deplaned so another plane could be brought in the place of our original plane. I am sure that it doesn’t have any connection to the Boeing 737 Max recall but it was indeed  the same plane. In all we were 5 ish hours late. Best laid plans…..

We thought that we might catch the sunset on the ferry to Isla but instead we watched it set from the plane long before we began our descent. When we arrived in the dark to the ferry we were so grateful to be so close to our paradise, that we made the most of it and took pictures in the dark instead.

Isla…here we come!

We hopped right into a cab and directed it to our “home” on the airport strip. I have lost count of how many years D and I have stayed at the Luna d’ Miel Apartments. The sights, sounds and the feel of the breeze on the ocean side is exactly the same  whenever we arrive and that is what it makes it home.

We had planned ahead and picked up a bottle of wine at the Calgary airport, when we knew that we would arrive after our favourite wine store would be closed. We sat  and sipped and reflected of the blessing that it was to be on Isla again.

Kath’s quote: “Wherever you go, go with all of your heart.” -Confucius

Love never fails.