Our 8th Anniversary Date

As promised, here's a post about our date at Beaujena's French Table restaurant. David booked these reservations back in March and it was well worth the wait. We had a seven course meal that took us three hours to enjoy. We were seated by Beaujena herself. Because we were celebrating our anniversary, we were taken to a private booth that was ours for the evening.

This lovely restaurant is owned and staffed by husband and wife team. They wanted to run a business that didn't run them, so to speak. They're open two nights a week and in the summer run a food truck three days a week. You can follow on Facebook for current truck menus and location. Such a sweet couple and they made the evening thoroughly enjoyable. What really makes this restaurant stand out is the surprise menu. You choose if you want a five or seven course and that's it. You and the rest of the patrons enjoy the same menu. This is what has allowed the proprietors to run it all by themselves. I have always wanted to try a french restaurant, but I'm intimidated when it comes to ordering off a menu, so this was perfect.

We forgot to take a picture of the second course, but here's what we ate. My David was kind enough to document each course so I could blog about it. I love that he "gets" me and supports me in all my craziness. (As always, click on the picture to enlarge)

Course #1

Crostini with duck liver pate, goose liver foie gras topped with creamed golden caviar

Course #2

Creamed cucumber and fresh fennel soup with dijon and creme fraiche topping

Course #3

Corn pasta in a creamed garlic sauce with fresh mint and pine nuts

Course #4

Wild pacific salmon with honey tarragon sauce served with quinoa and zucchini

Course #5

Beef, pork and chicken liver with apricot "french meatloaf", Creme fraiche blue cheese gravy, fresh new potatoes and asparagus

Course #6

Mixed greens salad with a white balsamic and olive oil vinaigrette topped with pear, blue cheese and candied walnuts

Course #7

Whipped cheesecake, frozen and topped with blueberries and blueberry sauce

We also had this little gentleman join us on our date. Beaujena was a little skeptical about his lasting through the meal, but when we left she said that people seemed surprised when we left with the baby that they didn't even realize was there. 

Little things that added to our experience... being so welcomed by the proprietors, being served dessert by chef Randy (in his freshly saved chef's coat) with happy anniversary wishes, being seated in the private booth, trying new food and taking our time to enjoy the whole experience.

If you are in Winnipeg and would like to eat at Beaujena's, we have $10 off coupons up for grabs.

A Sad Story With a Happy Ending

The week before we went to Alberta, we were generously offered a Little Tykes toddler car bed. We gladly accepted. We weren't able to connect in person prior to our leaving, so the bed (which is plastic) was left safely on the back deck. Our landlords moved it into their garage for us, but sadly a cat sprayed it first. If you've never smelled cat spray, it has a very strong ammonia smell and it doesn't smell pleasant at all. Well, we googled a solution  - a mixture of vinegar and baking soda and my David scrubbed the bed. He sent me down to do a smell test and it smelled like vinegar to me. A quick rinse and up we felt like we could move it upstairs. David ran to Walmart and picked up a mattress and sheet, then cut a new base board and voila! The littles went to bed, Malachi excited about his big boy bed, and we called it done. Well, at about 4:30 AM, we woke up to the sound of Abigail getting sick in the bathroom. After she was cleaned up we went to put her back to bed and realized how BAAAAAD the bedroom smelled of cat spray. EWWWW! Poor Malachi lost his bed to an outdoor time out. Abigail got sick again and it suddenly became a looooong morning. Back to Google and we decided to try a pet store product "guaranteed" to work. Bottle number one ran out before we could get rid of the smell. Half of bottle number two and we were ready to try again. UGH! It stunk up the bedroom... AGAIN! Bottle number two proved to be ineffective when we realized that the spray was inside the moulded plastic sides. We had to give up, though not sure what to do with the bed, we left it on the deck until we could come up with a solution. Our lovely landlady came up with a solution...

$15 worth of sand later and our littles LOVE IT!

In other news, we were generously offered another toddler bed by another friend and it's being delivered to us on Saturday! Hooray!

Checking In

Well, we survived our trip and our re-entering into "regular" life. Our littles did great on the trip and so did our little Lady Blue. We're very blessed. Let's get to it!

• Great news! I finally can share it publicly that my David it starting a new job! He will be an Education Assistant at the King's School. We're very happy about it and I know he'll be a great fit for the job. He starts on September 4
• More great news! I got the whole licence thing worked out. It was a long drawn out process, but now I have my learners and as soon as I've had enough practice, I'll take my road test. Turns out that it's a challenge to get practice time in, but we're getting there.

• Our sister, Crystal, made a lovely bride and we're happy to welcome Matt to the family! Their wedding was the reason for our recent road trip.

• Our little flower girl had the time of her life. After dancing the night away with her cousin, Liam, we were leaving the wedding reception and Abby cried "but MOM, he was so handsome!" 

• Sad news: remember my lovely and new Mei Tai? It's been lost... WAAAAH! It got left behind at the wedding reception and has disappeared. Ugh! I don't have the heart to do another one like it, but it will be replaced... possibly next month.
• David and I got new cell phones. I didn't think I'd like the ones we got, (I have an iPhone taste on an Android budget) but it turns out that I'm quite enjoying it. It'll just take me a bit of time to learn it all.

• My Bestie had a beautiful baby boy and honoured us by bringing him into the world before we left on our trip. I am craving for some time with Jenni and hope to have a girl date with her soon!

• I think it's time to plan handmade Christmas gifts. It takes time and I don't want to be scrambling at the last minute.
• My David took me on a great Anniversary date. We celebrated 8 years together. He booked our reservations way back in March! I'll be writing a whole post dedicated to the night. It was so great.

• Summer list has been on the slow side lately. We're re-thinking the whole thing for next year. I'll share it when we have it planned. I'll do a final check in soon.
• Started (seriously) using the Wii Fit lately. It was a Christmas present from my Sister and nephew, but it's been sadly neglected until now. I'm tired of my baby belly and ill-fitting clothes! We'll see how disciplined I can be. Thankfully, my David is doing it with me and gets me motivated.

Well, I've run out of time. Time to get back to Mama mode. Note to self for next post... 

1. baby's build-a-bears
2. a special post card
3. a sad story with a happy ending

Stay tuned for these stories and more!

Packing List

I forgot to show you  the packing list I made. Another "necessity". I'll likely tweak it after this trip, but then I won't need to make a new list again.

click to enlarge