Family Valentine's Day

Today is Family Day in Canada - our first Family Day. I like this concept. Everyone gets off work and you're not obligated to buy anything for anyone. This afternoon we saw The Good Dinosaur at the Fox Theater. Like a typical Pixar movie, it made me cry, several times. I loved it.

        Yesterday was Valentine's Day and we spent it exploring the beach along Lake Ontario and pre-Family Day activities on Queen Street. The night before, I told everyone I wanted us to go to church on Sunday and then out for brunch afterward, but like most Sundays, we slept past church time so we went straight to brunch at ViVethe. Poached eggs and crab cakes for me, the special omlette for E., Cesars for us both and french toast and pancakes for the kids. They even left their game devices at home and played an old-fashioned game of tic-tac-toe with forks and knives and sugar packets.

And then we went down to the beach...

and found ice puddles to skate on...

and listened to the ice crunch under our feet as we walked on the edge of the shore...

and admired the icicles.

We saw art installations erected around life guard stations.  We had read about this online and were excited to see it in person. This "sauna" was supposed to be a "warming station" but we couldn't figure out how to get in it and certainly felt no warmth when we were  near it. Maybe we missed the switch to turn it on?

so we crunched on...

and came upon this one. It reminded me of a jellyfish.

We saw this one being built. Performance art!

This rope-hut was my favorite.

Inside: 

 

We didn't see any of the installations beyond Kew Gardens because we stopped to check out the Family Day festivities in the park and on Queen St.

 

 

There were ice sculptures,

and an ice block wall you could build and paint. There were a few games for the kids and a photo booth for families.

We were cold though, so we went to Castro's pub and warmed up with Absynth (for us) and vegetarian appetizers.

We caught the tail end of activities at Ivan Forrest Gardens.

My boy said he's too old for bouncy tents. Luckily he's not tool old for ice cream at Ed's. No one is too old for that.

 

On the way home we stopped in at Rowan for some homespun incense and handcrafted Lebanese sauerkraut, then we stopped in the Chopping Block for red wine and truffle sausages (to go with the sauerkraut) for dinner. E bought me this Canadian Penny and purple Jasper bead necklace at Arts on Queen...

It looks kind of like a heart - a lovely reminder of a wonderful day with my family.