Earth Hour Gone Wild

It’s wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t pretty, but it was a lot of fun!

Our Saturday started off with a trip to the Sugar Bush. We headed out to The Cataraqui Conservation Area with my cousin T and her two boys, who were visiting for the weekend. It was a beautiful, sunny, cold day. We had a great time on the wagon ride, the kids cut wood, ate an obscene amount of maple taffy and pancakes and then, unfortunately our fingers and toes started to freeze, and we had to head in.

Early morning fun

Waiting for our ride

The Sugar Bush
Just 10 minutes outside of Kingston, The Cataraqui Conservation Area is a great weekend destination all year round. I really recommend the Chickadee Trail, where kids can feed the Chickadees from 50 cent bags of bird seed!

After a trip to the bookstore, a viewing of the movie Uncle Buck (Hysterical….John Hughes will be missed!), a backyard soccer game, and a nap (hallelujah!) we began our earth hour preparations…..

I love earth hour. It so silly, and I’m not sure why, but I get so excited when this day rolls around every spring. Last year we celebrated with our friends Jay and Les, our candle-lit dinner lasting into the wee-hours of the morning. This year was a bit more frenzied….we kept the kids up late and included them in the dinner preparations. We made homemade pizzas and salad by candle light.

The idea: inspired

The reality: Candle light + Cooking + Kids = Chaos

Pizza Making

Making his own dinner.....in the dark!
By the time we sat down to eat, my sister was shouting, “Breathe! We all need to breathe!”.

In the end, it was a great evening. We had a delicious supper, all together, toasting earth hour and having fun. Dining in the dark always seems to inspire silly chit-chat and giggles! During dinner, Winnie blurted out, for the first time, “LOVE!” with reference to her two cousins (not her mama…..) and Myles declared Saturday “the greatest day of his life”. Not bad…..

The end of the evening...

To learn more about what others, across Canada, were doing during Earth Hour click here.

A Couple of Notes:

The Pizza Dough we used was from Pasta Genoa downtown on Wellington Street. We adore this little hole-in-the-wall Italian deli. This place is the real deal. It’s our go-to shop for amazingly fresh pesto, pasta and SPELT pizza dough. At $2 a pop, we stock our freezer with dough, for an easy dinner in a pinch. You should call and order the spelt ahead though, they don’t always have it on hand….

Last thing: Late Saturday night, with Jamie and the babes tucked in bed, T and I managed to sneak out with a couple of girlfriends for a catch-up and some live music. Ianspotting a Kingston favorite, was playing at The Merchant Tap House. "Dubbed Kingston's Reggae Sensation by Alan Neal of CBC Radio" they provided a fun, energetic soundtrack for the evening.....we'd definitely head out to see them again!

A great weekend in an amazing city!