What a wild and crazy Easter weekend we had! It started out with a huge ice storm on Thursday night, that left us without power, heat and water until Friday night. Thankfully we already had plans to head out of town on Good Friday for dinner with family, but it was quite the start to the weekend.
I’ll share more pictures in tomorrow’s post of the ice storm, but as you can see here it did some damage to our tree line along the driveway. The tops of the trees were dangerously close to touching the ground. People in town, including my parents, lost some big trees and we feel very fortunate that nothing too big came down.
These big branches fell right near where I usually park my car, but by chance Garrett had driven it earlier that day and parked it up near the house to unload groceries. By some miracle none of the branches came down on anything valuable.
Everywhere you looked every single thing was covered in a thick layer of ice. Considering it was warm enough to paint the dresser outside two weeks ago, this seems crazy.
It felt like quite the adventure to wake up to all this! Our back door was just one big sheet of ice and you couldn’t even put a key in the lock.
This side of the farmhouse got hit the worst, with almost half an inch of ice covering the walls, windows and shutters.
On Friday morning we made quick work of getting ready to leave the house. I emptied the perishables into a big laundry basket to put out in the cold mudroom, while Garrett drained all our pipes, just in case the temperatures dipped farther below zero. We packed a bag with everything we might need for the day and loaded up the dogs to head to my in-law’s house. They was no point in hanging around all day in a cold house, when they still had power on.
I packed a couple dozen eggs too, so I could make Classic Deviled Eggs to take to dinner at my aunt and uncle’s that night, and leave some for my in-laws to enjoy too. I’d never boiled our eggs before and they turned out really good! I loved seeing all the different shade of brown in the pot.
My family get a big laugh out of my making deviled eggs because you’ll never catch me eating them, but it’s one of those things that I like making because I know other people enjoy them. Garrett is always happy to be my taste tester to make sure that I have all the ingredients right.
In the afternoon, we headed out to the city for an Easter dinner at my aunt and uncle’s beautiful home in The Beaches, in Toronto’s east end. They moved here a couple of years ago, but I’ve never had the chance to stop by and see the beautiful renovations that they did. It is full of so much light and warmth.
They chose some beautiful finishes like the warm wood floors, glass banisters and big skylights. The painting hanging on the wall has always been one of my favourites and was in the hallway at their old home too. It’s a birds eye view of their cottage on the lake (where we usually celebrate Labour Day weekend!)
My aunt is a very talented ceramics artist and has always had a great eye for colour. I’m working on a plan right now to update our master bedroom this spring and I loved seeing all the bright colours she had incorporated into their own third floor suite.
This master bathroom is stunning with the big soaker tub and glass door shower. We’ve got big dreams to transform our hodge podge bathroom at the farmhouse and I’d love to create something serene like this.
The kitchen is open and airy with cupboards right up to the ceiling and a big bar at the end, where we all congregated for cocktail hour drinks and snacks.
How great is this Edison bulb chandelier? We all fit around the table and living room, for a great homemade dinner of burgers, sausages, salads and roasted vegetables. It was the perfect springtime meal to make us all excited for the warm weather ahead.
My sister made Carrot Cake Cupcakes for dessert with the best rich cream cheese icing. They were so good – an Easter dinner classic!
After such a chilly start to the long weekend, it was incredibly nice to spend a very cozy and warm evening with family celebrating the beginning of spring. With everyone all over the place for school and work, these get-togethers don’t happen as often as we’d like, but when they do it not only fills up your bellies but your hearts too. I couldn’t help thinking about how crazy it is to think that we’ll have another family member joining us oh so soon and that we have so very much to be thankful about.
For the rest of the weekend, my brother stayed with us at the farmhouse for the first time. The dogs were so so very happy that he was there. They absolutely adore him and stick to him like glue. Cola even tried to go home with him last night. We hadn’t seen each other since we’d been in Florida in January, so it was nice to have him here for a visit. We went to see Batman vs. Superman, lounged around the house, ate lots of good food and caught up. It was a lazy, hang out weekend, which is exactly what all of us needed after the excitement of Thursday and Friday.
