My 40th birthday

I'm way overdo for this post, my birthday was on April 19th when I turned 40! It all started the weekend before my birthday. My hubby prepared a not so secret birthday party at the Heart in Crown close to our place. He invited friends and family, and it was a really fun night. The fun started the night before that though, I picked up my niece at school and she did a manicure for me, then the Saturday morning we went downtown and she was working at one of the booths (Arbonne) at the National Woman's show, and what was really great is she was able to get me and 4 friends free tickets to go. She had to show up earlier so I met up with two friends for breakfast, we then went to line up and ran into my friend and her daughter in line. We didn't stay with them long, it was so crowded in there that it was hard to all stick together. We did check out the whole thing and got to try some wine, try a few foods, and bought a few things. Then once my niece was done we went out for a late lunch and then my niece and I came back home to take a nap and then get ready for the party. We were fashionably late. My niece did my makeup and we headed to the party. Had supper there, lots of drinks and had a really great time. My brother and his family put together a really great box of things to help me into my 40's

It was amazing, laughed a lot!  I got a lot of great gifts, some Pioneer woman bowls from my friend, her daughter got me the smaller bowls and a cookbook holder. My in-laws got me a gift card to Chapters, which I of course already spent, I got 2 cookbooks from Clean eating (it's a magazine but they came out with two books), and a book called Into the Forest, I saw the movie a few weeks before and it was really good so I really want to read the book. My mother in law and aunts and uncles all chipped in and gave me cash which was perfect for the gift my hubby gave me, which was train tickets and hotel for us to go to Québec City.

So the following weekend started early, we both took the Thursday and Friday off (April 19-20) to head to Québec. The train ride was awesome, so comfortable in business class, and they fed us a late breakfast

It was really good!  Then we got to have a late lunch

Again very delicious, and that is red wine with my lunch. I had a glass before that to. When we got to Québec City, we walked over to our hotel, it was just a few blocks away. We settled in a bit and then since we sat for so long we decided to walk around to see what was close by, which was a lot. Here's a rink we saw

We also went into a bookstore that I saw. I really do love books and when I see a really nice looking bookstore I love to check it out

It was called Librairie Pantoute, it was beautiful in there! The picture doesn't really show how amazing it was. We then found a place to eat and have a few drinks.

Pub St-Patrick was a nice little bar to sit, chat, watch the hockey game and the food was so good!! We both had the same thing but mine was salmon only and hubby got a mix of salmon and beef, it's a paté,  with toasted bread, salad and some fries. He got a beer and I got a sangria.

Day 2 in Québec was a lot of fun, we only went to McDonald's for breakfast, then walked around. It was raining a bit but nothing to bad. We stayed close by to check out the Plains of Abraham

It was pretty cool to check out, beautiful views around as well

The boardwalk was cool to walk along, we saw boat, and there were a few other people walking as well. We then stopped in for some lunch

It was a very good pizza! We hung out there for a while, checked out a few stores and then went to the hotel to take a nap and then get ready for our supper. We did a reservation before going to the pub the night before, and we went to an Italian restaurant. It was our fancy night out to celebrate my birthday. I wore a dress, and he had dress pants and a nice shirt and it was really nice and the food was delicious! I know I took a picture of our food but for some reason my phone lost those photos so I'll just tell you what we had. I had the lasagna cause it's my absolute favorite food, and he had a spaghetti. We also first started with the bruchetta for an appetizer, it was so good! Here is the dessert that we shared

It was really good! We shared a bottle a wine with our supper. We then went to a pub to have a few drinks, chat and watch the hockey game.

3rd day of course started with some breakfast. We went to a really small restaurant. There weren't many places to sit and it was crowded but the food was really good. It's a buckwheat crepe with bananas and chocolate!

The above place is called Morrin, it started off as the very first prison, then it turned into a school, then they built the very first English library. I'm in love with that library, it's so beautiful!!

They even had a book that you can sign, and of course I did

We then got a tour of the prison

The above cell me and a few girls that were also there for the tour went in and she closed both doors, so the bars, and that redish door. It was really dark in there, there was just to say a bit of light going in, but not much. The rooms aren't very big either, but that was for the really bad prisoners when they would put them in confinement. I know I would go crazy being locked up in there for a long time. We also got to see a class room they had in there

It was a very interesting tour and found out so much information. Something to she shared with us is the library that they have, has 25,000 books. The ones on the second floor are very, very old, so if you want to look at them, you have to ask, and then you are supervised and have to wear gloves and everything. You can bring it home, it stays in the library. It was an amazing tour!

Not far from Morin I saw another library I wanted to see, this one was a lot more modern, but it was still really nice, especially the huge windows

It was so bright and beautiful in there. They had a round table in the center also where people can sit and connect their laptops and work. We also went to check out the market, so many little stores there.

There was one that was Christmas stuff only, I made sure to take lots of pictures to show my friend, I know she would love to buy the whole store. She would also love the kitchen store I saw, but my favorite part in that store was this

I wanted to buy it all! I didn't buy any but I was so tempted to though! We wanted to head back towards our hotel so we can eat supper and rather then walk all those hills we took the tran

Never been on one, and it was pretty cool. Scary a bit cause I don't like heights to much but it was a cool experience. For supper we went to a pub and shared their poutine and nachos

For sure something different as a poutine but it was really good. It's baked small potatoes, some ground beef, an onion ring on top and some gravy and cheese curds. The nacho was really good as well.

Our last day there, we just took our time getting ready. I stepped out to go back to the first library I found to buy something, and for breakfast we just picked up a drink and muffin from Tim Horton's and we checked out and walked over to the train station. We didn't have to long to wait and they fed us again

It was delicious! They were more generous this time around with the wine, and I was starting to feel quite good so I drank some water, and the food helped as well. It was an amazing trip! We would love to go again but in the summer when there's more things open, especially the patios. Best birthday present!!

Since then we have been keeping busy with work, volleyball, and a huge thank you to my friend and her friends, I got to go to the Bon Jovi concert for free. It was amazing!! I've been making simpler meals and snacks so still in the kitchen, but just not as much as I use to. Summer is coming though and I'm looking forward to going to the market to get fresh fruits and vegetables. Here's a lunch I made the other week

Still really loving the bento box. So my lunch was potato salad with some bacon, carrots and celery with humus, some pineapple, and a brownie cupcake I got from the woman's show, it's made with healthy ingredients, including black beans, and the made good is my new favorite snack, I got to try it at the woman's show and ended up buying one of each kind, they are so tasty! Today I prepared a few things in the kitchen, I chopped up a jicama, it's been a while since I have had one so I cut them up into bite size pieces, and I'm thinking maybe guacamole on top or a salsa, and I pre-chopped some red peppers and last night I cooked up some sausages on the BBQ and I cooked extra, some turkey sausage to also pack up for my lunch this week. I'm thinking to cook up some quinoa to have with the sausage.

Well it's almost supper time now, so I should go do that, which I'm making pasta. I'm using brown rice pasta with a vodka sauce and ground spicy sausage with onions and mushrooms. Haven't made it in a while and it's one of our favorites. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and to all the mom's out there, hope you all have a wonderful Mother's day tomorrow! I wish my mom was here so I can celebrate with her xo