Breakfast - overnight oatmeal

Breakfast - a necessary evil. 
Most of the time I can barely get out the door and the added stress of making a breakfast that is delicious and quick is not something I enjoy. 

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this recipe, Overnight Fridge Berry Oatmeal. I don't normally eat oatmeal in the mornings but this looks so delicious and easy that I had to give it a try! 

I had to change parts of the recipe so I will have to let you know how it turned out tomorrow. As you can see from the pictures, it made a lot! Even though I cut down on the proportions, I had better like it because I have enough for a month of Sundays.

Below is the original recipe with my changes in bold.

Overnight Fridge Berry Oatmeal

3 cups Old Fashioned Oats - We didn't have Old Fashioned Oats so I used Quaker Quick Oats, and only 2 cups because 3 seemed like a huge amount! 

2 cups Vanilla Yogurt (I prefer vanilla, but you could use any flavor) - I used 1 cup of vanilla 

1-2 cups frozen mixed berries - We had fresh raspberries in the fridge so I throw some in! I tried a small handful, and then added more until I was happy with the amount. 

1/2 cup apple juice (apple juice is more subtle, but you can use any juice you like) - I didn't have apple juice so I used orange. I did put 1/2 cups of juice in, but from the bit I sampled this might have been too much. 

Optional mix-ins: 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 Tbls. ground flaxseed. - I added some cinnamon, but I only a touch. I used the Korintje Cinnamon from The Pampered Chef, which is really strong so I added a small amount. 

Mix all ingredients in medium sized tupperware container with lid. Keep in the fridge overnight. Top oatmeal with a drizzle of honey, cinnamon, granola, roasted nuts, or coconut. Serve cold.

2 cups instead of 3

Adding the 1 cup of yogurt.

Adding the orange juice. I mixed the yogurt and oatmeal together first, then mixed the orange juice in.

It was a bit runny, so I added a bit more oatmeal. 

Adding the first bunch of raspberries but I added quite a bit more later.

This is practically all of the cinnamon I added. I mixed this in and then added a tiny bit more. 

It filled this entire container, so it had better be delicious!!

I will update this later with the results! Hopefully it turns out better than the rainbow cake, which I still have to write about....

My super, awesome, fantastic birthday

I recently celebrated my birthday and I honestly cannot remember having a better birthday! Kirk came over on Friday after work for my 'party' as I was visiting my aunt for my actual birthday. 
This is what Kirk saw when he went around back. 

Yes, I did go to Wal-Mart and buy three water guns for my birthday. Jen, Kirk and I used the new guns, and Dad found the large pump-up one in the shed. And it was awesome! You should all be jealous that you were not here. I created two safe zones at the hoses so we could fill them up without getting attacked, but Kirk did not read the signs and sprayed us anyways. 

I missed the memo about making a menacing look

 Trying to take a picture was a challenge. 

Attempt 1 - Jen! Stop that!

Attempt 2 - Hey! Who sprayed me?!

Attempt 3 - Good enough

This is my attempt at making a rainbow cake. It clearly was a disaster, but that is a story for another day. 
 

I took the train to visit my lovely aunt and had a wonderful time for my birthday! I was able to see my cousin's piano recital, and my other cousin's swimming lesson. I had a fantastic lunch my birthday and was given a beautiful sundress! It was a great birthday! 

What fun and fantastic things have you done for your birthday? 

Share in the comments! 

Things I would have Tweeted if I wanted to bombard everyone with Tweets all day

And I don't even like tweeting that much. I am never sure if I need to include a #hashtag, or if it is ok not to include one. So these are more of..... 'short remarks on events that occurred throughout my day'. Maybe you won't feel so bad about your day after reading these, or you will become super jealous on how awesome my days are if they are like this everyday. {Which they are not, it is actually very hard to describe a 'typical' day here so I am going to include a disclaimer that says this is not a portrayal of a typical day}


Disclaimer: The following 'short remarks on events that occurred throughout my day' are in no way a portrayal of a 'typical' day for me.

• Maybe I should just pretend to still be asleep so I can continue reading my book.

• SOMEONE STOLE THE WHEELBARROW! (You know, the one we take the garbage down to the street in). Oh wait, Jen just put it away this morning.

• I hope we have stock in a paper towel company: these cats make a huge mess.

• Nothing says ‘change your baking plans’ more than finding an entire mouse skeleton in the container you were planning on using.

• Being surprised to find something where it should be is never a good way to show your appreciation for your mum’s cleaning.

• Standing at the door for three minutes, waiting for the dog to come in, finally giving up only to have that same dog bark one minute later to be let in.

• I am not embarrassed to admit that I am so very excited to register for my classes! 

• Nor am I embarrassed to admit that I have three different schedules laid out in case I can’t get into a certain course.

• Does asking your boyfriend to quit work so you can spend every single day together qualify as being too clingy?

• Taking rain jackets on a beautiful, sunny day with no clouds in sight is sadly not the craziest thing my mum has done.

• Quote of the day: 'Now that is an aggressive fountain'.

• Cherry passion Tic Tacs, why are you so tasty?

• You know your baking skills are atrocious when you don’t think twice about purchasing a cake mix in case baking the cake from scratch doesn’t work out.

• Buying clothes at the grocery store; something just feels so wrong about it but that certainly didn’t stop me!

• And no, that wasn’t me buying shoes from the children’s section. 

• 
  

Baby, let's cruise away from here

I have been busy recently editing a video for Father's Day of the cruise and I finally finished on the weekend. I will be posting the video shortly, but I am going to also be posting pictures and details from each port, which I am assuming will take me a long time. The plan is to do a cruise post every Monday {Yes, I realize I posted this on Tuesday instead of Monday, but I will normally posting on Mondays}.


Let's begin with the beginning......


Barcelona, Spain. 
On May 4th we departed the Toronto airport on a 8 hour flight to Barcelona. The cruise did not depart until the 6th so we had an extra day and night in Barcelona to see the city. What we realized very quickly when we got out of the taxi that dropped us off 'just down the street' from our hotel was that we were nowhere near our hotel. It also took about three minutes of pulling suitcases up a cobblestone street that may or may not have been the correct street that we were on one heck of an adventure!

We clearly do not travel light!

Barcelona streets

Park Guell

Park Guell

One of the many flower stands in La Rambla

Sagrada Familia

The subway system - it is a wonder we didn't get lost!

Walking to the port! 

I have 497 pictures from Barcelona so this is only a taste, but I think this provides enough of a feel for the port without being too photo heavy.


Thoughts on Barcelona:
We ran into a few hiccups in Barcelona, from a 30 minute walk to our hotel to churches being closed earlier than normal, but we were able to see a lot more of the city in a more relaxed pace than the majority of the other ports. That being said, I did not really appreciate the Gaudi architecture which was the majority of the sites we visited. I loved walking through the tiny streets and realizing that we were actually in Barcelona! Our hotel was near La Rambla, which is a huge pedestrian street full of vendors and people. We mainly used the subway system around there and enjoyed those streets. It was a great location to enjoy the atmosphere. Maybe it was jet lag, maybe I was just anxious to get the cruise started but I only enjoyed Barcelona, not loved it. 


Next time I will post about Monte Carlo, Monaco!