Dance Life & Thai Chicken Pasta

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful… This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.

Agnes De Mille

Another year of dance has come and gone! Nowadays I honestly can’t even picture what life would be like without dance. HBear has always been so well-rounded, she tries everything and she’s up for anything! Over the years she has enjoyed and excelled at T-ball, gymnastic, curling, Girl Guides, yoga, soccer, coding club, tennis, golf, swimming, rock climbing, sailing, paddle boarding, guitar, theatre and dance.

Last summer we had to have, the talk. She wanted to add a few more dances to her weekly schedule. I was fine with it but she had to make a choice… KISU swim team or dance. She chose dance. In a way, I was surprised, she has always enjoyed dance very much but she swam 3 times a week and loved it! However, her curling schedule fit neatly into her dance schedule! Every Thursday she curled with her team and on the weekends she attended bonspiels, perfect!

10 months of dance seemed like a lot especially when it’s 3 evenings a week but not to HBear! She excelled. Not once did I have to argue with her to get ready for dance. Not once did she look grumpy walking into the dance studio and not once did she regret her decision.

She enjoyed her usual favourite classes jazz, acro jazz, and musical theater plus she added ballet, hip-hop, contemporary, and choir. She was also chosen to do a duet with another girl in her class! She loved them all! She especially loved her duet because she felt very special to be chosen, got to meet a new friend that she really clicked with, and contemporary is her favourite genre!

She loved dancing so much last year that she asked if she could add tap this year!

SBean on the other hand hasn’t always been so balanced. She likes gymnastics but only if it’s one day and for a limited period of time. She didn’t like soccer, baseball, hockey but she does love to skate… As long as it’s only 1 day a week and only in the winter 😂. She didn’t get the big deal about Girl Guides, has been iffy on trying out curling, and while she loves tennis and golf, they aren’t her passion. This year she said she wanted to join the swim team! OK! I told her she would have to cut back on some of her dance classes then because this past year she took jazz, acro jazz, musical theatre and hip-hop. She looked at me like I was crazy! Not only does she refuse to cut any dance classes but she wants to add tap and ballet to her schedule this year! I explained to her that if she would like to dance 4 days a week then there would be no time for swimming. She thought about it for a couple days and decided that would be OK with her. She said she would like to continue swimming lessons on the weekend but she really wants to dance.

Ok then! We will officially be living at the dance studio for the 2019 – 2020 season 😂.

We had our finale the last weekend of June. It was a whole new experience for us! There were 3 shows throughout the weekend and the theme was, Encore! It was an amazing show! I get a little bit emotional when I think about all the ups and downs of the weekend. Our first show had every single dance that our family participated in. All 7 of HBear’s dances plus her 2 choir performances, all 4 of SBean’s performances plus my adult jazz class! Not going to lie, that first show was incredibly stressful! This year I was stationed backstage. I learned so much! All quick changes go backstage and between 5-6 ladies, we get the girl’s outfits, hair, and make up changed within minutes! It’s actually quite impressive 😂 my Girls had quite a few quick changes and they too learned a lot being backstage by following the more experienced dancers.

It was a blast! Being there backstage I got to see their excitement before they went on and the rush of adrenaline they came off the stage with! I loved watching them cheer each other on from the wings and the giggles that were shared between dances ❤️. Both of the Girl’s school teachers and significant others came to watch them perform! Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, J and her Mom were in the audience cheering us on too! Ninja came to all 3 performances just to make sure that the Girls had someone in the audience cheering for them ❤️. It was an amazing weekend! I can’t wait to see the Girls grow next year! Both of them just love to perform and when they are on stage they are most definitely in their happy place!

Ninja and I had date day this week and then we podcasted all about it! Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? And our latest episode 127: Godless, Graceless, and Young HERE.

I haven’t been cooking much lately. Between visitors, work, and grilling packets of food so that we can enjoy the sunshine, I don’t have very many new recipes! This was a delicious licious noodle dish that I made a while back! It has a ton of flavor, colourful vegetables, and it’s easy to make! Please enjoy 😊

Thai Chicken Pasta

Adapted from Dinner Than Dessert

1 pound thin spaghetti
3 tablespoons sesame oil, divided use
1 cup carrots, julienned
1/2 bag broccoli slaw
4 chicken breasts, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar

Cook pasta, al dente.

Drain pasta and toss with 2 tablespoons sesame oil. Set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil to pot. Cook chicken until not pink anymore. Empty into bowl and set aside.

If you would like to add some green onions as a garnish at the end, reserve 1/4 of them before putting the rest in the pan.

Add the green onions, carrots, slaw, garlic and ginger.

Saute for a minute or two until they have softened and barely start to turn colour.

Add in the honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, and vinegar.

Stir all the ingredients together and add the pasta and chicken back into the pot.

Toss the pasta with the rest of the ingredients and garnish with remaining green onions.

After my Sis and her family left it was time to catch up on some much-needed sleep!

We basically spent our second week of summer at tennis camp, getting much-needed hair trims, eating fro yo, celebrating Ninja’s 44th birthday, purging storage areas, doing yard work, shopping, golfing and eating!

Not a bad week if I do say so myself!

I entered a contest on Instagram to win 2 tickets to a Summer BBQ at Flambe Catering… and I won! Ninja and I enjoyed an amazing BBQ dinner on the lake while listening to awesome live music from the talented Brent Tyler. It was a great evening!

On Sunday the Girls had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s and we enjoyed the day living like tourists! We started at Twin Lakes Golf Course, had lunch at The Barking Parrot, a flight of craft beer at Slackwater Brewing and then we had dinner at Time Winery!