good old hockey game...

yesterday we had a chance to go see the marlies play a game at the air canada centre and then skate on the ice afterwards thanks to a family day event. dylan's mom got the 4 tickets + skating passes + food vouchers through her work so we went with 2 friends and had a grand old time. toronto is proving to be a land of firsts for me in the sports department; last year was my first time at a baseball game and now a hockey game!

 halftime dodgeball with *a lot* of mascots from all over.

 here we go.

 i spy...dylan jumping.

the marlies won 4-1 and even though i can't really skate (i pretty much held on to dylan's arm 85% of the time), i managed not to fall! so there's 2 good things! there were a few close calls with speeding little kids who almost wiped me out, but i managed. even though  i'm not the least bit into sports, it's pretty cool that we got to skate on the rink where the leafs play.

cityfest...

everyone likes free stuff, right? *raises hand* as soon as i hear about free things being given out, or free concerts and festivals, if i can get there, you bet your bottom dollar i'll be there. i find toronto to be a pretty great city in the "free things" department, which is a good thing, because it's one expensive city to live in! over the weekend, there was a free concert/festival, called cityfest. it was the first year for it, but overall, i would say they did pretty good. free things we got? well let's see: 2 beers, apple fritters, 2 poutines, sunglasses, tshirts, pops, candy, free coffee vouchers, and a few other little things. i mean, not bad, eh?

here's dyl being a plane trying to win 2 free roundtrip tickets (anywhere they fly) with porter airlines. still haven't heard the winner!

beer garden.

we love poutine. we love free poutine even more. and our free sunglasses, too.

photobooth fun.

free swag. not complaining.

we had never heard of any of the musical people that were on throughout the day, but there were a couple good ones. now, if only we could get free poutine more often...

everyone likes free stuff...

a few weeks ago, dylan's mom sent him a text (with a lot of exclamation points!!!!!!) telling him that she won $750 worth of gift cards at work. awesome, right? even more awesome that we got a few! one of the two restaurant ones can be used at the bier markt and i already know what i want to order, along with a strawberry beer ;) hopefully the weather will be nice this weekend and we can sit on the patio and enjoy ourselves.

 we're stocked! plus 6 movie passes not shown.

my winners haul; shampoo, cream, and a workout top.

as someone who really doesn't spend money on myself (hello, frugal lady here!), it was nice to do a little shopping. when exercising, other than wearing t-shirts, i've been wearing workout tops that i've have since college, maybe even high school, so they were old and i was in dire need of something new. they weren't up to par considering i got some new yoga pants last month. body butter? i'm obsessed with creams and such, so i had to add it to my pile. nothing extravagant, but necessities.

concerts on the beach...

red bull canada has decided to put on what they call the red bull tour bus, where bands play for free in their hometown city on a red bull tour bus that transforms into a complete sound stage. playing in toronto was tokyo police club (i've heard of them, but didn't know any songs), and opening for them was a band i hadn't heard of, dinosaur bones. they were playing at sugar beach, so we decided to check them out. tokyo police club did 1 song during sound check, then the other band went on and got through maybe 4 songs and the clouds let loose and it started pouring. luckily we were under a small tree, so at first it was providing a little shelter. that is until it started raining sideways. everyone was huddling together and although it didn't last very long, we decided to forego the concert because we didn't want to spend the rest of the time wet and cold. the only solution to make ourselves feel better was to order pizza and then go to dairy queen.

tokyo police club during sound check.

dinosaur bones.

it's weird when i'm the tallest (i'm 5'2")

and here comes the rain.

we finished the day with very grey skies, but a beautiful sunset.

smooth and sleek...

i was recently contacted by brian hunt of misikko to review the hana professional flat iron 1". this is my first review for something in my 4 years of blogging and this was something i just could not pass up! when i got the package, it was light as a feather , but when i opened it up, it was chalk full of goodies. i was like a kid at christmas going through everything.

 makeup too?! are you kidding?

 before- air dried (except the bangs, i have to dry those with a round brush)

smooth and sleek.

i like that you can adjust the temperate on the straightener and that it came in a little pouch to keep it in. i have nothing against the straightener, it worked great, but i found that my regular one works just as good and it was about $60 and is 5 years old. normally i dry my hair with a round brush, but i wanted to really put this to the test, so i let it air dry. it definitely made it nice and sleek and shiny, so overall, i would definitely recommend the hana flat iron. a big thank you to those at misikko for sending this to me! 

**i received a hana professional flat iron (1") in exchange for a review but all opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

dog lovers dream...

woofstock was a blast, yet again. it's so exciting that no matter where you turn, you see hundreds of frolicking dogs and copious amounts of free stuff. ranging from food samples, full bags of treats, milk bones, bandanas, and poop bags, there was no shortage. my parents drove in with dylan and my girl friend met us down there. now, this was a huge deal for my dad to come. in the 5 years that i've been in toronto, he never walked more than the short distance of parking the car on the street and walking to my place. he honestly fears being gunned down. ridiculous, right? i know. only his love of dogs got him to walk around the city before i leave ;)

 the day started with a little rain, but it was all good. and don't my dad and dylan look like little twin/big twin? lol

 pretty poodle with her pink nails.

 cousins olive and chloe.

 i'm lookin' pretty haggard here.

 well, this is what you get at woofstock.

 little cuties.

 olive loves the attention.

a little lasagna for lunch.

 cooling off.

 helmet? check. aviators? check? motorcycle? check. one cool dude.

 cutest little puppy.

 you don't get more tuckered out than this. tongue hanging out on the cement; out cold.

family.

so.much.stuff. thanks to the extra hands this year (and the bag i came prepared with to stuff it all in), we were able to get her a lot more!

 of course i set all her free stuff up like it's christmas morning.

 when i say they give away a lot of stuff, i'm not lying. swag swag! plus countless reusable cloth bags.

a little treat. love her teeth in the first one.

i think i'm set for poop bags for a long time to come. and treats in general. if you're in the toronto area, i highly suggest you check this out next year! it's a total blast. can't wait for the winter version in november! (last years post here)