Week in Paradise

Sunday morning we hit the road for the cottage.  Not halfway through the drive and Hunter was yelling at us.."done, done" he kept saying.  We got off at the next McDonald's.  Lisa and Norm were heading to the cottage too, so they got off to have some lunch with us.

 The kids had some food, played in the play place and we were good to go.  Hunter fell asleep about 5 minutes after we pulled out of the parking lot.

Once at the cottage we unpacked and then hit the river.

Julia LOVES the water this year!  So great!!

 Aunt Lisa brought some sparklers.

 They were a hit.

 Grandma and Grandpa joined us on Monday for lunch.  We celebrated Katie's 7th birthday.

 There was cake.

 After lunch, Hunter had a nap and everyone else went down swimming.

 I had some time to just sit.  Not very easy to come by and I gladly took it.  It was grand.

The kids made their own fire pit.  I made sure to tell them that they were not to set any fires, that it was just pretend.  You never know.

Drew and Ryan

 Night swimming.

 On Tuesday, James and I celebrated out 8th anniversary.  We dropped the kids off in Lakefield with Grandma and Grandpa (at their hotel) and headed out for lunch.

This was our view at lunch

 8 years and we're still smiling!

 James sent me for a pedicure after lunch.  It was fantastic.

 After we had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa at the pub in their hotel, we headed to Englewood.  It's the cottage resort that we used to rent at.  We met up with some of our friends that rent there every year.  I'm always astounded at the beauty of that place.

 On wednesday, we met up with some of our cottage neighbours at the Peterborough zoo.  This place has a really great park, fun animals to look at, and a great splash pad.  It's all free (except for the 2$ train ride).  We love this zoo.

Watching the feeding of the bobcat.

 After the zoo, we all headed to McDonald's for lunch.  Hunter had a nap.

 My parents came for the day on Thursday.  My dad brought his chainsaw and the 2 trees behind our cottage were cut down.  This is where we are going to put our shed eventually.  Once they were cut down, one of our neighbours expressed their concern over the trees being cut down.  Oh well...too late now, lady.

Hunter watching everything from inside.

 Grandma and Grandpa came by with subs for lunch on their way to Toronto to visit with Julia (Katie and Lisa are in Winnipeg).

 Drew showed off his fishing skills by catching a fish!

Cutting trees down is hard work!  Papa having a siesta.

 James took dad to Kawartha downs for the afternoon....they had a great time.  My mom, the kids and I stayed back and played.  Hunter had a nap, and mom helped me finally finish painting the dresser that I had started painting last year.

Lunch on the dock.

Lisa and Norm had brought this awesome pineapple coring thingy.  It's really great...not only cores the pineapple, but slices it too, making it easy to make smoothies.  They left it behind for us to use for the week!  The boys loved it.

Who can resist a photo of a cute bare bum on the dock???

The rest of the week is a bit of a blur.  Lots of swimming, playing and having fun.  James and I made our list of our cottage "wants" for the next couple of years.....let's see if we can make them happen!  New dock is on the top of the list for next spring.  There it's on the blog, it has to come true now...right?!?

We left on saturday to head to a birthday party (Happy 2nd birthday, Alma!) and then we finished off our holiday at Canada's Wonderland.....SUCH FUN!  On the way out, Drew spotted a popcorn stand, so we bought some (along with 2 light-up swords...but that's another story).  The popcorn was seriously the best popcorn I have ever had!

It was a great week, but I can't believe how quickly it passed us by!!

Here's to taking advantage of every last minute we have left of summer!!

Happy birthday Hadley!

Last Saturday (August 6) we travelled to Beamsville to celebrate our little friend, Hadley turning 1.  It was a really fun afternoon, full of bubbles, paint and water play.  We all had a great time.  Thanks for inviting us, Laur and Andre and happy birthday Hadley!!

This ball pit was a huge hit!

Hadley opening her gifts with her parents.

Hadley's AWESOME new kitchen.

Hadley and her "smash" cake....yum!

Hunter really liked the ball pit!

Beautiful Hadley.

Re-Do

If only life had some sort of button you could press to allow you to go back to those moments you cringe about, enabling you to try again, to do a bit better.....I could have used one of those today.

The day started out on an ok note.  I woke up with the boys, a little bit bitter that James was sleeping in, as he had the whole weekend to sleep in, but he did have to go to work....so I got over it.  We had breakfast and then the boys and I went to Rotary park where we met some momstown moms for some playtime in the park.

Both boys seemed to have an ok time.  Drew seemed a bit bored as there weren't any kids his age there, but one of the other moms had brought Timbits and yet another mom brought graham crackers so Drew was excited to make a make-shift "smore" (a timbit surrounded by graham crackers - he said it was delicious).

Drew and his S'More creation.

 I should have guessed the day was going to go south at lunch.  We went for a short hike around the mill pond and then got in the van to go home.  Drew asked to go to the "Ivy Army" for lunch and I agreed.  When we got there, Hunter refused to get out of the van....literally would not budge-was very cranky and not in a "restaurant mood".  I chose to NOT bring a screaming child into the restaurant, thereby forcing me to put another screaming child (Drew) into the van - you just can't make everyone happy (apparently).

We got home, we had lunch and Hunter had a nap.  Drew and I went outside to work on our gardens and then retreated to the air conditioning of our play room......

Once H woke up, we baked cookies, played perfection and the play-doh game we have, played some more in the play room and then had an early dinner (sandwiches and cut vegetables - REALLY need to go grocery shopping).

Today was the first day that the boys have sampled cookie dough....a major milestone in my books!

 After dinner we went to play outside again.  This is when the trouble began.  Drew started acting up, took the hose from me and started spraying H and I.....it turned into this huge, horrible game, with me yelling too loud, Hunter crying and Drew just NOT listening.  It is so frustrating to not be listened to and I am SO being paid back for not listening to my parents when I was a kid.  He was put in time-out, got up from time-out (laughing), put back in, etc, etc.  I'm sure my neighbours had quite a show.  We took ourselves inside.

The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur.  The boys had a bath, which then resulted in them running around the house naked....Drew egging Hunter on (which drives me crazy).  Eventually, I ended up on the deck, by myself, taking a few deep breaths.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only parent who has days like this.

Once I calmed down, I made them popcorn and we watched a "movie" (we started out watching "a bugs life" but it was too scary so ended up just watching tree house).

popcorn, TV and underpants.

Bedtime went smoothly, both of them were tired and here we are now.

Let's hope for a better day tomorrow.

Our weekend without Daddy

Today was the beginning of  James' mini-vacation.  Lucas came this morning to pick him up and take him to the airport.  They are going to Philly for Ryan's bachelor party.

He brought Hunter's birthday gift with him.

Thanks Uncle Luc!

The card sings the superman song...it is a big hit!

Hunter says thank you to Uncle Luc and Aunt Erin for his birthday gift!

I have to say that I wasn't the nicest to my husband as he left this morning.  I was a bitter, bitter woman.  I was doing ok with this whole bachelor party craziness up until last night.

It's "that" time of the month...perhaps not the best time for James to spend a fortune to go spend the weekend with other grown men and try and relive their university days.

Once James and Luc left and I had my little pity party, the boys and I headed to Skedaddles for the morning.  We were supposed to go to a pool party, but because of my period, I had to skip out....boo.

While James is gone, my parents invited us to stay at their place.  The boys were thrilled.

Friday night, when we got there, we headed out on the gator to the creek and then hiked the cattle paths along the water.  The boys were so excited to collect all the "treasures" that they found (rocks, feathers, pine cones, etc).  It was really fun.  I forgot my camera and am super mad at myself!

Once back at the house, we had dinner and then some more outside play before bed.

I wasn't sure how bedtime would go, we hadn't stayed at Nana and Papa's since Christmas.  I think all of the hiking and playing outside really tuckered them out...bedtime went very smoothly and Drew slept until 7am and Hunter until 7:30!  Success!!

Saturday morning we watered the flowers and then did some more playing outside.

OOPS!

 It was super hot and I'm not sure why, but I had the bright idea to walk to the park.  Both boys were very sweaty and a little cranky by the time we got there.

My dad, always the thinker, drove down in the van a little bit later, so that we wouldn't have to walk back home (it's all up-hill from the park back to their house).  We were very glad to see him.

After we had some lunch, I took the boys back home.  Hunter fell asleep on the way home (always nice when a plan works).  Drew and I picked some tomatoes, watered our plants, checked on our cattle, fed Snickers and our outdoor cats and then just hung out.

Hunter slept for about 2 hours and then we all loaded up the van and headed back to Nana and Papa's for the evening.

Playing with Drew's bounce-back racer

After dinner we roasted some marshmallows.

It was another great night and another smooth bedtime, although it took a little longer for them to fall asleep as it was really hot in our bedroom.

Sunday morning was another busy one.  The usual breakfast/watering flowers/ride-on toys routine was followed.

The boys then decided they wanted to go in the gator for another adventure.  This time we took a blanket back to have a snack on the "bridge" and I remembered my camera.  It was fun, but we hiked a lot farther than we did on Friday and Hunter had had enough by the time we reached the gator.

snack on the "bridge"

Cute little bum peeing under a tree.

Big brother peed under the tree, so I have to too.

Collecting pine cones.

Picking wild blackberries.

Not much water in the creek!

Once back at the house, we had some lunch and then some more playtime.  We drove home around 1pm and Hunter thankfully fell asleep.

Hunter slept for quite a while.  I think the hike tired him out.  Drew and I hung out, we watched some TV, did a craft that mister maker showed us and played with some blocks.

Once Hunter woke up, I was planning on going outside, but it was way too hot.  We played inside instead and I thought my head was going to explode!  The boys had way too much energy.

Dinner was simple, bbq burgers and vegetables.  We made our way outside after dinner, heading to the van.  I was planning on taking the boys to the Marble Slab for ice cream and then to the park that is across the road.

We had a huge surprise though, James and Luc pulled into the driveway, just as we were getting into our van!  They had caught an earlier flight (they weren't supposed to land until 9pm).  We were THRILLED.  James came with us to get ice cream and to play in the park.  It was so much better that way.

My plan was foiled, however.  I was planning on cleaning the house and doing the dishes once the boys were asleep.  James coming home early allowed him to see the state of the house and my plan to paint myself as the perfect mother/house wife was ruined.

Oh well, I'm pretty sure he knew the truth anyways.

Happy Monday.