Kelso!

I hadn't been to Kelso Conservation Area in a few years.  We had taken Drew once or twice when he was a baby and haven't really been back since.  I decided to join the momstown group that was heading there yesterday morning.  It was a wee-bit stressful packing up.  I hate packing, and it felt like we had to take everything in the house just for a day at the beach (I packed lunches for us, and Drew wanted to bring a few toys for the sand, bathing suits, towels, a blanket to sit on, etc, etc, etc).

Getting to the beach is a bit tricky.  It's quite a steep hill down to the water and you can imagine what it was like getting down there with 2 boys and all of our crap.

Once we were down there, we set up shop in the shade and then the boys were in the water.  It would have been more fun for me had I had a life-jacket for Hunter.  It was hard to keep the boys together, as Drew wanted to go off and swim with the big kids, and Hunter had other plans and I'm a little too aware of the dangers of getting too far away from a child when they are in the water SO, while the boys had a FABULOUS time in the water, I was a little too nervous for comfort.  My plan is to get a life-jacket for Hunter to keep at home, and then when we go back (and we will go back) it will be a little easier!

All in all, it was really fun.  It was a very hot day yesterday, so the cool water was a nice treat.

I dropped the kids off at my parents house for 2:30 as I had a hair appt. at 3.  It was a nice, relaxing 2 hours for me, getting my hair cut and then I headed back to the Glen to hang out for the evening.

Nana and Papa have a new fire-bowl...it was put to the test today!

Sadly, our newest calf, Patches, died last night.  We didn't get the colostrum into her quick enough and she just wasn't strong enough to get enough food from the bottle.  We're very sad around here....especially Drew.  He can't understand why her mother didn't want her.

Sigh.

Do you ever feel like you've blinked....

.....and years have gone by??

I feel like the past 2 years have flown by and I'm not really sure what happened.  I think it mostly has to do that I spent most of the first 18 months of it in a sleepless haze.  It was a good, fun, happy sleepless haze...but a sleepless haze nonetheless.

Today is my baby's 2nd birthday.  It seems like just yesterday.....

I'm sure I have photos of the day he was born (July 14) but can't seem to find any on this computer....still, you get the picture...he was tiny.  Now he's my big 2 year old!  I actually had an argument with him today about his age.  I said, "Hunter you're 2 today!"  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "no, tee (three)".  This kept up for quite a few minutes and then he got distracted with something else.  He is 2 right?  I haven't actually missed an entire year, have I???

Today was a good day.  We got up and let Hunter open his gifts (Hunter had bought a few things for Drew too, such a thoughtful brother).  Both boys were so excited.

Once the gift excitement had died down, James went out to feed the calf (our new calf's mom won't let it nurse, so we're trying to keep it alive by bottle feeding it) and then we all got ready and headed to Wonderland.  We have season's passes, but have not been yet this year.  It was really fun, we stayed in the kid's area, of course, but we all had a great time.  We left there at lunch time and headed to Chuck E Cheese.  We stayed there for a few hours and then made our way back to Milton.  I had a doctor's appt (that turned out to be a giant waste of time, but that's another story) and then we headed home.

The calf needed another bottle, so the boys headed down to the barn to help.

You should have seen Hunter's face when he saw the bottle....I'm sure he thought it was for him

Her name is Patches.

I hope she survives.....I am very angry at her mother.

My parents arrived at 5:30, bringing with them a very exciting birthday gift for Hunter-bug.

A new slide!

We all had dinner at East Side Mario's and then came back to our place to play with the slide.

Hunter was not thrilled with the singing.  He grabbed my hand and was squeezing it really tight.

He was sure about the dessert though....YUM!

The box the slide came in was almost as fun as the slide itself!

Weeeee!

Happy birthday, Hunter-bug.  I love you so very much!

Summer fun

Is it just me, or is this summer flying by?

Friday night we all drove to the Boston Pizza by the airport.  Our friend Robyn was in town (marking EQAO tests) so we met her for dinner.  It was great fun, my kids love her and dinner was yummy!  We were there before 6, so we just had a smorgasbord of appetizers on the cheap.  My favourite meal!

From the restaurant, we drove on to the cottage with a quick stop at McDonald's for some ice cream and some playtime...just to break the trip up (and to increase the chances of our kids falling asleep on the drive there)

Our weekend at the cottage was great fun, although we had a small freak-out when Drew realized that his friends were not there ("but it's the WEEKEND...why aren't they here?!?!?").  It turned out that our neighbours had their grand-kids up for the weekend, so there were some kids to play with afterall.  Thank goodness!  We seem to be all about playing with other kids lately.

The weekend was full of swimming (we practically lived in the water), fishing, reading (I finished a book-"20 times a lady"-hilarious!), we hit the zoo, splash pad and had some fun fire-pit smores sessions.

A perfect weekend.

Drew was very serious about helping little brother fish....(not to worry, James was just out of the camera's range..if one of them fell in, we'd be ok)

Flash light fun

Eating giant marshmallows

At the Peterborough zoo (have I mentioned that it's FREE?!?!)

Splash pad fun at the zoo

We went to a restaurant we had never been to before...the pizza factory.  It had an all you can eat buffet with JELLO!  Happy kids = happy parents

Monday morning, James got up with Hunter and they went out to check the cows.  I love these pics James took.

James' parents came by and watched the boys while James and I headed out to pick up some stuff for Hunter's birthday party.  We got quite a few things, I still need to pick up some more things though....never ending!

After James' parents left, we headed to Indigo (the above photo) to let Drew pick out a gift for Hunter and then we hit Chuck E Cheese.  We had some coupons that we had to use.

Tuesday found James back at work and the boys, Nana and I on the road to Tottenham.  We were joining our friends Carol, her daughter Sandy and Sandy's kids Lauren and Evan on a train ride.  It was sooo much fun.  It was a bit nerve-racking when we first got there as we were told that if 20 riders did not show up, we would not be running.......a whole bunch of people showed up at the last minute though, so off we went.

Hunter fell asleep half-way through

On the way back, we were told that the bridge we had to cross over was about to fall down.  In order to cross it safely, we had to lift our feet, swing our arms like a bird and yell.  Drew was right freaked out....what if we fall off the bridge, Nana???  Needless to say there was lots of flapping of the arms and yelling on his part.  It was hilarious.

Whenever we see a "CP" train that we can safely go up to, we take a photo and send to my brother.

I'm really glad we made the trip to ride the rails.  The boys LOVED it, it was definitely worth the effort to get there.  Wednesday morning, bright and early, we had some excitement at our house.  We are finally getting our garage repaired.  I am so beyond excited I can't even explain it.  I can't wait to start using our deck again, and to be able to open and close the door leading out to our garage will be priceless.
Needless to say, Drew and Hunter were captivated by the mighty machines working and the giant hole that was dug beside our house.