Colourful Days

Winter Weekend

We haven't had much of a winter this year so we decided to make a trip up north and do about a dozen things in a 36 hour period.

1. Drive through Algonquin Park - I'm not much of a camper, but John has always wanted to camp with the kids in the park. It was a beautiful drive through about an hour of the park and now I can say I've been there although John will still want to do a camping adventure up there in the future. (Maybe just with the kids)

2. Let the kids skis at Hidden Valley Resort - Jackson loves skiing at different ski hills, and this one was right across the street from our hotel so how could we not let them ski!

3. One night stay at Hidden Valley Resort - Great hotel for under $100 a night! Beds were great, our room got upgraded to a 3rd floor (this hotel only has 3 floors) with an awesome view of the lake and the ski hill.

 

 

 

 

First day was a little chilly but not chilly enough to keep us from enjoying the view. Then when we woke up, we woke up to some spectacular weather!

 

 

4. Little tour around Huntsville - Cute town with an awesome downtown!

5. Detoured to Bracebridge to pick up our almost 14 year old's birthday present... so if you see a little boat around the Bay that looks a little like this, wave!

 

 

FUN.

This can be heard in various renditions around my house.

Beach Day Before School Starts!

I've been nagging to go to the beach with the kids all summer long. It's only 30mins from us and we never take advantage of a beach that is a destination for any other family in Eastern Canada. But we finally made it out on Saturday... the weather was a little iffy and we weren't sure how long we were going to be able to spend with our toes in the sand but, we still made it out there.

And as you will see the kids had a blast! We first stopped off at the Dunes but figured out that the waves were just too small for the kids to boogie board... so off we went to Sandbanks!

and then the very entertaining Wyatt put on a little show for us!

after we were done getting blown away... we decided to head back down to the Dunes so that Jackson could get some practice on dad's old skimboard!

and check out this picture of my babies. I love it. I love them.

Sailors in the Family

It's the last few weeks of the summer and the kids are enjoying their last camp of their summer vacatioin. It's nice to see them doing something together, even though they are different boats and in different levels.  It's been lots of running around, packing appropriate lunches, washing bathing suits every night to make sure they have something to wear in the morning, and the worse of it... airing out smelly life jackets and water shoes.

But this morning I grabbed the morning paper and saw a picture on the front page.. that just made me smile.

And just in case you didn't see this picture earlier in the summer... here is the one from the Intelligencer from way back in July!

27cents and lots of smiles

I'm a sucker for the bargain rack especially when it says an additional 50% off, so back in January I picked these little swimming caps up thinking that they would have a use. Well 7 months later, I distributed to the kids and off they went with them! And now I have some awesome shots to remember that 27cents really buys some super big smiles!

9 kids - 7 under 5 years old

I've been trying to get a great group shot of all the kids for about 4 years now and this is the stuff I get.

missing a E's and A's faces

um. think i'm losing them.

an adult always wants in the picture!

this is the best of the bunch. there's always next year!

I have to admit that the chaos created is quite amusing and there is always 1 or 2 not looking, 1 with no pants on, 1 crying and 1 pouting. One day, I'll get my dream shot, but until then this is what I have.

Beach Babies

I've been longing to go to the beach ever since our Cape Maya, New Jersey vacation and this weekend I got it. Grand Bend. Even if it was just for an hour, it was soooooo nice to feel the sand in between my toes. And as always my beach babies went right for the water.

nothing better than all of the above at the beach!

that's his brother and sister out in the water!

Next year my sister is planning a wedding up here and I can hardly wait to get back and enjoy it for more than a hour!

Breathe... just breathe.

September is just around the corner. That means Wy-guy starts JK in less than a month. Part-time not full-time, so I can still technically call him a pre-schooler because he will spend the rest of his week at his beloved YMCA. It's been quite a summer for him and I have totally neglected posting on here. Who knew that summers could be so busy even without BMX and soccer. But we still have our 'catch-up' walks home from the YMCA where he tells me all about his day.

and we have been lucky enough to have two vacations this summer. One to the Jersey Coast (no fist pumping end) to have 4 days at the beach playing with family.

We have found that as he gets older, the funnier he gets. I swear that he is a 4 year old with a 13 year old sense of humour. He can make anything funny. I'm pretty sure that I'll be getting the notes from the teacher that he will need to work on 'staying on task'.

And while he can operate an iPod like no other, he doesn't pick up a pencil or anything to write with. Do you think it's appropriate to send him to JK with an iPad?

But until the summer is offically over with a ringing of school bells, we are hoping to spend some more quiet nights at the cabin watching the kids wake up, grab a fishing rod and hope the fish are biting all before breakfast.

Weekend to End Women's Cancers 2011

I'm all signed up and September will come very quickly...

Easter with Friends and Family

The 2 hour window that the sun decided make a showing gave us just enough time for the kids to find 300 eggs in my parents backyard garden! This is the backyard before the chaos.

 

 
 

We even had a little hunt for the adults... a beer bottle hunt that is.