November and December Festivities

Logan's kind of a popular guy and was invited to not only his friend Chase's birthday in November, but also his friend Scarlett's 2nd birthday party.

Scarlett's birthday was at the little gym on the day of her actual birthday: the 21st. This is now also Logan's friend Levi's birthday!

When we got to the little gym, we thought that Logan was going to sleep the birthday party away since he hadn't slept much that day but then he was so excited by the environment and the little kids that instead he just stared at the colours and energetic kids! Luckily he wasn't a cranky pants... just looking around. We have quickly learned that Logan's the "observer" baby who likes to observe all the action but not get too close... This is especially the case when around other babies and kids!

Logan was awake until we wanted to take pictures of course... this is the end of the party after the activities, pizza presents and cake!

Having some Sam time! It was a quick birthday party and life is busy with Mr. Logan so we have plans over the holidays to catch up more!

Sometimes Aleksy and I think when Logan's a bit older, life will become less demanding of our time and energy. Nothing like a good toddlers birthday party to put the busyness of a toddler into perspective!

Every year we go to Rachel's Christmas concert in December and this year it was on December 9th. Rachel was so cute as always singing her Christmas carol... she's second from the right end. And also as tradition we left right after Rachel's performance. She's in gr. 2 now so every year we stay a bit later! It is fun to see the little kids with their antlers and santa hats!

Just Logan hanging out with his buddies... With my group of Moms and babies who get together once a week, we made arrangements for our babes to wear their Christmas attire and get some pictures! We got some good gems from these 3 little guys: the L boys! Logan, Levi and Landon!

Logan and I also make weekly visits with Logan's friends Colton and Chase and the last visit we had Logan did his first craft! Steph prepared these snowflakes and put them in ziplocs then added drops of paint. I helped Logan a bit to spread it around... not that i'm taking credit or anything..
Logan's friends Colton and Chase also did crafts with him!

My Mom's work Christmas party was on December 12th! Logan was there with his cousins Rachel and Emma. Here's Rachel and Emma decorating Christmas cookies and Logan getting a little auntie time in. The Chistmas party had lots of activities stations for the kids: ornament decorating, cookie decorating, and a colouring station.

Plus, Santa came and brought Emma, Rachel and Logan gifts! Logan's first picture with Santa and his first Santa gift!

Logan did great at the party... awake for almost the whole time with a little nap in my arms before seeing Santa... he was a bit groggy from just waking up!

And to start the tradition of Santa pictures every year, Logan saw Santa at Masonville the next day: the 13th!

The line up was wrapped around Santa which was daunting because Logan will cry when he's not moved around in his stroller but it worked out fine because he was good with us holding him while waiting in line and the line moved fast and we made it to the front in about 20-30 min! As you can see, Logan hardly noticed he was sitting with Santa and he's looking right a me and Aleksy. Aleksy's Mom joined us to see Logan too since she was working in the mall when we were there!

This was taken at this years Big Brothers Big Sisters Christmas party! It was on December 15th and was at the Windermere Manor again: pretty fancy if I don't say so myself. Howveer, we made it not so fancy by making it a pj party... we wore our Christmas pjs!

We know another match and we spent the night with Annette and Rayne. I used to work with Annette and Rayne went to Brooklyn's school so we've got together for double match dates before! The party was good as usual with delicious pasta dinner then stocking and cookie decorating. My little sister may be getting older (17!) but you're never too old for Christmas festivities!

And just this past weekend, we celebrated our Christmas with Al, Steph, Colton and Chase! We went over for a brunch on Sunday and they made us an amazing spread! An apple bacon egg bake, sausages, raisin toast and cinnamon muffin dessert with cream cheese filling. All we had to do was bring a dessert tray... a completely fair trade (I didn't even make the fruit tray...).

After a fun brunch of Logan crying and being passed between Aleksy and I, Chase screaming and moose eating from under the table, it was present time!

Chase (and Colton) love the mr. potato head we got him and Colton started using his Thomas the train walkie talkies with his daddy immediately!

By the time presents rolled around, Logan was fully tired! As you can see easily here...

Contrary to what it looks like, Logan really likes his new toy and he got the most adorable puppy onesie!

And the rest of our Christmas celebrations are just around the corner!

Feeling Festive!

Its the most wonderul time of the year! Guess what? I love Christmas! And the festivities have begun in our house with the usual start: The Santa Claus Parade.

Logan's first Santa Claus Parade was on Saturday the 14th. We got him all bundled up for the cold evening with multiple layers plus his cozy winter onesie suit. This is his Christmas bib: Baby's first Christmas and a little added antlers for the Christmas feel. We left for the parade around 5:45... usually it a bit earlier but leaving with baby takes extra time!

We made a mandatory stop for coffee at McDonalds (there is no convenient timmies between our place and downtown) before meeting Steph, Kenny and Rachel in a parking lot. But... we still managed to get a good spot at Dundas and Waterloo! It was in the middle of the intersection so the people had not yet filled that area... but very soon after it was full. Here's our annual Santa Claus parade picture... my Rachel was so cute his year she wrote a letter to Santa for her and also for Logan with lists of what she and Logan want for Christmas. Rachel thought Logan could use baby toys and a hockey stick...
The best part about the parade is we were only in the cold for about 2 hours total. Some kind of record for the parade. It was either that there were less floats/marching bands/participants or the parade moved faster than usual. This year we noticed the Shriners didn't participate at all... they usually have a huge part in the parade so it was really sad.

And Logan... he though the parade was pretty boring and slept in his stroller the entire 2 hours! But our awesome sleeper still slept through the night with his usual 3am ish bottle.

I love the seasonal snacks that come along with Christmas like egg nog, candy cane ice cream, peppermint kisses and look what we found at Wal Mart! Peppermint popcorn! We had some when Rachel was over for dinner and it as actually pretty good... different but good.

A stocking has been added to the stocking family. Preparing for Christmas, we had to get Logan his Christmas stocking and added his name to it with glitter glue. Now he's all ready for Santa!

The Christmas tree went up the day of the Santa Claus Parade! Logan gave us just enough of a break while in his swing so Aleksy could put up the Christmas lights, wreath, and reindeer outside and I put up the tree! Logan likes to look at the lights and sparkle on the tree. Here's my boys with our pretty tree.

And the Christmas shopping has started! Definitely not finished but you can see all the presents warped under the tree before December! The less December shopping we do, the better! Logan and I will have to switch from our daily shopping trips to library and other outings once we're all finished... hopefully within the next couple weeks!

Because Its Fall!

This is all the fall things we've been up to! Life with Logan is very much the same, although also very different! We still do all the same things we did before baby, its just the experience is very different with Mr. Logan.

Aleksy always liked football but it seems with Logan that we have more time for football watching (this is for Aleksy and Logan... I cant watch football because its boring). I think its because where we used to be out of the house for hours at a time, now we spend more time at home.

This little shirt for Logan I bought with a gift card... Daddys little football buddy. And Aleksy bought the coinciding beverage for football day... As much as football can annoy me, it does remind me of the Fall time of year!

We've had some pretty sweet Fall weather.. like summerish but with pretty leaves. In early November, we had a stretch of 20 degree days and since my days are pretty free with this mat leave thing, Logan and I were able to get out to Springbank park for a walk along the river. It was a long one too... about an hour and a half! Such a gorgeous day. As you can see Logan slept most of the walk...

Most days our long walks are in the mall (which we go to about once a week) so it was nice to get out in the fresh air while we still can... before the snow!

Saturday November 7th was Chase's 1st birthday party! Logan's first friend birthday party (he has his second coming up .. his friend Scarlett's 2nd birthday party). Chase got lots of new toys and his birthday cake was amazing! It was a homemade apple cake.

This banner was pictures of Chase for every month of his first year!

There was also big news on the birthday party day! At Colton's 1st birthday party, the last gift he opened was a "Big Brother" t-shirt and look! Chase also got a Big Brother t-shirt (and Big brother book) for his birthday! Our crazy friends are expecting their 3rd come June! So many friends for Logan!

Logan and I also took our first road trip in November! We headed to Kitchener on Tuesday afternoon.. just over an hour drive to visit Tabi, Nikki, Kailiegh & Logan's friend Maiko! On the way there, Logan had a few cranky points and wouldn't take his soother but was generally good for the ride. He was awake for the visit and we got this adorable shot with Maiko! Maiko also pulled Logan up and gave him a kiss after this was taken... Maiko likes his friend Logan!

We stayed a few hours until Logan got really cranky then all the crying he did before we left wore him out and he slept the whole drive home.

Logan's second evening with Nana and Dziadek was this week too! Aleksy and I went to Aleksy's P Eng ceremony on Thursday and Logan stayed with Aleksys parents for abut 4 hours... my longest time away from Logan since he was born!

Here's Aleksy receiving his certificate... he is now officially a certified Professional Engineer since he's been working for 4 years under the engineers at his company (actually more like 5 now...) and wrote his P eng testing. My husbands pretty smart.

The ceremony was at the Highland country club complete with a 3 course supper and by the time we got back to Aleksys parents, Logan was soundly sleeping on his Nana! It took the help of an exercise ball (which is gold in our house) and Logan was bounced to sleep.

Halloween 2015

Our Halloween festivities began this year with my Mom's Halloween party on October 24th. We needed to make sure that we had our costumes complete before the party, so I started planning what our costumes were going to be early.. by pinning family costumes on pinterest! We got out a few weeks before to buy some fabric from fabricland and got the rest of the costume materials the weekend before! We spent a total of about $25 for all 3 of our costumes! Gotta keep it frugal now with being on mat leave and all...

And by our little Logan's costume, you can probably guess the rest of the family costumes! Logan made a fantastic Bam Bam. I even made his little bam bam pants with orange fabric (and hot glued the black triangles on). We still haven't learned from previous years that use of a sewing machine would be an asset and I had sewed his little pants which took a couple hours, and Aleksy hand sewed his costume. Luckily this year it was pretty simple!

Family shot! This one was taken at the first Halloween party at my Moms. The rubbles! I lucked out with finding this dress for 7.99 at Talize in just the right colour (we started at Salvation Army thrift store but there was nothing.. I was a wee bit deterred). Actually Talize was amazing and my wig was only $3 and they actually had the Bam Bam stick for $2.99... best find ever!

Logan did really well at the party although the little high maintenance guy did require us to walk around patting his back... we just took turns. He started to get tired as the evening progressed but was fighting the tired so we ended up leaving about 11pm... not bad for lame new parents!

The festivities continued on Friday October 30th, which is when we had our celebrations of Aleksy's bday/Halloween. I knew it would be more of a challenge this year with having Logan to prepare the fun Halloween themed food that I usually do like barfing pumpkins, pumpkin shaped veggie trays etc. I made pulled pork on the Tuesday before the party and froze it to make Friday easier and then just served coleslaw and cheese, meat and crackers. But... on the Friday morning, Logan gave me a chance to bake this cake for Aleksy! He even gave me the chance in the afternoon to complete it with icing and sprinkles to make it a jack o lantern. Logan and I had gone out to bulk barn earlier in the week to get orange and black sprinkles to make the pumpkin!

When Colton first got to the party, he showed off his Moose costume... his doggy's name is Moose so he dressed up as his doggy! But then wanted it off immediately! So this is Colton after taking off his costume holding our Logan aka bam bam. Just the cutest!

Group shot! We got this picture before everyone started leaving and before our Bam Bam went to sleep! Costumes of this year were: Steph and Kenny as the Adams family, our Rachel as a vampire with some awesome make up, Nikki as a crazy cat lady and Jon Jon as a cat, Al as Old MacDonald and Steph, Colton and Chase as the animals on the farm (cow, dog and chicken), Cadence as a shark with Chels as a lifeguard and Warren as a shark attack victim, and Scarlett as yoda, Sam as princess laya and Zac as another star wars character (I don't know star wars and actually have never seen a star wars movie!).. ok hansolo.. aleksy just told me.

The party was a lot of fun and Logan slept like a champ! He went down at 9:30pm and woke up only at 1:30 and 5:30 to eat! We actually stayed up until 1:30am with Nikki and Jon Jon... everyone else left before 11pm! Our parties have evolved over time and now everyone has kiddos!

And then Halloween day was the final day of birthday/halloween celebrations where Aleksys opened his presents, had a visit from his brother then Aleksy carved our pumpkin (I did the easy sharpie face!). Every year we get way more kids than the previous year. Last year we had 25 kids and this yer we had 53! Most kiddos were between 6-7pm...

Our Logan was dressed for Halloween day in this outfit for the first part of the day, which was given to him by my friend Annette and he also was given a skeleton onesie from Aleksy's Mom, which he wore the second half of the day! It worked out so well since he peed on this Mummy shirt during a diaper change!). My Mom also got him a little halloween bib which he wore to catch some of his spit up through the day!

And we actually had almost just the right amount of candy to give 2 chocolate bars per child and we had about 10 leftover. We've eaten those now and now just need to get rid of the leftover cake in the fridge so I can get back on track to getting back to my pre-baby weight! I just can't say no when its in the house!

Some Things I Didn't Know Before Becoming a Mama

I would be a big fat liar if I didn't say that life with a new baby is a huge adjustment. We are the last of our friends to have babies so we heard a lot of stories and were given lots of information... BUT, there's nothing like a baby of your own for reality to set in of life with baby. Here are some of the things that I have realized since our Logan has arrived:

1) That I would be so obsessed with my baby farting and pooping. Seriously. There is so much discomfort caused by gas pain that seems to be all day long. Every fart and poop is a success.
2) How many things I can accomplish one-handedly: laundry, emptying the dishwasher, household tidying and so many other things!
3) How friggin nice everyone would be when we're out in public... at the mall, in the grocery store, on hikes... so many people stop to admire little Logan!
4) That doing things around the house would become impossible. I thought being home all day would allow me to keep the house in tip top shape, bake treats everyday, and prepare supper... fancy supper. But... I can't even shower during the day and my baby requires to be held for about 8 of the 10 hours that Aleksy's at work, which seriously limits productivity. Its a good day when I can get my make up done before noon!
5) That third person conversations would occur more often than regular conversations somedays. Aleksy and I talk to each other through Logan. Like, "Mommy has to go to the washroom and Daddy's gonna hold you now".
6) That I would be part of a Moms group... and like it! I have been getting together with a few ladies weekly who I went to prenatal yoga with. It's really nice to share stories, information and relate to one another!
7) That following Logan's birth all our family and friends would be way too nice with making time to visit, bringing food/coffee, and gifts for Logan! Our friends Al and Steph even made us 3 pre-prepared crock pots meals.
8) That I would have read all the books we own for Logan so many times within the first 3 weeks that I can recite parts of the books... especially my prsonal favourites: the little engine that could and I love you forever. I am already pretty bored of the 25 or so books we have!
9) That life would fully revolve around the bottle. Logan must eat every 3 hours so every shopping trip and outing includes timing out what works best for his bottle and planning if we need to bring a bottle with us then pepping how to warm it...
10) That I would be one of "those Moms"... the ones that are hypersensitive to every squawk baby makes, be obsessed with my babies comfort... even the little things, and have a hard time leaving my baby's side. But... we have had our first evening away from Logan when he went to Nana's one evening after Aleksy's work and we went out for sushi and beer (the things I missed while pregnant!).

Well those are 10 things anyways... there are lots more but those are the first 10 that come to mind!

And this little guy turned 1 month on the 16th!

Our Thanksgiving

We had some pretty nice thanksgiving day weather! This Thanksgiving weekend we had thanksgiving suppers on Saturday and Monday. Saturday was my Mom's supper and Monday was Aleksy's parents. Saturday morning I spent making chocolate chip cookies and apple cake then we headed to Masonville for a quick shopping trip before heading to my Mom's. Logan's first thanksgiving supper! We had turkey supper both at my Mom's and Aleksy's parents. After dinner on Monday we went for a family walk around Lambeth! Digesting all that food... even though there were 5 of us eating, there was enough food for 15 people!

In other exciting events this weekenday,  we picked up Aleksy's brand new car on Friday! We are loving the luxury feel of the new murano! And it's so nice to have 2 cars now we can take since Logan did not fit in the jeep with his car seat and stroller. So long, farewell jeep,

And Sunday was our own little family thanksgiving day!

On Sunday afternoon, we stopped by the pumpkin stand by Sarnia and Hyde park. We got this family picture and a pumpkin to be carved later for Halloween!

 After we picked out our pumpkin, we went to sifton bog for a little hike. It was such a nice day and the hike was nice but super short!

Most of the hike was along this boardwalk. It was a bit narrow for a stroller but we were in no hurry so we just let everyone pass.

It was a nice hike but we probably won't go back because it's so short! Maybe 10 min to the bog and 10 min back...

After our pumpkin picking and hike, we headed home for our Thanksgiving tacos. Maybe not so tradition... but delicious.

On the First Weekend of October...

We had a really great family weekend the first weekend of October! We went full swing into fall mode and (by tradition) went to the Ilderton Fair and went apple picking with my sister, brother in law and niece.

We have gone to the Ilderton fair a couple times now and really wanted to go again this year. We had our first fair family outing on Staurday the 3rd. It was freezing! Well not actually.. it was about 10 degrees but it felt so cold with the wind and rain. I felt bad for Logan who had a winter sack, warm blanket and was covered by the stroller cover for wind... my crazy Mom side needed to get him home to the warm ASAP. So it was a shorter trip to the fair!

Here's Aleksy and Logan in front of the tent that shows off the best vegetable displays! We love looking at all the competition entries! It's always such a shame to look at the delicious baking entries that have a tiny sliver taken from it and the rest gone to waste...









We've gone to the Ilderton fair a couple times before and the first time we got some awesome smoked turkey legs, and the second time they were all sold out. So luckily this year, since there were not as many people at the fair because of the rain and wind we got a couple of our delicious, meaty turkey legs! Contrary to the turkey legs we got at Disney for over $20, these were $6. We took our traditional turkey leg picture (its the third of its kind):

We had to make lots of indoor stops when we were at the fair so we could warm up! They had lots of animals to check out, and also a bunch of kiosks selling things... one of which was selling homemade butter tarts so we got a couple for dessert (for after the turkey legs... our wholesome lunch). Because we left after a short while, we ended up bringing them home with us, and when we got home we paired them with the amazing apple cider that we also got from the fair! It just tastes like fall...

And Saturday evening was a pretty special evening... I had my first drink since January 6th!!! Why yes, I do know the date exactly... I even know that it was a Tuesday and I had a glass of white wine while watching the bachelor.

On Saturday, Aleksy and I popped the bottle of champagne that Nikki and Jon Jon got us to celebrate our new baby! I had to take it easy since it went to my head quickly... I could only do a couple glasses!
I also had a beer the next day... it was just delicious. Like a delicacy.

And on Sunday, we went apple picking with my adorable niece. She was a pretty popular girl on the weekend and squeezed in the apple picking to her busy weekend schedule of 2 birthday parties. Logan thought apple picking was pretty boring and slept the whole time. I guess Logan thinks a lot of the activities we do are boring... he hits the car seat and zonks out!

Here's Logan with cousin Rachel who picked out a Logan sized pumpkin for him from the patch.

Last year, we went to Appleland for apple picking (we actually went twice last year... once with my sister and brother in law and once with our friends Al and Steph!). We learned our lesson last year that Appleland is ridiculously expensive so we found another orchard to pick our own in London! Appleland charges $6 per person admission plus apples. We went to Dwarf tree orchard in Byron and picked our own apples and pumpkins and didn't have to pay admission! We just paid $16 for a massive bag of apples! We win!

Our apple picking family pic :) (we are very excited to have our own little family)

And with all the apples, there will be lots of apple baking in the next couple weeks! I made this delicious apple bread with the apples and it was amazing! I was looking to try baking something new with the apples (Pinterest is very helpful for that!). But I will def be making apple crisp too!

Diaper Party

The weekend just before Logan was born, Aleksy hosted a diaper party at our place. It was on Saturday September 12th. You know... just in the nick of time for Logan's arrival. It was a man only party, so I went over to my sisters and hung out for the afternoon/evening with my Mom and sister. Aleksy and I prepared for the day with preparing pork skewers, chicken burgers, and I made a massive potato salad. Aleksy's Mom helped with a caesar salad. Aleksy also got about 4 cases of beer for the occasion. We had about 12-14 guys come over: family and friends, so I was a little anxious about the cost vs. profit since it costs a lot to provide beer and food! But our family and friends were so generous that we definitely benefited from the party... everyone bought the large boxes of diapers, some brought more than one, we got wipes plus my brother got us a $100 gift card! So much preparedness for Logan.

This was the massive mountain of diapers that I arrived to when I got home Saturday night around 10:30pm. Since the party had started at 3pm, I figured maybe about half the men would have left by the time that I got home. Nope... everyone was still over and everyone was feeling pretty good. All the beer had depleted and Aleksy's Dad also brought over a Texas mickey of vodka which had a few inches off it. I broke up the party and over the next hour and a half everyone went home (so my pregnant self could get some sleep!)


The great part about the diapers was that we got a variety of sizes from 1-6! Everyone seemed to be on the pampers bandwagon, and Al & Steph were the Huggies box (just the one!). We are super prepared for many diaper changes!

Our Little Guy Has Arrived!

We are now parents!! To this adorable boy:

Our Logan was born on September 16, 2015 at exactly 37 weeks! He was born at 11:24pm at 7 lbs. He must have known that we were ready because I had just gone in to work on Monday the 14th and packed up my desk to be finished and my water broke the very next day; Tuesday the 15th! Good thing I am uber prepared and everything for him was ready! I had planned on having a few weeks off work to nest... 

 This is me the evening before my water broke (Monday the 14th). I was feeling pretty good after doing a 45 minute body sculpt class plus 15 minutes on the elliptical. I suppose I didn't exactly "take it easy", which I wonder may have contributed to my water breaking?

But this is the last picture I took while pregnant! I didn't get maternity pictures taken in time since I still had 3 weeks to my due date and I thought I would have my friend chelsea take some pictures when I was off work... but then Logan had his own plan! But I did take biweekly bump pictures throughout the pregnancy and some good shower pictures so those will be my moments of my Logan pregnancy.

And we finished his room completely about a week before Logan was born! The last couple pieces that needed to come together were the curtains (that came in the mail just in time), and the shelves that Aleksy made that are under the window!

We left the hospital on Friday the 18th and Logan had some visitors both at the hospital and at home. Logan has already met his Nana and Dziadek, Grandpa, Lisa, Grandma, Uncle Al, Aunt Steph, Aunt Sam, Uncle Travis, Aunt Steph, Uncle Kenny, cousin Rachel and cousin Brandon, Uncle Andrew, Aunt Andzelika, Uncle Paul, friends Serena and Natalia, Uncle Warren and Aunt Chelsea and friend Cadence! Yup... he's only 6 days old but has a lot of people who love him and needed to met him immediately!

We've had a lot of home time since Logan has arrived! Hes already had a couple baths, gone out for a couple walks and the rest of the time we're chilling inside cuddling, eating, peeing and pooping (and visiting with visitors). Tomorrow will be his first outing to see the Doctor for his 1 week check up! 

Happy Anniversary: 10 year & 1 year

The weekend of August 29/30, we celebrated our anniversary: August 28th was 10 years together and August 30th was our 1 year wedding anniversary. Aleksy planned the weekend as a surprise weekend away: I knew nothing. Didn't know where we were going or what we were doing. I wasn't sure exactly when the moment was when we were driving that he should tell me, but it ended up when we got to Toronto, he told me we were staying downtown and that weekend was buskerfest and we also had tickets to a comedy show on the Saturday. Everything was planed and paid for by Aleksy... and I got him some nice bourbon as a gift... even trade off right?

We left on Saturday morning around 10am and for to the hotel around 12:30pm. It was packed in the lobby when we got there... the Chelsea Hotel. There were people all dressed up for weddings that were at the hotel and then lots of people that just seemed like tourists... like us.

This picture is from our hotel balcony... I think the only hotel we've stayed at with a balcony!

On Saturday, one we checked into our hotel, we headed out to the buskerfest which was on Young St. right behind our hotel. There were a bunch of guys like this guy performing for everyone. And also other buskers that were doing things like sidewalk art. It was hard to see a lot of the buskering because there were sooooo many people that would gather around, but when we got a good spot, it was pretty sweet. Our first stop when we got to buskerfest: lunch! Surprise! The pregnant lady really needed some lunch. But it seemed like when you are looking for awesome lunch food, its hard to find but when you're not looking, it's EVERYWHERE. We ended up settling for a gyro and Aleksy has Montreal smoked sandwich (we saw all the awesome fish taco and other kiosks later).

This was on Young at the buskerfest. As you can see in the picture, there were approximately a million people on the streets. And lots of booths along the sides selling things (food, clothes, and other random things) and the occasional buskerer...

And the Toronto sign from the Pan Am games! As well as walking down Young St. to the busketfest, we went by the Eaton Centre and to Queen St. for a little shopping... It all made good sense because we were heading closer to our final destination of the day: Second City where the comedy show was... but... I was dying of walking. Aleksy's phone said we walked 16km that day and carrying around a baby (I was 34 and a half weeks!) all day forced me to need sitting breaks! When we were on Queen St. and realizing it was only 5pm, we called to switch our 10pm time to a 7pm show, which worked better because we were still full from lunch but had a lot of time to kill. Lucky us they still had space for the 7pm!

To get good seats, we checked in early at Second City. The show was actually at 7:30 but we got there for 6:45pm and good thing we did because we got a nice private table for 2 that was not right beside the stage.

One of the best parts of the Second City was that they had pregnant friendly drinks... I even had options: a whole list of them! This one was a "smartini" with pineapple, cranberry and lime juice... made me feel like it was an adult drink unlike pop. We also had some sweet potato fries to tie us over until after the show.

And the show was hilarious. It was improv so a lot of it was made up right on the spot, and the scenes were pre-established. There were about 4 comedians that did the whole show and it was definitely a show worth seeing... different from the stand up comedy that we've gone to at Yuk Yuks.
After the show was over, we decided to grab some late night (yes... late night is 9:30pm for us now) pizza... and churros... and head in to the hotel for the night. We cabbed it back to the hotel because walking for the day was over.

Us at out hotel the next morning :)

The night that we stayed there, the fire alarm went off at 1:30am. It was sooo loud and disruptive. The PA announced that everyone on the first 2 levels was evacuating and everyone else was to stay in their rooms... a little anxiety provoking. It sucked... but I was thinking how much ore it would have sucked with a baby or children with us (there were lots of families at the hotel!).

Although we saw some buskering on the Saturday, we returned Sunday because we thought we could get more out of buskerfest! After grabbing a bagel ad eta at the Panera bread, we saw a few more performances (like a man who was a pro yo-yo er). We also saw these amazing dinosaurs just walkig down the street. We saw them preparing to go out earlier int he day and got this picture from inside the urban outfitters when we stopped for a little AC break.

We also took a little tour of Kensington market on Sunday. I wish we could eat more because the food looked so good at Kensington market. Lots of street vendors with tons of different ethnic foods. We were holding out because the next stop was chinatown and we really wanted dim sum.

Oh and a band playing on top of the store...
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We drove and parked in chinatown to avoid more walking than necessary. Plus, parking in chinatown is the cheapest. We tried to explore the stores to get some good knock off stuff for baby Darnell, but really couldn't find anything.

But we did find a pastry shop... my favourite! We left Toronto with about 4 buns of goodness.... Conveniently, the pastry shop was right beside the dim sum restaurant we went to.

People love their dim sum on weekends in Toronto. There was actually a line to get in. But we decided that we didn't want to wait in the line, and agreed to eat at a "shared table". So, you can see here that there were another 8 or so seats that other people could have been seated next to us, but we had it to ourselves most of the time. You know... keeping it romantic on our anniversary.


We headed back to London just shortly after dim sum and buying our pastries. Wanted to make it back to get some groceries for the work week. It was a pretty sweet anniversary weekend!