A Springbank Park Day

Saturday August 19th, we did a fam bbq in Springbank park for the second time!

We met just before lunchtime and fired up the charcoal bbq for some turkey burgers and hotdogs when we got there.

We chose a kind of geese heavy spot. There was a lot of poop. But that didn't stop us from having our lunch (after some catch and finding a green ball for Logan that is now at our house for some reason)!

Lunch at the park was awesome... no clean up, outside which we love to be in the summer, and lots of play space. But you know what was the awesome cherry on top? The free mini festival that we found!

These are just our giant free snow cones!

Free snowcones were not all! There were balloon animals (Logan got a penguin), and a giant clown slide (for all... adults included!). And Steph, Logan, Rachel and I also attended the bouncy castle.

Best find ever!

And to top the awesome park day off, we ended it with a train ride! What a lucky day for Logan.. he loved the train ride (and was watching it go by all through lunch so was happy he got to ride it too)

Logan's penguin balloon animal. As Logan said "mine!" and held on tight all through the train ride.

That Weekend it was Me and Logan

The August 12th weekend, Aleksy was at a bachelor party in Toronto. Logan and I (and Kate) had the whole houses to ourselves. We didn't plan much and it was pretty nice! Saturday morning, we did a quick stroller run together and played at the park, had an early lunch then goobs went down for his nap about 12:30pm

And my first book since forever ago was started! I am sooo reading a book this summer. This is what I accomplished during nap time. Some wine and reading about how to bring all the awesomeness possible out of my life!

When Logan woke up, he joined me in the backyard for some water table and pool play but he was very distracted by by Mommy reading a book. He knows, if Mommy's ever reading, it's clearly for him. So he took over my book. No pictures are such a disappointment...

Sunday of that weekend was Logan's first Storybook Garden's visit! We went with my friend Jenny and Logan's friend Levi. Only $7 admission which is pretty unbeatable.

There were a few things that Logan loved... one of them this park. The playgrounds there were pretty good!

Nursery rhymes!

The classics - the whale is still there and the shoe too!

Otherwise, it is pretty much a bunch of houses (which Logan did like the play food), a playground, ad splash pad (plus rides)

When you walk around the park twice looking for animals, realize there aren't any but the next most exciting thing after playing in the little houses and playground and before the splash pad was this cart. We live on the edge letting our kids play on the maintenance equipment!

The amazing splash pad made the $7 all worthwhile. Logan had the best time.. particularly with this water gun. He stayed here for such a long time moving this around trying to shoot people while Levi wandered the entire splash pad!

We reunited them at this water table! We went at a pretty good time, that by the time we were in the Splash pad it was 5pm and Storybook gardens closes at 5:30pm so the crowds had dwindled! It was really busy around 2:30pm when we got there so Im glad we waited until the end.

They loved the splash pad!


We arrived home to Aleksy sleeping off his bachelor party dust. Our weekend wasn't quite as wild.

Sailboats and a Toddler

On the Civic long weekend, we went up to the boat on the Saturday. We left in the am and got to Whitby around lunch.

We were greeted in the best possible way - with Swiss chalet for lunch. We had our lunch inside the boat and Logan was loving dipping the fries and chicken in the chalet sauce.

It was kind of a cloudy, cold day on the Saturday, so we spent the day with the boat in its place - no trying to sail with big waves and a baby.

Although it looks like a really pretty day in this picture, it was a bit chilly and windy. After lunch, we poured some responsible drinks to take for a walk - to get Logan off the boat so he could walk around.




And there was a snake!!

It was a pretty good walk from the marina, along the waterfront - probably 45 minutes. Too long for Logan to walk the whole way, and as you can see he really didn't want sit in his stroller.

And Asia - or as my Mom likes to spell it, Ajah came for the walk too. She doesn't always get far from the boat (except that time she went into the lake) but she was probably happy we were pro walk!

The boardwalk along the way to the park with my Mom.

Logan was a big fan of the park - all the check marks of an almost 2 year old: multiple slides, some good mulch to play in, and some steering wheels and puzzles. Logan is serious about his parks.

After our walk back to the marina from the park, Aleksy, Paul and Logan went to the grocery store to grab some supper and me and my Mom stayed back and had a drink (my idea for the toddler to go to the grocery store - genius for a quiet drink and uninterrupted conversation). Then we headed to the marina clubhouse to bbq our food. Logan and Ajah played on the grass!

Logan had a good sleep on the boat! He went down about 9pm and didn't get back up until 4am when he had a quick cry but stopped when I crawled into the quarterbirth with him - and then he slept until 7am!

We were up until after 1am having drinks with Mom and Paul (Aleksy and Paul later), so Im glad he slept better than camping!

And this is the next morning. Having some cheerios for breakfast... and also feeding them to the ducks! Most for the ducks obviously.

Logan taking some responsibility for the doggy first thing in the am.

He likes tasks so...

And after a Timmies run and getting ready, we all headed out to breakfast. The waitress got Logan an adult sized potion of pancakes and sausages, which he took a total of 2 bites of (maybe half a sausage) then she gave him a free cookie and he took half a bite. Somedays he will eat everything, and others basically nothing at all.

And after breakfast, we had big plans to go for a sail sicne we didn't get out on Saturday and the water was much calmer, but Logan needed to nap before we could head out so Aleksy and I took him out for a stroller nap walk for about an hour.

We even saw some fire trucks shooting water out into the lake (Logan saw when he woke up).

Heading out for a sail! Logan is unsure, but definitely did better with the life jacket this summer.

How our sail went: Logan unsure but not cryig for the first 20 minutes. Then started crying for maybe 10 minutes with a break in between for a picture like this one. Then a solid hour of crying until we headed back to the marina. It was a little draining for all. We could hardly finish a drink.

Almost 2 is not such a good age for the ol' sailing I guess... maybe next year will be the magical year!

And back at the marina, and not wanting to waste the nice weather, we sat on the boat until just before supper for some drinks before a visit with Bea.

Bea last saw Logan at 10 months so it was a big change this time. And she had ice cream and cupcakes already set out for all of us!

And Logan slept the whole way back to London from Whitby... the best kind of drive!

The Last Weekend of July Vacation

On the last weekend of July vacation, we went camping! We haven't tent camped in a long time. So long I can't remember. But we decided to make a family fun trip out of it and headed on the Friday morning to Long Point where we booked a campsite on the Friday night: July 28th.

We left around 9:30 in the morning, which worked well so Logan fell asleep during the drive and didn't need an afternoon nap. We got to the beach just before lunch and I was amazed by how beautiful Long point is! The best Ontario beach we've been to.

We were starving when we got to the beach so we dove into the lunch we packed even before noon! It was a bit cold at first, but warmed up real quick! Our shelter was not as used this year as last year since Logan wants to be playing the whole time and taking periodic trips to the water.

We really liked that everyone on this beach had drinks freely. That's just our kind of people. This strawberry margarita was delish while Logan and Aleksy played with the beach toys.

Logan's favourite thing and obsession was taking his big bucket down to the water filling it up (having us fill it up) and then dumping it out/ He had such a good day playing at the beach!

And chasing seagulls. Far away from Mommy and Daddy.

It was such a big beach that the people were scattered and I didn't have to worry about losing him in a crowd!

After some serious beaching, we hit up the ice cream place of course! We have since had to take a little break from ice cream because Logan thought it was a part of our regular food groups.

This is our campsite and the tent putter-uppers. This is how close we were to the beach... you can see it in the background! Logan's new thing is "do it", which means he wants to do it himself and because he really wanted to help put the tent up but was kinda in the way a bit, me and Logan went on a little walk to let Aleksy put up the tent... there were swings about 10 feet from us and the beach about 100 feet from us so we had lots to occupy little mr. do it.

In the tent! Logan would rather play with the tent supplies than the toys we brought for him...

After the tent was pitched it was supper time! We brought our mini BBQ and made sausages that we had along with the kale super salad, and some beans. Logan thought the sausage should be eaten separate and the beans go on the bun.
That red solo cup is the classy camping wine glass...

After supper, we took a walk down to the beach right from our campsite.

Hoodies because it started to get a bit chilly out. The wind in Long point was crazy and it made it really chilly at night!

This is heading back to our campsite.

We had to make sure that Logan could partake in a campfire before bedtime. As you can see, we brought his little yellow chair; perfect for his little bum. Where did he sit? On every chair except that little chair perfect for his little bum of course.

Logans first smore. I was very excited for him to have it. But knowing my child who eats a total of 20 items out of all the food in the world, I also knew he probably wouldn't eat it. And of course, Mommy intuition was right and this smore went directly in my tummy. I dont let smores go to waste!

I also didn't waste my smore availability and followed that up with another 2 or 3...

So, I though camping out in the fresh air would be great sleeping conditions for our tired almost 2 year old, especially since our tent was big enough to accommodate his playpen to sleep in (which he sleeps in in lots of different places). I was not right about that. It was about 8ish when I tried to put Logan down in the tent to sleep and I was in there for an hour singing, cuddling, trying anything to make that boy sleep to no avail. I think he was creeped out to be left alone in the tent with moving (because of the crazy wind) soft walls.

When I came out and said that there was a good chance he would crawl out of his playpen, he did. We heard a thump (which was he was fine from) then decided to take him for a car ride (that was around 9:30!). He fell asleep... but fought it as hard as he could.

And when he finally got down, we were so exhausted (at 10pm!) but we had to enjoy the campfire so we made it to about 11:30 with eating hotdogs and smores along with our drinks!

Guess who woke up the neighbouring tents before 7am!? But he's just so cute with his breakfast...

At 12:30am, Logan decided he had enough with his playpen and slept the remainder of the night on the air mattress with us. And was up bright and early.

I felt bad for the campers who I saw making their way out of their tents before 7am... right after Logan was crying over something I clearly don't rememebr and we tried so hard to have him "shhhhhhh"!

It was a lot of work this camping. That morning, I distracted Logan again with walks and swings so we could unpack our tent - we chose one night because we didn't know how it'd go (more intuition!) but it made for a lot of work for one night!

But energy kicks back in at the beach! We had another great beach day the next day. All the same fun, different day.

We had some cheese and crackers for lunch then headed back to London after lunch.

Logan slept the whole way home! One of the benefits from a bad night sleep in the tent...

And when we got back on the Saturday, Aleksy worked on our patio with his brother both the Saturday right after we got home around 2:30pm and the Sunday. Logan and I had plans with Uncle Mike and Emma for splash pad and park fun at Gibbons on the Sunday!

Logan said "Uncle Mike" for days after that... it really stuck! And "Emma" is pretty much the same thing as "Mama" for Logan.

The Best of July Vacation Days: Week 2

And the 2nd week of vacation, Logan headed to daycare again for just the Monday. The rest of the week was just me and Logan doing daytime activities!

When Logan went to daycare on the Monday, I had a day trip planned with Brooklyn to go to Simcoe for the day so I can see where Brooklyn's going to go to school, and her house! It was Brooklyn's birthday so I wanted to do something more exciting than a regular get together. We headed up in the morning and got there about 11am and went for a walk in the downtown park! We told the person Brooklyn is renting from that we'd be there around 12pm, so we headed to see her place after our walk (and scoping out some lunch options).

After seeing Brooklyns awesome farm place, we headed back into town and got some lunch at the Blue elephant in the downtown. Then we saw the Fanshawe satellite school in Simcoe - it was awesomely small but looked pretty nice and new.

Then we spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring on foot - we found an ice cream factory that we really wanted to tour (and sample) but it didn't seem to have tours, but to make up for it, we found a sweet shop and got my favourite chocolate covered licorice and a choc covered rice krispie square for Logan (even if we ate most of it).

And Tuesday, Logan and I headed down to Gibbons park for the morning. And ran into family! My Aunt and cousin's boy, Westley were there. Logan took Westley's hand and they headed into the splash pad together.

Logan liked following Westley around. I love when paths cross and you get an extended family update unexpectedly!

After a morning at Gibbons and then some lunch when we got home, Logan went down for his nap. I decided that I was going to take a break from my regular workout routine of muscle work pretty much everyday so I can enjoy the afternoon drinks that I sometimes sacrifice for a workout! I still managed to get in some runs, but wine out back while Logan was napping was so worth taking a break!

This was when our patio was just gravel (now its stone!!)

Our Wednesday consisted of a bit of Masonville shopping. This guy needed some new sandals so we hit up the mall to see what we could find. We got some new sandals and more importantly a delicious green smoothie ("yummy" according to Logan). He shared with me. This kid loves his smoothies!

Thursday, I squeezed in a morning run with the goober. Pour some cheerios in the tray and good to go! Pushing a stroller definitely makes it more difficult I decided. We took a run break to see the ducks at the front of our subdivision...

We also had a visit with my grandparents - Logan's great Grandparents that morning. Getting all our invites out for Logans 2nd birthday party!

And then we took the rest of Thursday easy including making healthy blueberry muffins in preparation for our camping trip the next night! Sometimes when camping, you just need something easy for breakfast or to snack on... And this kid skipped naps like nobody's business when we were off (I thin he had a couple 1 hour naps) so might as well take advantage!