Girls Night!

I organized the first girls night out since my bachelorette on December 1st. The idea was thrown out at Logan's birthday party and it just took us a bit to find a weekend that worked for everyone!

The plan was to go for drinks and appetizers then dancing at a bar. I had no idea that the nicer places needed reservations so although we originally wanted to do the Tasting Room, it was booked but I landed a reservation at Fellinis us last minute!

They had flights of wine and awesome appetizers so it did not disappoint. It also seemed super reasonably priced with all our bills being $20-30.

And then we moved from classy to straight up starting and closing the night at an old classic: Jacks. At 10:30pm, we were basically young in the crowd but by the end of the night all the 20 year olds took over (although they have no idea and everyone thought we were also 23).

Nikki and I left at bar closing as we do because we can't stop the party together, but didn't get home until after 3 because she lost her phone somewhere in Jacks!

The next day was pretty tired with the 2 kiddos on 3 hours of sleep (and surprisingly didnt feel a hangover thank goodness!!)

Miscellaneous Events

Over the past few weeks I have noticed that our weekend plans have slowed down a bit, which is usually the case around November before the busy of Christmas starts. Since we've been back, here's some of what we've been up to:

I met another Mom who lives in the subdivision who also has kids the same age as both Logan and Leah and have been spending time with her - we've gone for a walk, had a playdate and she also invited Logan to her son's 3rd bday in November! Logan had the the best time at the little Gym... and her son actually has the same name. My Logan was very confused at this bday ha!

Leah at a playdate with her friend Teegan. My giant baby is 1 month younger! Leah's getting better at the jolly jumper now... she can get herself to a cute little star jump for a little bit.

When Leah turned 5 months, we introduced her to solids... some oat cereal first and then this is the face she made along with a gag. So we tried rice cereal... the same. Baby food is pretty gross according to Leah. She still gags but a little less now that we add banana.

My cuties... weekend mornings are like this: PJs, Leah wanting to be close to her brother and Logan wanting nothing but "little Thomas" on his "little puter". This kid loves weekends more than us because it's when he is allowed to watch Paw Patrol and little thomas (youtube videos of people playing trains).

We went for breakfast with Santa in Ilderton the first weekend of December. Logan was not having Santa and clung for dear life to me instead of getting in the picture.

And THIS is the official picture with Santa. At first he refused to go anywhere near him and Aleksy and I were in a picture that he refused to look at the camera for. Then after some serious bribery and telling him not to look at Santa, we got a picture re-take and this is the result!!

Snowy weekends! This was actually the Monday after we got back from Mexico. Bam. Climate change... but Logan was excited to get out and go on a "snow adventure". Leah felt similar to me about the weather change and cried a lot of this adventure.

Logan's skating lesson session is coming to an end now (he will start again in Feb) and he has improved huge!! He goes all by himself and pretty fast too! Especially when he's chasing after the little plastic balls or moving the little pieces the instructor brings (pumpkins for halloween, stockings fro Christmas) from one side to the other.

Sometimes it's fun to play in the snow. Especially when the 5 month old LIKES the toboggan (Logan hated it at that age!) and we can do turbo speed down the icy slide.

Anything to burn the energy pent up from being inside: play outside, even clean our basement which I have done over the past couple weeks so they have another space to play!

My December Halloween Post

I don't want to miss posting about our Halloween so here it is.. a December Halloween post!

Logan helped me make faces for these pumpkin pringle treats for his friends at daycare and friends coming to our Halloween party!

Halloween party treats to keep the food festive. This year I bought everything store bought for convenience so I figured it would still we halloweeny if I just made a couple things... chocolate eyeball pretzels and halloween brownies (and a candy charcuterie!).

This little pineapple is where the inspiration for our family costumes came in! We bought it first and then bought ours!

A coordinated kid group shot... not so bad for 12 kids (4 not pictured). We squeeze a lot of kids in our house!

Mines the one with no costume. I forgive him because he was feeling so sick during this party. He literally had to take breaks, threw up once for playing hard and then would drink water and run with his friends again. That damn cold lasted over a week in this house and resulted in almost 2 weeks of 430/530am mornings.

Fruit salad! Logan was kind enough to put his costume on for 5 seconds (good thing I only paid $13) Logan was the grapes which he, believe it or not, picked out himself and a banana, strawberry and of course pineapple.

On the Monday following our Halloween party, Logan had a Dr's appointment (they both did!) and then on the way to drive Logan to Springbank where the daycare was, he threw up in the car. This is about the point we started calling this cold the plague. It was brutal... cold, fever, throw up and at the end, the cherry on top was earaches (he visited the Dr again a week later and did not have an ear infection).

But that Monday since he was home with Leah and I, we made a chocolate haunted house! He was eating the candy from it which I didnt realize was gum and had his first gum... just winning at parenting.

If you know Logan, you wouldn't be surprised to know that he had to look at the box the whole time and follow the "direction" of the picture on the box to decorate.

Halloween day! This little muchkin wore Logans hand me down Halloween clothes!!

And I may be biased but here's the cutest kids in their Halloween costumes! There were at least 3 other pineapple babies and a few other Marshalls we spotted when trick or treating (and the other paw patrollers too!). Poor Leah had caught the plague by this time and I felt bad having her outside in the cool weather.

Logan only wants to wear his costume when he wants to... he didn't want to wear it at daycare but easily put it on for trick or treating (he also picked this one out).

Marshall trick or treating at the neighbours.

Logan would have gone all night if we didn't cut him off... he trick or treated from 6 to 730! Leah slept the second half.

He had a much better understanding this year and only tried to go into peoples houses a few times.

Having some teats after getting home. Starting with the cheesies. Logan expanded his candy eating since Halloween... he will eat pretty much any chocolate bar now (is that even a good thing?).

Mexico Adventures Thursday to Sunday

I have so few pictures from Thursday! This was around the time that Logan learned that he does indeed like chocolate milk and started ordering from the bars and restaurants. We spent most of the day around the pools Thursday but it was a bit chilly so we moved along fast and then ended up at the playground for a but in the afternoon before heading back for ice cream..

Because it was kind of chilly and Logan didn't seem to want to be in the pools much (he asked to go home more than usual that day), we had some afternoon ice cream after the playground. This time, we ordered from the ice cream menu!

This cutie with his 3 favs and obviously the chocolate on chocolate on chocolate is mine.

After our late afternoon room hangout to let Logan re group, we headed down to the lobby for Mexican night around 630pm. They had a market set out so we could do some shopping. We got a few things... a dress for Leah, cigars for Aleksy but it was getting late so we headed to supper around 730pm (I also snagged lots of stuff from the ladies roaming the beach with 100 lbs of things to buy on them). It was the night with the best food by far BUT also the night where Logan was not sitting still and not eating and I had to shovel this back and leave with him (and then Aleksy shovel his back and go back to the room). The no nap, later night thing got to him that day! 

Friday, we planned to hit the beach early (there at 915!) so we could get a good shady spot and we had the best beach day! Logan played his buried treasure game with coconuts and we had the best spot with lots of shade.

Leah may have slept for a while when we got there, but she did wake up for her first time at the beach/first time in the ocean!

Family picture taken by a sweet lady with an accent (Logan had no idea what she was talking about when she said he had a pelican on his head).

Classic Leah just smiley and loving life as can be. And this picture shows the extra 1.5 lbs that she gained in Mexico.. the only one to gain some vacation weight (the rest of us were subject to Mexicos natural laxatives... but I knew to come prepared with a whole medicine cabinet this time!)

2 happy kiddos= 2 happy parents (+ drinks and beach... best day!) 

Saturday was a re-do of Friday since we had such a great day... Beach day again!

Just a couple typical vacationers eating goldfish and peeing through her swim diaper.

Logan is potty trained (just a diaper at night) so we shook up his world when we added the complex of peeing being ok in the potty and pool (so deserving of a parenting award). He had much more accidents than usual that week! He also didnt get how to pee without making it obvious.

Logan was SO excited when he saw all the multicoloured sea doos. These are actually sea patrollers and each colour represents the corresponding pup.

After heading back from the beach, we tried to get Logan swimming but he wasn't really feeling it so we did ice cream then tried to get back to our room where we found that our card wasnt working and we waited for an hour and a half for them to get it fixed with no so much of an apology for the inconvenience of having to fed Leah on the floor ofthe hallway outside our room and Logan napping on Aleksys shoulder.

We asked the front desk if we could have a bottle of champagne for our troubles and he said no! (all inclusive no?)

So I asked where to speak to someone else and we managed to get our apology and bottle of champagne... a nice way to spend our last evening on our balcony. I really liked this bubbly (mimosas in the a were 90% this I swear).

Sunday... our last morning. We had to squeeze in a swim before catching our shuttle at noon.

One last swim for all of us! Logan actually become very unenthusiastic about swimming toward the end of the week (didnt want to go to the splash pad at all!) so we talked him into it by going to the riviera "adult pool"... he loved it!

And by Sunday, he was comfortable enough to swim so independently! He swam all the way to the stairs from there.


And after our swim we packed up our things and headed to the lobby to catch our shuttle. The kids did amazing again with the travels... Logan had screen time for the first time in a week and was in heaven and Leah slept 3 hours again. But by the time Logan got off the airplane and back to the car he was ready to sleep! Both kiddos slept well the way home and we got home around 1030/11pm!


It was a pretty awesome sunny vacation with some great family time and adventures but definitely fast paced compared to our other all inclusive experiences an I decided that when it comes to all inclusives, Ill probably stay away from Mexico now! After travelling to over 10 countries in the world, it seems to be the only one that doesnt agree with me (or Logan.. he took probably a week to have solid poos!).

Mexico Adventures Sat to Wed

Our Mexico vacay started in Toronto for Park Sleep and Fly. Logan was happy as can be because he had full use of his "little puter" with wifi to watch his "little thomas" youtube videos of people playing trains (this is an obsession) and Leah happy as can be because well... it's Leah.

The half second he looked up from the screen. He had no idea that the next 8 days would be totally screen-free.... 3 year old bubble popped. Leah just loving life as per usual.

We are no stranger to hotel carpet picnics. The first festive special of the season for this one. And this is where Logan's pizza obsession starts (also swiss chalet has pizza).

After we missed our 7am shuttle and the driver said he'd come back in 15 minutes just to not come back, we left for the airport about 50 minutes behind schedule! But still got there with lots of time to get through customs (they are so accommodating with kids!) and have a $7 grape snack. Our flight was a 10:15am.

All was super smooth with the flight. The big one watched little puter and was happy as can be and little one slept for 3 hours.

When we arrived in Cancun, it was pretty easy to find the sunwing shuttle to our resort and not only did we score airport cerveza, but they also made a pit stop (for literally 0.5 seconds) and got us extra dos equis for the drive! It was about 45 minutes on the shuttle and Logan slept for it.

And once we got to our resort - Grand Princess (at the family part!) Logan woke up and had a full hour and a half meltdown. It was intense with none of his comforts around him so it took him forever to calm. We were able to talk him into the ice cream parlour so this was our first stop at the resort.

After that we made our first and last supper stop at the pirate buffet right at the family club but the selection was minimal so we went to the main resort buffet after that. That night our whole room was in bed by 9.

Logan doing what he loves best... playing trains. Vacationing in Mexico is no different! His favourite was playing with them outside on the balcony.

There was a splash pad with a pirate ship, slides and mushroom/tree waterfalls. Logan loved these this first day. He brought in his little beach toys that the hotel provided to us! He had such a good time this first day going down the slides and jumping in the water!

Leah slept the whole time (probably 2 hours) in a shady spot we found for her and when she woke up we were ready to go so I dipped her toes in to cool her off!

And we went for a walk to explore. We met some friends along this path...

Friend iguanas and kitties!! There were so many cats and also coaties which were basically a racoon/squirrel hybrid. They were cute but garbage eaters.

That is not back sweat for the record... it's water from my bathing suit! Seriously looks like back sweat.

We walked pretty much all the way to the beach but we didn't know how much further it was (little did we know we were 2 min away) so we stopped to eat and cool off at the other buffet by the resort pool.

pico de gallo and guac at every meal!! And Logan basically lived off breakfast where he could have pb and j and watermelon.

Logan had a little nap in the stroller on the way back and so we stopped to as Logan calls it "hang out" with mojitos! There were nice little seating "villas" out in the atrium of the resort that were perfect for it.

One small baby, one big king bed. After the first day we were upgraded to the room with the king bed and bunk beds because I had thought that was the room we were getting and we were firstly put in a room with 2 double beds and a pull out sofa. They changed our room but we stayed 1 night in the other room.

Monday night was the first and only show that we saw... Moana! Logan was so tired we didnt quite make the whole thing but he did like when the people from the show would run up and down the aisles.

We decided after this show that the 830/9pm shows were a little late for the kids so after that we put the kids to bed at 8pm instead and had drinks on the balcony each night!

Tuesday morning. We went for breakfast where the balloon man made Logan a sword and then waited for the shuttle to the beach around 930! Here's the shuttle stop.

Matching tequila party hats.

We got to the beach around 10 and by then so many of the spots with the shade were already taken! So we pulled up some chairs to a spot right by the bar... always a good idea.

Playing in the sand with his toys from the hotel. The game of the vacation was "buried treasure".

Pretty beach... huge undertow.

And after the beach and lunch, we went down to the pool for a swim with our turtle friend. He got a hole in him immediately so this was the only swim we got with him!

The family pool was pretty narrow and consisted mostly of the bottom of peoples swim up rooms... but we didnt need much space anyway!

We have so few family pictures from this vacation... we should have asked people to take our picture more!

And Tuesday after our swim we got our dresses and dress shirt on for a "fancy" supper. We were given reservations to the restaurants on the resort but we knew we'd be disappointed with having to rush out/having a squirmy baby and antsy 3 year old so we made the informed decision to stick to buffets where we impressively could be in and out drinks included in 15 minutes.

Wednesday morning started with breakfast at the buffet and this fancy diaper change to follow.

We then scoped out a poolside spot for the baby to lounge at the family side of the resort where there are lounge chairs for small people.

And while lounging, lunch was delivered to this happy boy from the hotdog/hamburger cart! You can see it behind him. He was so excited about his burger but it didn't look quite cooked right to us so we didnt let him eat it, but when we got a burger shortly after, he ate tons of it (and then the coaties ate out garbage straight from the bin).

Not a day went by that we didnt visit the ice cream parlour. This boy knew the flavours he liked best and would tell them himself... chocolate, vanilla and pistachio ("green").

By Wednesday we had developed a system that seemed to work best for the 4 of us... that included coming back to the room around 4/5 for some chill time before heading to supper. This is Logan enjoying his mid afternoon room time on the balcony by himself with snacks that I brought from home because he's too picky and I was genuinely concerned about him starving for a week.

We also really liked to head down to the lobby before supper around 530 (supper started at 6) and grab a cappuccino... we did that at least 3 times!