Summertime is my kind of time!

Some good summer stuff has happened and all so fast! Every weekend seems jam packed with busy plans and I think we've managed to hit the beach more this year than the last 2 years combined!

Taking it back to Fathers day weekend for some swiss chalet lunch with my Dad and my little sidekick. Keeping happy at the table with a million puffs and a stack of napkins!

Also Father's day weekend, on the Friday celebrating Cadences birthday! We almost let them cut the cake without first documenting that Chelsea gave the wrong age for the cake and said to "just cross it out and put a 5". Poor poor Cadie haha!

Father's day weekend was the big 6-0 for my Mom! We celebrated with a good old fashioned adult birthday party complete with an opening present time. Logan assisted with this... he's a present opening enthusiast.

I wanted to try something new for Father's day for a day trip other than our usual hot spot and I found this gem just about a 30 minute country drive from home! The Glen Rock conservation area had a pretty waterfall and a hike that was perfect for us.

The hike was pretty family friendly and it also had lots of stairs. We took a mid stair break for our picnic lunch!

And then once we got home, I made this for Fathers day supper! This is my favourite thing ever I think. Creole inspired... corn, sausage, shrimp and potatoes. I need to make more of this!

Jumping to Leah's birthday weekend! This was an awesome fire and wine night we had after the party. We kept the fire (and wine) going until past midnight while throwing it back to music we used to listen to 10 years ago while reminiscing on the days we crowd surfed to the songs!! The problem with drinking wine for 4 hours is the next morning.... it was a rough rough start to the day. And it was Canada day!

We finally dragged our butts out to the Canada day festivities downtown around 3:30 (plan was originally for 12:30!) and I'm glad we did because we definitely got the wind back in us and it was a pretty great street festival compete with giant gummy bears. Lots of stuff for the kids!

On this particular day I lived off of popsicles and this here ice cream. Chocolate peanut butter was the only flavour left and it was totally ok with us!

Logan was super excited about his glowsticks... he was self-proclaimed "bright Logan".

Oh hey Bright Logan.

Me and this little lady spend our days together with about a million walks, occasional runs, tons of neighbourhood park visits and sometimes we go all out and go to other parks! This was a visit to Springbank for a swim in the wading pool. Anywhere there are other kids, Leah is a happy girl. We have done Storybook gardens a couple times and today visited the splash pad in Ilderton.

I love this kids personality! For soccer pictures this year he was in such a funny mood and I think Leah was making this face that day so why not copy her for a great picture!

This guy liked soccer so much more this year! He participated in everything and was little mr. independent on the field. Just 1 more and soccer season done and done!

The Easter bunny was kind enough to bring a bunch of awesome outdoor toys including this slip and slide! Logan absolutely loves it. He doesn't grow tired of it nearly as fast as the other toys outside and we even get to throw him across the yard.

During the hot 2 weeks of pretty much every day over 30 degrees, we had to set up all the water toys so pool too.

In this pose Logan tells us "it's a good day to do nothing". I have no idea where he got that from... Aleksy and I have no idea how to do nothing if we tried. 

My water baby joins when she's not napping!

And on Chelsea's birthday weekend, we went down to Sunfest on the Saturday! It was so amazing.. we didn't mind waiting in a big line for the best latin food (because no kids!!) .

This food was seriously delish and even better because we ate it while watching this amazing African performance.

We had the best time shopping, watching the performers and eating! We didn't get into the beer tent because of the line but had just as good of a time getting lemonade and dancing to the awesome music from the outside!

A Non-Vacation Vacation

The last week of June was going to be a week off for Aleksy but then he got a new job. So we ended up having a random cottage booked in the middle of the week on a Tuesday night in Bayfield, which he requested off when he started and because he doesn't actually get his vacation during the probationary period, he didnt get the other 3 days of the week off. So... we decided to pack in the things we wanted to do during the week into the weekend!

We started off with another beach day on Saturday after Logan's soccer. We have been going to Port Franks this year and we love it there. There werent too may people there an although it was a bit chilly, we still loved just hanging out on the sand.

These 2 are complete beach bums!

After going into the water, Logan was an icicle so needed a towel cuddle and sunchip break! We usually pack a lunch and some snacks for the beach and then a few adult beverages... another reason we really like Port Franks!

Sunday, we went to the zoo! We had Leah's cake smash in the morning at 9am where Amanda came over and took some pictures and then we headed out shortly after to the Greenview Aviaries. We had been here once before when Logan was about 10 months and Rachel came too!

We started of with a picnic because it was lunchtime by the time we got there... about an hour and 15 drive. Leah had just a little sleep on the way there but was happy as ever.

I felt a bit sadder this time for the animals. I remember feeling that way last time too but this time I really noticed it. Especially the tiger who was given the smallest cage ever...

The ostriches seemed to have some good space.

Leah loved looking at all the animals and Logan liked it but definitely didn't have a long attention span for them!

When the big one gets tired of walking (and it was a lot of walking!). he asks to go in the stroller. He looks like a giant child in here having his popsicle. Logan is loving his popsicles this summer!

After seeing lots of animals, we made out way back to the park and splash pad area, which was definitely Logan's favourite part. And we were some happy parents because we found beer. We have a special talent for finding the booze at the kiddie events.

I love the 80s playground equipment that still exists at this park! It reminds me so much of the dairy dell playground we would go to as kids and Im pretty sure they have some of the same stuff it did. This is the only place I have seen some of the old equipment stay!

These kids loved the spash pad there!! There were pails (form the animal food!) that Logan was putting over the water sprayers and we loved his life.

And this little lady loved walking around the splash pad looking at all the kids and getting splashed! She loves to be around other kids as they play and has way more fun than when its just her and I.

And luckily this was the last stop because my sandal strap broke after this and I had to go barefoot for the drive home!

Aleksy went to work on the Monday, then Tuesday we headed up to Bayfeld around lunchtime. We stopped by the foodland and lcbo there which are so conveniently side by side and grabbed all our lunch needs to have a park picnic right by the playground.

How Leah feels about picnics.

Just kidding... we're lucky if she eats 2 bites of food! Unless its cheerios or baby cookies...

After some good playground play, we checked into our airbnb and it was a cute guest suite beside the main house on a quiet street but close to everything! The park, shops and beach...

And then we didn't drive again until the next day and this was the mode of transportation! Walking down to the shops for the afternoon...

Our favourite bakery in Bayfield! The pink flamingo. Their signature flavour is pink lemonade and Aleksy got one of those squares and I got some biscotti and a cookie while Logan devoured a chocolate cupcake.

On the main street where the shops are restaurants are there was a brewery that we wanted to check out but knew we couldn't sit down for a beer with the kids, but lucky for us they had a fridge of single beers for sale... or as we like to call them roadies. Perfect for the walk back to out place!

After I unsuccessfully tried to put Leah down for a nap (that girl only naps well in her crib), Leah and I joined everyone at the splash pad! We had to hit up all the good spots while we were there.

The we headed for supper at the black dog right on the main strip. We scoped out themenu when we were walking earlier and when we saw they had plain noodles for Logan it was sold.

Logan ate the whole bowl!

The kids were some tired kids with no naps (Leah a brief car nap in the morning) so they were ready for some good bedtime after supper. They went down pretty easily for a strange place and then we had a little balcony that we could sit on and have some wine without waking them up!

Then next morning we grabbed some coffee from the coffee shop... and a delicious muffin that we went back for 2 more of (if the baby's eating it, it's good...) and went for a 9am walk down to the marina to see the boats.

And all the way out to the pier! It's crazy how much the beach has changed in the past few years and the sand is nearly gone on the bayfield beach!

We tried to scope out a couple of spots for a beach day but there really was nothing left of the beach and the parts that were left had pretty fluffy sand and we prefer the flat stuff for Leah so we decided it would be best to check out and then take the drive to Port Franks so the kids could have a nap on the way there.

We got to Port Franks and it was the perfect day for the beach! The water was warm and swimable, the beach had no one because... wednesday and the weather was gorgeous!

And clearly Logan was in some kind of growth spurt at he time because he also ate this whole container of mac and cheese. Easy beach lunch!

This year at Fort Franks there was so much washed up trees and branches. Someone cleaned up a lot of the small twigs but some of these big logs in the beach are really pretty and Logan loves swimming out to them or trying to move them.

Those ones in the background are actually just at about knee depth!

This was the best discovery! On the way home we hit the twin pines cidery which is right along the way home. Aleksy had their cider with supper and we both loved it and had friends who also recommended it.We sampled 5 different kinds of cider and then couldn't decide so got 3 to take home. We loved it so much we hit it up again this past weekend when we were at the beach again.

We havent had time to but you can also walk around their grounds.

Leah's 1!

Leah had her birthday and party this weekend and we no longer have an under 1er! In fact, yesterday she took her first independent steps... a good 4 or 5 of them too! Baby girl's going to be walking in no time and then it will be all toddler land over here.

Every month I have taken her monthly picture and I put together all the pictures for her birthday with her cake smash picture for her 1 year. She did her cake smash 1 week before her birthday. The changes between 4 and 8 months are crazy! I think she went from something like 12lb to nearly 20! Now shes at 22 and a half my chunky monkey.

The theme of Leah's birthday was pink and gold/silver glitter and princess. So these glittery crowns were perfect for favours for the kiddos!

I may have started shopping months in advance to gather all the goodies... online shopping and mat leave are so complimentary!

Leah opened her present from us on her birthday morning. Aleksy (and Logan of course) assembled that morning and she loves this thing so much. She gets frustrated though and sometimes wants to dive down from the side where the door doesn't open..

I spent the morning icing up these cupcakes and cake. I was happy with how the little flowers turned out! I bought the little cake icing tip and it was so easy. And the little candy beads from bulk barn.

I didn't even mind the drooping flowers on the cake... it was pretty enough to not notice!

Apparently finding pink candy wasn't as easy as it seems. I scrounged up a lot of it from the dollar store and somehow between the bulk barn and dollar store the candy bar cost me $100. I had no idea candy could be so pricey!

But it was so cute with the "little princess" boxes!

I was so excited for our Mommy and me matching outfits! I bought these a couple months in advance for her birthday.

I have learned to roll with all the easy maintenance food for parties and get togethers and a sandwich bar is the easiest thing ever especially with pre sliced cheese! I really just cut up the red onion, tomatoes and lettuce and everything else was Costco special. Aleksy's Mom made the elaborate yummy salads.

I do however get credit for going to Costco on a Saturday... I needed the buns to be fresh so I could go earlier in the week.

After lunch was cake time. It got super windy so there was no candle which worked pretty well because its the first thing Leah grabbed.

My saddest moment of Leah's birthday was that I didn't get to watch her destroy the cake but I did see the aftermath. That was a cupcake in case you can't tell.

It's not all that bad though because I did see her smash an entire cake last weekend (and then we helped her eat it afterward... it was a little banged up but still delicious!

As you can see, little lady needed a wardrobe change after her cake mess. Luckily we had a gorgeous one from Nana and Dziadek ready to go! Leelee decided that she wanted to spend her opening present time standing. She really like the tissue paper and wrapping paper.... oh and the presents.

Once the kids figured out Leah was getting new stuff, they needed to check it all out! Leelee is checking out her new book here!

The party wrapped up shortly after 3 and then we spent some time cleaning the bomb that went off in our kitchen and backyard but then still had time for a fire with the kids and some backyard play! Spidey dogs for supper... our speciality.

Leah's cake smash. Amanda killed it again with the pictures!