May Weekends :)

Maiko's 2nd birthday was celebrated on May 10th in Kitchener. Aleksy and I headed up to Kitchener & Waterloo for the day for celebrations, and pre-celebrations St. Jacob's Farmer's market. I really wanted to check St. Jacob's out because I have never been!

I was very impressed by how huge the St. Jacob's Farmer's market was: there was so much food, flowers, and other items for sale! We bought some berries at a cheaper price, some homemade honey for our friend Steph's birthday, and we discovered the Mennonite retailers have the best baked goods of life. Aleksy got some butter tarts and I got the best cinnamon raisin sticky bun with icing that I devoured in an embarrassing time.




We also had a bit of time to have a drink downtown Waterloo before heading to Tabi & Dons. Who knew downtown Waterloo was so nice?! We found this awesome little restaurant and had a beer each: they brewed their own! We ensured not to eat too much because Tabi and Don always have the best food!

And the best decorations and baking! These were paint brush cake pops, delcious dessert squares, cookies, and paint topped rice krispie squares. I had soooo much dessert that day!

Our Rachel Weekend :)

We had Rachel over for a sleepover on Saturday May 24th. We came up with a brilliant plan that we would take her on a road trip to St. Thomas to this cat adoption house that houses 100 cats!! She loved the jeep ride there, laughing hysterically at the wind blowing her hair around. And she liked the cat place, but I dont know if I would say she loved it... there was so much cool stuff to do for our weekend of fun that she was asking us when we were going to the park... our park is that good.

And so we got home and went to the park! Rachel hit up the swings, slide, and everything in between. And asked to go again the next morning... but we stuck to soccer in the backyard instead.

This is the massive hill in our backyard that Rachel lives for. When she first saw it, its all she asked about... can we climb the hill. She did end up climbing it the week before because my sister has friends that lives nearby, so we climbed the hill with her twice! I ran to the bottom to get a shot of Rachel and Aleksy!

And after a long day of jeep riding, cat visiting, going to the park, soccer, climbing hills, and grilled cheese, we called it an indoor evening with making peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (with peanut butter that Rachel made herself at the Picards peanut place!) and watching a movie. We suggested something new, but Rachel insisted that we watch Despicable Me like last time she had a sleepover. Rachel passed out whilst eating her cookie and chubby drink and we put her to bed in "her room" with the sleeping bags that she requested!

May 2-4: Summer Starts!

This May 2-4 was super busy! We planned a weekend at the trailer with Al, Steph and Colton, but also made sure that we got back in time for birthday celebrations for Kenny!

On Friday the 16th, we headed up to meet Al and Steph at their trailer up by Ipperwash beach :)

This year, May 24 was freeeeezing!! AND i forgot my coat at home. Good thing I brought 3 blankets, 2 sweaters, and boots! The first thing we saw when we got to the awesome site was Colton walking!! It was our first time seeing him taking so many steps! This pic is from Fri evening, greeting Moose and sitting around the fire trying to keep warm.

We had an easy supper on Friday night since Aleksy and I couldn't get to the campsite until about 7pm. Mmmm hot dogs and macaroni and cheese salad. The best hot dogs are cooked over the fire... Colton doesn't eat hot dogs, but he does like macaroni...

After staying up late drinking whisky by the fire, Aleksy was not feeling up for the 7am wake up from Colton! Probably doesn't help that our bed at the trailer isn't made for 6 ft 3 large people.... But Al was a keener making eggs and bacon all made before the 8 o clock hour. Good thing I stuck to one somersby and some h2o. We had our breakfast, packed some lunches and headed to the pinery for the day for some hiking and a beach visit!

I got a quick shot of the awesome camp site before heading out. Al & Steph are parked in the campground for the summer so they have planted a little garden and this adorable little stream is right beside the site.

 We made a mandatory stop at Timmies in Forest before heading into the Pinery: We're not used to babies waking us up at 6:30am so you can see that mine and Aleksy's are a little larger (That's my story... even though I never get anything smaller than a medium!). We made things real simple for the Tim's people by ordering one of every size and a different order in each.

After our pinery hike, we stopped for a picnic lunch: some sandwiches, salad and animal crackers (Colton and my fav!).

Then we headed to the beach where Moose made lots of new doggie friends by stealing their branches from the water and Colton worked on writing his name in the sand.
Colton is showing how cold it is with his winter hat and coat.

After leaving the pinery, we had some dessert: ice cream! The cold weather didn't scare us away from ice cream... They don't have the London Ice Cream Company anymore, but they do still have delicious ice cream! I had some birthday cake and a peanut butter variety of sorts...

Aleksy and I brought supper for Saturday: chicken breasts, salad and beans. But you can see that Aleksy is not cooking chicken here. This is because while this little grill was cooking our chicken, Aleksy and I sat together on one side of the picnic table causing it to tilt and all the chicken to fall on the ground. And so the chicken went into the fire and we had hot dogs instead...

And later night endeavors around the campfire where I consumed no less than 4 smores and some beverages were had. While I called it a night at about 1130, Al and Aleksy stayed up quite a bit later... And Aleksy drank my Somersby (I did not forget).

The next morning, we got up early (with our little Colton!) and headed back home for some birthday celebrations.

Sunday the 18th: Kenny's Bday!

On the Sunday, we after having a delicious Nova Era sandwich picnic, we met Steph, Kenny, Brandon & Rachel at the mini golf course on Windermere, which I haven't been to in so long! Rachel was the golf boss...

Birthday golf! After our mini golfing game that briefly had some rain, we headed back to Kenny and Steph's for some sliders and Caesar salad and for dessert, Aleksy and I decided to go a little nontraditional away from cake and at Nova Era we got some canolies and Portuguese custard tarts... sooo tasty! We figured Kenny would enjoy those more!

Easter Weekend!

Colton's 1st Birthday fell on Good Friday of the Easter weekend and we celebrated on the Friday afternoon.

Steph made an awesome homemade cake with banana cake and cheerios (Colton's fav). And Colton got his own little mini cake... first time having cake. This boy seriously loves his food, so cake was the highlight of his life!

 Al & Steph's birthday decorations were so cute! With the help of Steph's sister, they did this board with 'all about Colton' on chalkboard paint! As you can see, Colton and my favourite foods are very much the same...

I would like to steal Marsha's creativity for my wedding...

And after Colton opened all his presents from everyone, his last present was from his parents. He got a Big Brother shirt, because #2 is on the way in November 2014! So exciting!

After Colton's awesome birthday party on Good Friday, we headed over to my Mom's for Easter dinner. It was such a nice day that the guys decided to go outside for road hockey. I loved the family bonding time so I captured it!

And of course drinks followed dinner and our lovely picture of the 3 of us with our banana martinis had too many photo bombs to have a regular picture. Fam time is far too fun for a boring shot.We do so love our banana martinis.

After Colton's bday celebrations and Easter dinner, on the Saturday we headed to Kitchener to celebrate Tabi's 30th! And of course it was all done up with thoughtful decorations. Tabi's neighbour and friend prepared this for her and on each of these balloons were 'reasons we love tabi' which all us guests contributed to before the party.

More thoughtful decorations/treats for Tabi. Every time we go to Tabi's for an event, the sweets and eats are the best! And we contribute with something prepackaged from the Superstore... maybe next time i'll be all homemade... maybe...

Events of March & April

I have been a slack attack blogger. I feel like many things have happened in the past 2 months, so I will encompass these things into one blog of awesomeness!

March 22nd: Nikki & Jon Jon's wedding!
We had such a good time the whole weekend of Nikki & Jon Jon's wedding preparing for the day! We went down to Burlington/Oakville on the Thursday evening and stayed in a hotel in Oakville on Thursday night. I chose the most inexpensive hotwire deal with free breakfast :) The next day, Aleksy conveniently needed to be in Toronto for work, so he took the GO train in. We went our separate ways on Friday the night before the wedding where I stayed with the bride at her house and Aleksy stayed with the groom in the hotel room.

Nikki & Jon Jon's wedding venue was gorgeous and everything was done so elegantly but fun! The day was really cold, so after taking a few pictures after the ceremony outside, we moved most of the pictures inside. Then we entered the reception (Aleksy and I prepared a little hip hop entrance, which we thought was pretty sweet) and Nikki & Jon Jon had their first dance where they did the Dirty Dacing "Time of my Life" dance.. so amazing!

Aleksy and I after eating our dinner at the beautiful venue right on the lake. The wedding was at Spencers in Burlington.

Following this was speeches, drinks & dancing!

And later in the evening... I love this group shot... just Aleksy is missing.

At 1am, we headed back to the hotel in the limo and tried to continue the partying at the bar at the waterfront hotel, but by the time we got there it was 1:30am and they wouldn't let us in.

So we decided to just bring the party to the room. And had an awesome after party. Thank goodness for Nikki & Jon Jon not liking champagne, so they gave us the bottle from the limo because no one had opened it during the day!








March Birthdays!

My Rachel is 6 years old!! I don't know how this happened. We had a celebration at my sisters place and at my Moms place for my Rachel. March and & April are so birthday cake-filled! I love cake...

And Natalia turned 3 on March 17th! We went up to Stoneycreek for birthday celebrations and Andzelika set up a cookie decorating activity. There were a few other kids at the birthday party too and they were all so cute loading up the icing and sprinkles on their cookies! You can see Natalia's cookie that she decorated in front of her...














My 28th Birthday!
I had a few birthday celebrations this year, which I love because it means that I get lots of cake!

On the day of my birthday, Chelsea and Warren surprised me and after Aleksy took me out for Swiss Chalet (my fav!), and showed up in the evening for dessert. Chelsea homemade me a cake! This cake was sooooo delicious! We ate about half it on my birthday and I finished it before my birthday party on the Friday.

On April 4th, we had a birthday celebration + stag & doe planning day at our place. We had everyone over for supper, where everyone helped by bringing a side dish and we made chicken and sausages on the bbq. Afterward we had (more) cake and talked about games & food for the stag & doe!

We also popped a bottle of champagne just before this picture and made sure we got a picture with Sam, who hasn't had a drink since her little Scarlett was born and Chelsea with her half sip and pregnant belly!

As Rachel pointed out, Scarlett, me and Rachel all had black bows in our hair, so we had to take a picture together! And I love this picture of Rachel looking all wide-eyed and Scarlett looking all 'wad up'.

















Chelsea's Baby Shower: April 13th!

We had the awesomest table at the shower. Sam & Scarlett, Steph & Colton, Andzelika, Serena & Natalia, Jasmine, Nikki & me! Awesome table with lots of Moms, but we did somehow lose the competition of dressing the teddy bear the fastest. Maybe I was the weak link?

I love how every shower that I attend, the ensemble that is chosen by the pregnant mama is the most pregnant looking one! Chelsea looked ready to have her baby yesterday at her shower! But then the next day in her jeans looked like she has 3 mre months. Can't wait for baby in early June! (Although I'm guessing an early baby... my guess is May 25th).

Me & my Colton at the shower! Love when I get to spend some quality Colton time... Cant believe he's one!

A Bachelorette Night in T.O for Nikki

On February 22, 2014 we celebrated my Nikkis bachelorette in T.O. I headed from London to Toronto in the afternoon on the Saturday and picked up Nikki from her sister-in-laws place and we got into Toronto at the Hilton Hotel for 3pm.

Nikkis MOH, Tabi did an amazing job on the invitations for the bachelorette. Everyone got a mini bottle of vodka with a veil except Nikki who got the palm bay with a veil. It was a black dress event and the Invitation says "Nikki Shannon's Fling before the ring". A night in Toronto complete with limo, bottle service, and hotel room!

Nikki and I in our Hilton hotel room before heading out to Musik night club!

Prior to getting ready and everyone putting on their "little black dress", we had supper at the little Irish pub that was right downstairs to the hotel.

Everyone's choices of beverage for the night: the Palm Bay tower is because Nikki is a big Palm Bay fan. We didn't have a lot of time for hotel room drinking in between dinner, and heading to the club so we had lots of leftovers to take home!

Tabi set up all these glasses with our names written on them for drinks fort he night! And Nikki's bridal sash.

We had a view of the CN tower from our hotel too! Here's a shot of our named glasses with some punch in them! Everyone's glass!

I brought my punch dispenser and made the go-to punch of pineapple, cran, and sprite. With champagne is my fav!

Some group shots before we headed out to Musik. Nikki and her bridal party: Melissa, Steph, Bekki, Tabi, Marisa and me. Love this group shot!

We had already got in trouble by the hotel by 8:30pm for being noisy. He asked for us to take the noise down since there was a baby in the next room. Maybe a little early for a noise complaint...

The limo came to get us at 10:30pm. We were driven around T.O. for a bit before arriving to the club. We brought palm bays for the ride! Our limo driver was so considerate and went into the club to let them know we had arrived just prior to heading to the club.

We got inside the club and were shown where our "booth" was for our bottle service. This was our table for the night.
This is a shot of all the ladies. Shots were quite popular that night even though in any other environment I refuse to take them.
The crowd at this club was a little pompous and everyone seemed to introduce themselves with their profession. There was an orthopedic surgeon at the table next to us, and we talked to someone who actually told us that he was"powerful" (the conversation ended right after he said that when me and Nik walked away).

It was a nice club and all, but I'm not sure that each of these bottles was worth $300!!
There were mixes at the table too (juices) and glasses so we could mix our own beverages (it was just really hard to see what juice you were putting in when the club was so dark).

It was quite a strange club than any that I had been to, and there was a make up bar where you would touch up your hair and make-up and there were women dancing on podiums throughout the club for entertainment. weird.

The next day, we went across the street to Tim Horton's in the morning to get some necessary coffee & breakfast (where I was judged by may for my xlg coffee) then we checked out and headed back home!

(Extended) Family Day Weekend!

Our Family Day weekend was filled with activity times with our closest friends with a day trip to Toronto to the Ripleys Aquarium and a day outing to the sugar bush in London.

We headed to Toronto in the afternoon on Sunday of the Fam day weekend. Aleksy and I had a busy weekend and stayed in Kitchener the night before for our friend Don's birthday/house warming so got home Sunday morning, got ready and left promptly! We carpooled with Chels and Warren and got pulled over in Burlington on the way there... no ticket though!

We got this shot of everyone at our Aquarium day in T.O.!

This was a tunnel in the aquarium that you could crawl through with the sharks and fish swimming above you! This is the adults crawling thorugh: Chel, me and Paul. Our little Serena and Natalia went first! The other little girls in front of us thought this was terrifying and refused to go in!

There was a part of the aquarium where you are moved along on the conveyor belt and there is water on both sides and above you and when you look up this is what is swimming above!! So cool!

The aquarium was seriously cool, the only problem was there were 20,000 other people also wanted to look at the same shark: 20 of which were coughing with colds and 5 babies crying. It was so packed! And we brought a "picnic lunch" in a effort to save some money with sandwiches, veggies, fruit and cupcakes, which we ate in a small corner of the packed aquarium... not the best place for a picnic!

It was a fun day in Toronto though... ended with a parking ticket and some beer and deep fried mac & cheese and pizza sticks at Wild Wings.

On Monday (Fam day!), we had another extended family adventure this time with Al, Steph & Colton. We went to the sugar bush, which was free for family day! We did a tour around the sugar bush, learning bout making maple syrup and at this stand, there was also bird feeders to be made!




And after making bird feeders and getting a group shot with the bear, we headed to the station where we could roast marshmallows (frozen marshmallows are very hard to roast).

After adventures to the stations around the sugar bush, and Chels drilling into a tree to extract the maple we went inside for pancakes and syrup!! My fav!! Plus, a little hot cocoa....It was by donation on fam day.
There was a situation that happened where we sat at a table with a hot cocoa already on the table, which I may have drank... a little on the barfy side...

After our sugar bush adventure we had everyone over to our place for supper with a little bit of board games... always a sign of a good night :)