October weekends!

We had our Rachel over for a sleepover last weekend - the Oct 15/16th weekend. We love our regular Rachel sleepovers and Logan loves having her around too so it made for a fun weekend for all!

Rachel came on Friday night this time because she had hockey on the Saturday afternoon. I picked her up after work on Friday and that night we had baking plans! The plan was to make lots of cookies to eat while we watched a movie.

We made these chocolate chip sprinkle cookies. The sprinkles were like a magical touch... Rachel loved them so much more than our regular chocolate chip cookies!

That night we watched Inside out (I took Rachel to see it in theatres last summer!) and ate approximately a million cookies. Rachel almost made it to 10pm and I went right after her. I cant stay up anymore with the goobster getting up at 630am!

Pretty much every sleepover Rachel comes for includes a homemade pancake brakfast the next morning. The best weekend breakfast. Lgan agreed. Even if the blueberries were blended in the blender instead of chunky...

Aleksy looking his finest.

These 2 kill me! Logan's the happiest little person with Rachel! On Saturday after breakfast, we went to No Frills to get some pumpkins to carve. One Rachel pumpkin and one Logan pumpkin.

Logan thought we were mad people trying to get him to stick his hand in the goop.

Rachel's design was the ghost face... so Logan's pumpkin went with the ghost theme! Rachel with her completed pumpkins.

After the pumpkin craving, Logan was ready for his nap so Rachel and I hit up the park before Kenny picked her up. We barely squeezed in the park visit then Rach was off to hockey!

And having a little arts and crafts time after cousin Rachel left. Cousin Rachel would have loved this too but its tough to fit it all in! Logan got some mess free colouring for his birthday, but as you can see in the picture... he wanted to colour with the regular marker. And instead of using the special magic marker, he wanted to continuously put the lid back on.

I can't even help but add this picture. Run away nudey baby! Trying to take a picture with the pumpkins and this guy runs away. But when we want him to walk, you know he's crawling. P.S. this was the warm weekend!

Logan had a playdate with his friends this weekend! The L boys: Logan, Levi and Landon... they even sat in the same spots (unintentional!). This is only 10 and a half) months ago! Such a change!

Ok these pumpkins are upside down but you can still see them! Logan's craft from daycare: they did these pumpkins with an apple as the stamp.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2016!

Our weekend mostly started on Saturday with our Thanksgiving at my Moms place. We started the day off with some shopping at Masonville, then quickly grabbed some veggies at the Grocery store so I could make some mixed veg to bring to Thanksgiving supper (cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and broccoli).

Cousins hanging around Grandma and Grandpa Pauls place.

We had the complete Thanksgiving supper on Saturday... Turkey AND ham, potatoes, veggies, rolls and for dessert: apple crisp and cherry cheesecake. So good!

Logan really liked the ham... and going around in circles around Grandmas house with his walker. More space than at home!

On Sunday, we headed up to Burlington, to Aleksys aunts place when it was Logan's nap time (11:30am) and got there just before 2. All the fancies were out for supper so the baby had to be monitored pretty closely! He was a sleepy monster from about 4pm onward (with little breaks of fun and happy!). We had supper at 4pm (Salmon, squash, veggies, potatoes, calbrese... it was like fine dining!) but Logan wasn't having supper this day. We tried to make the evening last with an extra glass of champagne but had to leave around 7 to get someone to their bed!

And Monday was our Appleland day where we met up with Steph, Rachel and met Steph's boyfriend Jon! It was a crazy busy day at Appleland. We really wanted to take Logan to the activities that they have there, but we ended up not getting him to do everything because of the crowds!

We started with checking out the sad amount of farm animals they had there (a couple ducks, a couple pigs, a horse and a cow were pretty much it!) then we headed over to the corn maze. Rachel led the way.

We kind of skipped the whole corn maze and somehow found a way out on the side of the corn maze that led to to the back of the apple orchard. We just started our picking there! The first trees were younger trees, so when we got deeper, the older trees were so bountiful!

Look at all those cider/baked good apples at our feet (we're 99% sure that's where the stuff in the store comes from!)!

Logan piking himself some apples. He was obsessed with all the apples at his feet. He wanted them all!! And he doesn't discriminate... the rotten ones were sought after too!

And once we got home from apple picking, I made up an apple crisp for dessert. We had ham for supper on Thanksgiving Monday and had a little of this for dessert. A whole 1/4 of this crisp made it to the freezer for next weekend!

Apple Picking in Ham Town!

This weekend we went down to Stoney Creek to visit with The Brown fam! It was quite the rany weekend, but there was a period of just cloudiness that we could enjoy apple picking. We headed up to Stoney Creek on Saturday for nap time... which was about 11am that day. We got there just in time for lunch so we made a brief stop in Hamilton at the Denningers (Aleksys been wanting lunch there since we missed out when it was closed last year). It was petty baby friendly which was awesome.. Logan had his deli meat (surprise!) and even had a high chair!

We went to Frootogo in Waterdown around 3pm to pick some apples. We actuslly got exclusively gala apples. We just know what we like... Even though we got some mini apples that Aleksy picked (there were so many little ones!) we got a decent stash to last us the week until we go apple picking the second time locally this weekend!

The apples are baby tested, pre-toddler approved. This kid sure is happy when he's eating whatever we have!

Wagon ride to save the shoes from getting too dirty! Although we were well equipped with the raincoat, this boy still needs some rubber boots!

Also wagons are pretty handy when your baby is too big for the baby carrier, walks a little slow and is pretty heavy to carry around.

Multipurpose... for the apples and for the kiddos!

And a quick stop to the pumpkin patch! We decided to save the dirt in the trunk for the commute back to London and didn't get a pumpkin here.. but we'll get one next weekend! Logan liked playing with the pumpkin stems.

Fall fam pictures at the orchard! Logan being his crazy excited self. He saw something pretty cool.

And the lot of children that we apple picked with. 6 Total... an even amount of children:adult ratio. They all had a good time and ate lots of apples!

After our adventures of pumpkin picking (for the others!) and apple picking, we got some pumpkin pie and apple crisp for dessert and did the easy agreeable supper choice.. pizza!

Although we were ill prepared for the later drive home, forgetting pjs AND nudey oats (we also forgot his highchair... not our day!), we were able to borrow some of the twins pablum and Cadences leggings so goober could sleep on the way home. And we was so good... slept on the way home and through the night. Such a sleeping champ!

And Sunday was for baking. Apple oat muffins! The apple crisp will have to wait until the thanksgiving weekend!

Vacation of the Bahama Baby: Days 5 & 6

The last days!!

On Friday September 2nd, we had our last Port stop in Nassau. By this time, we decided it made more sense to skip the room service coffee and go directly to the buffet for coffee with breakfast so we could get off the boat and into Nassau at a decent time. As always, we made it to the buffet before everyone else so we get first pick of the breakfast and seating!

We were off the boat and in Nassau around 8:30 and took a taxi to Atlantis (first we got goober the marocca that is in the picture!) . We made the decision beforehand that we weren't going to pay the $300 american to do the aquarium and water slides of Atlantis because it wouldn't be thoroughly enjoyed by Logan at his age. But we still wanted to check out the resort and the public beach.

\

We were able to walk around the smallest amount of the resort... basically to get to the public beach, get a Starbucks, and access to very fancy shopping in the resort (you can see these shops in the first pic! Versace, rolex...). We walked around the small area that we were allowed to for the 45 minutes that Logan napped then headed to the public beach.

And on the way to the public beach, we were approached by some hustlers who literally escorted us to the beach so that we would pay money to use their lounger chairs, umbrellas etc. There were so many of them. Actually we were approached at first by them, went back to the hotel so Logan could nap and when we went back we had already made a plan to say no because we weren't going to stay long! We had some shopping to do in Nassau..

This is along the way to the beach from Atlantis. There is a man walking with us when I took this!!

This public beach is right beside Atlantis private beach. It was pretty and blue with white sands (as all of Bahamas is!) but the current was crazy. You can see it in the waves in the picture.

We weren't able to spend much time in the water because of the undertow and we were afraid for Logan. Good thing we didn't pay to use the umbrella and lounge chairs! The hotel in the back is Atlantis!

After a not so great experience of being hustled, not having any loungers or umbrella and 20 min on the undertow beach, we took a taxi back into the shopping area by where the ships were docked.

This is definitely when we actually started to enjoy Nassau. It was a weird availability of shops.. souvenir type shops where you get your Bahamas t-shirt and then a Gucci shop. And there were so many people on the streets with little books to lure you into their store and get "name brand" handbags!

Lots of little side walk areas like this one too with extra shops and food! All the shopping we did in Nassau was basically for Logan. Logan's Bahamas shirt, bracelet (on his ankle in this pic!), a handmade wooden turtle toy, and his morroca. It was a hot humid day, so Goober went shirtless because we felt bad having him in a t-shirt!

In the shopping area with our ship n the back!

Ok, so we did a little shopping for ourselves. Cheap beers! In Nassau they had to be covered up in a paper bag. We got 4 for like $10 american (it was going to be like 0.50 cents more for 2 more but we had no place to put them!). One was lemon. It was delish. We got the Kalik brand... it seemed to be the most local one!

It was the straw market that we ended up getting a lot of Logan's little souvenirs to take home. We were approached while walking down the street by a Mother who had her little girl with her and it was hard to say no because of the little girl! We ended up getting the t-shirt from her (we wanted one anyways so we thought we'd support her since she was supporting a fam!). Just a regular price of $10 american. We found they didn't barter down much in the straw market. We fully left a couple of cute sailboats in a bottle that would have cute for Logan's room because they wouldn't go down in price!

We went back to the boat before the deadline time (which was 4:30pm). And we all took a joint family nap in our room! It was a sleepy afternoon. But when we woke up because the boat was being noisey leaving the port, we could hear a woman yelling from the dock... she missed the ship! And she was with her son! The cruise ship will actually leave you behind if you miss the time... so crazy!

I honesty dont remember if we went to the buffet before our nap (lunch) or if it was after... But either way, we brought food to our room that day and this was it! I think it was lunch and we grabbed it before our nap because we didn't eat in Nassau...

And when we woke up, we went to the pool/splash pad deck as usual so goober could get more splash pad time in on his last day.. it was his favourite part of the vacation so we had to go everyday! And we got this shot of Atlantis from the pool deck.

We discovered when we were wandering around that evening that there was a big watch sale in the shops area on the cruise ship on that night. It was later than our usual "back to our room" time, but we did it for the one night to get a good bargain! We both got new ($25) watches and I got a new nine west purse with a clutch for under $50! pretty sweet deals.

A long night for the goober monster and when we got back to the room, we got our final nightly picture with the towel art! This was the last night on the boat and it was the night our toilet broke. Not fun to have to do our nightly pee run before bed in the public washroom (on a completely different deck!). It appeared that our bedtime (which was 10-11pm) was when all the nightly entertainment wad finishing up too. I was in my jammies and everyone else... was not.

Saturday September 3rd

And Saturday morning we got our last on the balcony family shot just as we were pulling up to Miami. We got back to Miami around 9am and got all packed up to leave the boat! We went to breakfast early as usual and thank goodness we did because when I went back for more coffee around 9am, EVERYONE on the boat was having breakfast! Getting off the boat was actually a pretty smooth process and Logan did well in the stroller waiting to get off. Self carrying luggage is the quick way to go! And things actually continued to go smoothly that day. When we got off the boat, we caught the shuttle to the car rental place then got our car rental by 11am! And our rental was the exact same car as ours: the murano.

We had a hotel booked for that Saturday night in Fort Lauderdale but we planned to spend the day going to Miami beach and doing some shopping. It wasn't far to get to Ocean Dr and South beach from the car rental place. We found a parking spot (a long process) then started walking around! Logan was napping since the car ride. That kid makes travel SO easy!

This is the pathway leading up to South beach. While Logan napped away in his stroller, we headed to check out the beach. And were advertised to by airplanes pulling banners... one reminding to use repellent for Zika and another for Trojan. We were so sold on both thanks to those productive advertisements!

And walking along the massiveness that is Miami/South beach! So cool how wide the beach was. There were little kiosks at each of the streets that run perpendicular to the beach so you know how far you are walking too. We stopped at one of the kiosks for $4 water.

This is walking along Ocean Dr. So many restaurants and outside the restaurants were servers trying to get you to go into their restaurant. We skipped out on the dining because its expensive and not worth it considering that Logan could be awesome and sit through it, or be cranky and want to leave immediately!

But we did stop for some Pinkberry! We had never been and I'e seen so many movies and shows with Pinkberry so I wanted to try it. It was a pretty standard froyo. Logan woke up in the ice cream store and was a fan.

After Pinkerry, we ehaded back tot he car and toward some shopping outlets in Fort Lauderdale near the hotel we had booked. BUT Logan was crying so hard it gave me a panic attack and we ended up stopping at a random strip mall to give him a bottle and calming him. We decided it wasn't very Logan centred to shop and decided to just make a stop at the Wal Mart for supper and snacks and go back to the hotel.

It wasn't the best of all the hotels we've stayed at. But it wasn't the worst (there was the time there was a band aid in the bed at a cabin (cabana) in Chile!). Ok.. it may have been close to the worst though. I woke up with a sore throat and I was sure it was because of the stale musky air at the hotel. It was a Days Inn which are usually good. Not this one. We stayed at the hotel, leaving at 4am for the airport (which was so easy with the rental car) and flying into Detroit Sunday morning (the 4th).

And we made one last stop in the Sterling Heights area at a Meijer to get these! Detroit gear for the fam plus some beverages to go with. I may not be the biggest football fan but i'm a fan of matching family fanwear!

Our last taste of vacation was this rum cake that we got in Nassau. These were a popular tourist item to get at all the stores so we thought we should probably get one. We had the sister over for supper once we were home and shared with her! It was quire rummy and delicious. Rachel was disappointed she couldn't have some too!

Logan's First Birthday

I have a one year old. And I don't know just how the year flew like that. The last month was pretty much a blur: preparing for the cruise, then the week we were away and as soon as we came back there was 2 weeks of Logan transitioning to daycare then his 1st birthday party!

Logan's actual day of birth was Friday the 16th. Aleksy took the day off so we could celebrate Logan's birthday together as a family! We planned a whole day of Logan centred activities.

First thing in the morning, we had his present all wrapped up and in the middle of the living room floor so he could attack the present first thing. This is Logan opening his new ride on car.. bed head and all. Logan has recently discovered his love for dinky cars (he discovered at daycare!) so we also got a couplw of his first dinky cars!

After opening his presents and breakfast, we headed to the children's museum. Since its children 1 and over that pay, and it was Logan's bitthday, they let Logan in for free!

First stop was the dinosaur room where Logan mostly stared at the other little kids as they played in the sand with the toy dinosaurs. He also liked the block puzzles with a whole lot of dinosaur names that I would teach him if I knew. We'll have to stick to the basics like t-rex, pterodactyl (totally used spell check for that), and brontosaurus.

Guess what else was special about Logan's first birthday? He had his first timbit! We documented his first honey dip. This kid has a sweet tooth... I don't know where he could get that from?

Free baby!
There were actually quite a few stations that Logan could play at in the museum at his eye level. He had a great time playing with all the toys, exploring the colourful rooms and checking out what the other children were doing.

We explored for about an hour and a half then we stopped in this room so Logan could have snacks before we had to run a birthday errand (of getting his "1" balloon for the party!). We obviously had to pose for a fam selfie mid animal cracker/goldfish snack!

We had Logan's special birthday lunch bought for him the day before. I went to farm boy for him so he could have specialty deli meat. Logan loves his lunch meat and cheese so it was all about the gourmet for his birthday! He loved his lunch.

I also made a cake for the Logster on the Thursday before his birthday (he had a full day at daycare that day... preparing for when I start work full-time!) and he loved it! We sang happy birthday and he had his very own piece in the afternoon... before his nap... he refused to nap this day! He loved the cake and the icing... I was worried he wouldn't like the cake because there was no sugar and it was whole wheat flour but it was surprisingly tasty!

Logan's First Birthday Party: Saturday September 17th

Logan had his big first birthday party on Saturday with all his family and friends! This was the line of Logan's very little baby friends... Raeleigh 3 months, Lincoln 6 months, Mason 6 months, and William 3 weeks!

 The theme was nautical. Logan's baby life theme has been nautical (baby shower, his room, his clothes, and his adventures on the sailboat and cruise ship!) so we continued the tradition.

And our friend Tabi made this awesome nautical cake. And macaroons. My friend is a little ridiculous with her amazing cakes... I mean all this time and thought for Mr. 1 year old!? Logan's such a spoiled lucky boy! Even the map on this cake was edible. Chocolate with cookies and cream icing for the top and vanilla with strawberry for the bottom!

<--- and personalized as you can see!

After everyone had some lunch (we did sandwich and salad style lunch!), we got on with the cake. We sang happy birthday to the birthday boy around 2 and gave him the top part for the awesome cake, which he poked at but the fondant protected its beautfulness (until we had to cut it!)!

You can kind of see the "1" candle in the picture.

Logan's first reaction to the cake was a little gag... I think the sweetness of the icing threw him off (when I made his for the Friday I made it with whipping cream and cream cheese and it wasn't as sugary as a normal icing!). But then once he got going, he ate more!

After cake was present time! Logan had such a great attention span for the whole birthday party including presents. It helped that he napped for an hour and a half, waking up 45 minutes before the party!

This tissue paper loving boy got spoiled rotten by all his friends and family. He is one loved little boy. And Mommy and Daddy are happy to keep up the tradition of never buying clothes or toys for him (seriously... we have bought such minimal things for him!).

Winter hat... check.

After presents, Logan had to go around to all his friends and family and show his love. He is such a huggy boy! He loves it... snuggles with his bud Chase.

Such a long chaotic day with 40 extra people in the house, and Logan was his awesome self the whole time just rolling with the day.

What the end of a 1st year old birthday party looks like.

Surprisingly enough, nautical decorations are super difficult to find at the party store/dollarama/wal mart. There was nothing! So I had to improvise and I cut out the sailboat and anchor shapes for the loot bags and also for the banners we hung! We borrowed Logan's sailboats from his room for decor too.

All my baby's monthly pictures from 1 month onward. Crazy to compare the first to the last pciture... he is so different!

Now I have a 1 year old... in daycare full-time and I am a full-time working Mama! Life changes so quickly.