Ipperwash Weekend!

We may not be able to vacation or cross the border but at least there's cottage life! We booked a weekend away at a cottage in Ipperwash the July 17-19 weekend. First overnights with no kids in a long time (pre-virus!) although Logan has had some Thursday night sleepovers at Nana and Dziadeks.

The place we rented was actually the guest suite of the main cottage we rented with all our friends 2 years ago. We knew the location was awesome and this little spot above the garage was super affordable for a weekend!

It was really cute and clean too.

And this was the best spot to have coffee and breakfast or drinks in between adventures!

We got there Friday night pretty late and after emptying our things into the place, we headed down to the beach! I made chicken and veggie skewers in advance and even though I dragged my ass to make them and seriously considered take out, I am sooo glad I did because it smelled and tasted amazing!

Because of out cute small people, we tend to enjoy the beach anytime before before 5pm and definitely don't make sunset with them so it was the nicest to be able to watch a sunset... and ipperwash has one of the best!

The best meal ever. Way healthier than take out and so flavourful... the charcoal bbq cooks so nicely and we should use it more often.

And then it was still. And dark and silhouettey... and so pretty!

The next morning we tried to hike. It was horrible and I got about 100 mosquito bites so we ran away from the forest and headed to Thedford to try shale ridge cidery. It is brand new and just opened a couple months ago. The cider is different than Twin Pines and a lot less sweet (they called it more modern with no unnecessary added sugars). There was even a black cherry flavour one!

Next stop with our afternoon ciders: to float on the beach! We ate lunch in our floaty first. Like bringing a couch to the beach!

And the rest of the hours of the afternoon were spent exactly here... maybe a couple feet of drifting (it was anchored). This is where I developed a wonderful beat red tan despite sunscreening twice!

That night we went to the Beachclub for supper (which was entirely mediocre and slow service) and then saw another sunset that I was quick to leave from being exhausted from being in the sun all day!

And we get really excited to see our cuties the day we are leaving, so after our morning coffee and packing up (not to mention sleeping until 9:30...9:30! I swear we havent slept that long since before kids..) we left for Thedford to grab a to-go breakfast at Lizzies. We got poured on and the electricity went out so we had to get cash back at the variety store down the street. Somehow even take out breakfast was an adventure!

Next cottage adventure is with the kids!

Princess Leah's 2nd Birthday!

I really wanted to do a special birthday celebration for Leah as I always have done for them both but I had to get creative this year. Since a birthday party would be far too many people gathering, we did a driveway party inviting everyone over in 30 minute time slots with the ability to stand relatively far apart and in the safer outside space! Thank goodness for no rain - otherwise it would have been a garage party and it is quite the mess in the garage (hopefully we don't have to empty it when we sell!).

My cutie pies loving the balloons and popping a ton before the guests arrive.

The birthday girl!

I had the donut grow up birthday theme planned since well before quarantine started. That means I had a pinterest board filled with ideas but still counts as planning! So I went with that theme and we got donuts and coffee from Tims. This is the first and probably last time I will see Logan eat a donut (this boy truly doesn't like all the regular kid things). And then there's Leah with her complete donut addiction. No matter what drive through we are in she screams "way-ya my pinkle donut!" (where's my sprinkle donut in Leah language).

Doing things birthday princesses do - leaving to be by herself on the front porch with a bag of chips while her friends were visiting in the driveway.

It was so nice to see our friends and their kids after so many months! They did so well with keeping space too. I mean not to say they didn't occasionally step closer but nothing outside of what happens when walking down the sidewalk or in an aisle at the store. Chasing around the tree is so corona friendly!

And Leah loved her presents! So excited to open them all!

I just love this rockstar picture of Logan and Leah trying to have her turn with her birthday toy!

And she let me put her crown back on! Trying not to waste anytime with pictures when she clearly needs help to open her present!

After naptime, we had a backyard bbq complete with Leah's donut cake. Donuts and cake make a good birthday menu.

I have pictures of both of them with balloons, giant numbers for everyone of their birthdays but of course my little determined one who likes to make the rules wouldn't take a perfect picture for me!

This is birthday day! For her actual birthday, we were both off work and we had a whole day of activities planned!

Leah had a few small presents so I spaced them out and gave her some in the morning and some in the afternoon.

The morning presents included smal kitchen appliances so Leah can play with her own blender. We have been making a ton of smoothies lately and the blender scares Leah "scared of blender!" so now when she puts hers on she says "scared of blender!".

First things first: McD's pancake breakfast in the back of the car. They even took bites of hashbrown... super adventurous for these 2.

And to the splash pad! Splash pads hadn't been open for too long at this point and this was our first one (we have been once more to Ilderton since then). We tried the Komoka one for the first time and the kids loved it and it was wide enough that it wasnt crowded with kids. This was during the heat wave week so cooling off was the outdoor thing to do!

After Leah napped, it was pinata time! I had forgotten this at her birthday party on the Saturday. They loved this and it seems their favourites are my least favourite: rockets and suckers.

The chocolate was outside for all of 15 minutes and started to melt!

And 2nd present time! a wearable blanket (because Leah always asks to have the blanket put over her head) and a tea set! For all the tea parties!

And of course cake for dessert because these kids sure love their cake (and me) and Leah gets 2 birthday cakes for her celebrations!

Keeping Quarantine Busy

We have had to be pretty creative in the last 2 months to make life more exciting than adventures in the backyard and around the block. Here's some of what we've been up to:

Back in March, Logan went through a phase of being obsessed with sink or float. This was awesome because it was an activity to keep him busy but was also a science experiment totally falling under the category of school work! And some added outside time in the cold moth (now its so easy to be outside!).

Themes were our thing to start quarantine and then we have since fallen off that bandwagon. But this was our Chilean themed night. This one didn't involve the kids since they don't eat food loaded with wine. The shrimp soup base is entirely white wine and some garlic and the mushroom rice had red wine in the base. Paired with chilean wine and pisco sour which we had when looking at our chile pictures.

Mexican night! I made mexi dip and tacos and we had margarita and corona.

Mexican night included the kids and since it was freezing outside, we set the pool up in the living room with the balls from the old ball pit. They got their bathing suits on and loved it! Mexican night can include the kids since Logan is obsessed with tacos.

When I asked Logan if he missed school he said "yah". And when I asked what he missed about school he said "the marble toys". There are lots of things I cant fix with this situation but I could fix this!! So naturally this was the best $60 spent to make him no longer miss one thing about school. He loves this marble run... but strongly dislikes when his sister breaks it.

Yah. TV. Disney's freebies during this time have caused an addiction to the Disney channel and now we're going to have to pay full price when they remove the free subsription!

When colouring in the colouring book gets old, we take out a huge sheet of drawing paper from the easel and draw on the kitchen floor.

Logan started liking crafts and art activities this quarantine! Painting is both their favourites I would say. They painted so many rocks that they collected in the forest and placed them back in the forest.

Our neighbourood forest is filled with painted rocks. Some with positive messages. Lots of kids have painted and hung birdhouses in the forest too. Its a really cute community feel in our forest!

Another cold day, looking for something different for the kids so the pool made a reappearance and this time with some added floaties!

  We haven't done too much takeout, but we have done sushi and pizza a couple times. And the Burger Factory which was amazing - I had a funnel cake for Mothers day!

Sushi 168 was amazing - the first time they gave free masks and the second time free soup!

The May 2-4 weekend was the weekend provincial parks opened for day use. We got right in with no day fee and it was actually pretty quiet! We hiked down to the beach and had a picnic. The kids loved it!

Leah was a little unsure of getting close to the waves but wanted to throw rocks in the water.

And Logan wanted to line his all up!

 The fire ban was lifted on May 2-4 weekend but the evenings were so cold, I didnt want to go outside! So we waited for the next weekend and had our first fire of the season. It seems Logan likes less and less as time goes on and this year smores consists of eating marshmallows (untoasted) and chocolate straight from the package. Leah just eats the chocolate and won't eat the spidey dog. Logan will eat the spidey dog if it has no black on it! My easy going babes.

Wine and fire. A beautifully dangerous situation for me!

We also hit up the garden centre May 2-4 weekend to complete our planters. The kids loved planting!

One of Logan's school activities that he LOVED was going for a forest walk, collecting some nature treasures and making a nature wand. He even wrote "we are making nature wands" and was so proud. He actually loves doing the school activities at home!

The warm weather is back and we are so happy over here. I miss our friends but we have so much fun playing in our backyard, going for bike rides, scooter rides and walks and runs that quarantine isn't too bad now!

And I have been doing outdoor workouts in the backyard which has been way better than the basement.

We opened our quarantine bubble slightly and has my sister over for her birthday... water balloon fights and bbq!

And conservation areas are back open so we hit up Coldstream and had such a great day. We saw the hugest turtle and had a picnic and the kids were actually energetic the whole time!

Documentation of the closure sign and my poor baby picking dandelions in front of the playground. She didn't even try to go on surprisingly!

When we don't set up the pool, Leah makes her own pool in the water table.

And we got a new bigger sized pool this year which is awesome because we can actually float in it! It was a treat from Gran. Aleksys been doing her groceries every couple weeks and she's been buying the kids (and us) treats like crazy! Logan has loved playing in this pool - he's kind of outgrown the trustie elephant pool (but definitely got as much use as possible out of it!).

Our ice cream stand is open! Open trunk ice cream parties are now our thing. Somehow Leahs cotton candy ice cream came off her white shirt and Logan is currently obsessed with chocolate. This stand is much more reasonable then the $30 at merlamae we spent yesterday!

We have been casually checking out new builds in our subdivision and nearby for a while now but it got real over quarantine! We are moving to Lucan in this dreamy home that we are custom designing on a massive lot. Closing is end of January but could be earlier depending on time it takes. It is non-existent to build for the price we are on the lot we are in the city and Lucan is going to be super cute!