Easter 2020: Quarantine edition

It has been a loooong 2 months of quarantine. Long and short... because my birthday feels like 2 weeks ago because not much has happened in between. Easter weekend was still special for our little family but we missed our family dinners for sure.

 Quarantine started off with tons of baking. I was eating most of it and decided to slow it down since then after some new lbs decided to join in. But before I slowed that down, there was lots of Easter baking starting with some little bunnies. These are great because Logan likes helping with the sprinkles. Otherwise, he's not all that into baking with me.

A few days before Easter, they got some Easter teats dropped off by Grandma and this got Logan so pumped to count down to Easter. Leah was all about the chocolate especially those little cakes and Logan loves the little eggs. 

More Easter baking. These ones they just lick the icing off and chuck the cookie, but Im all good with that because then Im not eating the cookies!

Quarantine has brought Logan around to crafts! He loved doing these carts that Grandma got them... a whole spring scene. Logan was careful and precise and Leah piled the stickers on top (see the brown flower with some yellow things?). They were also obsessed with colouring those styrofoam eggs with markers to the point where I had to hide the markers from the little one.

Thank goodness the Easter bunny was an essential service! The Easter bunny always pulls in the goods for some good outdoor fun: new pails and shovels, bubble want, watering can, water goggles, a giant pool donut and dinosaur bones to dig in the sandbox. And some chocolate and colouring/painting!

They couldn't wait to get to the hidden eggs. Leah opened some that she fund on her way over to the baskets. Smashing tings and watching them fall is Leah's jam, so this was great stuff.

Logan did not care to look at his new exciting presents from the Easter bunny because he was dying to find the eggs. We made him open the presents first and I felt really mean for present opening encouragement. 

Oh and the bunny got some new sunnies. 2 years in a row that bunny styled this little munchkin with cool sunnies!

Finally... the Easter egg hunt! And there were a lot. something like 40 for Logan and 30 for Leah. Logan assisted Leah once he had found all his and loved every minute. 

Logan super excited about his little spikey balls and Leah sneaking in on his treats.

When sister naps, Logan eats nearly all his Paw Patrol chocolate.

Our massive bird.. for em and Aleksy. Well actually, to our surprise Logan actually had some too but I mean the 4 year doesn't add up for this beast! The little ones were all taken at the grocery store since everyone in Quarantine is cooking for fewer people...

Supper time! As you can see the further plate; Logan was cheese, croissants and turkey (the corn is for show... he doesnt eat that) and Leah probably ate a bite of bun and waited for her snack.

But ours was amazing!

And we brought our egg wars tradition to our house since we didn't go to Nana and Dziadeks! They loved cracking each others eggs and Logans at the age where he remembered from last year. He's also at the age where he has to win... good thing Leah doesnt mind (yet).

Fam Day Weekend Winter Getaway

We had the best family day weekend! On Valentines day, we took the day off and left headed to a cabin we rented near Wiarton/Tobermory around lunch time/nap time. Logan still did a half day at school because I didn't want him to miss out on getting his Valentines from his classmates (weirdly enough I would say about half of his class participated in Valentines).

We did a couple stops on the way up but it was a pretty good drive! The kids had tablets to keep them occupied and Leahs car naps are 45 minutes tops.

Once we got there, we were left with a welcome bottle of homemade wine from the airbnb and the kids set up their play area in the living room. It was a pretty cool set up and up those curvy stairs was 2 beds (either side of the fireplace). We used the 2 rooms on the main level.

Our Valentines supper of champions: spaghetti (with just parm for the kids but alfredo, shrimp and mushrooms for us). The kids ate so much this weekend... they were loving the spaghetti!

After supper, the kids (and me) got their Valentines gifts!

It was so cool looking around this cottage because everything about it was stuck in the 70s... I didnt even know some utensils lasted that long. We found a fishing game that the kids loved (and we had to get one for home) and the kids went to bed after some Valentines cupcakes.

They shared a room where Leah was in a playpen and Logan on the top bunk of the bed, which he later changed to the bottom because he was afraid (which I would have put money on when he chose it). That night Leah was playing on the top bunk and fell between the wall and bed... luckily there wasn't enough space for her to go down... I laughed at that so many times that weekend (because she was fine... immediately "I ok")

Before we figured out the fan blew the hot fire air into the cottage, we hung out here night 1 with wine and blankets! So cold with the huge windows in the main room.

And the next day. Getting her warm stuff on after breakfast for our outside adventure in Lions Head.

Logan was doing this all weekend - if you look at the top centre window that is his little husky puppy that he was throwing up all weekend (he was loving the tall ceilings). This is what led to us loosing puppy and leaving him there! But they ended up having a friend who was coming to London and brought him back for us :)

Ready for a snowy trail hike where Leah would ask for her hat off, mitts off, mitts on, hat on, up, down, up, up etc. She did an awful lot of face plants in the snow too when she wanted to walk on her own and would walk off the trail. Good times.

A brief happy family moment... Leah was ok for this moment since we gave her a granola bar ("nola baw").

Oh and cookies make Leah happy. We didn't have a huge hike because the baby was not feeling it but we stuck it out for a bit - may 40 min total becasue Logan was loving it (anything outside is Logans jam!)

Leah had way more fun at the little diner in Lions Head where she got to eat more cookies and baked goods and move around without all her outerwear (and we were happier because we got beer).

Logan was obsessed wit his hot chocolate and would have had 10.

And we got back to the cottage and went to the back to view the lake. This cottage was actually on a small island where we had to drive on a narrow road over the frozen lake to the smallest island of only cottages... it was pretty cool (and so frozen).

This took me down memory lane... I know I played with this as a child and it had all the pieces I remembered too... the animals and fence pieces.

There was so much about he cottages decor and feel that reminded me of my Grandparents.

And some couch snuggles and watching some tv before bed. These 2 are getting so much closer as Leah grows out of her baby stage and can be 2 peas in a pod. They loved watching cartoons on the big tv at this cottage.

We left the next day after breakfast and they did great on the way home too... both fell asleep shortly before we got home!

A Niagara Weekend Getaway!

For the January 25th weekend, we booked a night at the Americana indoor waterpark with 4 other family group friends of ours! This was our second time at Americana and definitely was busier on a weekend. The kids had lots of fun.. Logans favorite the slides and hanging out with his buddies in the hotel and Leahs favourite going down slides on our laps in the toddler area and eating cupcakes while walking around the hotel room.

Turns out coordinating 5 families and 13 kids is kind of tricky. We got there a bit later than everyone else so when we headed down to the waterpark around 3:30pm, everyone else had already been there for an hour or 2 and thats kind of the max for this waterpark!

These 2 were so easy to get dressed in their swim suits to go... much unlike mornings before school/daycare.

We gt lots of waterpark time in from about 3:30-4:30 and then again after supper from 7-8pm (just the big one or that time) and again the next morning.

They both loved it, but the smaller one has certainly found her independence and would have preferred if she didn't have her parents following her around ensuring her safety. Water shoes were definitely a must for the run away baby on these slippery floors.

One of Logans highlights.. all his friends in our hotel room jumping on the bed!

We made our adjoining room dreams come true and opened it up to Emily and James room which was beside ours. The natural result was kids in one room jumping and parents in the other eating pizza and drinking beer (and the poor 1-2 adults that got stuck supervising the kid room).

And after we put the kids to bed, we had an impromptu girls night in the Boston Pizza in our lobby! This was Sams brilliant idea since the boys were doing a snowboarding trip the following weekend that the Moms get a girls night. We had 2 of these fishbowls!
When we came back to our rooms  just before midnight, the boys were camped out in the hallway having drinks while the kids slept!

The next morning after about an hour and a bit in the waterpark, we headed in to Niagara to see the falls and go to the Hersheys chocolate store. The Osbornes were headed to the rainforest cafe and I really wanted to try it with the kids but we had a limited time schedules because the baby needed to be in the car for a nap and she was crashing hard by 1:30pm (we got there around 11:30am). Logan was really into watching the falls!

I love this store! We got tons of chocolate and candy, and a chocolate dipped donut which sounded really great in theory. I had many other treats to make up for it.

Definitely my child. She was so excited about what was displayed in these display cases!

A giant peanut butter cookie which he shared with his sister and a cupcake to go because they couldnt decide on just one thing (my kids for sure).

After this stop we headed back stopping briefly at the Niagara brewery on the clifton hills for some to-go beers (but unfortunately no time for a roadie) and then the baby was capped out... couldnt be bribed with cookies or timbits and was having no part of keeping her mittens on.

Our road trips havent been bad at all with the 2 kids... Leah doesnt nap for more than 45min -1 hr in the car but she is pretty distracted otherwise. It was totally fine on the way home. We have done a 3 hour drive to a cottage since then and again... totally fine!

And when we got home, we got to try the Niagara beers to cap off the weekend!

Wine and Food!

Our annual tradition remains alive! Year 9. They have changed it starting last year so there is basically shifts in which you can go. We opt for the (less busy) Saturday afternoon 12-5pm. It never seems to be an issue to start right after breakfast...

For the second time we got the Prosecco tastings! my fave. Right when we got there we went straight in to see the tastings and this one started immediately so we went right in! It really is the trick to making sure you get in to the tastings.

These made a reappearance from last year! Except this year they have the radio station all over them. These also were at the Canada day celebrations in the summer. They are making their rounds...

I also don't know if they got smaller or my butt got bigger to fit in there...

Steph's first time trying oysters... basically a shot!
So good with the horseradish and hot sauce!

These nachos in a bag are the best. Lorraine even took a picture of the booth so we can be sure to find them again next year. Maybe we don't look very hard for food (because wine..) but there never seems to be anything that stands out food-wise so these are gold!

The highlights of Sept-Dec 2019 in a blog!

I didn't get to blogging in these busy months but wanted to document the highlights for looking back purposes!

September marked the start of Logan's very first hockey season! He has made such huge changes since then ad is now full gliding and quick out there... and can more backwards!

There are many times where I think it would be great to do things in the evening after work because after work days are unexciting with getting home around 5:15pm, making supper, having supper, and kids in bed at 7:30pm. So why not add excitement... well here's why not. For some reason we decided to do the Ilderton fair on a Friday after work.. despite the rain! There were a couple cranky kids who don't really like fair food but a sandwich didn't quire satisfy who wanted to go on rides but only certain ones were open and a baby who didn't want to be in the stroller. Good times! Next time we will brave the Saturday crowd... or get off work early!

The 5 minutes of happiness at the fair! The carousel was open, covered from the rain and good for both a 1 and 4 year old... a rare find!

The kiddos have continued their swimming lessons... another chaotic after work activity! But this one is totally worth it because swimming is such an important thing to learn and they both LOVE it! Logan is not at Preschool 4 and Leah goes in Parent Tot at the same time (we alternate). We start back again next week.

This was the kitty we adopted in September... we named her Minnie. Minnie was a great kitty and perfect for the kids but she turned out to have fleas and worms. Because of Leah and not wanting the nuisance of treatments 3 weeks after returning to work, we sadly had to give her back to the rescue place. It was the craziest weekend of the year... the cat incident, plus Aleksy was laid off that Friday and then our fridge died.
Our luck seems to have turned since then!











Logan is a school boy now and this picture accurately represents how he comes home. Such a little boy! Luckily now he is covered with his coat and snowpants but those things come home as if he rolled in the wet sandbox. But he is doing amazing at school! It suits him well and his favourite things are the block/building centre and after school program especially in the gym. His not so favoruite tings are art, drawing and learnign to write letters. Today he was very upset that the lower case l (not L) resembled a 1 (2,3..). He's got a point...

The commencement of Leahs obsession with "apple". Apple picking with Jon, Steph and Rachel in October at Great Lakes. So many apples and their apple cookies are the best!

This was a great day! Everyone was happy this year!

At the pumpkin patch at Great Lakes. After picking a ton of apples, eating a ton of apples we did a little play at their play area which they loved!

All ready for trick or treating! A puppy and a flower... Logan also wore this to school (for his halloween dance... the best thing to picture ever for just JK/SKs!) and picked it out of a bumble bee or Marshall (paw patrol). These kids could have trick or treated all night even in the rain.

Logan had a PD day in October which I had already taken off and with Aleksy laid off for the month of October, we both had some good quality Logan time and went bowling. He loved it and bowled for all of us.. Logan gets 10 turns and then me 1, then Logan again for 10 and so on...

The annual Halloween party! Our theme was garden party... a gardener, gnome, flower and bee.

And my last minute decision to get the kids baptized brought to you by Logan starting at Catholic school! Now they wont miss out on any of the participating in the religious things they do at school. This was November and included more meetings with a priest than Ive had in my life!

Santa Claus parade AND paw patrol... clearly Logan cant look for the picture! This was lots of fun this year... we went with some neighbours. Logan loved it and Leah wanted to walk around the whole time. She did like the candy canes though!

We got early snow in November and went sledding... both of them loved it! Over the holidays it wasn't cold enough to use the GT snow racer Logan got for Christmas and the weather has been kind of mild... even if it snows it usually melts a day or 2 later! We will be getting out for more hopefully later this month and Logan can finally have enthusiasm over the snow racer.

On Saturday of the black Friday weekend, The kids had a sleepover at their Nana and Dziadeks and Aleksy and I went shopping in the States and did really well especially finishing up for the kids! This time we really only department shopped, which was a change for us. We did Kohls, Meijer, Wal Mart and Target... although Target was in the mall but there nothing left at the Birch run mall it turns out!
We also squeezed in late lunch at the golden Corral a late supper at Chicken in the rough!

And of course some dunkin... to keep the shopping alive!

This was actually the night before shopping in the States... girls night at Tasting room! And because I never like ending a party, this was followed by going to Mollys and staying out until 2am! This made shopping in the States a lot lower energy the next day and definitely less appetite but was definitely worth it!

The same weekend as girls night and shopping in the States was also Aleksys work Christmas party! A busy weekend. The flu bug hit our house around this same time and Leah, Aleksy and I were not our best this day (Logan was patient zero so fine by this point). We narrowly avoided it with just down sore tummies though. Leah still ate all the candy and Logan loved the bouncy castles! They definitely throw a party with everything fun a kid could need!