Canoe or bust

It was Alastair's birthday this week and Anna gave me very specific instructions on what she wanted to do to celebrate. On the way to art camp she told what candy I had to buy to decorate the cake, that we had to have have balloons....the list went on and on. I might not have gotten everything on her list but she was pretty happy with our decorations!

Alastair's birthday celebration continued into the weekend when we rented a canoe. And not just any canoe...we rented The Prospector - the ultimate wilderness tripping canoe. We picked it up Friday night and Saturday morning we drove to Cherry Beach where we loaded up the girls, put on our lifejackets and set sail to the Toronto Islands!

Some would think we were crazy to go paddling with a 10 month old but Matilda's Canadian eh! Of course she wasn't always happy with her life jacket on...Anna of course loved every minute!

The captain of our boat (and the main paddler since most of my time was spent holding Matilda!)

One of the many ways I held her....

Anna had fun leaving a trail of bubbles on the water...

We parked our canoe on Ward Island and had a picnic

Anna enjoyed throwing rocks in the water and Matilda loved playing in the canoe....until she got tired. Then she had a meltdown...while we were on the water....you could see people looking at us and thinking,"That poor baby is really unhappy". Finally I just laid her down on the bottom of the canoe and we hoped she would fall asleep. Then we got looks from people that said,"Where is that sound of the crying baby coming from?" Finally Matilda was lulled asleep by the rocking motion of the boat...

Sweet sleeping baby.....

Queen of the WILD!

This week Anna has been in art camp...and wow what a camp it was! The theme of the week revolved around the book Where the Wild Things Are. Every day Anna came home chatting away about the book and all the crafts she made. Today was the last day so the class had an art show where the kids took you around and showed off what they made. The teachers also advised bring a box to carry all their crafts home and they weren't kidding - we filled up 2 bags of crafts! 

Here are some of the highlights...

Anna with her wand wearing Max's crown...

Anna and her bottle monster!

Anna in her Wild Things Mask

Monster hands...

Anna holding her Wild Things stuffed sock...but when I asked her what it was she made this face and said "I don't know".

The wild rainstick

Plate Monster!

Monster Feet

Here she is... Anna Monster!...or as Anna said on the drive home, "I'm the Queen of the Wild!"

All her monster crafts including mini dough monsters, a replica of Max's sailboat, a monster hat, symmetrical monster, a monster puppet...oh where will we display it all!?

The Little One

Our little one is 10 months old! At 10 months old Matilda is smiling, cruising along the furniture, crawling anywhere and everywhere, eating like a monster with her four teeth (though when she's done or doesn't like something she'll spit it right out!), and dancing to music (put on some Michael Buble and she shakes her little bottom).

One of her favourite things to do is look out the front window

And though she's seems happy in all the photos this is the face we mainly saw this week because for her 10 month birthday Matilda got the Roseola virus! That meant 3 days of 102F fever and then yesterday she got...

a rash all over her little body! But the rash means the virus is on its way out...I've never been so happy to see a rash in my life!

More Summer Fun

A couple of weeks ago I tried a new bubble activity with Anna. You take a plastic water bottle with the bottom cut off, an old sock and some detergent. Dip the bottle covered with the sock and blow out and you make....

Bubble snakes!!! Pretty neat huh? Of course Anna is 3 and no matter how many times I told her/demonstrated that you blow OUT...she is only 3 so it was inevitable that this would happen....

She swallowed the soap! Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase washing your mouth out with soap!

We also had fun painting with some leftover condensed milk. We added food colouring to the condensed milk which makes a shiny sticky paint.. It also tastes a lot better than soap!

Walks and backyard play became more fun with the addition of a bubble gun...

And afternoons in the pool always produce big smiles!

Really?

It was sunny today. We played outside. We even went swimming. And then it was 4:30 pm. And that's when the rain started. It rained so hard I sent a sent a text to Alastair telling him we were having a Nashville rain storm. And then it was raining so hard I took pictures of our street turning into a river. Anna actually said to me,"mommy how is daddy going to get home?". I learned from the Nashville flood so I checked the house for flooding. It was dry then. And now here we sit 5 hours later and Alastair is in the basement mopping up water. We're not flooded but it is wet. Our neighbors  basement is completely flooded. We're lucky but all we keep thinking is 2 houses in a row get flooded? Really? I keep thinking about the story of the 3 little pigs... The house shouldn't be made of bricks I want a house on stilts! Oh the power also went out about 4 hours ago. The girls and I enjoyed a romantic dinner by candlelight. Anna loved it since I can't open the fridge we got to have apples and crackers for dinner. Time to sign off... Only 54% battery life on my phone left....fingers crossed we'll have power in the morning. I really wish I had charged my iPad today.....oh and I forgot to mention....it's still raining.

Splish Splash!

Yesterday we went to one of the cities many splash pads. I'm actually not a big fan of the splash pad. Most of the ones I've seen are basically are just a giant circle with water spouting from the middle. It just didn't seem fun or clean. But the one we went to yesterday...it was new...it was clean....it was amazing!!

Anna kept running and yelling, "C'mon Mommy! C'mon Daddy! This way!"

There were water fountains galore to run through....

This place was unbelievable...if there had been a pool it would have been just like the YMCA in Tennessee....

There was even a small area for the little ones...Matilda crawled right towards the water!

Rainbow water fountains ...

And snakes to watch out for!

And a giant frog for two happy girls to sit on!