26/52 - Sand + Puzzles

Sand and puzzles two of Hugo's favourite things lately.

We finally have Hugo's sandbox setup and he LOVES it!! I think I grabbed the tote and sand toys about two months ago and we had been waiting on Byron to grab the sand. When he was going to pick it up it started raining out which meant the sand would be too heavy to move, so we decided to wait. Then things got busy and Byron just did not have the time to grab it. Oma came to the rescue and grabbed some sand for Hugo's sandbox last week. Hugo is one lucky boy to have such a wonderful Oma!!

There's one problem with the sandbox, however, it is really hard to get Hugo to come inside because he loves it so much!

Lately the Lil Man has really been into his puzzles. It still amazes me watching him figuring out were all the pieces go at such a young age and getting them all right relatively quickly. He is so focused also when he is trying to figure it all out ...

I do not know why, but I like having kids music playing in the background when Hugo is playing. Let me tell you he has his favourite songs. Jack & Jill, The Wheels on the Bus and the following song are a couple of his favourites. At this particular moment the Itsy Bitsy Spider came on (one of his favourite songs) and he instantly stopped what he was doing so he could listen to it.

 

 

I think he has gotten so use to music playing in the background, that he turns his little stereo on himself. What was your favourite song when you were little?

{HOME}

I think the summer weather has finally arrived! The last couple days have been extremely hot out, reaching highs of over 37^oC with the humidex. We must enjoy it while it's here, since summer is so short. Hopefully it is nice weather for the upcoming long weekend!

Three years ago today we were moving into our current house (we purchased it on June 25). Since our move, the time has flown by and our lives have sure changed -- we are now a family of three and a fur child! Each day is the beginning of a new adventure for us, especially with our Lil Man, and we are enjoying every moment.

Hope everyone is staying cool in this heat. Happy Wednesday Everyone!!

Bunk beds fit for a tired drunk.

So I didn't figure I would have had to ever use our Boler with the front bunk bed setup, but me and a couple buddies are going to test it. We have planned a weekend away to ride some new mountain bike trails. It's only the 3 of us this year, so I volunteered the boler to be our home base. I didn't really trust the factory setup, so I built my own. I even tested it with 240 lbs of weight on it. Now I just need to buy some beer and we are good to go.

A Country Glam Wedding

If you are looking for some Country Themed wedding inspiration than you are in the right place. A year ago today a very special little boy invited us to attended his mom and dad's wedding - it was my good friend Shan's special day, and there was no way we were going to miss this big day. It was beautiful! The theme of the wedding was Country Glam. This was their invitation. Isn't it cute how their son invited the guests? Such cute wording for the invite.
 



It was a wonderful day. The party was great and the bride looked absolutely stunning. Since I did not blog about it last year (we did not start the blog until November) I thought I would do it a year later. My friend found a lot of inspiration online and brought it all together to create a beautiful country themed wedding.  There were a lot of wonderful ideas!

 

I tried to help out whenever possible. The Thursday before the big day I went and helped set up.  One of my jobs was putting together the seating chart. I really like what she did it was such a great idea - she attached the seating chart list of each table to some old windows and placed them on top of some bails of hay. Here's the finished product ...

As guests walked into the venue, the seating chart was directly to their right.

Right after the ceremony I was asked to head to the reception site to look after some last minute details -plug in all the lights around the venue and light up all the candles on the tables.  Once I was done  I had a bit of extra time before guests started to arrive so I took some photos of all the details as a lot of time and planning went into them.  The lighting in the building was not the greatest so I must apologize in advance as some photos are not the greatest quality.

The wedding reception took place at the GNE Fairgrounds (Great Northern Exhibition).  Just outside of Collingwood, Ontario, Canada.  A beautiful country setting surrounded both the ceremony location and the reception location which was perfect for a country themed wedding.

The bride and groom had a sign welcoming guests at the entrance gate and then there were signs throughout directing guests were to go. Guests were able to bring campers and tents and camp out after the big party, which was perfect for out of town guests!

As guests entered they were instructed to sign the guest book and a "Rough Road Ahead" sign. Such a great idea!

 

Men With Knives catered the wedding. They prepared a very delicious meal consisting of pork roast, roast beef, assortment of salads, and roasted new potatoes. They did an amazing job on the meal especially the pork roast!

 

The flowers used on the cake (artificial) and in the bouquets and centerpieces were Gerber Daisies. They looked beautiful!
 

The cake was created by a friend of the couple and was served right after dinner for dessert. Such a great idea. At our wedding we served ours during the late night buffet and not much of it was eaten {meant we had more of it to bring home and freeze}.
 

The reception venue was decorated with antique items throughout. The Bride and Groom each had their corner were something significant to them was displayed.

The past meets present was the theme of the bride's corner.  The corner was decorated with antique items that her father collects, mirrored dressers, and handmade quilts. When you were in the bride's corner it was like you were stepping back fourty to sixty years, but when you looked into the mirrors you were back in 2012 looking at her wedding day celebration! It was very interesting seeing some of the antique items, especially the old camera.

The Bride's Mother's and Grandmother's wedding dresses were on display along with the Bride's Mother's and the Bride's christening dresses. It was such a neat idea and a beautiful way to decorate the hall!

The Grooms corner had an old John Deere tractor ...

 

The tables were decorated with burlap runners down the center, Gerber daisy centrepieces, candles, and different coloured gingham napkins which added a splash of colour to the tables. Each table also had an anniversary card in the center. Guests were asked to write a message in the card and when the couple celebrates their 1 - 14th anniversary they will open the card and see all the messages. For example, on their 4th anniversary they will open table number 4's card. Another neat idea!

 

Along the top of the following photo you can see the photo display they had which worked nicely to fill up the empty wall space. Initially the bride was going to do a slide show, but then decided to take this rout, which I think worked out perfectly (this was another thing I helped with setting up).

 

 

The bride did the table numbers herself. They looked good on the tables. The burlap flowers were cute.

 

In the back right corner of the above photo you can see the candy station. It was a big hit for both the kids and of course the kids at heart! I really like how the bride chose to display it!! An antique scale sat on top of the dresser and it was labelled perfectly for guest to see!

Here's the head table.
 

 

 I absolutely loved the bridal party's wine glasses. Perfect for a Country themed wedding!!

 

The bride had these beautiful candelabras also on the head table, aren't they just gorgeous, I believe they were from Michael's?

 

At each place setting guest had a s'more treat. Such a GREAT favour idea for a country wedding!! The bride hand wrote each tag.

 

The Details throughout we're impeccable and I just had to do a blog post about this wonderful day! It was such a lovely wedding. We are so happy we were able to be a part of Shan's special day!



 

Runner Up {Porcupine Meatballs}

We always look forward to the big turkey dinner each year at Thanksgiving and Christmas at my in-laws. Let me tell you my mother in-law always puts on such a tasty and delicious meal. Her turkey is always cooked perfectly and tastes wonderful. In the past we have also had a couple steak dinners that my father in-law was in charge of BBQing and he does an amazing job cooking the perfect steak! As I sit here typing this post my mouth is starting to water just thinking of the delicious food. 

Any who, this blog post is about a completely different kind of dinner that we've had at my in-laws --- Porcupines. I first had Porcupines when my mother in-law served it to us for dinner when Byron and I were dating and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Since she gave me the recipe which was quite a few years ago, we make Porcupines for dinner often, usually with scalloped potatoes (I already have the oven on) and a veggie side. When I make them now however, I do not make them as spicy so Hugo can enjoy them also.

These guys are a bit time consuming to make because you have to shape the meatballs and then they take about an hour to cook, but they are worth the extra time they require.

To make the porcupine meatballs you need a can of condensed tomato soup (we use Campbell's), a small pack of ground beef (we like using lean), French Onion Soup mix, rice, and if you like it a bit spicy you can add some crushed chillies to the sauce.

To make the sauce you just mix the condensed soup with 3/4 of the can of water and stir well. For the meatballs you mix the dry ingredients and then shape them into 1 inch meatballs. Add the meat balls to the sauce and cook in the oven for about an hour. Half way through cooking pull them out and give them a stir.

Here's our scallop potatoes.

When the porcupines are done they should look like these guys ...

 

If you want to give these guys a try here's the recipe. I find some times I do need to turn up the heat and leave them in the oven a bit longer for the rice to fully cook. It depends on your oven.

 

 

Have you made porcupines before?
 

First Camping Trip with Bitsy at Awenda {Part 1}

Listening to the sound of Alvin, Simon and Theodor, the chipmunks, running through the forest, woodpeckers pecking away at the trees, birds singing and the wind blowing through the leaves. The smell of a camp fire and no technological gadgets occupying our time ... this is how we spent Father's Day weekend! It was our first camping trip as a family with Hugo & Roxy and I am pleased to report it was a success! I must be honest at first I felt very disconnected from the world (since there was no cell phone signal and we were unable to connect to the world wide web for very long) but that only lasted for a brief moment then I was over the shock. The weekend was quite relaxing to my surprise. I honestly did not know what to expect camping with an almost 20 month old and a very curious dog. This was also our first adventure with Bitsy the Boler! I took a lot of photos (a wee bit too many to try and put into one post), so I have decided to break it down into a couple parts.

A couple months ago we decided we wanted our first camping trip to be at Awenda Provincial Park which is located on Georgian Bay, 20 minutes northwest of Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada. We have been to Awenda in the past and really enjoyed it because there is so much to do besides the usual sitting by the camp fire. You can go swimming at the beach, canoeing in the lake, and biking & hiking through the forest. We booked our site and kept our fingers crossed for nice weather. We ended up leaving a bit earlier Sunday morning as it started to rain during the night and it is not much fun camping when it's raining. The rest of the weekend the weather was a bit cool but enjoyable.  

Hugo is such a good helper. He insisted on helping Dad setting up Bitsy.

 

In the mean time Roxy checked out our campsite ...

 

 

Roxy always goes crazy when she sees a squirrel or chipmunk in the backyard so we  did not know how see would react seeing them in their own habitat. 

Guess what she spotted here ...

A chipmunk!  All in all she just got a little excited when she noticed the little guys and then  she was back to observing her surroundings. At times it was almost like Roxy had ants in her pants {imaginary pants} because she would not sit still for more than a minute. All the different sounds were driving her nuts probably because she could not figure out where they were coming from. I think she really enjoyed herself and the fresh air.

This was our campsite set up.

 

From top left photo. 1. Awenda Provincial Park. 2. Bitsy the Boler setup in her temporary location on the back right side of our campsite. 3. The kitchen shelter (back left side of campsite). 4. Hugo's play area.  5. Cooking station for when we were not cooking on the fire. 6. Drying the dish towels.

Some of the beauty at Awenda Provincial Park. I could sit and listen to the sounds of nature all day. It is so tranquil.
 
 

The above photos of the water lilies were taken during our canoeing adventure the last time we went to Awenda. We did not go canoeing this time. It was a little too cold.

I was able to get some reading done when the Lil Man was napping. When he was awake we could not take our eyes off him as there were a lot of hazards for a wee little person if you know what I mean. While I sat and read Roxy insisted on the following ...

She had to lay on my lap.  While I was reading this little guy came for a visit.

The first night was interesting to say the least. The Lil Man decided he did not want to go to bed and made a bit of a fuss when we put him to bed even though he was extremely tired. By the time we went to bed he had fallen asleep, but that did not last for long. He woke up shortly after we were in bed (I think because he was cold). Byron grabbed the heater and put it into the trailer and we gave him some warm milk and after some crying he eventually fell asleep and things were good with him. Roxy passed out the second she laid in her bed and was out for most of the night. So we slept for a couple hours and then Roxy was ready to get up at 5:30 because she obviously did not want to miss out on all the fun that was going on outside on the campsite. When we told her to go back to bed we had to put up with her sharing our tiny bed or she did not want anything to do with going back to her bed.

She laid in bed for a bit longer and then insisted on getting up shortly after 6:00 a.m. Thanks to Roxy our second day started off kind of early.

One thing I really dislike about camping is having to share a shower with hundreds of strangers. The thought of stepping barefoot on the shower floor really grosses me out and I refuse to do it so I wear my all plastic flip flops to protect my feet and then I can handle the whole shower thing a little better. Unfortunately though my flip flops decided to finally break this weekend (I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, I think I've had them for over 11 years). They were so comfy. Time to find a replacement pair.
 

We went through 4 bags of firewood the two nights we were camping. We used it to cook with and of course to warm us up and to prep some tasty camping treats. The proceeds of the firewood goes to the park which is nice to support such a wonderful park!
 

On Saturday I noticed we were getting low on milk. I thought 2L would have been enough but it was not. So we had to drive into town (Penetanguishene) to pick up a plastic jug at Max. On our way there and back Roxy was extremely tired. She refused to nap at the campsite when Hugo was napping. As a result, the second she sat in the car she tried to get comfy for a snooze. She tried to snuggle in with the Lil Man while he was watching Thomas. This was the first time she ever tried to get this close to him to cuddle. She gets this close when he has food and she wants some of it. This camping trip has definitely strengthened the relationship between these two. It was so funny and cute to watch Roxy and Hugo in the car.

Our last morning, this is what we woke up to ... 

 

A very wet Sunday morning. We noticed that some of the windows in the Boler were leaking (to be expected as it is quite old). Unfortunately, this means another thing for Byron to add to his to do list. It will be a winter project for him. In the meantime we will have to find an alternate solution for the next time we take Bitsy out {probably put a tarp over it}.

 

 

Luckily we were able to check the weather for Sunday on Saturday evening. We decided to pack everything up Saturday once Hugo went to bed (kitchen shelter, Hugo's Play tent, etc.), which made taking stuff down a lot easier and we were not putting stuff away that was drenched with water. Byron did have to move stuff from the vehicle into the Boler in the pouring rain Sunday morning and he did get really wet but it wasn't as bad as having to do take down everything in the pouring rain.

Overall the days went by relatively well. We did not get to doing much biking because Hugo was enjoying himself playing in the dirt with all the rocks and acorn shells and trying to catch the ants on the ground, but that was fine for us. It meant we could just sit there and take in the beauty of nature and watch him investigating and enjoying his camping experience.

Wondering what we cooked and what tasty treats we made on the fire, check back in a couple days to see! It is crazy how much work is required once you return from a camping trip.  How did you spend your Father's Day weekend? Hopefully it was an enjoyable one for all the Dad's out there!



25/52 - Camping!!

Hugo's first camping trip was definitely a fun adventure for the Lil Man. He really enjoyed himself.

Sitting by the fire waiting ...

 

Roasted Marshmallows!!!

 

 Checking out the marshmallows ...



I have to be honest, Byron and I were not fans of letting Hugo eat a hot dog because they are pack full of not good stuff, but how could we not let him experience this camping favourite. He was so excited for his Spider Hot Dog when he saw it ...

 

Trying it for the first time ...

 

 



He enjoyed both immensely as you can see from the photos!!! Check back later this week for some more photos of our camping adventure.