STORY TIME

One thing Hugo loves are his books and story time.

 

At our baby shower, [hard to believe that it took place two years ago today], guests were asked to bring a book in lieu of a card if they wished. It was such a great idea and I would highly recommend it. This was the invite insert ...

 

Hugo received a wonderful assortment of books that we will treasure for years to come. Roxy was trying to decide which one was her favourite. (Before Hugo was born she would sit and pose for the camera every time I took photos in Hugo's room).

 

Story time is so much more fun when there is a wonderful selection of books to pick from.

 

 

It is always so nice when we open a book for story time and find out who it was from -- guests were asked to write their names on the inside page! Some guests even wrote a little message.

 

 

This is one of his favourite books. His favourite part of the story is "Clang, Clang ..."

 

 

Over the past twenty months Hugo has received more books. I think he gets them throughout the year, which he loves.  He received some of these for his Birthday, Christmas & just because he's awesome ... 

 

 

 

 

 

When he was first born my cousin gave me a "What to Expect the First Year" book, but since I already had that book I exchanged it for this "B is for Bear" Touch & Feel ABC book. Hugo has enjoyed this book since he was able to sit up on his own and he still loves it!!

 

 

If you need a book for a little one, I highly recommend this one! As far as I know you can still purchase it at Indigo.ca. If you click on the photo it will take you directly to the page.

There are so many different styles of kids books out there. Hugo has a couple neat ones, but if I went on about them all I would be here forever (maybe one day I will do another post). This is the latest book Hugo received . His Oma & Opa brought it back from their trip to Ottawa in the Spring. As you move the page from left to right, the animal appears to be moving. It's kind of hard to photograph it, but it is super neat watching the horse gallop as you move the pages.

Do you have a favourite children's book?

 

28/52 Fun Times + A New Hat

This past weekend we celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday with a Domino's pizza dinner at my in-laws place. After dinner we went outside to enjoyed the beautiful summer weather. The Lil Man had a great time running around the yard ...

 



 



Photo is blurry because he doesn't stay still any more

 

Checking out Oma's gardens and smelling the flowers ...

 

 

Sharing the flower with the Birthday Lady - Aunt R.

The Lil Man enjoyed running around so much he did not want to go inside.

On Sunday we took a trip to Home Depot to grab some stuff for another project. Hugo is now ready to help dad with his new hat!

 

Byron manage to snap this picture of the Lil Man moving all his train pieces around. This is one of his new things he likes doing lately.

 

 

He tried moving all the stuffed animals from his bed but when I went to take a picture he had dropped them all because the pile was too big for his tiny arms. Some days he is just too funny!

 

Hope everyone in the Toronto area is ok after the major flooding that occurred yesterday.

 

Looks like it is going to be another dark, grey and wet Tuesday.

 

Snow Cone Cupcakes

Last week we had the annual Family pool party at my Aunt & Uncle's place. Like last year, I decided to bring cupcakes again. I think we (my sister and I) may have started something last year with these cute teddy bear pool party cupcakes (if you missed the post you can check them out). A couple weeks back my sister and I went on a search for this years cupcakes. She found some bright coloured slushy ones and I found some snow cone ones so we decided to combine the two ideas and we created the following.  Once they were done and put away in the fridge for safe keeping, they created such a beautiful burst of colour  every time the fridge was opened!

Byron found these Twizzlers at the grocery store, which were perfect for our cupcakes!

 

Aren't the colours just so bright and cheery?

 

 

Cupcakes ready for icing. We just used a simple buttercream icing.

 

Icing is on, ready for next step.

 

 

The finished product ...

Since we had some Twizzers left over, we cut them into bite-sized pieces and scattered them around the cupcake tray, which added a little more colour.

At the party, they were a hit {mission accomplished}. Some people even thought they were real snow cones when they saw them at first! Again with my sister's help, we created some fun cupcakes!!

Camping Food {Part 2}

Things are getting a bit busy around here now that the nice weather has arrived. Last week I had a time consuming order I had to finish off which took up most of my free time. As a result, I was not able to get around to this blog post as I had initially intended to do, but here it is. The way I look at it though, is it's better to post it late than never.

Before we head out on a camping adventure I always plan our meals for the trip. I find this is key to a successful camping trip. For our recent trip we tried to cook as much as we could on the fire. Everything seems to taste better when it's cooked on open fire.

 

 

The first day we ate breakfast at home and packed a sandwich to eat just before we set up (we figured it would be easiest). For dinner the first evening we had roasted potatoes, farmers sausage, and a Cesar salad (I prepped the salad at home the night before).

 

The second day we started the day off with coffee (we need it to wake up). Byron grabbed this coffee pot from Canadian Tire. The coffee was too weak (it is definitely something we need to work on figuring out). It worked out good though.

It was great for heating up water for washing dishes.

 

This camping trip we decided to bring our travel mugs for our morning coffee and they worked great!

Once we had our coffee and woke up, we had a favourite breakfast we always enjoy when camping - bacon, eggs, and potato rounds. I think the reason this breakfast is a favourite is due to the way it's prepared. Super unhealthy but it tastes oh so good. First we fry the bacon.

 

Once the bacon is done, we pour a bit of the bacon fat into another pan and we cook up the scrabbled eggs.

The pan we used to cook the bacon we use to heat up the potato rounds making them taste oh so delicious (usually we cook two extra potatoes with the previous nights dinner for breakfast the next day). We slice the potatoes into rounds and fry them in the unhealthy bacon fat. 

 



Our oh so yummy breakfast ...

Once breakfast is done, we boil water to do the dishes. I snapped this photo while I was waiting on the water to boil ...

 

For lunch on the second day we had hamburgers and chopped up tomato. Quick and easy to prepare.

 We packed some frozen chicken breast for dinner the second day which worked out great. It stayed cold and helped keep other items also cool in the cooler. Once again on the open fire we cooked potatoes wrapped in tin foil, the chicken and we cut peppers in half and grilled them also on the open fire. It was another delicious meal.

 

The third day we ended up feeding Hugo, packing up and heading out and grabbed breakfast on the way home since it was pouring rain. If the weather would have been nice, however, the plan was to have pancakes for breakfast, and pasta for lunch.

What meals do you prepare while camping? Do you have a favourite?

 

27/52 - The New Lil Mr. + Pool Fun

What a difference a couple hours makes! This was Hugo Friday morning. Not too sure about the fact that I woke him up because we had to head out, but he gave me a little smile ...

 

 

 

As the morning progressed, however, he was not a happy boy. We went on a little road trip to Mellonheads again. I debated for a couple weeks whether to take him back or to find a place locally to cut his hair. The price and the time spent on the road to get there were my issues. Once I thought about it I figured it would just be easier to take him to Mellonheads again since the girls there only deal with kids hair cuts and he does not sit still for very long. Once he gets a bit older and is not squirming all over the place it will be a different story, but for now Mellonheads it is [plus I had to grab some stuff from the mall anyways for him].

 

Our morning was going ok until we had to take the elevator at the mall to get to the second level and then Hugo just lost it. He's been fine with elevators in the past, but I definitely can not say that now. He just started screaming and did not sound like he was going to stop. Once he saw Thomas and the TV at Mellonheads he stopped for a bit but it was a struggle to get him to sit, which made me realize I made the right choice going there. There was no way he would have sat still at a regular barber shop, considering he did not want to do it when he had two of his favourite things (Thomas the Train and a TV to watch).

 

Photos were taken with my ipod so they are grainy. Someone was not very impressed.

 

 

The rest of the morning sucked because he did not like the mall. It was like he was a different boy constantly crying and very unhappy. Once I was done grabbing everything I needed we headed home asap! This was the worst mall trip I've been on with the Lil Mr.

 

This was the Lil Mr. in the afternoon [after a short nap] he was a bit happier.

 

This past weekend was the annual pool party at my aunt & uncle's place. Hugo had  a good time. He went into the pool twice. The second time he did not want anything to do with his life jacket though because it prevented him from splashing around in the pool. The second time he went in he did not want out, he was having so much fun even though his lips were chattering non-stop.

 



Happy Canada Day!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Day.

Happy Canada Day!