Born on the 4th of July....

ME that is!!

For my birthday we went out to breakfast at Cora's, and then went to the Royal Botanical Gardens. We're just having a regular dinner tonight, but eagerly anticipating a Boston Pizza and ice cream cake tomorrow night with the family.

Cruise...

Although the counter says we leave in 10 days, it is really more like 8! The 10 days (at the time of this post), counts to the exact time that the ship departs. In reality we get on the ship about 5 hours earlier, and we are actually leaving home the day before to spend the night in Vancouver! So it is much closer than it appears! Thought I would share. When the trip was far away it was accurate enough, but now the counter doesn't seem right when I know we are leaving in 8 sleeps! Jen and James are going to Victoria first for a few days, so for them, they only have 5 sleeps until they get going. For those that don't know, Paige is being picked up here around 1:00 on the 11th by Grandma and Grandpa and going up to the cottage for either a few days or the entire week depending on the weather. Then Mike and I will take a taxi to the airport around an hour later. Good for last minute packing/drying eyes/calming down/getting excited/freaking out.

Various expressions...

A sign of the times with these "I need's":

"I need hand sanitizer"
"I need sunscreen"
"I need sunglasses"

And lately has been saying the following:

"what makes that noise?"
"I don't want it"
"I don't like it"

(Luckily she is not just saying NO. If I try to give her some food she doesn't like she simply says, "I don't want it/like it")

And her longest sentence to date:

"I got more diapers for you mommy, take a look!"

Other expressions commonly used for the last little while:

"Sorry about that"
"Sorry...that's ok"

And strangest reply to date:

Mike: Did you see daddy fishing?
Paige: Sorry about that!

Everyone loves a cottage girl....

That's what it says on her shirt...

And the summer weather begins....

Since missing out on the Toronto Island splash pad, I was determined to get Paige's bathing suit on and go outside. After her (non) nap, we put on bathing suits and sunscreen and hooked up this Diego sprinkler. She loved it. Other highlights include her just wanting me to spray her with the hose, and sliding down a "water slide" (spraying the hose in front of the slide so she could slide through it). She then went in the sandbox, which I didn't think was a good idea, with all of the water, but she didn't get that dirty. And since she liked the water, she was fine with being hosed off after. This whole week willl be "feels like 30+ degrees". We have the AC turned on now. With the humidity here you rarely hear the real temperature. They always say "29, feels like 38", or something like that. I have a feeling that it won't be very humid in Alaska, or very warm for that matter.

A Father's Day Picnic...

On Father's day we joined a few of Maura's family members (huge family, but not everyone could make it) for a picnic on Toronto island. Toronto Island is just off downtown Toronto and you take a ferry or boat there. There is a huge picnic area, as well as a small amusement park, bike trails, and lots more. There is even an airport.

As we were driving to Mary's (Maura's sister) building to park, I realized that Paige has never even been in Toronto.

When we got there we all had a picnic and the kids kicked around a soccer ball.

Here are all of the dads that were present with their kids.

When we went over to Centreville (the amusement park), we went on a few rides. Mike, Maura and I took Paige on the train ride. Grandpa took Paige on a car ride (pictures below), and I took Paige on a nauseating Merry Go Round.

I had packed Paige's bathing suit in hopes of hitting up the splash pad, but when we were there we realized that the splash pad was too far and we didn't have Paige's stroller. There was also a wading pool that was still closed.

By the time we got in the car at 4:00, Paige had a nice long nap that continued on well into the house on Grandma and Grandpa's bed.

Happy Father's Day!

Summer programs...

All of our spring programs are coming to an end. Friday is our last day of Gymnastics and then we have a 2 week break of nothing. On the 8th we start Socatots, and on the 9th we are resuming gymnastics again. Since Amy and Clara's moms are teachers they will be off for the summer and we have Clara with us in Socatots and Amy with us in Gymnastics. Fun! My plan for the other days in the summer is to hit up as many splash pads as possible to stay cool and have fun. Paige loves water.

Part of me doesn't mind the short break of programs since we are gearing up for our Alaska trip in a little over 3 weeks (not to mention my birthday, then our anniversary, then Paige's birthday all the week before our trip). I tell you there are packing, shopping, and other various lists scattered throughout the house!

Dinner in the backyard with friends....