It was a sunny day, 8 years ago...

More cottage fun...

See? I told you I had a lot of pictures to get through! You know things are bad when you manage to fill a 4GB memory card. 

Here are more pics from our 2 weeks up at the cottage in June/July. The weather was FAN-freakin-TASTIC while we were there. I think we had an afternoon of rain, but otherwise it was very hot and sunny every day. Almost a bit too hot at times, so we had to immerse ourselves in the lake at regular intervals. 

We ate well, slept well (ok, except Henry), picked 12 cups of delicious Redrox blueberries for jam and pies, and were generally lazy and happy. 

The kids are getting to an age where they actually play together a bit and enjoy each other's company about 70% of the time. The rest of the time is screeching and hair pulling, but I think that's pretty normal.(I should says it's them doing the screeching and hair-pulling, but I think it's probably accurate for me too). 

Dollar-store streamers.  So much fun.  With minimal strangulation risk.

Cottage bathtime routine.  Remind me not to use those basting brushes on food anymore.

Two sweet little lookouts at the front of the boat.

Yep, that sand ended up in his diaper, via his intestines.  Exfoliating, I imagine.

A little Olympic swimmer in training?  She's a water baby this year!

At the beach in Quarry Bay.  A perfect playground for chimps.

Check out that hot beach bod! 

While having a shared cottage comes with its own special hassles and headaches, we do realize we're so lucky to have a little piece of this paradise.  And we're really looking forward to another week up there later this month.  In the meantime:  how to get Henry to sleep in past 6:30am up there?  I'm thinking if he sleeps in the hammock?  Or the boathouse?  Actually, forget that.  I'll sleep in the hammock and Rob can be inside with both kids.  Problem sooooolved!

Belated Big-girl Birthday!

In what has become a delightful tradition, we had a great birthday bash for Miss Evelyn up at the cottage. What a lucky kid, to be born on a holiday! Lots of friends and family joined us for swimming, bbq, and sunshine. The big 4 year old girl had a great time. 

Such a cutie!

How did Auntie Peeps know just what colour cupcakes to make?

Three stooges at lunch

Who, me?  FOUR?!!

Sir Sammy testing the breeze with a spinny pinwheel!!

Best seats on the lake for the Canada Day Fireworks

Every year the fireworks seem better and better!

And, the most beloved birthday guest of all... Kizzy!

I suppose a time will come when Evy won't want to be at the cottage anymore for her birthday!  Shortly followed by a time when she WILL want to be there, as long as she's up there with her 20 closest friends and a keg of beer and her parents are 40 miles away!  So, we shall enjoy these years while they are here. 

I see such a change in her in the past year.  She is definitely not a toddler and her baby face is turning into that of a sweet beautiful little girl.  She's saucy and bossy and so so so funny.  Lately she's been saying, "Oh mah gawd" about stuff, which just cracks me up.  I guess she gets the valleygirl-speak from me?  Though I swear I don't sound like that!

So a happy (belated) birthday to my beautiful big girl!  You delight, infuriate, and amaze us and fill our house with love and laughter.  Thank you.

Fruit Loops!

One of the treats at the cottage is those little boxes of 'sugar' cereal!  (That's what we always called it growing up - anything with more than 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in it was classified 'sugar cereal'.  We were such fools, we thought honey nut cheerios was a delightful treat!  Can you imagine if we'd gotten our hands on a box of Count Chocula?  I believe it turned the milk brown.  Gag!)

Miss E was quite glad to make the acquaintance of Corn Pops and Fruit Loops, which she calls rainbow cereal.  Not the most nutritious way to start the day, but made for some cute pictures. 

Yum in the tum!

Back away from my Fruit Loops!

(Ok, just realized looking at the box that they're called 'Froot Loops' but I can't bring myself to spell it like that!  Ewwww.  I guess that's to ensure no one believes there is actually any FRUIT in them.)

Tiny Dancer

Who is this little girl who wants to be a fairy princess? I had to tell her she could not wear a tiara to daycare today. I blame Disney.

I think all who know me would agree that I'm not really a dainty pink-wearing frilly person, so I don't believe she's getting it from me. And I'm definitely not graceful. Maybe Rob is secretly teaching her pirouettes when I'm not looking? Or maybe it's just about being 3 and liking 'pretty' things, and wanting to express herself by shaking her bootie. The impromptu dance performance she gave last night was heartfelt, serious, and enthusiastic (even when she tripped on her own feet and face-planted the couch cushion). Time to sign this girl up for a gymnastics class!

Here she is at the cottage last week, playing with the $1.25 ribbon I bought her (thank you Dollarama!). Never has $1.25 provided so many hours of fun to any child anywhere. She was just so completely earnest - it was adorable.

Putting on a show for the loons

Concentrating despite a graze after knee met granite

So serious! Tongue sticking out with effort!

Redrox, 2011

Henry has been BUGGING to get up to the cottage (he knows his big sis was there when she was a mere 7 days old) so we finally got up there on Thursday night.

As you can see in the pics, it was sunny when we got there (I swear!) but soon turned into tornado-strength winds, giant hailstones, and severe thunder and lightning. Never a dull moment, I swear. The fact I have no photos of the storm is entirely because I was sure the cottage would be picked up a-la wizard of oz and I wasn't thinking about capturing the moment.

Anyway, we survived and Henry, who slept through the whole storm, is no worse for the wear!

Here we are, celebrating the start of another great year at the cottage!