Well, here it is, and what a night of family and fun it was!

These are all the pics from our neighbour on union road, Laura's wedding to the love of her life, Mark.
It was a beautiful afternoon and evening in a gorgeous old church redone as a wedding venue/restaurant. The food was amazing, everyone was gracious and lovely and it was great to get to spend time with all the adults in the family sans kids for a night, as much as we love them.
Len and I had an amazing time and were only sorry that we had to head off as early as we did to return to the wee monkey in Toronto.

I wonder how long the night went on for everyone else?

THE PICTURE OF THE YEAR

Each year at the Aunts cottage, Kristen has managed to get a picture of Adara that is in some way iconic or indicative of who she was at that moment. This year was harder because she wouldnt' hold still! Nontheless she got some good shots. I leave it to you to decide, which is the most Adara this year?

The new house

For those of you who have been asking, here's a few pics of the new house.
The renos have been going like made. In the first three weeks Len oversaw everything and did all the demolition. We replaced the plumbing, electrical, checked for termites (none), waterproofed the basement, put in a new furnace and ducting, hauled old railway ties out of the backyard, painted, refinished all the floors and put in new stairs to the third floor.
We've decided to pause here for a while and enjoy the rest of the summer. The refinish of the basement will just have to wait.

Camping glories

For the first time in 22 years I went camping with my parents. With Kristens help we borrowed a tent trailer for a week away in Miller Lake. From the first moment that Adara saw it she was in love with the trailer. She climbed right up on her bunk, got out all her toys and was in seventh heaven, chatting away to herself in her "own little house" The campground itself was wonderful. It had a sandy shore, shallow lake, big inflatables for the big kids (and me!) to swim out to and climb on, fish to catch in a net (Adara) crafts to do in the rec hall, a great playground as well as ping pong, horseshoes and a great store. And glory be the store had wonderful tea with milk and honey for me to wander down and get while the wee one was napping and grammy was in charge. It's hard to over estimate how important a really good cup of afternoon tea is to me!
Hopefully Kristen or mom has some pics of Liam and Poppa and I climbing on the massive inflatables because it was a tour de force. I'll try to upload the video of Adara holding the fish that she caught (minnow) as well.

In general it was peaceful and easy and relaxing and fun and I can't wait to do it again!

Beach babes and boys

Here's some great pics of Adara and her cousins playing on the beach and at the campground while we were away on vacation last week. We were up at Miller Lake near Tobermory and also near Kincardine at a cottage that my Aunts' rent each year. It was glorious to just be taken care of for a whole week! Thanks family.

Holidays

Adara and I are off tomorrow camping with mom and dad for the week and visiting with family. We're really looking forward to it! Yesterday we did the traditional east york carnival for Canada day and then a lovelly bbq at a friends parents house. A really awesome day and the first Canada Day since Adara was born in which no one cried. Whoo HOoo! Small victories. Part way through the bbq last night, Adara just laid down in the middle of our hosts deck and went to sleep. Probably a good plan. Hopefully I'll have time for more posts and some pics when we're back.

Goodbye

On Monday after six years, we said goodbye to our house and moved onto a new one. We loved our little "doll house" but it was time for new challenges and new surroundings. So, on Monday my valiant mom and dad came and joined us for the big move. After 10 hours of moving, it was done.

As always, I'm sad when I say goodbye to a home. I think of all of the good years that have gone by and the things that I'll miss. This is the home that I brought my baby home to. This is where we celebrated her first birthday and had a massive operatic backyard 60th birthday for our friend Bruce. Len and I went back together yesterday, cracked a kilkenny and walked around the house and yard, remembering and saying goodbye. Adara was a bit beside herself, truly overwhelmed by the whole experience. However, in another week or two we'll be into the new house which is being renoed now and she'll feel better in her lovely new bedroom.

So, for now, a sad goodbye to my first home. Good, bad and all, it was my home and I lived and loved in it.

Belated Mothers Day Post

Mothers Day began with Adara waking me at a very leisurely 9 am with her gifts to give me. She gave me the card and bracelet, but in the end could not be parted from her beloved self painted treasure chest. She showed it to me, informed me that I was sharing with her and took it to her room. Len and Adara went off to swimming lessons while I organized breakfast. After breakfast we headed for Royal Bottanical Gardens and had a big walk. Post gardens, we came back to town and found a new little pub, the Ceili House on Queen East. We ate a beautiful charcouterie plate and had a beer with Adara lying on my lap the whole time. Quite lovely, really! Len also came home with a new yellow rose bush for me, which Adara and I planted at the new house yesterday.

We're here, just quiet

Hello all, it's been a long absence as we've been managing many life changes at once. Most importantly, we bought a house (the last day that I wrote) and sold a house (last wednesday). As you can imagine this long delay between the buy and the sell resulted in a good deal of stress. But all is well now, and we move forward. Len and I had a thrilling "furnace shopping date" this am, as we prep for all the work on the new house. It was fun actually, to grab a cup of tea, and tour around looking at furnaces and flooring without the sweet babe chattering at us the whole time. :)

Me In New York

Thanks to airmiles and my friend Heather being here on work and having a lovely hotel room, I've had a little New York mini vacation this week. I arrived on Wednesday and Heather and I did a lovely french dinner and saw La Cage Aux Folles while drinking a great slug of red wine out of an absolutely ridiculous souvenir sippy cup! (I'd include the pic but I promised not to embarass Heather and it's of her).
Then on thursday we did up SOHO, Tribeca, the Tenement museum, and Times Square as well as walking the Brooklyn Bridge. Walking the Brooklyn bridge was absolutely inspiring. To think that they built all of this in the late 1800's is absolutely astonishing. i totally want to find a novel about that, it's fascinating! The tenement museum was also cool. We saw some of the apartments in the immmigrant neighbourhoods which were in the state that they were found in after having beeen closed up from about 1930 to 1980. And then we went into one that they had recreated and researched the life of one of the families that lived there. It was an Irish family that lived there in 1890. Really cool!
We also went to a crazy chocolate boutique that does really unusual savory flavours. And we had doughnuts from a world renowned doughnut place. Heather had peanut butter and jam, I had pistachio. That was lunch

Today we headed out for shopping (new shoes, $50, thank you) and the Museum of Modern Art. Then Heather had to rest before her show so I struck it out solo. Before my family asks, no I did not get lost, not even once. I did Macy's, took in an impromptu street breakdancing show, the Empire state building, walked 5th avenue to see Sacs and Gucci and Tiffany's and the like, toured by Central Park and did two cathedrals, St. Patrick and St. Thomas.

At the churches I lit a candle for my sister and my mother in law as they are both Catholic and St. Patricks is the largest cathedral in the US. It was pretty amazing.
The Empire State building was pretty cool too, the vistas were amazing and I had purchased the audio guide so it pointed out each side of the building very clearly and what I was seeing. A really impressive way to get a sense of the scope of the city.
I have to say that the only dissapointing piece was Times Square. Many friends have described it as an overwhelming but exciting impression of lights and people. I think that after Hong Kong, Times square doesn't really strike me that way so much.
Nontheless, a super cool trip. I'm having a brief break now before joining Heather post show for one last jaunt and then home tomorrow.