Autumn Part 1
The past two months have been busy, busy, busy, as you can probably tell by the lack of activity on the blog! Now that I’m back to work full time, the weeks seem to whizz by in a blur of early morning wake ups, long commutes, busy but fulfilling days at my new school, and the evening chaos that comes with having two kids. Luckily I get to come home to home-cooked meals (thanks mom!), and if I’m particularly late then both kids will have already eaten as well. That (almost) makes up for my horribly long commute, which is getting worse
It seems like an impossible task to try and cram all of autumn into this one post, but I had lots of really cool pictures I wanted to share! (Edit: I've ended up splitting this post into two parts... hopefully it doesn't take me another two months to get the next one up!) Autumn is a really beautiful time of year in this part of the world, with the cool crisp mornings, blue skies and the changing colours of the leaves. We had some really nice weather this year, with temperatures consistently between 10-20 degrees Celsius right up until the end of October.
In mid-September we headed to the township of Tiny, about two hours north of Toronto on Georgian Bay, which is a part of Lake Huron. We rented a cottage with our friends Kristin and Dan, and their daughter Aoife. Aoife is about a year and a half younger than Ella, however the two play together really well.
We headed to Tiny on Friday after work, battling the rush hour traffic out of Toronto. We didn't arrive until nearly 8pm, so we quickly got the kids organised and into bed before relaxing with a glass of wine with our friends. Saturday morning was rainy and damp, but luckily the clouds disappeared in the late afternoon so we all headed down to the beach. It was a glorious afternoon, and Ella was back in her element running and dancing through the waves.
The water was freezing, however Dan still managed to go for a swim, and Ella followed him in!
We had a little picnic and play on the beach before heading back to the cottage for dinner, bed for the kids, and more wine for us. Dan built a campfire but unfortunately the rain was back and we only lasted around the campfire for about an hour before heading back into the warm house.
Sunday morning before we headed back home we had a huge development - Ollie started walking! He'd been taking a few little steps here and there previously, but this was the first day he consistently walked for 6-10 steps, back and forth between Andy and me. He was three days shy of 16 months old, which is almost exactly the same age Ella was when she started walking.
Walking has opened up a whole new world for Ollie. He loves toddling around the house and gets into everything. We definitely need more baby proofing around than we did with Ella. Nothing makes him happier than running around the house chasing and kicking a ball, and so Andy has promptly signed him up for “Little Kicks” so that he can start his soccer career. No pressure Ollie!
He also seems to have got the hang of Ella’s scooter which amazes me.
On the last weekend in September, my mom and I took Ella to the Harvest Festival at Bronte Creek Provincial Park. Harvest/pumpkin/fall festivals are a pretty big thing here, and nearly every weekend in September and October you can find one within an hour of Toronto.
We started our harvest festival afternoon with a guided wagon tour through the park, which is nearly 1600 acres. There are tons of activities to do in Bronte Creek Provincial Park, such as hiking, camping, visiting the Children's Farm, swimming in the outdoor pool (summer only!) and tobogganing and cross-country skiing in the winter. The tour was lovely, except that it started raining halfway through and we were uncovered. Ella was sitting on me for most of the ride, keeping me nice and warm at least!
Once we got back to the festival, we went inside a barn to dry off and warm up. We found some old school wooden games set up which Ella had fun playing:
After trying these out, we went in search of some food. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot on offer, but we did find some nice apple blossoms and tried a few different varieties of apples. Autumn is apple picking season!
There was a campfire where people were roasting marshmallows, however due to the rain we ended up missing out on this, which was a major disappointment for Ella. (And me, let's be honest, who doesn't love roasting marshmallows?). We did get to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch to take home though.
We then left the festival and drove to the Children's Farm. Animals are always a hit with Ella. There was a really cool play barn as well, and we stayed there while Ella played until the park closed.
We started our harvest festival afternoon with a guided wagon tour through the park, which is nearly 1600 acres. There are tons of activities to do in Bronte Creek Provincial Park, such as hiking, camping, visiting the Children's Farm, swimming in the outdoor pool (summer only!) and tobogganing and cross-country skiing in the winter. The tour was lovely, except that it started raining halfway through and we were uncovered. Ella was sitting on me for most of the ride, keeping me nice and warm at least!
Once we got back to the festival, we went inside a barn to dry off and warm up. We found some old school wooden games set up which Ella had fun playing:
After trying these out, we went in search of some food. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot on offer, but we did find some nice apple blossoms and tried a few different varieties of apples. Autumn is apple picking season!
There was a campfire where people were roasting marshmallows, however due to the rain we ended up missing out on this, which was a major disappointment for Ella. (And me, let's be honest, who doesn't love roasting marshmallows?). We did get to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch to take home though.
We then left the festival and drove to the Children's Farm. Animals are always a hit with Ella. There was a really cool play barn as well, and we stayed there while Ella played until the park closed.
The first weekend in October was a good one for catching up with friends. My friend Cheryl came over for a visit with her three-month-old Zaria. Ah it's always lovely seeing new babies! It was a really nice afternoon so we took all the kids over to the Italian bakery near us for lunch, and then over to our local park. Zaria was amazing and slept the whole time. I almost forget what it was like to have a baby at that age, where they sleep for such a large part of the day - although I definitely remember the feelings of relief when you'd get through a whole meal with a sleeping baby in the pram! We had a lovely catch up with Cheryl - she is one of my best friends here and we've known each other since university, but with all the kids now it seems so hard to coordinate a time to get together!
I took one of my favourite photos of Ollie that day. Look at that smile!
The weather was so nice Ella wanted to have a snooze in the sun!
The next day we met up with Kristin and Dan again, and had a Sunday roast at Kitchen on Sixth, a British pub in Mimico, a suburb in the west of Toronto. I was wary of taking the kids for a sit down dinner, but we went early enough that it wasn't very busy. To my amazement the kids were all pretty well-behaved and stayed seated for the majority of the meal, even Ollie! I can highly recommend the Sunday roast at this place as well.
After dinner we took a short walk down to a playground located on the foreshore of Lake Ontario. Mimico is located in a position so that you can look directly across the lake to the city of Toronto, with it's iconic skyline.
It was a beautiful evening and the kids were all in good form, happily playing at the playground together until it was time to head home to bed.
Ok, I think that's enough for one post! Next up Autumn part 2!
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