Our Summer in Pics - Part 1

Going for a trek in the conservation area behind our house...

And stumbled across these two!

Soccer!

Pinery Provincial Park

Pinery Provincial Park

Pinery Provincial Park

Silly Faces! Pinery Provincial Park

Farmer Seb!

Waterloo Regional Children's Museum

Summer

This morning we took Sebastian to a "bus orientation" session for the upcoming school year. It really wasn't anything too extensive. We watched a video on bus safety and then boarded a school bus to take a ride around the block. However, while riding the bus and noting to myself that I needed to blog about this, I also made a mental note that I really needed to sit down and provide an update on our summer and what we've been up to. I'm hoping this won't turn into an essay, but I won't make any promises.

First off, we've had a nice summer. It hasn't been too busy but it also hasn't been too lazy either. We've taken some time off of some of our favourite things, such as music class, but have continued with swimming lessons on Mondays, art classes on Thursdays in July and soccer lessons via Sportball Saturday mornings. When we're not doing that we've been little tourists in our own back yard.

Most of our summer has been spent exploring neighbourhood parks and hanging out with friends. I ran into an old friend/co-worker from Toronto at the local YMCA at the beginning of the summer and we've managed to get the kids to the park a couple of times together, which has been nice. We've also attended a few attractions in our area, namely the Donkey Sanctuary which is less than 10 minutes away and the African Lion Safari, which is about 25 minutes away. We spent Canada Day in Cambridge once again enjoying the parade and a bbq with friends and we've been to Riverside Park a couple of times to enjoy their carousel and train rides.

Another thing we've been doing this summer is gardening. We created our first garden earlier this year and have really enjoyed the bounty we've been getting. We've even discussed and started planning on how we're going to extend the garden for next year! We've also enjoyed going to St. Ignatius every Friday to pick up our CSA (community shared agriculture) share. While there we've enjoyed wagon rides throughout the farm on their Family Days and have enjoyed picking our own herbs and exploring their lovely grounds. The best part of all this though is Sebastian getting an appreciation of food and where it comes from. It's great watching him care for the garden and we absolutely love how much he enjoys eating the fresh veggies. If we're not careful he'll eat all the veggies before we even have a chance to have some!

And last but not least, we've managed two camping treks in this summer! Our first trek was to Pinery Provincial Park with friends in July and just this past weekend we went to Guelph Lake for a couple of nights. We really enjoyed the Pinery, as there are lots to do and the beach is absolutely beautiful, and it was great being able to go camping with friends. Their little one is a year younger than Sebastian & he thoroughly enjoyed having someone around to play with. It was great watching them get dirty and explore together and it also gave us a little down time, which is something we don't get much of when camping alone. Really looking forward to going again next year!

I'm sure there are more things to report on but these are the things that stand out the most for me at the moment. Can't believe how quickly the summer has flown by and that our lil' grub will be starting school on the 21st! Now we're looking forward to Ribfest this upcoming weekend, Seb's 4th birthday, the official first day of school, seeing Robert Munsch at the River Run Centre and an excursion north for a long weekend to enjoy the fall colours with Uncle Dan & Aunty Alice in October.

Sorry for the essay!! But if you've read through it I hope you've enjoyed it!

In One More Month...

We are going to have ourselves a 4 year old! Yikes!!

And yes, I know I need to update the blog. I've been thinking about it and will hope to have an updated post shortly!

Our Star

Today was Sebastian's last day of the winter session at the Little Gym. Sebastian absolutely loved this program. It ran for one hour and he participated without me, although I was always present. I loved watching him run around the gym with a smile on his face and he absolutely loved the balancing beam, never showing fear of falling off, with large leaps of faith into the air at the end of the beam.

Anyways, today was their last class and hence their "show". During the past month the children have been practicing various routines during class and today we were able to see them put the pieces of their routine together. We didn't know what to expect and what happened totally blew Jamie & I away!

The "show" started with the kids hiding behind a gym mat while their coach "Mr. Brent" introduced them. Sebastian was the first child to be called. He came out from behind the mat, looked at everyone in attendance (we were all in the gym whereas usually we are outside of the gym looking in - yes, it's like a fishbowl!) and then waved to everyone and giggled as he took off running around the mat. He continued to run around the mat while the other children were called with a huge grin on his face. It was awesome!

Introducing....

The kids then came to sit with us and Mr. Brent asked who wanted to be the first one to show off their routine. Lo and behold Sebastian put his hand up and jumped right up to the mat! He remembered the whole routine from the steps, forward roll, monkey kick and donkey kick. I was so proud of him and more importantly it was clear to see how proud Sebastian was of himself!

The whole time Sebastian volunteered to go first, although we did encourage him to sit and let other children go first. He excelled on every apparatus and showed off for his daddy when he hung from the very top of the uneven bars.

This was a side of Sebastian we had never quite seen before. We have always known he was a pretty cool kid but it was his level of confidence that amazed us.

And since Sebastian might not remember this day I wanted to let him know just how proud we truly are of him. Even if he didn't remember the routine and didn't want to be in the limelight we'd still be proud! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful son with such a unique and wonderful spirit!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Jamie - I admire so many things about you, your work, your many accomplishments, the things you value... But one of the things I love the most about you is how terrific you are as a dad. We are so lucky to have you!
Love Kim & Sebastian xoxoxo

And wishing all the Dad's our there a wonderful Father's Day!!

Then & Now

Definitely not the most attractive of pics, and of course I'm not talking about Sebastian, but I just had to share. The first pic was taken on Dec 28, 2006 when Seb was just over 3 months old and the second pic was taken yesterday. Needless to say, neither was posed. He may not look too much like me, but he sleeps like me!

Frog Pond!

About two weeks ago now I decided to be adventurous and go on a trek with Sebastian on his new balancing bike. The bike isn't too new per se, as we purchased it around Easter time, but he's been slow to taking a liking to it since it's so much easier for him to push along on his tricycle. However, as I've been encouraging his use of the bike I decided it would be neat to go for a long walk to the mailbox, which entails just walking along the path behind the houses on the next street over.

Anyways, it was quite the adventure. As there's a downhill leading on to the path Sebastian dismounted his bike and started skipping merrily along until he landed flat on his face! Luckily he didn't hit his head and with some kleenex and a water bottle I was able to wipe up the blood. He now has two skinned knees and an elbow and I thought for sure he'd just want to come right home, but I was pleasantly surprised when he said no. So we continued on our journey to the mailbox with an hour's break at the pond enjoying the frogs (and a turtle that we spotted).

It was a great morning, hot but not too hot, and I thought I'd take the moment to share some of the pics as well as a video of Sebastian saying hello to a frog that I thought was pretty cute/funny.