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!
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