Fun Weekend

We had a fun and relaxing, albeit busy, weekend.  Saturday the whole family (Echo included) walked to uptown Waterloo (about a 15-20 minute walk) after breakfast to do a little shopping for dinner and pick up a few other things.  It was a cold, but nice day.  The kids were in our double Chariot and thankfully like to go in it.  Desmond isn't really big enough for it yet, but we have a "sling" attachment for him.  These also stay fairly warm in the cold weather as they block most of the wind.  Echo garnered a lot of attention, like he always does and was fairly well behaved!
When we got home, it was nap time, and then after that Mom came over for a visit and fish dinner (Yes, Marn had some and is trying to like it!)  Thankfully Violet really likes fish so far, so we're trying to get more of it into us. It was a nice visit and Violet really monopolized Mom's time... she played with her, read with her, Mom gave her a bath, brushed her teeth, put her to bed (or tried to)... Violet didn't want anything to do with her Mom or Dad, it was all about Grandma!

On Sunday morning we got up and headed out to Mountsburg Conservation area near Campbellville for a Maple Syrup Festival.  Chris and Carey and family were meeting us there.  Again, it was a nice and sunny day, but a little cold (which was good because if any warmer and it would have been very muddy!).  We didn't take Echo this time.  It wasn't as busy as we thought it would be which was great.  They had Maple Sugar samples, demonstrations with a little bit of the history, sold pancakes, had a horse carriage ride through the sugar bush, as well as a Birds of Prey show.  They only brought out a Turkey Vulture and an Owl, but I think in the summer time it's more of a show with other birds like Falcons, etc.  There wasn't a ton of stuff to do, but it was really fun and wasn't very expensive.  It was lower-key, there weren't huge lines and not a ton of people crowding around you... just our style!  We found out during the horse ride that they don't sell maple syrup at all, 100% of the syrup that they make goes to the pancakes that they sell, so that's really their only source of income.  She went on to say that they're not a big enough operation to sell it having only 400-500 trees.  Big operations in the north, or in Quebec might have 20,000 to 40,000 trees!

Lucky day, the sap was flowing!

Forgot to get a picture of Desmond (actually, forgot our camera.  These are cell phone pics), but he was in a carrier between Marn and Me all day.

When we got home and after late naps, we made Calzones for dinner, then Marn left for Book Club.  Desmond went down for the night at 7:15 pm, and Violet and I watched a movie; Sleeping Beauty, her favourite! "It's just a little bit scary, but not really. It's just a movie".  It's incredible how much she likes and mimics "princesses".  When she dances to music she holds her dress (if wearing one which is often) out with one hand as she twirls around, just like Princess Aurora does, and she even says that she is, "just like Sleeping Beauty".  It's too cute.  If you're wondering why we started a movie so late (about 6:45 pm), it's because I didn't wake Violet up from her nap until about 5:30....  We had such a busy morning and she went down so late, that she NEEDED to have a decent sleep.  She's an absolute different child when she skips her nap. It's very odd seeing her act out and being malicious towards us and Desmond, screaming and crying at the drop of a pin... it's really incredible.  A complete 180° to her normal personality.