A Glorious Long Weekend!

The weather for May has been ah-ma-zing!!!  The long weekend was no exception and Hannah and I enjoyed spending as much of it outdoors as we could!  Saturday was a picnic with Hannah’s best friend Ben and his mommy. 
(The friendship these two share warms my heart!  They love, love, love to be together and even though we live more an an hour apart from one another we still see one another often.  We recently had a time when our two families were together 4 weekends in a row.  Yay!  On the 5th weekend I asked Hannah what she wanted to do for something special and she immediately shouted with a huge smile, ‘Go to Ben’s house!!  Love that.) 
We went to a local conservation area with the plan of enjoying a picnic lunch together, running and playing fun in the big open space and then finally beach time playing in the sand.  On the way there the kids heard us say, ‘beach’ and they immediately began to cheer and yell, ‘Yay!  Swimming!’  We quickly told them that we’d have fun in the sand but would not be going in the water.  It’s only May and the water would be freezing! 
After eating the kids enjoyed running around and we chased them a bit.  A tickle fest ensued and it was giggles for everyone!!
As you can see, with the exception of one other family a ways off, we had this entire picnic area to ourselves and it was perfect!  Lots of room for the kids to explore and have fun!
‘I’m ready to catch the ball Ben!’
Ben’s daddy had bought some cool glider style planes for the kids and we all had a ton of fun playing with them.
Bubbles are always a hit.

It was the perfect opportunity to grab some pictures of Mommy and her girl together!
My little love and I.  Yes, no better way to spend a day!!
You may remember from the beginning of the post about our beach chat and how it would be sand play only.  After the picnic we hopped into the car and made our way to the beach area while reminding them that this was not a water time.  We unloaded kiddos and toys and Hannah, Ben and Auntie headed towards the beach while I finished something up at the car.  I was about 3 mins behind them and I laughed so hard when I arrived at the beach and saw this:
LOL!!  Auntie quickly confided that it was far too hot on the beach not to go into the water.  I asked her how her humble pie was tasting as I knew I’d be eating my share soon too!  Heh!!  The temperature on the beach was 30oC which is pushing 86oF.  Yup….definitely water weather!  We were shocked at how crowded the beach was and how many people were in the water.  This is about 6 weeks earlier than most of us even consider going into the water as 6 weeks earlier this lake would still have bits of ice floating on it!

And, what better way to end a day of picnic and beach fun than with ice cream?

Hannah and I spent the night at our home-away-from-home, Ben’s house and then Sunday afternoon hopped in the car and headed 3 hours north to Nana and Papa’s trailer.  The long weekend fun was continuing!  (By this point in the weekend the battery in my camera was toast so these pics were taken with my iPod Touch.)
Once again the weather, especially for nothern Ontario was ah-ma-zing!  As we arrived the thermostat was reading even higher than the day before at 33oC/91oF…in mid MAY!!!  We unpacked the car, changed and headed to the beach!  Heh…twice in one weekend!  Tor Tor was at the trailer for the weekend too and she was happy to play in the water with Hannah.

We stayed with Nana and Papa overnight enjoying quiet family times together and it was perfect! 


Monday was a day outdoors with beautiful walks buy by then the camera was away.
It was one of those weekends that felt like we’d had a real rest and enjoyed so much time together as well as with family.  Add the glorious weather to that and well, we couldn’t ask for more!