My wake up calls this morning consisted of Huffle shouting at the kids not to wake the rest of the house (that didn't work) and Grandma doing her incredibly loud dramatic violent sneezes. Thanks for that then.
Everyone was up, showered and breakfasting fairly early today as we were off to Toronto again for the third Saturday in a row. This time it was to the Islands to celebrate Small's birthday (his real birthday is not till Wednesday but we wanted to get something in while G&G were still here - they leave tomorrow).
We took two cars (Huffle, Small, Grandma in the shiny car and me, Grandad and Smallest in my car) and managed to leave by 9:30am which is good going by our standards. The journey in was incredibly smooth and trouble free. No hold ups on the DVP like normal and apart from one of the roads being closed we did very well. Parking was cheaper than normal so that was good and a short walk up to the harbour and a not too long wait for the ferry across to the Islands.
The ferry wasn't too busy either and the sun shining beautifully. It was like a proper Summer day. We started on Centre Island and walked to the bike hire place and hired a Quadracycle and a Duocycle. Huffle and I pedalled the Quadracycle with Grandma in the back and Smallest not happy because he couldn't reach the pedals. We tried many positions but in the end he was in the middle of Huffle and I. It was really hard work and heavy going and Small and Grandad were far in the lead on the way to Wards Island. We stopped for photos and rests and a quick climb on the park and then again on Wards Island where the residents live. Grandma, Small and I had a walk around some of the houses while the others rested and looked out to the Toronto skyline.
After a meander along a few residential streets we got back on our bikes and cycled back to Centre Island. this time Grandad and I were on the Duocycle with Smallest between us. Of course, instead of taking it easy and enjoying the cycle, we raced each other back to the hire place. We had the bikes for a gruelling hard hour and were shattered when we finished. We dropped a phone and a hat on the way and spoke to a strange boy who lived there who when I asked what it was like living on the island said "see you later".
Eventually we decided on the perfect picnic spot (we had taken our huge cool box on wheels with us) and moved a table into the shade, we sat down with our party plates and napkins and gave Small a few little presents. He had a bicycle bell (at which point we thought he might guess he was getting a new bike but he said nothing) and a pack of stick on moustaches. The boys chose their moustaches and we ate some of our picnic. We didn't invite the wasps but nevertheless they were very keen to join in. We moved away and walked on to the pier.
Next we walked along the path and to a climbing tree and a beach. The boys obviously climbed the tree and threw pine cones at each other. Grandma and Huffle sat in the shade on a log and Grandad and I went on the beach. Grandad went paddling in the water and cooled his ankles in the lake. I sat on the sand and sunned myself. It was just lovely. We sang Happy Birthday to Small and ate some cake. We had brought candles but no matches and we couldn't find one person smoking (that's unusual) so there was no blowing out of candles today.
While Huffle played catch the pine cone with the kids, I walked to see how far away the lighthouse was, but it was too far so we walked back and went to Centreville (theme park). We bought the boys a wristband each and let them run round as mad as they wanted to going on everything at high speed.
They started with the Ferris wheel, log flume and scrambler. Smallest has always wanted to go on the Bumper Cars (dodgems to us Brits) but has never been tall enough. This year he was tall enough but his legs weren't quite long enough so he was disappointed. They went on the new roller coaster which Smallest said was the BEST THING EVER and then he went on the Frog Hopper (Smallest was on this with a load of girls and they all squealed much to Smallest's dismay!). They both went on the Tug Boat but didn't look too enamoured (they may have outgrown this one) and then back on the Bumper Cars. Because there went many people they went on this for another five times in the same car together. They had a lot of fun. Eventually we got them off and they had a few more goes on the log flume. Somehow they got back on the Bumper Cars and ended up on there until the park closed. They were bumping with Kenny Rogers, Roger, Roger's Lady friend, the bumpy boys and one of the staff. It was very funny.
Back to the ferry we were packed in the cages ready to board the ferry but just as Huffle and Grandad got to the front of the queue, they closed the gate. We only had to wait fifteen minutes but we couldn't move anywhere. On the ferry, the sun was starting to set and the skyline looked amazing.
It was late and the boys were tired and hungry so we went for food in an Irish Pub. We should have known better but the one we wanted was packed and we would have waited to be seated for ages. Our waitress was rubbish and slow and couldn't find any kids menus. I ended up speaking to a chef to find out what the meals were. We waited ages and then finally got our food except they forgot Grandmas and when hers did come out (because we complained) it was cold and greasy. They took her meal off the bill and we walked back to the cars.
Again, apart from the road being closed and having to do a detour, our journey back was stress free and easy. The boys went straight to bed and we sat and had a cuppa and a catch up of the Ryder Cup and Baseball.
What a lovely day.
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1 comment:
Nice moustaches!!
xxx
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