Nana in Nova Scotia

We returned from Keji on Thursday, happy but tired, to a house that hadn’t been lived in in weeks and was full of laundry. Thank god for wonderful neighbours who notice you’re away and take out your garbage, otherwise we’d have been in really bad shape. Matt was back to work the following Monday, so we were busy getting back to base before that. 

I got to experience what August would be like from Monday-Wednesday, while Matt resumed work after a joyously long paternity leave, and my mom arrived to help fill the gap on Wednesday. It was a bit rough as everyone adjusted to our “new normal”. 

Thankfully, Nana arrived to save the day, and helped us transition to life back home and one parent back to work. 

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Camping in Kejimkujik

Don’t ask me how to pronounce it. I don’t know. I just say Keji but even that I pronounce differently each time. I may not know how to say it, but we went there, and it was beautiful!

Now let’s go back. Back to FEBRUARY, which is when we had to line up (virtually) to get these reservations for the middle of the week in July. Wow, how camping has certainly changed in the last few years. The days of rocking up day of, and getting a site, are long gone.

View from the deck of the oTENTik at Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia, Canada
The view from our porch

My friends and I agreed that renting the oTENTik’s there would be a good camping compromise (we aren’t all campers, and we all have young kids) but they are quite popular, so the second the website opened for bookings we were all in que to reserve our spot. Despite refreshing the page the second the bookings opened up, we were all still 3,000-something in line. But we managed! And 5 months later, and only a few days after our Cape Breton Summer, we were off…

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The Red Harbour House

Well, it certainly feels like we are full swing into summer mode already! With another month behind us, May blessed us with some beautiful weather and lovely adventures. In terms of outside time, our goal (as always) was to beat last years numbers. Last May we racked up 93.5 hours and this May we did almost 96… So close to 100!

We were treated to a lovely vacation at an AirBNB called Red Harbour House in Lower Ship Harbour by my father in law who was visiting for a week. It was nice to get out of our house and enjoy the water and just experience a change of pace. We all know the end of winter seems to drag on…

red harbour house vacation home airbnb in nova scotia

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Mother’s Day 2024

Continuing with our tradition (which we started last year haha) we spent Mother’s Day weekend visiting some local nurseries in the Annapolis Valley so I could get all my plants for the season. I actually really enjoy this, despite the boys being a bit more rambunctious this year, which made for a slightly less relaxing, browsing, chilling type experience and more of a “slow down!” and “No running!” type of experience. Maybe because it was Mother’s Day, or maybe it is because we live amongst such lovely east coast personalities, but everyone is always so kind and forgiving to us, whenever we go with our wild children. 

The three nurseries we went to this year were: Summerland Nursery in Wilmont, Briar Patch Farm & Nursery in South Berwick, and Glad Gardens Family Farm Market & Greenhouses in Waterville. (The last two are only minutes apart on Hwy 1.) 

Two young kids run through the path in the gardens at Summerland nursery in Wilmont, Nova Scotia
the gardens at Summerland Nursery

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A Stop in Paradise

Springtime in the Annapolis Valley! Is there anything better than seeing the sun shinning warmly after all these winter months? Spring is definitely in the air these last few days, and we have been taking full advantage. It’s been an absolute delight to be able to be outside more (we’ve done between 3-5 hours a day every day this week) and the kids are certainly reaping the benefits. Slightly later bedtimes have led to better sleeps and sleep ins, which I hesitate to even write lest I jinx it. Sure, we had (what I hope to be) one last illness take over the household – but it’s behind us, lingering coughs aside, now, and we are only looking ahead! Onward!

With the warmer weather comes one of the great East Coast Living Perks: the opening of the fish stands.

Pearle’s in Paradise roadside food stand

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An Afternoon Trip to Point Pleasant Park

We had a great afternoon this past Saturday with our friends at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax. After a bit of a cold got the boys of the household down for a few days and what I thought was (going to develop into) mastitis knocked me out for 24 hours, we were desperate to get out of the house and refresh ourselves with a social visit and some outside time with a few of our favourite people.

Adults and children entering Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, NS

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Fall Farm Visits

Who doesn’t love a few trips to the local farms this time of year? Despite being 40 weeks pregnant, I managed to attend ONE of the classic fall activities – pumpkin picking – despite my reluctance to move from my bed. After birth, we loaded up the mini van and managed another short visit to a different farm with all three kiddos for some outdoor time. Here’s what we got up to for some fall activities in the Annapolis Valley.

kid in pumpkin patch at spurr brother farms

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Friday with Friends

We randomly had an eventful Friday yesterday. We started this morning as we usually do – a garden stroll, as I affectionately call our walk to the side of the house where we have small raised garden bed. The boys did their morning pick of the ripest tomatoes and we checked in on our pumpkin vine. We have an abundance of cherry tomatoes so we decided to try our hand at making a cherry tomato jam. We used this recipe. BB2 was excited to help, by picking the stems off the tomatoes before adding them to the pot.

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