During Dennis’s visit for Fitz’s first day of school we also took in the air show. Two of Fitz’s four great-grandfathers were in the air force for World War II and Dennis grew up on a few military bases due to his dad being transferred on occasion. We also visited the train museum at the base of the CN Tower where Fitz became fascinated with the salmon art in the fountain.
We walked Fitz to his first day of kindergarten at Howard PS. He was excited and showed only a little bit of trepidation. Luckily, he’s in the same class and after-care with Emmett, which made the transition easy. Dennis stayed in town over the weekend and was able to join us.
We held Fitz’s birthday at the High Park splash pad. There’s so much space to run around and be wild.
ABOVE: Callum, Fitz, Avery
ABOVE & BELOW: Max, Fitz, Callum, Eli, Wesley, Avery
ABOVE: I refer to this photo as their Beastie Boys band shot.
ABOVE & BELOW: At the Air Show down by the lake.
During the second last week of August, we rented a cottage in Tobermory with our friends Michelle and Greg and their kids Eli and Hannah. We absolutely loved the place and found endless things to do.
ABOVE & BELOW: Carly and Fitz out in the “Police Kayak”
ABOVE & BELOW: We took a boat and walking tour of Flowerpot Island on the day of the solar eclipse.
ABOVE & BELOW: We got lucky by having some cloud cover during the eclipse — it made it easier to look up at within just a single pair of sunglasses. I took these photos hand-held.
ABOVE & BELOW: Near the end of the week, we took the ferry to Manitoulin Island and visited Bridal Veil Falls and the trail that runs beside the it’s river that drains into Lake Kagawong.
ABOVE & BELOW: The trail was quite charming; we saw lots of fairy doors installed in the nooks of trees and an art installation of metallic family of deer that the kids could crawl all over.
For the civic holiday weekend, we went back to Ottawa for a visit. We took Fitz and cousin Jack to Moody’s Bay to play in the Rideau River and nearly park.
Dennis decided to get a lot of fireworks. We set them off in a park down by the Rideau, just a block away from from the house of Carly’s Uncle Michael.
ABOVE: Luke, Carly & Fitz, Jack, little Jack, Donna, Bela, Noel, Leslie & Maggie, Michael.
Fitz’s daycare, Studio 123, hosts a very charming graduation for the kids heading off to kindergarten.
ABOVE: Arani, Fitz, Abigail, Leo, Rayella, ?, Zelda, Eva, Max
 
ABOVE & BELOW: After the ceremony the daycare hosted a reception in the courtyard.
ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz and Callum
ABOVE: callum’s paparazzi
ABOVE: Fitz and Eli
Up to no good.
 
ABOVE: Sarah and Max, Abigail’s mom and brother
ABOVE & BELOW: baby Hannah, Eli’s sister
ABOVE & BELOW: Callum hosted his birthday party at the Woodbine pool and park. Fitz is still trepidatious in the pool but seems to enjoy the trill of it.
ABOVE & BELOW: Matt’s friend Ken brought his family back to Toronto for a short vacation which meant Fitz got to spend time with his other friend named Kallum (he’s referred to as Kalifornia Kallum to keep everyone straight). Ken is a lover of design so it made sense to take all of them to Grange Park.
ABOVE & BELOW: We are trying to be a little more adventurous with Fitz on weekends, so we devised a trip out to the Hamilton region to explore the myriad of waterfalls that line the Niagara Escarpment. We hit up Webster’s Falls and Tews Falls, both of which were more spectacular than we imagined.
Webster’s Falls
ABOVE & BELOW: There was a viewing deck at Tews Falls with an amazing looping branch that Fitz thought would be great to climb all over. If he had his druthers, we would’ve spent the entire trip on this branch.
Tews Falls
ABOVE & BELOW: The Canada Day long weekend, like most of the weekends this summer, was a wet one. Fitz got to spend a lot of time splashing in puddles and running around the nearby park.
ABOVE: As the weekend progressed, it became clear that Fitz was fighting off something which manifested in a fever. He was up and down as the Advil broke the fever.
ABOVE: As usual, Fitzy requested we see Eli on the weekend so we arranged a visit to the castle park in High Park.
ABOVE & BELOW: Emmett has been in Vermont for a lot of the summer so we’ve barely had time to see him. Luckily, we were able to arrange an after-daycare visit to the wading pool around the corner from our place.
ABOVE & BELOW: Grange Park, behind the AGO, was recently renovated so we took Fitz to explore the new play structures and the relocated Henry Moore sculpture.
ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz and Matt spent some time walking the Humber River with the company of wee Eli.
ABOVE & BELOW: We took Fitz to the Ribfest and midway just north of the city and he got to ride on things he never had for the first time.
ABOVE: This was the first ride he took all by himself and he had this look on his face the whole time. It was a combo of “is this supposed to be fun? Should I be scared?”
We spent a lot of time driving back and forth between Toronto and Ottawa in May. But it allowed Fitz to spend time with his cousins Jack and Maggie at the Experimental Farm.
ABOVE & BELOW: Fitzy has taken a great interest in watering plants. He spends about half his outdoor time watering and refilling his can.
