This happened the weekend of August 8th and though I would generally would have tried to get this out the following week, that obviously didn’t happen. So indulge me while I try my best to recount everything that happened that weekend.
August 8th is one of our nephews’ birthday, so we always make the effort to attend and hopefully make it special for them. He was turning three, the second oldest on my husband’s side of the family. Since he is one of two summer babies in the family, we had a pool party!
My husband’s brother and wife had rented out someone’s backyard with the pool and I can honestly say, it looked like paradise! It was a salt water pool (my favorite to be honest), not too big but the perfect size and depth and Valeria was SO excited to just jump in as soon as she laid eyes on it. Thankfully, I had her bathing suit on under her dress, so all she needed was her floaties. It didn’t take us long before the three of us were in the water, which we would remain 95% of the entire party/day. They had the pool from 11 AM – 6 PM, so a whole day swimming, lounging and having fun.
When I say that Valeria is a fish out of water, it’s no exaggeration. She had no desire to come out of the water and she got comfortable almost immediately. Obviously we didn’t leave her alone, so don’t come after me, but my husband and I want to instill the fact that she doesn’t need to be scared of being in water and not to panic. She would float around and kick her legs, eventually she was quick dipping her face in the water as well. It was fantastic.
The pool party was fun for the kids, lots of food, delicious cake (from what I smelled, it seemed it however I did not partake in the cake) from what I heard, incredible gifts for him and just an all around good time. Just a few minor hiccups, but do you expect anything less with kiddos?! Grumpy Valeria from a lack of a nap (which we managed to peel her away long enough to get her a 45 minute nap on our picnic blanket) and the newest addition getting a bit overheated from the hot weather that day (poor little guy *sad face*). All in all though, great time with the family.
Saturday we were going to attend the Niagara Falls Peach Festival with my mother-in-law, but we opted not to attend. Why? Well, we figured because it was Saturday it would be overcrowded and overpriced as it started the day before. Plus, I don’t do well in large crowds on a good day and I didn’t want the potential of Valeria getting sick from the massive crowd that was probably going to attend that day. So we decided to stick close to home; doing some errands (my husband needed some documents to apply for his Romanian citizenship and I needed to run to the craft store), then we went to a gelato shop and Italian Bakery. I found the bakery two years ago, which is called Castelli Mercato, which is to DIE for. But now they also have a gelato shop next to it called Capri Gelato. I didn’t have any, but man I wanted to! My mother-in-law got hazelnut and pomegranate gelato and Anthony and Valeria got Pistachio. All of the gelato is made in house which is incredible. Valeria was a BIG fan and she kept trying to take from her Buni’s gelato, which she was successful. We went into the bakery afterward and picked up some things and a sweet treat for my husband’s sister and husband.
Once we were done at the bakery we headed over to my sister-in-law’s house to go for a bit of a walk with them and the baby. He is 2 months already and man time is flying! He’s such a cutie and growing like a weed. He took a walk to the park, which was perfect because it had a splash pad and playground with swings for Valeria. We had to keep an eye on the people walking their dogs without leashes, which I don’t agree with when it comes to public areas with young children. But that’s just me! We stayed for a bit so Valeria could play in the water and sit on the swing the remainder of the time while we sat around chatting. It was really nice to spend time with them.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet, we went back to the apartment and had some dinner, ran to the grocery store quickly, played with Valeria and then it was bedtime for her and Buni. My mother-in-law had work early the next day, so she headed to bed early as well.
Sunday, my husband helped his brother to move things from his place to the apartment. They were going to be moving into my mother-in-law’s apartment for a while. I stayed back with Valeria, which worked out because she had to nap at around 11:30 AM-12 PM. She slept quite a bit and the guys got back to the apartment to move everything in about 15 minutes after she woke up. Can we say good timing or what?!
Once they finished, we were heading back home. I made sure everything was packed up and ready to go, which meant just bringing everything to the car, gas up and hit the road. The drive home was quiet, not much traffic and we made it back quickly. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing and thankfully Anthony picked up a salad and store made rotisserie chicken, so I didn’t have to cook that night. Yay!
All in all a very busy weekend, but a good one! Though I will admit it will be nice to have a few weekends at home.
But I hope you enjoyed and I hope you have a wonderful day or night wherever you are in the world!
Ciao!!
Mama on the Move 