We just got back from a 2 week vacation in beautiful Muskoka. The weather was kind of chilly for the first week, but it was just glorious for the second when we had our friends and their 4 girls join us. Seven girls aged 4 to 10! They were all in heaven!
We did a lot of the usual cottage things like roasting marshmallows.
Cliff jumping.
Catching frogs and tadpoles.
Kayaking, canoeing, boating, tubing... But most of all our girls liked the freedom they had of doing whatever they wanted, and roaming around the property as they pleased. It was really eye-opening for me to hear this from our oldest daughter and I completely understand. In the city, their lives are so scheduled and organized and monitored.
The water around our cottage is very shallow as well, so it is perfect for little kids.
This next picture makes me laugh a bit, because our cottage is in an area of extremely wealthy people. Most of the boathouses are bigger than our entire cottage--no joke! But you can't even see our cottage from the lake! And our dock is smaller than most people's boats.
My parents bought the place in 1972 from the daughter of the original owner. The cottage was originally built in the late 1800's. When I was growing up, there were very few cottages in the area. Now there are mansions popping up all over the place.
This is one of my favourites that can be seen right from our beach. Amazing, isn't it?!
While we were sitting by the fire at sunset, we noticed the cottage had golden windows just like a story that I read to my 5 year old. She loved it! It sure is beautiful.
Although I didn't get up to any projects while we were there, we did manage to dismantle the old dock (we built a new one last spring).
I thought I could re-use the old dock boards somehow in the Bennett House. A headboard came to mind, or a coffee table. But I think we're going to try and make light boxes out of them instead. Hopefully it works out.
I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer!
As much as we enjoyed our two weeks away, it's also good to be back.
Great idea to recycle the old dock boards. I can't wait to see those light boxes. I have to ask, what's cooking in the tin foil on the camp fire?
ReplyDeleteS'mores! Actually the tin foil method didn't work out too well-- the Graham crackers burned. My friend came up with a much better method of putting a roasted marshmallow in between two Digestive cookies (with the chocolate already on one side). The kids loved them, but I'm more into small town bakery pies myself.
DeleteHmmmm, I never tried toasting the crackers before. I've always done it the way your friend suggested. I toast the marhsmallow to where it almost drips off the stick. Then i squish it between the untoasted graham crackers and a piece of solid chocolate. The heat from the marshmallow melts the chocolate and glues it all together. I think i may have to do some experimenting this weekend!
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