Wet and Wild Sunny Days Sort of Fun

The way I organize my summer is that I do my very best to fill Sam's social calendar with all his/my long lost friends and on the other days I send him to school to play with his best buddies.  So far we've been incredibly busy and having lots of fun adventures with great friends.

A park pirate!

Splish splashin' at the Airdrie spray park with our buddy Sawyer!  He sure is brave for a baby in COLD water!

Sam waited and waited and waited for this to dump on his head!

Maybe the idea of the big splash was more fun that the actual water...

Baby Sawyer hardly a baby anymore... busy busy bee came for a nap and backyard play.  Needed a quick pic of these three pals all together!

On a different day this summer we invited some of the local ladies over for a pool party.  Lots of water guns, sprinkler trampolining and water sliding fun.  Oh and SNACKS!  Don't forget snacks!

Spencer heading into the cool watered kiddie pool.  I had to fill it twice with all the filling water guns and splashing!  Little bit too cold for our little buddy's liking!

Sammy and a herd of pretty ladies!  Not many pics were taken... the mommies were having so much fun chatting without having to intervene too often that we just enjoyed the sunshine, listening to all the giggles and some relaxed time together.

This summer has been so great and I'm only a couple weeks in... a parade, fireworks, 2 beach days, 1 splash park, a pool party, a birthday party, 2 hours of private gymnastics lessons (thanks Auntie Ang... that was awesome!), 2 awesome movie dates and a bunch of great visits with friends.  Summer 2013 has been just lovely so far!

Canada Day 2013

The Connolley's wore their red and white and headed down to the annual Canada Day parade in Airdrie.  We set out early to get a curb side spot (this is very important to me!) on foot, as parking can be a huge nightmare.  Turns out Canada Day was going to be a scorcher this year and we were a sweaty mess... a happy sweaty mess but still very sweaty!
It has also become sort of a tradition to spend this wonderful day celebrating with our dear friends the Gordays.  What's better than kids, BBQs, friends and fun... nothing!  

Our favorite parade spot is just down the curb from the Farrell family's favourite parade spot.  Sam with two of his buddies!

Spencer climbing up Shaun to get a better view of the street.  Happy first Canada Day Spencey! 

A couple of our favourite Canadians!

Beautiful boy, happy momma!

There was tons of fun to see at the parade.  It's actually a really great one with bands (though my fav local teenage band wasn't in it this year... WTH!) and horses and rodeo princesses and dogs and candy and tractors... allllll the good stuff.  Oh, and don't forget the shiners!  They had crazy little airplanes this year.  Sam waved and said Happy Canada Day to every single float/group that passed!

This puppy looped back around and snagged Sam and Logan from the crowd of kids for a hug.  He knows some cool kids when he sees them!

Our walk home took MUCH longer than we expected and our little man couldn't hold out.   Hot day and too much fun is definitely tiring!  It was ok to have a nap today since we had a fabulous play with the Gordays including some sprinkler under the trampoline fun.

Look at these two faces... am I the luckiest girl in the world or what!!!  We are patiently waiting for the fireworks to start.  Sam had a bunch of hilarious one liners while we waited... "I see some birds.  Maybe the fireworks will shoot out of their mouths."  "Look an airplane.  I think it's going to Banff."  He also had a couple glow in the dark bracelets that he was using to tell time.  Firework time that is.  Seems silly, but it was brilliant.

Beautiful.  Such a great show.  One of my very favourite things about Canada Day.

Just watching and loving it.  He told us it was "awesome".

Though I want to see many other places in this huge world of ours, I'm so glad that I call Canada home.  I feel blessed to live in a country of freedom and opportunity and that my child will never have to fight to attend school or struggle to get medical care.  A land of beautiful landscapes, sunshine and snow, Tim Hortons, peace and dreams.  Our true north strong and free...

It's a Parrrrrrrrty! Sammy Turned 3!

My handsome little pirate invited all his friends and family to a party in the gym of my school.  It was a blast, from set up to take down and turned out to be a huge hit.  Prepare yourself... there are a lot of photos!

(I took some of the shots myself, but I need to give some photo credit to my Auntie Bobbi, Kaysi and Lindsay F.  Thanks ladies!)

Pirate grub!  Everything from rainbow fishies to a pirate ship fruit bowl to enough hot dogs to choke a shark!

Uncle Blair doing last minute cupcake decorating... thanks sooooo much! 

Pirate garb!

One of the brilliantly pirate-ish decorations Yanna did for us.  LOVE IT!

Loot bags

Kicked off the party with some pirate colouring sheets.  Super easy way to ease the kids into being together.  They loved them and I printed them off the internet... easy!

Birthday boy with one of the million balloons we blew up... soooo many popped but we just started calling it cannon ball fire and no one cried anymore!

Having a little snack while watching our guests arrive.  I counted 15 kids and about 30 adults... what a loved little boy!

Payton walking the plank.

Sammy peeking over Payton in the ship wreck!

This shot looks way more dangerous than it actually was... Lincoln taking the fun to a new level!

Sam walked the plank and hopped fearlessly into the ocean!

Another quick bite.

Kaysi made the cutest birthday shirt for Sammy... we did a costume change and he was soooo excited for his new outfit!

Kids dipping into the pirate costumes... soooo funny!
Captain Lincoln

Silly Sammy

Kiley and her mustache

Pirate Peyton!

Avery looking very sophisticated.

Logan hiding behind her giant mustache.

ARRRRRRRRRR!

<3 

Pirate garb table... BIG HIT!

Even baby Serry, Auntie and (great) Granny got in on the fun!

Auntie Bobbi brought this great parrot... the perfect addition to a pirate party.  It looked very real, moved, winked and talked.  It even munched on Colten's finger!!!  (Love Caedon's face in the background!)

The Gorday girls checking out our parrot friend.

Pretty P(irate)

Happy little lass!

Photo booth (bought at the dollar store and it made for many funny moments, especially when kids fell over trying to poke their head in the hole... hahaha)

Mac loving the millions of balloons!

Sammy trying to buy Peyton's attention

Pin the Patch on the Pirate.

How cute is the back of Sam's birthday shirt... perfect!

The kids were soooo good.  They all took turns and watched each other.  Love these kids.

Sam and his lovely ladies... what a lucky boy to be surrounded by beautiful girls all day every day!

Hilarious and very awkward moment... ask me about it some time!

Next stop... pinata time!  We couldn't find anything pirate like for a pinata and we left it too late to make one.  So, the next best thing was a Nemo one.  We filled it with fruit snacks, BEAUTIFUL necklaces and gold coins.  It was soooo heavy!

A very captive audience waits patiently for their turn and for someone to break it!

Baby S (and Auntie) take a hilarious turn.  Tons of fun!

Sam up again.

Logan using all her muscles

Then, the moment everyone was waiting for, Lincoln steps up to bat.  He swings so hard it breaks off the string and lands on the floor.  With only 2 seconds of hesitation, he begins to beat a hole in it while it's laying on the ground.  Soooo funny.  Afterwards my Gramma told me "I had my money on that one!"  

Shaking the pirate booty (not mine!  The goodies inside!)

Quickly the kids gathered as much as they could hold.

Everyone found tons of things the liked!

Sam scored jewels and some snacks... perfect!

What little boy couldn't resist a beautiful girl with a chocolate coin kiss!

He's not at all excited about this situation!

All the kiddies waiting and waiting for cake.

Big blow!

Avery enjoyed her cupcake.  Nothing compliments the chef more than a little face just like that one!

Present opening time... probably the most intense part of the whole day for me.  I really did feel like these little pirates had invade my ship and were going to loot me.  Fortunately they were just trying to be sooo helpful for the world's slowest gift opener.  I'm thinking next year we won't open presents in front of our guests... is that ok to do or is it politically incorrect/

A hug for Yanna... our very special friend who not only helped decorate but helped us party too!

A very played out pirate heads home with all his new treasures.  He felt so special and so loved and unbelievably happy.  We truly have some of the most incredible people that have shared in Sam's life with us.  We love each one of you and are so grateful that you could come be with us on this day.  How in the world did my tiny little baby turn into a three year old.  Happy birthday my Sammy.