We had a great weekend in Ian’s hometown of Bracebridge, in the Muskoka region, visiting friends and family, even though the weather wasn’t the greatest (a bit cloudy and cool).  Here are some photos if you’d like to see what we got up to.

We took Clara (who is now 2 years and 3 months old) to Kirby’s Beach, on Lake Muskoka, for a morning romp and swim. Yes, that’s me with a coffee in the lake, above. Priorities. Clara enjoyed playing with a beach ball in the warm, shallow water.

Saturday afternoon was spent visiting friends. Their 4-year old daughter has a Barbie Jeep (OMG I wanted one so bad when I was a kid) and she took Clara for rides around the yard. Clara tried to drive the Jeep herself, but couldn’t figure out the pedals.

On Sunday afternoon, Ian’s parents looked after Clara while we snuck out for a nice lunch on the patio at Windermere House. The views of Lake Rosseau are lovely, and lunch was yummy. Although our waiter did mistake Ian for a lady at first, because of his long hair!

Clara is totally fascinated with baby dolls right now, so we treated her to a new one at this great toy store in Bracebridge. She likes to “take care” of her baby dolls, feeding them, bathing them, tucking them in to bed, and pushing them around in a stroller. Someone told me it’s a developmental thing, and encourages kids to be more empathetic and caring. Or at least, that’s what I’m telling my inner feminist who is somewhat horrified that my daughter is obsessed with dolls.  It all balanced out this weekend though – after playing with her dolls for a while, Clara was happy to play on her grandfather’s tractor/lawn mower.

We drove back to the city early on Monday to beat some of the traffic. Clara doesn’t often schnooze in the car, but the weekend must have worn her out.

The final activity on the weekend was a family bike ride to Hideaway Park for some playground fun time. I snapped this pic of Clara and Ian on the swings, which I just love.

What did you do this weekend?