Oh No, not that time of year again

So there it is, 42.  I won't dwell on it, just a couple of happy birthdays going out to Miranda Hart, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bubbles and all the other people with birthdays around this time.  They may look better than me but I bet they didn't have such an exciting weekend!  In fact, it was so exciting that I only took 3 photos.

On Saturday (after I took everyone to brunch and had the single worst dining experience I've had since we arrived in Canada) we went off to Hamilton to look around Dundurn Castle.  When it was built in the 1830s Dundurn Castle was the largest house in Western Canada, or what is now Ontario and I think that the single most interesting thing was how small it is, you could have fitted the entire house including the servants quarters into one of the larger ballrooms/assembly rooms in Blenheim Palace.  It was lovely and rather grand but small enough that you could imagine living in it.

Anyway, I forgot to remove my camera from my bag until we got to the military museum where Rose had a little sleep in a campaign tent.

And Jacob showed remarkable natural aptitude for playing the accordian, must be his gypsy blood.

We also took in an Art Quilt exhibition which I'd already visited and had dinner in Shoeless Joe's, which was considerably better than brunch, and ate delicious store bought cake.  Hurray for a day of no cooking - here's to many more.

On Sunday we went to Oakville to visit Lakeside Park on the historic waterfront.  It was the most perfect, quiet, hazy September morning, not even any traffic noise and standing with you back to the historic buildings looking out at the Toronto skyline was beautiful.  I didn't bother trying, my camera wouldn't have captured it.

On the way home we called in at the 50 Shades of Black exhibition which Rose and I loved and the boys were not the least impressed by.  It was 50 antique black dresses from around Ontario and Rose got so excited that she went on a bit of an overdrive and didn't calm down for hours.  Here she is with her favorite collection.  It's no surprise that she chose the sparkly ones.