Canada Day and recent fun :)

I may have mentioned this before, but I'll say it again: I *LOVE* Canada Day. I am so proud to be Canadian, and I love celebrating our country. There are usually a lot of fun, free, festive events going on for Canada Day and while I love partaking in them, this year we had a bit of a more low-key day. Since it didn't end up being a "long weekend" for us as Brian worked on Monday June 30 and had July 1 off, we took it easy and got some things done around the house. We are having a bit of a heat wave right now (30+ degrees and SO humid) so it has been a bit hard on the girls. Lucy particularly minds the heat and it is a bit hard to cool her off and feed her successfully, but she has been OK. They're forecasting a hurricane this weekend so that might cool things off a bit ;)

For Canada Day, friends of ours hosted a big BBQ and there were lots of fun people there, including some nice little girls for Molly to play with as well as a kitty AND a puppy and many people to hold our precious little baby too ;) Before the BBQ, Molly just played outside in her new pool all morning ($20 at Target, amazing deal) ;)

So this week I'd like to share some of my favourite Canadian "things".

First of all, here are some of my favourite Canadian bloggers:

Haley at Truth be Told
Alex at She's his Co-Pilot
Tracey at Just a Trace (she has a few amazing series on her blog)
Melissa at Making Melissa
Renee at So Fill your Heart
Laura at Mommy Miracles (a real-life friend ;))

Some of my favourite Canadian songs/musicians:

1) Cape Breton musicians (I am grouping this because I have many favourites including Natalie MacMaster, The Rankins, The Barra MacNeils, Ashley MacIsaac, Beolach, Coig, Slainte Mhath, etc etc) but here are two of my favourite songs: Clumsy Lover Set and Feel the Same way too
2) Joel Plaskett (favourite song Face of the Earth, close second Nowhere with You and best Canadian song True Patriot Love)
3) Blue Rodeo (Head over Heels)
4) The Tragically Hip (Fireworks)
5) Great Big Sea (Ordinary Day)
6) Arcade Fire (Wake Up)
7) Barenaked Ladies (Falling for the First Time)
8) Sarah McLachlan (World on Fire)
9) For Molly - Raffi (Baby Beluga)
10) The Arkells :)

Some of my recommended Canadian tourist destinations (that I've checked out before):
1) Banff National Park (less than an hour from my hometown of Calgary)
2) Calgary (particulary during Stampede which starts today!)
3) Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
4) Niagara Falls (might be a bit obvious but SO amazing)

5) Vancouver Island (right Haley?) - SO beautiful
6) Quebec City / Old Quebec / Montreal
7)  Halifax (because I am here, of course) haha
8) St. John's - visited once for 5 days and fell in love with Newfoundland
9) PEI - a small but beautiful province
10) Interior BC - love this area around the Okanagan
and 11) Ottawa - I almost moved here before I met Brian and I love the city

Some great links I saw around the web this week for Canada Day:

1) Chris Hadfield and his brother's Canadian music video
2)  100 Great Canadian songs
3) Canada Day 2014 in Photos
4) Things you can only buy in Canada

And this video of a puppy trying to see a new baby is also hilarious :)

I'll be back soon to share some of our fun recent toddler activities - I thought about including it here but I think a full post is in order for that :)

Happy belated Canada Day, everyone!! XO