Super Duper Late 1st Birthday post

I cannot believe how late I am on this.  Actually, I noticed I hadn't posted many of my kids birthday parties as of late, except for M's 5th, 2nd, and 1st.  I didn't post any of my son's birthdays!  WHAT?!  Well, besides the weeks in review I was doing at the time, but still.

Anyway, I need to post my daughter's first birthday, and so, I will do so!

 My kids helped me make a rainbow.  Aww!

 

 Rainbow cupcakes, and rainbows on cupcakes.

 

 The birthday cake... and inside...

 

 A rainbow!  Each layer is colored mostly with fruit rather than food coloring (except red and green... they needed extra coloring)

 

 Baby A just loves all the fun pillows in rainbow colors that we set in the living room.

 

 Mini cupcakes got a little rainbow cake treatment to them.  Did similar with the icing, sticking various colors into the tube before adding it on.  A swirl of colors!  LOVE.

 Another pic of the main table.  The pom poms were fun to make.  I just used whatever tissue paper we already had in the house.  And napkins.  I had red napkins.

 

 Rainbow jello!  YAY!  I got adorable mini spoons, too!

 

 The window with rainbow pom poms and a 'cloud'

 

 We made lemonade rather than the rainbow punch as I was thinking of.  It was so good!  The rainbow 'runner' is actually wrapping paper.  And the tablecloths are all reused from M's 5th birthday.  As for the cups/plates, I love Ikea's kids line.  Such fun rainbow colors!

 

 A rainbow smash cake!  A didn't know what to do with it and didn't really eat much.  I used sugarless 'icing' for the top.  I tried to keep the cake using date paste, honey, etc rather than sugar, but it was not easy.

 

Sigh... it is a lot of extra work to make a rainbow cake, but it is so cute!  I think all the food was eaten up, and I made a LOT.  The fruits and veggies were all gone!  Seriously!  I think that is fantastic!

In all, the cost was minimal.  I reused a lot of things from previous birthdays, bought posterboard for the rainbow for $1, the rainbow sour candies were $1, the decorations total cost was maybe $4 (for the cute cupcake holder she had her smash cake on, and the spoons/jello cups), and as for food... jello was $5-6 (and there was lots left over in a large bowl that I used for whatever didn't fit into the jello cups), whipping cream was $2, I had all the veggies/fruits/ingredients for cake already (I have no clue what the cost would come out to... $10?  Maybe?), gumballs and rainbow sprinkles for the cake was maybe $2... so total was about $25?  Dollarama had most of what I wanted, and I had a lot of the other stuff from M's birthday and among my various trays/dishes.

A, I cannot believe it has been so long... you are almost 18 months already, and I didn't post this until now.  I'm so sorry.  I love you so much!  You are my little squishy girl, I adore how you make this face at me whenever you do something 'big', like standing yourself up without using anything, and when you took three steps without holding onto anything today (for the first time!  Yay!).  You are so petite and easy to carry around that it is just so hard to let you do things on your own... but I think you like it that way!  You are such an easy going girl!  You love people, you love going places, and you adore your grandpas!  And you are always so excited when daddy comes inside!  You prefer him to put you to bed (probably bored of me after being with me all day).  You are already down to one nap per day!  You weigh 17.5lbs right now, and are 75cm tall! 

My little girl... I just love you so much!

A Day in the Life

So, I made a comic.  I wanted to post it here, but unfortunetly, blogger won't let me put it in for some reason.  So, I linked it to my Deviantart instead.  It is here.

(note: blogger is cooperating!  Yay!)

I haven't been on much to blog or anything as life has been super busy.

Yes... in this comic I am pregnant again.  We are expecting number 4 in January.  :)
Here is our 'facebook' announcement.

The 28 Days of February

So, last month I couldn't resist doing another '14 days of Valentine's'... but to keep my hubby guessing, I actually made it last all 28 days of February!  Most of the last two weeks were simpler things (what sorts of things can you do 27 of, right?), but they were a fun little extra to add a bit of love to the day.

 

And M was right in on it!  She was adding her own pictures and drawings next to mine for some of the days (or later on in the day when she'd get home from school). 

15 - 15 lanterns (I thought it was the lantern festival on the 15th, but it was the 14th... ah well).  This was fun.  On the lanterns I wrote the words to the song 'You Light up My Life'.
16 - 16 pieces of cake
17 - 17 things me and the kids love that he does.
18 - 18 conversation hearts.
19 - 19 sprinkles on two chocolate hearts surrounded by candy canes.  It was mint chocolate day.
20 - 20 strawberry marshmallows
21 - Zelda day today, so I gave him 21 rupees
22 - a coupon for a 22 minute massage.  Yes, I did in fact give him the massage.  :)
23 - 23 cinnamon hearts.
24 - 2 dozen mini cupcakes.  These were actually baked for the birthday party later in the week, but it was Canada's Cupcake day, so I couldn't resist.
25 - a birthday banner for our little girl with 25 pieces (yeah... I know... not really for him but I was running out of ideas, and it was her birthday on the 25th)
26 - a book of 26 letters.  Each page has an alphabet letter on it, and each note corresponds to the letter on that page.
27 - 27 rose petals.
28 - 28 mini dates in a jar.  These were fun.  Most of them involve no cash and can be done at home after the kids are in bed.

So there you have it!  28 days of Valentine's!  I hope this sparks some ideas for your own special someone.

I Love February

This year I couldn't help it, but I had to do another 14 days of Valentines.  Wanna see?

 

1. A calendar (under each date flap is a little saying, or a Bible verse, or something cute like that)
2. 2 Reese cups
3. 3 little words (used cookie cutters in a cantaloupe to make these for breakfast.  The kids got lots of hearts.  M loved those!)
4. Little bookmarks made using buttons and pennies glued to paperclips
5. 5 cheesy sayings using Star Wars figures holding Star Wars valentines
6. The sixth was maple syrup day.  As such, I made 6 heart pancakes (3 were blueberry and banana, and 3 were banana chocolate chip) for breakfast.  Now I remember why I don't do pancakes for breakfast on a school day.  It takes almost an hour just to cook the whole batch.
7.  I found how to make scratch cards (like lottery tickets) on pinterest and used that to make one with 7 hearts spelling my husbands name.  Under each heart is something I love about him that starts with the letter of his name.  Want to know how?  Print your card, then color the area you want to scratch off with white crayon as much as you can.  Mix 1 part dish soap with two parts acrylic paint and paint over it.  Done.
8.  HEART ATTACK!  I decorated the dining room with hearts.  LOTS of them.  And then we made pizza and I made them into heart shapes.  So much fun.  I think the kids loved this the most.
9.  9 gummy hearts being loaded onto a 'skid steer' by Han Solo Lego (with R2 helping)
10.  I made 10 pieces of fruit into a heart shape.  For breakfast again.
11.  This one was fun... and a lot of work.  I picked 11 songs that had some significance through our dating and married years together.  Basically, each song told a piece of our story, from when we were friends, through to now.  I didn't actually make a mix cd, but I sent him the youtube videos of each song, and listed them on a circular paper cut and put into a cd case.
12.  My favorite of the bunch, a year of dates.  12 bags, each containing one planned out date, for one date per month that is already planned!  Yay!
13.  A print of 1 Corinthians 13.  The love chapter.
14. A gift.  Wanna know what it was?  Two Star Wars figures, haha. 

Valentine's day wasn't without a bunch of fun to be had!  I had some fun with making lunch.  Used beets to color crepes and made it into a fun valentine's meal.  My daughter really wanted to wear her red tights to school, so on Thursday I made a Hello Kitty patch.  She loves them!  I did some marble painting with Bram while she was delivering valentines in school.  My dear husband brought me flowers (I love them!  They are a breath of spring in this cold winter), and made his own little setup with a heart vase, a coupon to get me a buildabear, plus a blind bag pony and a squishy pony, pony stickers, a bunch of Hershey's kisses, a hearts notepad (I ADORE stationary) and a chocolate rose (Funny story, when we were engaged he got me two chocolate roses for Valentines...11 years ago.  I still have them.  Yeah, I'm a bit sentimental like that).  And for supper we had lasagna, garlic bread, salad, all with candles and flowers on the table (the kids LOVED that).

Speaking of Valentines, here are some fun ones we made.

These crayon ones took a bit of work, but the kids helped me sort the crayons and remove all the paper bits before we chopped and melted them into hears.  They were apparently well received.  We only really had enough for the Kindergarten and preschool classes.  And their cousins, of course.

M is loving Valentine's day, too!  She's been making her own drawings for Valentines to give out all through this month, and with each gift I gave my dear husband, she had to give him something alongside it.  Such a sweetheart! 

Oh, and February isn't over yet...

What... I DID give him a CALENDAR for the first day... ;)

I LOVE hearts/Valentine's/February/crafts!  And there are two more fun days coming up this month... Zelda day and my baby's first birthday! 

Happy 2014

2013 is over.  2014 has begun.  How was your year?

December is always a hard month for me.  I love Christmas, but I set my expectations of myself far too high and end up stressing myself out.  I have two major projects that were to be Christmas gifts for my kiddos that never got finished.  The one is almost done, but the final coats of glaze (not really varnish... it doesn't act quite the same) are taking forever to dry (it DOES say slow drying finish... I just didn't realize it needed 24 hours or more.  It is STILL tacky).  The other... my pieces are cut to size, but it isn't assembled, and needs paint/varnish/finishes.  Ah well.  The kids will get gifts later into the year just for no reason, haha.

Does anyone else get the post Christmas blues?  I find Christmas comes so quickly, and passes without me having even realized it was here.  And then... done.  Over.  No more for another 364 days.  And my decorations are still up, even though half the lights have burned out on the tree, and the floor needs attention from the sweets that ended up there and weren't dutifully cleaned up in an instant.  And why mop when I still haven't taken down all the decorations that take up space on the floor?  I suppose I should do that tomorrow... it IS on my to-do list.

But it is fun.  The kids have a great time, and we have been working on learning about how it isn't about recieving presents.  In fact, leading up to Christmas, the kids did chores to earn a little pocket change they could spend on gifts for each other.  Dollarama to the rescue.  And they were so proud to give those gifts that they bought themselves! 

Our littlest member of the family now has her footprint immortalized in clay as ornaments, just like her older siblings had for their first Christmas.  I just finished (today... a bit late, but they'll be there for next year) my 2012 and 2013 family photo ornaments.  I made them this time.  I bought frame ornaments from 2008-2011, but couldn't find them last year or this year.  Ah well.  I like these ones.  Reusing old packaging is fun (especially when you add sparkles... everything is more fun with sparkles.  And mod podge).

Lately I've been feeling rather lazy.  I know I'm still doing things.  Looking at my scrapbooks, blogs, and my husband's facebook page, I'm doing lots of things, however I feel like I'm not getting anything done.  I know part of the problem is my high expectations of myself.  Another part is the facebook games I'm addicted to (darn that Candy Crush Saga...).  I've stopped 'caring' about many of the things I cared so much about only a year or so ago.  A clean house, up to date finances and bookwork, home cooked meals from scratch... I just don't want to do any of it.  I still do it, of course, but not as diligently.  Our house has dirty floors.  The dishes pile up until I can't bear to look at them anymore.  The meal planning hasn't been done for 6 weeks after having written it out diligently each week for well over 2 years (I finally wrote up a meal plan this week, and we haven't stuck to it at all, haha).  My husband has been making more meals than I care to admit.  And exercise... what is that, again?  My counters are piled high with unfinished projects, all of which I really want to work on but can't seem to get myself in gear to do.  Maybe if I make a list of the unfinished projects somewhere and not start on new ones until they are finished?  Or perhaps I need some kind of reward system.

Rewards.  What on earth would I give myself as a reward?

What would you do as a reward?

Anyway, this year I want to finish things.  I want to finally finish many of those projects I started.  I want to spend more time each day with the kids (and less on Candy Crush).  I want to go to bed earlier than midnight.  I want to feel something... something besides 'everything is useless'.  Because lately, I look at stuff and it is all just useless stuff.  I look at activities and they are all useless.  I look at what I do with my life, and it just seems pointless.  I need to find the point again.  I need to reconnect with God again.  Only He can give my life the meaning that I desire.  Not my kids.  Not my spouse.  Not my endless lists of tasks and projects.  God.

Still... those other things are nice to have, too.  ;)