Birthday Party Catchups

 So I noticed that I haven't kept up with all the kiddos birthdays!  Yikes!  Anyway, here is a photo post of the parties I missed!

Bram turns 1 year

 Cookie and cake together!  Mmmmm.

 

 Pressies!

 

He LOVED his cake.  We did not get nearly as awesome 1st year cake pics with the girls.  ;)

 

 

M's 3rd (and her daddy's 33rd) Birthday

We had a combo Hello Kitty and Transformers birthday.  Made a kitty and an Optimus out of fondant.

 

 

Bram's Second Birthday

 He loves Mickey's Clubhouse.  So, I made a cake! 

 

 These little figures were part of his gift.  He still just adores these things!  He plays with them constantly!

 

 He just adored his cake.  Adored it!  He stood there and stared at it!

 

M's 4th Birthday

 She chose to do Minnie Mouse... actually, I think she was hoping for some figures of her own.  ;)

 

 We chose to keep it to one family coming over this time.  Made it so much easier on me.  And it was great.  The cupcakes were a hit.

 

 She just loved her Minnie cake.  Dressed as Minnie Mouse slightly as well.

Bram's 3rd Birthday

 Some of the 'cars' snacks.

 

The cake.  And the 'Rusteze' pop. 

He loved it!

 

Happy birthday, little man!

 

Bram's 4th Birthday

 He wanted Angry Birds this time.

 

So much fun!

 

 

It just amazes me how time is flying by!

 



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!