party

On Friday, Jan 17 we had Sam's party -- at an indoor playground... it was fantastic, but very busy that morning! I thought I was doing good by choosing a week-day-morning but it was just packed with little ones! Jason and I both drove in to this neighbouring City with children in each of our vehicles... we spent 1.5 hours playing here and three of the boys (Triplets) got picked up for their afternoon preschool class - , and then we went to McD's for lunch, gifts and cupcakes... (I asked them to be dressed in red so I could more easily keep track of them on the play structure)Sam was soooo happy and full of excitement!

make a wish

I just stumbled upon these 5 pictures I had in my picture folder, but hadn't put them in my July Folder - silly me; they are adorable and I have to share... they are compliments of Uncle Matt during his excursion with Gabi to Build-a-Bear...
Picking her bear: Ice Cream Bearwatching it get filled:making a wish for the heart before placing inside:then fluffing up her bear at the air-table (with Sam who brought his BAB along):Way too fun! When do I get my Build-a-Bear date?!

three

Ok, I'll backtrack a bit to July - Gabi turned 3! Oh man! We celebrated her birthday with my Family one afternoon and then I had a 'friends party' for her too another day. Dora was the theme this year. I was able to borrow a Dora Cake Pan from Lisa (THANK YOU!) and so I decided to make the shaped cake 2 times. The first time took me about 3 hours - yikes! The second time took a bit less time since I had some icings/colours already made and I had a better idea of what I was up against.and then it was now, finally, Gabi's turn to go to Build-a-Bear with Uncle Matt! Although we knew she wouldn't go alone with Matt, Sam went along for the company. Gabi came home with very cute "ice cream bear"THANK YOU Uncle Matt!

Later that week I had a party for Gabi's little 3-Year-Old Friends; it was such an easy party to do! I had 5 little girls plus Gabi and Elijah and Sam. 4 of the girls were dropped off and Isabella was accompanied by her Mom, Sara - who then gave me a hand! Thanks Sara! The girls were so quiet and obedient - we started at the table colouring a map I made with Balloon Forest, Lollipop Lane and Ice Cream Palace...then we played "pass the present" and I even read them 2 Dora Books...Gabi opened giftsand then we had cake:and then Dora-popsiclesand since it was a very hot week, I had the little pool all ready for the girls to dip inbackpack goody bags:it was a great party! Thanks for coming girls!

5 4 3 2 1, Blast Off

My Sammy is 4 now - they just keep getting older and older!
On January 3rd we had my Family over for waffles and cake in honor of my Dad's birthday and Sammy's birthday - And then a week later we had Sammy's "Little Einstein" party here with friends.
Little Einsteins is a cartoon put out by Disney - one of Sammy's favourite shows. It's a great show incorporating classical music and musical terms while traveling the world. Sammy is quite familiar with "the great sphinx" and "the eiffel tower" and "the space needle" to mention three... so until I get myself to a Michael's cake-decorating class, I think I am done with shaped cakes for now - hence this creation using our printer, stickers and a toy!Sam was very happy with the cake, and you know, so was I!I got the kids to make sugar cube 'pyramids' or towers, to incorporate some of the theme Little Einsteins - and I made a Great Pyramid 2D "pin the rocket on the pyramid"and of course, the pinataIt was a success! Here's to four fantastic years, my boy!

makenna turns one

On Saturday we went to Makenna's first birthday party! Sweet little thing is already one! Wow! She had a Halloween-type theme for her party - Dana did an amazing job of creating a great atmosphere and activities for the kids!
We were asked to wear Halloween colours - so my kids were all in orange and black and even some Halloween shirts!

Spread out around the house were stations for facepainting, decorating a Halloween House (gingerbread house), Halloween video and Halloween necklace making, shown here, Gabi and Aunt Katrina:And here's Makenna:

Mmmmm - cupcakes:Jessie:I even had this shirt that Lily could wear!Wish I got a picture of all 5 kids together. Elijah's shirt says "no questions, just put the candy in the bag"! We got it for super cheap after Halloween one year at Target. He usually wears it as PJs.
and yummy - a buffet of candy!

par-tay

On Saturday, Sept 26th we had Elijah's birthday party here. We had 9 children come (8 boys, and Alise!) and boy, we can tell they are a year older this year! Going from 5 to 6 years is a big jump and quite evident in how the children are more confident, excited and L-O-U-D! Jason wants to get a megaphone for next year's party!

We decided on a Lego Themed party and worked with Elijah's wishes of having different stations for the kids to go to in the backyard. Thankfully the weather was nice so we came up with some races which they all loved!

The first thing we did was musical chairsand then we did an adventure race in which each child had a turn to go and we timed them each...
The adventure race consisted of this:
jumping across our deck on this hopping ballrunning over to the trampoline and jump six timescrawl through the tunnel then up the stairs where they had to climb the ladder, and slide down the slide then build a tower of 6 large duplo blocks and back down the stairs for their "time"it was definitely high-energy and lots of cheering for each child as they had their turn to do it!
after a cup of iced tea for everyone, we continued with 2 more team relays: spoon/ball race which was rather hard for them
and ball tossElijah received wonderful gifts and quite a few of them were Lego sets! Fun! Thank you everyone!Cake timeand then outside to do pinatathe two and a half hours were well spent... Happy Birthday big boy!

Happy Birthday Erin!

Erin turned 2 in August and had a super cute Ladybug party! My camera died (again, but different camera this time) so I didn't get nearly what I had planned on getting - here's some of what I got though:

Gabi's got a little dress on with ladybugs on it - all festiveGabi and I went over to Alexa and Erin's a week before her party, so Gabi and Erin knew exactly what to do at the table for the little tea party!Creative Alexa had a ladybug sandbox filled with red/black shredded paper and hidden goody bag goodies inside! Such a great idea! The Girls had fun searching for bracelets, candy, hairclips...Alexa's cake was adorable! wish I could show you. Fun party! Thanks for the invitation!