Birthday Surprises

Well, this month Alexa and I both turn 30. Yikes; but what can we do?! How about celebrate? How about tell our husbands for the past year or so that we better get something good for in honor of turning 3o this year... well, Andy and Jason did well!

In February, Andy approached me asking if I'd help plan a big surprise party for Alexa... I said sure, of course! When I got home I told Jason that Andy's starting to plan Alexa's... and then thought and suggested to Jason that maybe he and Andy plan a double-party for us since our birthdays are only 12 days apart this month. Jason said that since he had just learnt a couple weeks prior to this conversation that Alexa's birthday is also in May, that he was going to contact Andy but hadn't yet... so, Andy felt bad that he'd already contacted me before Jason had contacted him b/c now this meant the surprise wouldn't really be one for me... but oh well, it's all good! I didn't mind!
So Andy and Jason put together a lovely day for us!
We met at a local day spa for a full body massage followed by a deluxe pedicure! Ah, heavenly!Then we went our separate ways and met up for dinner at a local Greek Restaurant. This Restaurant is always overflowing with guests and last night we heard the birthday song sung to 6 or 7 different people, including ourselves! What a busy month May is!it was an objective of mine to get a picture of Jason and I last night. Pics of just the two of us are basically unheard of ever since having children!
And then after dinner we headed over to a 'surprise' (to Alexa not to me) party for the two of us at Anita's house. Jason and Andy had invited our mutual girlfriends and then 3 couples for each of us - which both of us know each other's friends anyway. Thank you to all the guests who came out to celebrate with us!
And here we are, the birthday girls, enjoying the last days of being 29... Cheers!

fashion show

Here's a bit of a fashion show for you of Gabi in some different outfits she's received along the way from generous friends that she fits now and so we want to show you! (I think it's fun to see a gift of clothing on the child)... these were taken over the past few weeks so that I could compile a few to show...
The first outfit was a gift at birth from Aaron & Jen and Family. It's a GAP size 3-6 months and a bit big though. She wasn't able to wear it last summer which bummed me because it's soooo cute, but I just pulled it out and sure enough my teeny tiny Gabi fits it this summer!Thanks for this adorable outfit T's!!! (April 12th)

These too adorable PJ's now fit Gabi. They are from Auntie Suzan in Quebec! Auntie Suzan, we had to show you that these fit Gabi now... and they are just so cute! Thank You!
This is a onesie I had bought for Gabi before she was born. I bought 2 of them, one for Gabi and one if Jamie had a baby girl. Well, Jamie did have a baby girl (who is 11 months now) and so Calleigh also has this same shirt. I had to take a picture of it with her wearing it. Now, this is funny b/c it is also GAP, but size 12-18mo, and yes, a bit big on Gabi, but she could/can totally wear it still without seeming too big. Strange how sizes work, eh?!
And this outfit, also GAP 6-12mo, Gabi received for Christmas from Alexa and Family! The skirt is a bit loose around her tummy, but again it totally works. It's so cute too! I just love all the clothes Gabi has to wear (as gifts or from Korinne's totes of clothes lent to us...) Thank You!
And just for fun, here is a picture of Gabi and I (although her eyes are closed from the bright sun) last Tuesday at the park we went to for a picnic... it was a very windy day, although nice in the sun, I still wanted a toque on the little girl... this weather's crazy, that's for sure! (April 22)

Water n' Snow

Ok, Global Warming it's called, but where's the warm??? Not here. We had yet more snow falling on the weekend, something not so uncommon around here this year... this is all ours amounted to, but I heard a City on the Island had a foot of snow... unreal.
And water bottles... have you chucked your #7 water bottles yet? We knew these were questionable for quite some time and had been keeping our eyes on these Klean Kanteens stainless steel water bottles. Jason picked some up on the weekend in a local Health Food Store (you can leave me a comment if you want to know the exact store)... they have a few sizes there and these sport top lids. The store was backordered on the sippy lids... check out www.kleankanteen.com for full range of products. This small one is 12oz. and $14.99 - the bigger one is 27oz. and about $20. So, yes, they are expensive to get but you can have peace of mind about what you are drinking out of!This other stainless steel bottle is from Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) and only $10. Though they haven't had stock in the store lately and now with the official annoucement made about the plastic bottles - when they do get stock I am sure they won't last long! Be sure not to buy a bottle that is aluminum on the outside and lined on the inside... I saw some of those at London Drugs and probably not safe still due to the liner.

Stanley Park

When I typed in this title, it automatically came up for me to select, which means I've used this title more than once... I think this is our third time to Stanley Park since February! LOL. There's so much to do there though...

Last week Saturday (12th) was supposed to be 24* inland. So of course we wanted to get out and enjoy some Spring weather. We headed into the City, where temperatures are usually lower due to the oceanside location, but we really did miss out on some sunburning opportunites in our town! Oh well. We had a great time...

a little bird the girls found where we parked. they were quite concerned about the little thing and asked if it could go to a doctor...we left the bird in a tree. and it was gone when we returned, so I am sure it was okayapparently these two look a lot alike...bachcombing and walking along a seaweed/barnicle covered ledge...thought this was a cute picture of Ellen

Fun Friday

Last week Friday I had the 4 girls after school... we went to Walmart for a bit of a shop and then grabbed Lil' Ceasars hot n' ready pizzas for a park picnic. Michelle just loves babies; so she took Gabi for a bit of a play in the swing and on this teter-totter kinda thing...then we dropped off Gabi at home and headed out to a local Children's Theatre production called "Bookworm Classics" which included a small segment on each story of Aladdin, Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan.

Bernard the Bear

Well, once Spring arrived, Bernard the Bear came out of Hibernation and so each child at preschool gets to take home the bear bag like they did in the Fall (see post). Well, Bernard has grown in size after his winter hibernation (it's a similar bear, just bigger) and there are some new books for us to read together. The bag contained Bears Wants More; We're Going on a Bear Hunt; Brown Bear, Brown Bear revised with pictures of each child in the class and Elijah had to write a story about Bernard to add to the binder. He dictated a great story for me to record, so when this binder has made it's rounds to all the students I'll save a copy of the story in Elijah's preschool "file".
Bernard joined our Family on a Thursday which meant we got to 'babysit' him until the following class on Tuesday. Our first stop straight from school was the park... Elijah had Bernard rolling around in the bark mulch n' all and swinging.
I think this idea is such a great one of Mrs. S!

Ninja Boy

so a few weeks back I bought myself some headbands to help keep the shorter hair out of my face, especially when attending my Fitness Classes... so the boys like these headbands and for awhile they both kept taking them and wearing them. They remind me of little Ninja boys, like you see Sammy here!

Crafting

The girls said awhile back that they wanted to complete their names with the letters I made for each of them for their bedrooms before they arrived... so this was the weekend to do it and here they are:

PJ Pizza Picnic

While Jason was away on his last business trip (these trips come in doubles or triples, back to back it seems)... I wanted to find a way to fill in the Saturday and make it exciting without having to really leave the house... so I came up with this! We did a run to the library (our weekly or 2/week trip now-a-days) to grab some DVD's waiting for us to pick up, grabbed pizza from Ricardo's, ran into the house, put on PJ's, grabbed blankets, put on The Shaggy Dog and had ourselves in indoor PJ Pizza Picnic - it was pretty fun for all of us - partly due to the excitement I built up for it during the day!

Park

It was a fairly nice day on Thursday and since Pamela was coming over to give me a hand (while Jason is away) and visit, we headed to the park after school. Alexa and her gang met us there too!Elijah and Sammy love playing with Pam!Luke shows me he can climb up onto the tube slide, good job!all the kids between Alexa and IGabriella and Erin (9mo and 7mo)

9 months

Gabriella is now 9 months old.

Her favourite place to be in the last week or so is here, under the table where she might{will} find some crumbs and droppings from the table, LOL!and especially when her closest sibling either leaves his bowl of dry cheerios sitting on the floor, Gabi is all over that!
This past week she got her first taste of rice puffs and cheerios - rice puffs my first choice to give her since they melt in her mouth pretty quick Gabriella:
- wants to eat what we are eating. This week she also got some cereal bar to try, some bun, a pickle which she loved to suck. So it won't be long until I am just breaking her up all of our food for her to eat.
- she can drink through a straw... I couldn't remember at what age we tried with Elijah one time when we were eating out but I knew it was young; so last Monday (31st) we went to BP for lunch and I let Gabi try some water from my cup - sure enough she did it
- she started to say "da da" this past week - Jason hasn't heard it yet though since he is away on business
- she crawls all over the place and walks really well along the furniture... it's just amazing to watch since she seems so small to be doing this! Though I am sure the boys were about her size too at this age!
I think that's all there is to update on for this month... and her portrait is scheduled for this afternoon!

100 Books

I am often on our local Library's website (like daily, or even more than 1x a day) looking and requesting DVDs and Books for our Family. (BTW, the library is a GREAT place to "rent" movies... and you get to keep them for 2-3 weeks!) I came across a featured list on the site titled "100 Books to Read in Kindergarten". Elijah starts K this Fall, but I figure it might be a fun list to accomplish beforehand and read the books together...
we've begun and I will keep the list in my sidebar updated with the books we work through...The first book in the Alphabetical list under "C" is The Cake that Mack Ate by Rose Robart. Well, this is a well-known book in our home. It is a book I chose to illustrate for one of my ECE projects in College. So, for fun (not for the illustrations, that's for sure!) here is the story... it's a good one!

treats

When I was putting away the crayons in the Kids' Closet this afternoon, I spotted an "iced tea crystal" type of container filled with art stuff... my mind somehow went from that - in a split couple of seconds - to creating a project for Ellen and May to do this evening!
A few years ago in Sarah's Stampin Up Club I was in, we covered large formula tins (as still seen on her blog, I believe) (Korinne, you may remember a Hostess Gift I gave you in the tin 2 years ago?) and so I used that idea and the girls each covered one "tin" tonight. This tin will be for chocolates, gum, candy (as you see on the label) that they can grab for recess or whatever at school, now that they have lockers beginning this week (and are integrated into the actual Classrooms). This little cutesy container will remain in their lockers and come home when it needs to be filled again... kinda fun, I thought!

this is May's:

this is Ellen's:

why not?!

This evening, after dinner, Sammy and Gabi were going to have a bath and Elijah didn't need one since he went swimming at our Fitness Club's pool with Jason this afternoon and showered after the swim... so Elijah's famous question is "can I watch a movie" (we only watch "movies" (videos) since we don't have cable to just flip on); but I didn't want to put one on for him since he had one already this afternoon... so I thought, why not teach him how to vacuum?! He loves to do "jobs" and is always looking for a job to do (especially since the Girls are here and they are asked to do this and that; he's right in there wanting to either do the same or be special enough to have his own task assigned) ... so I got him to clear the floor space (notice a soccer ball on the couch?!) and off I showed him how to vacuum! He vacuumed for a good portion of time and would have done more if I had allowed him! So maybe I don't have to vacuum as much any more?! Though, vacuuming is one of my most tolerable of duties around here! LOL. <

ponytail

It took me so long (don't know why) to find small elastics for Gabi's hair... and well, I did when the 4 girls and I went shopping yesterday (at a $ store, of course)... so here's my Baby Girl with her first pony! (eating my new headband I bought for myself)