Age Six

The morning I went to the hospital I was going to post this. I love this picture, it really captures his silly side.

Notice the dark front teeth. Two years ago, Biggest Boy was being "silly" and had an accident in the playground that permanently damaged and displaced the teeth. I did not think they would survive but they did and are now loose...finally!

MIA

I have officially been MIA (missing in action) for a month....with good reason though...bilateral salpingectomies for bilateral pyosalpinges!

Really big words for infected fallopian tubes. Mine actually ruptured, spilled pus into my abdomen and caused a four day stay in hospital after they had to be removed via emergency surgery. It is hard to believe that FT's could cause so much pain but indeed they did!

After the surgeon operated he said he had never seen this before. Apparently it is quite rare, however I have a very long history of rare, weird and wonderful medical conditions, so nobody was too surprised when this happened to me.

Me before November 24th and after...

I am very lucky to have such a great support network. The night I had surgery, Chris came to the rescue and spent the night with the kids. This is Littlest Boy's bedroom with the "Mom's in hospital" sleeping arrangements. Chris and Biggest Boy in the big bed, Littlest Boy in his crib and Middle Child in the pink Princess bed...poor Auntie Chris!

Grandma arrived the next morning to relieve Chris and took over her spot in the big bed. Thank God for my Mother who is always willing to drop everything to help when needed. Good thing Winnipeg is only a two hour flight away! Grandma, you rock!

Here comes Santa Claus...

Last weekend we attended the local Santa Claus Parade with our cousins from Ottawa. It was fun to see the kids so excited. Jordan was bored and passed the time by pulling out my gray hairs (all caused by him I might add). The weather wasn't great but we stayed till the end to see the big guy himself!

We saw...

Charlie Brown...

an exotic car...this caught Daddy's attention....

the Grinch

and Santa!!

SUPER MEETS SIX

Biggest Boy celebrated his 6th birthday this past weekend with a video game/Super Mario party. If you are a regular reader you know our son detests anything sports related and is most happy when he is playing his DS, computer, or Xbox. We hired the Game Machine...a big trailer outfitted with a super sized bench, 4 big screen tvs'/gaming systems and more games than a 6 year old can imagine. The Game Machine allows 16 kids to play at the same time. This is Biggest Boy on the Game Machine as happy as we have ever seen him!

What you cannot appreciate from these pictures is the trailer is actually dark inside and there is a crazy light show that ups the already cool factor! The boys were super impressed and had a blast.

 After experiencing just a few hours with these little balls of energy, I have come to appreciate the kids Grade 1 teacher a thousand fold more.  I'm not sure how she does it...they just do not sit still...especially not for pictures...unfortunately, as a result, there are not many photos of the party!
These are what I did manage to capture...

I think this is an impromptu Princess Peach look-a-like contest...I'm sure the boy on the end is praying his parents never see this picture!

Grandma and our adopted Aunties...

One of many attempts at a group shot (minus a few runaway children)...

It is Bohay tradition to have a birthday pinata, however, as the kids get older I am realizing it is getting harder and harder to keep everyone at a safe distance and prevent any head injury related law suits...instead (in all of my wisdom!?!) I decided to have a SILLY STRING FIGHT in our basement. The boys went nuts and my entire basement was covered in silly string...literally...see for your self...

AND...what we did not discover until after the party is silly string vacuums up quite nicely from carpet but essentially becomes permanently glued to laminate flooring. NEVER TRY THIS AT HOME!! I have spent the last 48 hours on my hands and knees gently scraping the floor with my precious plastic quilting ruler (this removes about 50% of it) followed by a good scrub with a magic eraser and then a final wash to remove the magic eraser residue. Needless to say silly string WILL NOT become a Bohay tradition.

This is what 600 square feet of my floor still looks like after scraping with the ruler....yikes...I know what I will be doing this weekend!

One little boy was quite upset by the silly string fight and I found him sobbing on the floor. To make him feel better I asked him if he wanted to put the candles on the cake. He took great pleasure in stabbing Mario in the eyes with the candles and immediately cheered up...

PARTY CRAFTS!!
(my favourite part)

I would be kidding you if I told you the party was just for the kids...I think I enjoy planning the party and decor just as much
(if not more)!
I made VIP game passes for everyone. I had a laptop set up and pretended to scan the bar codes with a mini flashlight. I did manage to fool all of the six year olds and even a few adults too (you know who you are)!

 I was giddy when I found the pop shoppe pop at a local candy wholesaler which is also where I found most of the Mario candy. 

Red pail loots filled to the brim with candy, lego packs, silly bands and...a toothbrush...(as a dentist it slightly helps ease my guilty conscience about handing out a bucket full of candy)!

The party was a great success. Happy Birthday my Biggest Boy! Love you, love you...LOVE YOU!

quilt festival = fun

Hello fellow festals! This is my first time participating in Amy's Creative Side Blogger's Quilt Festival since this is my first ever quilt! Fortunately, it is a doll quilt and it was the perfect introduction into the wonderful world of quilting. Creating my first quilt was extremely FRUSTRATING (binding issues) and EXHILARATING (opening the dryer to find "puckery goodness") all at the same time!

I was introduced to quilting by my bosom buddy and crafting soulmate Kristie. She made me the most beautiful quilt for my birthday, seen here and here and told me if I can sew a straight line then I too can quilt. Turns out sewing a straight line is a lot harder than it looks but I must say, I am tickled with the outcome! See for yourself...

  

Kristie and I usually craft all gifts for birthdays, Christmas, and of course, just because gifts. My children and I have been the recipient of so much crafty coolness that that is a separate post in and of itself! This quilt happens to be for Kristie's youngest daughter, whose favourite colour is orange but also has a purple and green bedroom.
I came across this great tutorial on Sew Mama Sew and knew I absolutely had to make it....

Selecting the fabrics was the favourite part of the process for me. I love fabric...I am a terrible sewer but I LOVE, LOVE FABRIC! I played with my 3.5 square charms for some time until I had the perfect combo....and then I pieced them together. I stitched in the ditch and this is where I discovered sewing a straight line is not as easy as it looks! From this I learned I definitely need a 1/4" foot....and a walking foot for that matter...

To add my personal touch I embellished the quilt with a little hand embroidery, and then basted it all together. After doing a lot of reading I decided to use adhesive spray to baste. This worked great...even on the first try...yeah!

The binding just about did me in...you are looking at the back of the quilt with the binding attached (I am a lazy sewer and decided to machine bind the quilt). This part was OK...it was figuring out what to do with the two ends of binding that caused me to shed more than a few tears. I think I also watched 50 YouTube videos on this topic that did not help! I finally stumbled across this tutorial that FINALLY made it make sense.





I cut the binding too short three times and had to add more to one of the tail pieces. This is painfully obvious on the right side of this picture....where it boughs out is where the two end pieces joined.
Not pretty. . . but then probably not noticeable to the four year old this is going to!



Even though when I look at this quilt all I see are the flaws, overall I am pleased and I cannot wait to jump into my next for Kristie's middle child!

HAPPY QUILTING EVERYONE and I must say I am uber impressed and inspired by your quilts!!

BTY - This is the bed that will accompany the quilts. It has yet to be painted purple...check back for the completed project including matching sheets and pillow.

"twick o tweet"

Two years ago, severe complications resulting from the birth of Littlest Boy, left me unable to care for myself, never mind the kids. That Halloween, Chris and Sarah happily stepped up and took on trick or treating when we could not. We adore them and have come to think of them as family. Now, three Halloween's later it has become a Bohay-Fuller-Trick-or-Treating-Tradition to spend Halloween together! Daddy was on call and unfortunately missed all of the fun!

Littlest Boy sneaking some candy...

 Walking out the door.  This is Chris with the kids...she stayed behind to hand out candy.

We ditched the Mystery Inc. costumes in favour of something warmer...it was chilly!

Middle Child made a beautiful unicorn riding Princess!

Biggest Boy recycled his Frankenstein costume from last year.

Littlest Boy was still the cutest Scooby ever!

This was Littlest Boy's first official year trick or treating. He blindly went up people's steps (he could barely see over the Scooby hood) to gleefully exclaim, "twick o tweet" followed by "tank u" before heading back down the steps without any candy. He was simply in it for the socializing...no candy necessary...a Little Gido in training I think!

And it turns out, our normally shy Biggest Boy is not shy at all where candy is involved. He would actually step into people's homes to view the candy bowl and then proceed to tell them which candy he wanted!

Middle Child should have been dressed as a butterfly. When anyone opened the door, this "social butterfly" would say, "What is your name?" and then tell them hers (and her brothers for that matter). At one point she even introduced Sarah to a nice woman!

This picture was taken at the end of the night...rosy cheeks but oh so happy! Sarah hugs are the best!

HALLOWEEN'S PAST

I have decided to publish this blog as a memory book for the kids and thought it might be fun to include a few pictures from Halloween's past...

2005

Biggest Boy is 11 months

2006

Middle Child is 6 months and Biggest Boy is almost 2. Biggest Boy is crying because he wanted trick or treaters to stay and not leave after giving them candy...it was hilarious!

2007

Absolutely adorable. Period.

 2008

Biggest Boy was Spiderman and Middle Child a Princess. Littlest Boy is just 9 days old! I was too sick to take pictures and unfortunately this is the only one I have from Halloween night.

2009

Highlights - Baba and Gido were in town for Halloween. I was a cupcake fairy. I remember someone coming to the door and asking if I was a pomegranate?? Middle Child had an obsession with cats (especially green ones), hence the cat costume. Littlest Boy had a high fever and did not go out with the kids. Biggest Boy would see other kids on the street and offer them candy from his bag and after trick or treating he stood on the front steps yelling, "Lots of candy here!". I think that was the first and last year of candy generosity though...this year I dumped Littlest Boy's candy into Biggest Boy's bag and he said..."Mommy, that makes it mine now!".