Saturday, November 20, 2010

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!!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

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!

Friday, November 5, 2010

quilt festival = fun

Amy's Creative Side - Blogger's Quilt FestivalHello 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.