BIGGEST BIRTHDAY BOY

Biggest Boy and Grandma share a birthday and we were lucky to have Grandma here to celebrate this year.

To keep with Biggest Boy's birthday tradition, I made them each their names spelled in cake. This is very easy when you have alphabet cookie cutters, and while you waste a lot of cake, the effect is cute. Don't worry though no cake actually gets wasted in this house, cake is my weakness and I am happy to eat the scraps when there is a tub of icing in the other hand.

The monster mash bash was a couple of weeks ago but we wanted to celebrate Biggest Boy style too on his actual day. His choice...

bowling and the arcade.

As a dentist, when it comes to the kids teeth, the only thing I truly feel strongly about is pop. In our home it is only allowed on very special occasions and Biggest Boy was very excited to drink orange crush at the bowling alley.

The other night though, I walked into the kitchen to find Daddy and the boys enjoying nanchos and orange crush in frosty mugs. When I asked Daddy what the pop worthy special occasion was, he replied "NACHO NIGHT"!?!

At the bowling alley, I took this photo for the annual birthday favourite's list...

It is hard to believe Biggest Boy is 7. I still remember him as this little guy....

This was taken Christmas Day 2005 at Baba & Gido's House. He used to play with his matchbox cars for hours on end!

One day I also hope to print this blog as a memory book so I will include one more picture from 2009...aren't they cute??

 

Happy Birthday Biggest Boy & Grandma!

monster mash bash!

The boy's birthdays are only a few weeks apart and this year I decided to throw a huge

MONSTER MASH JOINT BIRTHDAY BASH!

It was so much fun!

Kids were invited to dress as their favourite monster or in costume.


Doo Doo The Clown was invited too. Biggest Boy (normally shy) really enjoyed being the centre of attention during the magic show...

Littlest Boy on the other hand didn't quite know what to make of Doo Doo. The look on his face here says it all - Mommy, what were you thinking inviting this guy??



It did not take him long though to warm up to the big guy and enjoy being a part of the show.

I of course went overboard with activities, crafts and decor.

There was a monster hand tattoo station, cotton candy machine and a monster photo booth with props (constructed with PVC piping by Gido). Check out the monster teeth, hats and grins.

Even the adults big kids had fun!

I also created a monster sized sweet table.

Complete with...

monster juice, whoopie pies, cake pops, custom chocolate bars....

monster boogers (kernels popcorn)...

monster bones (carrots), monster brains (cauliflower & broccoli) and more...but my favourite thing was the red velvet monster cake...so cute and so yummy!

I also thought the monster water nutritional birthday facts were fun, though pretty sure nobody noticed them. Baba (and Gido) created the most amazing monster fruit platter....thank you again for being so helpful...could not have pulled the party off without you!

BTW - If you too want to make fring-tastic giant numbers like the ones above the sweet table...visit this tutorial...very easy but time consuming! MY TIP OF THE DAY: if you use glue your fingers will become stained the colour of the crepe paper...so, if you have an important event (like I did) the next day...wear gloves!

Happy birthday to my sweet boys, you could not be more different but you each bring so much joy into our lives. Big monster hugs to you both!

FYI Nostalgia - The last time we had a joint birthday party was two years ago when we rented a schoolbus and visited a pumpkin farm. The boys were 1 and 5...

And just to prove I have always been a crazy crafty party Momma, here are a bunch of crafts I made for the pumpkin party....

LITTLEST BIRTHDAY BOY

Littlest Boy turned three...

This beautiful birthday picture came from a family photo session with Robyn Russel. I love this picture. To me, it feels like you are staring directly into his soul however, it also makes me laugh because Littlest Boy is never serious and is almost always laughing or being silly. It doesn't truly capture his spirit but I love it nonetheless.

Here are some of my other favourite photos...

The boy's are having a joint birthday party next weekend but we still wanted to make Littlest Boy's day special. When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he said "toast and jam"!

So toast and jam it was...

I can't believe my baby is three...sigh!

little miss muffet

Little Miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet eating her curds and whey, when along came a spider, who sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away.....

Later Daisy the Dog and Miss Muffet returned to her tuffet where Daisy enjoyed a spider snack and saved Miss Muffet's day!

I came across this 5 inch lovely in my laundry room and nearly fainted! I knew Jordan (on call that night) would not believe me about a large spider in the house, (I think baby spiders are large spiders)

so I took this pic as proof from a safe 10 foot distance. I then shut the door and returned with Daisy. At first even Daisy was reluctant to approach this very large spider but she soon had it in her mouth and was playing with it until it became a late night snack. Yeah Daisy, my hero!

I sent this pic to an entomologist and this was his response...  

"Don't worry, this is just a wolf spider, although quite a nice one! It's a beautiful specimen! Would have loved to have gotten it from you. If you come across one again just catch it in a cup and release it outside. The universe will thank you for it."

Sorry Mr. Entomologist, if I ever come across one of these again it is definitely not going into a cup!

And what is almost as disturbing as the indoor 5 inch spider...

the poor builder tiling work that is painfully obvious in the above picture!

dance recital

Dancer or Toddler in a tiara? Hard to tell the difference, I know.

Middle Child dressed for her year end dance recital (in full makeup and hair piece) is a frightening thing! 

She is seen here with her dance buds, amazing jazz teacher and Daddy shortly before leaving for the recital. If there are two things this girl loves to do, it's pose and dance!!

Unfortunately the excessive makeup is mandatory. Should you try to send them to the performance without it, it will only be applied backstage by another Mother or volunteer while you are finding your seat in the theatre.

Despite my misgivings (I don't think I was meant to be a dance Mom), she is happy and cannot wait to start again in the Fall. This year she tells me she wants to do ballet, jazz, acro, hip hop AND tap...God help me!

mommy daddy retreat

This year, Jordan and I decided we would not do Mother's Day/Father's Day gifts and instead take a short retreat to Phoenix with our good friend Elijah and his girlfriend. Does escaping your kids for a Mother's Day/Father's Day gift make you bad parents??

Hmmm...

Either way, Mother's Day 2011 will not be remembered in the top five best Mother's day of all time. It involved my husband being on call and 12 hours at the hospital with a sick Littlest Boy.

My day started early that Sunday morning when I asked Jordan to listen to Littlest Boy's chest before he left for work. I was concerned after I had been up with him most of the night with a bad cough and laboured breathing. Daddy confirmed that his right lung was not functioning well and suggested I pack up the kids and take him to the hospital. One of the perks of being married to a Dr. is that the ER was expecting us and called the Pediatrician as soon as we arrived. She took a listen, administered inhaled steroids and then told us to wait while they monitored him for bacterial versus viral pneumonia. It was a LONG day but the kids were troopers! I got home late that night to flowers that had obviously been delivered to my doorstep much earlier in the day. My husband always has a way of making me feel special, wilted flowers or not!

 

Father's Day was less traumatic and involved a quiet family day with all of Daddy's favourite foods....Earl's Fettuccine Alfredo and Marble Slab Creamery ice cream. Daddy's mixture of choice: banana, graham cracker and birthday cake ice cream...YUM!

We love you Daddy!

Our retreat - Sanctuary at Camel Back Mountain! It was beautiful and we really enjoyed our grown-up time with Elijah and Steph. I have to admit that Arizona would not have been my first choice...I am deathly afraid of snakes! Nevertheless, it was a nice escape from the everyday. Thanks Aunty Chris and Grandma for watching the kids and allowing us the opportunity to go! Also thanks to Sarah for being the best birthday party chauffeur ever!

cousins

My Ottawa cousin's father had a life changing stroke earlier this year and she has had a difficult time of late wrapping up his life in Barrie and moving him to Ottawa. The only silver lining in that cloud is that we have had the opportunity to see our cousins more often as she travelled back and forth between Ottawa and Barrie. She often used our home as a home base and the kids loved having the extra sleepovers...good times!

memory lane

Recently, while driving through Brampton, I recognized my old elementary school and asked Jordan to pull over so I could enter an address into the nav. Our destination...the house we moved into with my Aunt after returning from Saudi Arabia. In this tiny home dwelled my mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, Ottawa cousin, Winnipeg cousin and my amazing Grandmother. It is hard now for me to imagine 4 adults and 5 children living in this 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom townhouse but somehow we all fit and it never seemed crowded!

What you are looking at is a small cemetery at the end our street where we played until the streetlight came on and it was time to go home for dinner. I remember picking pine cones for crafts and playing hide and go seek amongst the tombstones. Playing in a cemetery seems a little creepy to me now but I never gave it a second thought then!

This is a picture I know my sister would soon forget. One day she took my 10 speed bike (which was much to big for her) and crashed into the wall of the underpass. She actually tore her gums from her jawbone, had terrible abrasions along her body and suffered internal injuries. On a happier note, we also used this underpass to get to our favourite store...Bi-Way! Here we stayed well stocked in jelly shoes and neon tops...this was the Cyndi Lauper and Madonna's material girl era after all! My Ottawa cousin and I spent a lot of time creating dance routines. This is us dressed for a backyard performance...

Visiting Lansing Square took me back to a very happy time in my childhood filled with memories of cabbage patch dolls, Grandma's broccoli/cauliflower stem snack, listening to mini pops albums, catching leeches with Winnipeg Cousin, mini golf at the Community Centre, sneaking off in the early morning for nature hikes (sorry we scared you Grandma) and dancing in the backyard. Seriously good times!!

To complete this trip down memory lane I thought I should also include a picture of my Grandmother Daisy and a Saudi family pic from a date farm in 1984. Uncle Mike looks pretty cute in those overalls!