Friday, November 30, 2012

Philanthropist's fashion show

My neighbor invited me to attend a fashion show with her. She described it as a charity event, where the clothes are thrift store finds, redesigned by students. I didn't have very high expectations, I thought I would have to clap politely at dreadful outfits, paraded by inexperienced student models. Boy was I wrong. The clothes blew me away and the models where fierce!


 I did pick up some fashion advice - for example - faux fur is in this season - even for men. My husband is so fashion forward, he picked up a down coat with faux fur collar last week.

The other thing that stood out - straight hair is out - all the models had some sort of curl or wave in their hair.

Well now I have to step up my game. I need to start shopping at the goodwill for my clothes!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday!

How did my baby transform from a tiny bundle of cuddles into a big girl?

I always knew you would be a sweet little girl, what surprised me is how kind and strong you are. Looking forward to all the good times ahead and cherishing every smile you've already brought into my life.

You really are my best friend and whether it's sharing a cup of tea with you (your tea is warm water mixed with honey and cinnamon to help alleviate your cold) or playing barbies, babies, my little pony with you or hide and seek with you, there's nothing I love more than coming home to you after a long day of work.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Five and three

The last week of November is probably the most important time of the year for family. Usually at this time of year we are blowing up balloons, ordering cake and gearing up to celebrate double birthdays. This year we decided to do something a little different and celebrated my son's fifth and my daughter's third birthdays at the children's museum.

It was the best idea we ever had. Instead of spending time cleaning the house and cooking, we spent the morning dressing up and taking pictures at home. Here's some of the cuteness that ensued.


When we pulled in to the parking lot we were shocked to see a familiar license plate two cars a away from us. My parents, aunt an cousin surprised us and drove two hours to join the birthday celebration. They were the first people to arrive.
Soon the little ones had arrived and my daughter's messy hands theme party started. There was story telling, coloring and playing with a parachute.

The messy theme continued in the party room with cupcake decorating and finally the piece de resistance - they had Dora Birthday Cake.

As soon as her little friend left we quickly switched over to my son's dinosaur themed party. It started of with a little lesson on dinosaurs and then the children were allowed to handle real dinosaur fossils. They even got to examine fossilized dinosaur poop - ewwww.

After spending some time in the dinosaur exhibit, the kids gathered round for the birthday cake - which in my son's case was a rendition of Spiderman.















My son got some wonderful presents and some great hugs from all his friends and then his party was over.


Monday, November 26, 2012

Happy 5th Birthday!


I have never been able to resist this little face! There has always been something so endearing about my little boy, his smile, his bright eyes, and his loving ways. I still remember the first time I ever saw him - there was so much love in his eyes. Five years later, my little boy is not so little anymore, but he is still the brightest thing in my life. He gives me strength to endure the hardest parts of life and every moment I spend with him brings out the best in me. I thank god every day for sending me this soul to guide, love and nurture into a wonderful human being.Granted there have been some challenges in the last five years.....




but there are so many more amazing moments that I will cherish forever. I love you!!!!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

My little goalie

 Admittedly, he's never going to be a soccer superstar, but look at how much progress he's made in just four short sessions! He didn't stop very many goals, but I loved that he really tries his best.


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Love letters

Want to see a really great portrait of me?

I'm the one with the long hair and huge smile. That purple squiggle beside me represents my son. My favorite part of this picture - the scribble above it which reads BFSTMOM FFVR - my son's first attempt to write "best mom ever" This is the sweetest letter I've ever gotten.  

Monday, November 19, 2012

Boy and their toys

My husband is a comic book junkie so when my son got a spiderman lego set as an early birthday present, I thought my husband would be all over it. Turns out that lego is not his thing, so I had to step in. The box says 6+ but I think a rocket scientist would find this toy challenging. I spent 2 hours of my life that I will never get back fastening together little plastic pieces using nothing but a cryptic set of instructions as a guide. I guess my efforts paid off. As soon as I was done my son and my husband bonded over the toy. Here is a photo that my husband took of them playing:

Elsewhere in the living room, my daughter was very busy flashing her cute but mischievous smile. She's always up to something these days. We worry when she's too quiet because it means trouble is afoot. Her favorite thing to do these days - testing breaking points - like how hard does she have to pull, push, tug, press or bend a toy before it breaks. She also likes to test her boundaries. How far can she push the rules before getting in trouble. Well, thank god the terrible two will be done soon. Looking forward to the terrific threes with my little princess!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

A day of play!!!

Our day started off tame enough with a session of mummy daughter yoga.

Then it got decidedly more rambunctious at a play date with my son's favorite friend from his old daycare

In the evening we went to a giggly girl play date

At the end of which my kids got early birthday presents from their friend.


The day ended with a group hug. Best way to end a day of play!!!





Friday, November 16, 2012

Let the weekend begin

We started our weekend with dinner out, smiles and hugs


Look our impression of a bunch of grapes!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Tale of two towers

We had a Tinkertoy tallest tower competition boys vs girls. Can you guess who won?

The girls did with our version of the CN tower!!! We might have won by default because my daughter knocked over the boys' tower.

My husband is such a good sport. He didn't dwell too long on his loss. He started a jam session with the kiddies.

Noisy but fun!!!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Hop on pop glue styles

My husband likes to lie on the floor with the kids. The kiddies prefer to jump on him instead.

Doesn't it look like fun? I got a taste of some of the fun too!

The best part is when the kids try to get off your back by climbing over your head. I'm smiling through the pain.

Do you know what's fun? This!!!

It was my son's idea. He recruited my daughter and voila!!!I don't even have words to describe the good times. All I have to say is hooray for bedtime!!!!



Saturday, November 10, 2012

Food with friends

We went out for dinner with some friends last night.My friend and I sat next to each other and spent most of the night talking about makeup, child rearing, shopping, diet and exercise and clothes. 
Across the table from us sat another pair of friends engrossed in their own banter which consisted of screaming, yelling and singing out of tune songs together. 
On either side of the girls, were their dads. They connected as well! Chatting about manly things I'm sure. 
There was one person that sat quietly but contently by himself, watching all the chatter around him.
I love my little boy!





Sunday, November 4, 2012

The great pancake cook off

Every Sunday my husband makes these scrumptious pancakes for breakfast. They are so delicious that my son will come into our bedroom at the crack of dawn and beg my husband to make them for him. My neighbors heard about my husband talent. Their son challenged my husband to a pancake off. He's a ten year old boy who is passionate about creating culinary masterpieces. It was a close competition. My husband's pancakes were fluffy and crispy whilst my neighbor's were thin and chewy - perfect specimens from the opposite ends of the spectrum of pancake perfection.

 So you might be wondering - who won the great pancake cook off? The judges did! We got to "taste test" two very delicious varieties of pancakes at breakfast....and we had to try them over and over again to figure out which was the best!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Sporty Son

I might have mentioned before that we are not a very sporty family. The last time I played an organized sport is well before my son was born and my husband hates participating in team sports of any kind. Nevertheless we feel that as parents it is our obligation to introduce our son to the world of sports. We live in a culture where most parents are either soccer moms, goalie moms or hockey dads. So finally we enrolled our son in indoor soccer and today was his first class. During the soccer drills he was the slowest kid. He stumbled through most of the exercises. My husband and I sat huddled together, watching him, worrying about how unathletic he is. Here is a picture of my daughter watching my son WALK after a soccer ball during drills!

Then the class had it's first game and something wondrous happened. My son started running fast after the ball. He was right there in the thick of it smiling, having fun. He didn't get possession of the ball too often and he didn't score any goals, but he was definitely enjoying his first game of soccer! Maybe there will be an athlete in the family after all =)!