Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Coming to an end

Wow, its been a month pretty much since I blogged and its almost the end of summer. Oops.

Well, what to say. We celebrated my little man's birthday! Yes, Xander is now a big 3 year old boy, going to preschool this fall and wearing big boy underpants... the latter is still a work in progress but we are doing well. Today we went and picked up more underpants and Xander helped pick some he liked. Such diverse taste, some with robots, others with dogs. Still hard to believe he is 3! Wow.


Xander's party was fun and low key, much like our little man. He requested hot dogs and chips for his event. Mommy managed to add some fun Cars touches. Sometimes I feel with 2 birthdays in the same month its nuts but we had fun and Xander had a great time.


Lots of special gifts from family and friends. We gave Xander a wooden BBQ set which he really took a liking too. He loves serving us up meat haha. Its nice since we knew how much he loved Ariel's kitchen so this is just for him.


This week I took off some time from cakes to spend with the kids and work around the house a bit. Got some projects done I was really wanting to do before school started. Got to do a few I wasn't expecting but were fun. Our neighbours were getting rid of an electric fireplace and mantel and let us have it for FREE! I spent about $15 for some spray paint and goo remover and managed to fix this..


... to this! Plus the fire place works and has heat we discovered! Score! It totally changes our living room and I am SO SO SO excited. Can't wait to have our stockings at Christmas time. Plus nothing beats hanging out in the evening with the glow of the 'fire' filling the room.


With the new fireplace came a need to get a little shelf for our DVR and stuff that no longer fit. That meant a trip to Ikea, which for kids is like a mini Disneyland. The new Ikea is pretty crazy. The kids enjoyed checking out the rooms and I saw some good ideas for our bathroom makeover that is down the road at some point. We had lunch since you can't beat the cheap food. The kids LOVED the meatballs and the little table, hee.


We found our little bench that worked perfectly and was inexpensive, woot, and we went off to Home Depot for a new heat light for the bathroom and got some new flowers for our patio planters.


This week also meant back to school haircuts for everyone. First the kids, Xander got his just in time for his birthday party, Ariel got hers next and is sporting a pink hair extension that is super cute. Tonight it was my turn, my locks are gorgeous and dark now and I took off 3-4 inches. Ariel wanted me to get some pink hair too, maybe next time.


Ariel has been doing one last round of swimming lessons this week, she is determined to pass crocodile, and who am I to stand in her way. Technically she old enough to go to swim kids levels now, but after her private lesson, the instructor said it wouldn't hurt for her to finish the 'preschool' program since she is on the petite side. After looking at the red cross page they usually keep kids in the program until they turn 7, so I feel fine doing that, plus she would love to pass whale, just because she wants the silly sticker.

What else... oh Ariel had her pageant which she got to wear her new poofy dress we got second hand on a pageant facebook page.


She ended up winning Level one Supreme. The disappointing part was during crowning they realized someone had stolen 3 of the big tiaras! So they had to crown the girls in smaller ones and they are ordering replacements. The director was in tears and felt so awful for them. Ariel is eagerly waiting for her special cupcake crown to come, this is what it looks like. We are done pageants till October when Ariel has a weekend event that we get to stay at a hotel for. Most likely we will do the odd one here and there, but that will be it once dance starts up again. She is eager for that, and especially her competition class, the girl loves a crowd... SO not something I share with her, but I am happy to encourage it.


My fall is pretty crazy, as I am taking on a new role at church taking over the Children's education area as director, I think that is what they are calling me, and basically restructuring it as we needed some serious changes. I'll share more in the coming weeks, but I am excited and eager to let God use me and my gifts for our church and our kids.

So that is it in a nutshell, well the shorten version. Looking forward to more blogging with some 'Mommy' time I am getting come fall with BOTH kids in school. Wow.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Ariel in Wonderland!

Well I am sitting her on Sunday night pretty darn exhausted from a crazy party weekend for our little 'Alice'. We held Ariel's Alice in Wonderland party at our place on Saturday afternoon. It was the first time we have ever held our own party in our own place! Kinda a big event for us. Ariel was so excited to have her friends come over and play in her own room with her toys. Very special indeed!

Anyhoo, the week started back on Monday with me altering Ariel's costume. I was going to make a dress but was running short on time and found an amazing deal online for $20 for a costume that was so well made for the price I couldn't pass it up. The catch, only came left in the small size, and Ariel needed an extra small. So I had to do some alterations, and took off 6-7 inches off the hem of the dress and apron! Yes the dress was down to her ankles and lost the 'Alice' look and was more 'little house on the prairies', which is cute but not what Ariel wanted. So after one evening of measuring, cutting and sewing, we had a fitting dress, yay!


The following evening I took Ariel to the park for a photo shoot to capture some pictures to use at the party for gift bags etc. It was so much fun as she was totally in character, catching her bunny, acting like a curious Alice. We attracted an audience and a few cars driving by stopped to tell us how cute she was. In the end I captured some great shots that I love!


She makes a perfect Alice!


Wednesday was another photo night, only with Kara! She wanted some fun ballet around town shots, and we went out for a few hours and had a blast... nothing boring about laying in the middle of the road. Haha.


Kara in her tutu and pointe shoes got some interesting glances from people. Never a dull moment, hee.


Thursday started the baking and decorating of the cake and prepping the house. I had picked up lots of dollar store goodies to pull off the look. A package of over-sized playing cards strung up with some paper lanterns looked super cute. I had a black table cloth but wanted a bright blue and found an end of the bolt deal on some satin at the fabric store that was perfect. With some pins and ribbon, it was super cute!

The cake was done! Yay, loved it! Ariel refused to look at it until Saturday morning, haha.


Our goody bags were awesome. I found Alice in Wonderland coloring books at the dollar store along with giant lollipops, woot! I also had cute bendy flamingos I found in the clearance bin at Save On. Then my FAV find, I got each girl a cupcake necklace for a $1.50 from Forever 21! Seriously, love that store, cheaper jewelry than those 'kid' jewelry places, and they are so sweet!


Saturday morning Ariel was up at 630am... yeah. She was dressed and ready for her friends. We had her watch some tv and try to rest. I feared the worst... but thankfully she calmed down and was good to go. No tears this year and very sweet and polite which was awesome!


I made up the sandwiches while Ariel watched... sampling now and again. Love that my girl is a tea sandwich fan like Mommy. The setting was done, and with that the girls started to arrive! Ariel was so excited and the girls were sweet and adorable. Including Ariel we had nine girls running around on the HOTTEST day of the year! Yikes!


We painted the roses red...


... played some croquet with flamingos and a hedgehog...


and lots fun at the tea party with our own Mad Hatter 'Daddy'.


Ariel and her friends loved the cake... can't believe this girl is turning 6 so soon!


The girls watched the 'photo' video 3 times so they could sing along with the song.


Present time came and Ariel loved the treats her friends picked for her. Lots of crafty stuff, some acrylic paint sent with canvas (loved that one), some princess lip gloss (she loved that haha), early reader books, Princess Yahtzee, hair clips, alice figurines and a cute top from Peak a boo beans. Then she got her gift, surprise! Its Mckenna! She died... seriously, she died!  Then the other girls started hugging her in excitement haha. They all headed upstairs to play with the new doll and her clothes and pet dog. The girl loves those dolls.


 Once her friends had left, we went and relaxed at Dad and Rita's with dinner and lounging in the little pool.


Xander and Mckenna hanging out... a date maybe?


Xander finally gave into the heat and went in... he hates water generally.


We are now looking forward to our family party for her with dinner and dessert. Until then, I am back to work this week with 6 orders... yep, jumping in both feet.
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