Lessons from a lemonade stand

This past week sucked... really sucked. Not only did I come down with some sorta nasty bug, but Ken had to leave for Miami on Wednesday until Sunday. Single parenting is tough enough, add on the illness and lots of work and you get a 'breakdown!'

The Monday and Tuesday before Ken left I was dead. I didn't move from bed, except to get Ariel to dance camp and pick her and her friend up who was staying with us until her mom got off of work. Thankfully the girls were good and Mommy could just lie down and rest. Xander had a touch of the bug too, and just rested with me for the most part. Wednesday came and at least I could stand but my throat was in serious pain. I plugged through my work because really I felt fine, but couldn't swallow without bursting into tears. Needless to say I lost 10 pounds that week because I could barely eat or drink.

Friday was Ariel's final class and the big show. It was great, and I was happy to be able to sit comfortably through it. This was her favorite dance, super cute!



Following the show, Ariel was invited to the water-park with her friend, so it allowed me a nice time to work with only Xander around, and he is easy going and mellow, so its all good.

Saturday came and all the cakes were done and ready for pick up. It was that morning that I realized we needed to take a few quick pictures to send for her Summer Finals pageant coming up. They had a side photo contest for natural and 'pink' themed shots. We needed to get a pink themed one and I thought ooh lemonade stand, so we made up a quick stand, she posed and we were done... I took the camera in, and came back to help clean up and Ariel was selling to the neighbors!

She was so excited! Ariel has been asking forever to have a lemonade stand (as a book she loves at bedtime has the character do one). Since we didn't have to go anywhere and just wait for people to pick up cakes, I agreed we could leave it up and she continued to sell happily. The afternoon came fast and the neighbors in our building dwindled, and Ariel soon realized the only way to get more customers was to move down to the street. Since Dad had come and taken Xander for a bike ride, we moved her stand and then I was just amazed...

... people would pull over in their cars to come have a lemonade and cookie with her. We met some amazing people from our community. A sweet old man who was visiting from Victoria who needed help to learn to dial on his new cel phone. A huge truck that pulled over that had identical TRIPLET babies in the backseat, so cute!!! The big man with the tattoos that had to stop because he remembered all the people who stopped at his stand when he was a kid. It just went on and on and the girl earned $37! We talked and decided that half would go to our Dalit project at church and the other half would go towards our family Disneyland trip. Ariel was pleased and wants to do it again soon... I have a feeling we will, it was fun!

This weekend we are gearing up for the big pageant. Ariel has been practicing her introduction and interview questions whenever we get a chance. She had a brief moment of forgetfulness with her talent dance but a few tries and working it out and it came back. Its a lot for her, and I am so proud she wanted to try something this big. They really spoil the girls so she will excited with her goodies but its still lots of practicing and work on their part. Go Ariel go! Here is her new head shot I did, LOVE it!

My throat is much better, although I am still hacking a bit. At least I can swallow now. Food never tasted so good the night I could finally eat again! Ariel is at VBS this week but also has an acro class at dance in the afternoons so its a full week of fun for her. Xander I think wishes he could go too, but next year he will be old enough, yay!

Blogging with pink hands...

I really need to go have a bath and soak my hands that are dyed pink at the moment. I just finished some super pink cupcakes with crowns on them, and yet I found myself wanting to update my blog since I haven't in a bit and I figured I should. Whats been going on since the last post? Well, summer finally showed up, yes after weeks of rain the sun came and has been going full force. I am happy to say our new place doesn't heat up like our old apartment... I don't miss that evening sun! Oh its nice and cool, ahhh. Xander's room is the only one that tends to get a tad warm, so he will be getting the fan I think, but his window helps quite a bit, and being able to have windows open safely is always a plus! Woot!

Ken and I celebrated 11 years of marriage on June 30th.... and he was still in Seattle. Haha, well he did get home late but I was working on orders so it was kinda 'meh' but we are hoping to do something fun later this summer as we have a free hotel stay at a fancy Vancouver place and various vouchers saved up from my work with the tourism guy, so we just need to figure out when is the best time to go between my work and Ken's summer travel. Ariel did draw us this lovely picture as an anniversary card, awww.

We celebrated both Canada Day....

and 4th of July by doing nothing! With Canada falling on a Sunday this year its hard not to say I am skipping church to eat pancakes and cake, lol. So Ken took the kids to church but I ended up sleeping off my illness/allergies. Not sure what it was but I felt uber gross that morning. Then the 4th we didn't make it to our annual trek to Point Roberts for the parade but instead had lunch with Kara and saw her new place. Woot!

We had a movie date with Ariel and took her to see the new Disney Pixar Brave. It was really good, and Ariel loved it. Nothing beats princess who kicks butt! She is eagerly awaiting a 'Brave' doll now haha. Xander stayed home with Grandpa since we didn't know if he would sit through the movie, but brought him some popcorn that made him happy.

I had a serious crazy week of orders, some big ones that had not only cake but cupcakes, cookies, cake pops etc. A few late nights of work and then I had some graphics work on top of it, so I feel a tad zonked today now that its over. I get a few days to recover before another busy weekend. As I said on facebook, its a lot of work, but the look on the faces of people when they get their order makes it totally worth while.... getting paid is awesome too, haha, but seriously its a happy business most of the time and I love it!

In the midst of the craziness, Ariel had a pageant. It was a pink 'glitter' theme, and she practiced a fun routine for her outfit of choice to the chorus of 'Material Girl'. We had gone through a few songs but she liked the beat of that one the best, and came up with several moves on her own, with me adding a few to smooth it out. Check it out!



 In the end it was great, the crowd loved it and she won Queen, the highest she could get as she got Supreme last time (they only let the girls win that one once in the prelims so more girls get a chance to win it, which is awesome!) She won a super cute kitty cat crown...

...and every girl got a Hello Kitty watch. She LOVES it! Can you tell?

This week Ariel is off at dance camp, woot! She is so excited, especially since her buddy Sarah is coming this year. We are also bringing Sarah home to help out her mom who works and so to have playdates daily is very exciting for our princess. I am looking forward to hanging with Xander who isn't feeling that great. He woke up crying at 4am with a fever, and has been clingy and feverish most of the day. Poor little man.

Ken preached the message today at church. He did a great job and had lots of complements from members of the congregation. If you want to listen to his sermon, check out the link here. Its called 'Shine on you crazy diamond'. Enjoy!

Well I need to get to that bath and pack Ariel's bag for tomorrow. Yay!

My Kindergarten Baby

Well, this past week I was an emotional bean pole. It finally hit me that my baby girl was finishing Kindergarten and on to grade one next fall. Its strange I never cried over preschool and her starting school but finishing this first year, well that seemed to do it to me. I was looking at her workbooks she brought home and it hit me so fast that she was not my baby girl anymore.

We got ready for school quickly and drove back to our old place to do photos in front of the fence... had to do the compare shot since I couldn't do my typical 'door' shot since we don't have that door anymore. She has grown a lot... matured in her looks a bit more. Still my silly girl though.

Xander had to get in on the pictures too, they are too cute for words!

At the assemble this morning the kindergartens had a big job of walking the grade 7 graduates out of the gym, but first giving them a flower, and getting a pencil in return for continued learning.

After the assemble, the kids went to get their report cards. Ariel did fantastic, known as the 'hula hoop' queen and exceeding expectations at reading. Its been hard this week talking about school being over, Ariel tends to start crying. She loved her teacher this year, I hope she loves her teacher next year too.

I can't say how much we love our school. The people we have met, the friends made, and the many years ahead, its all so exciting. Good work baby girl, we are proud of you!

Now its on to summer fun... lots of camp stuff coming up, its going to be a blast!!!!

Its a Potty in here!

Oh boy, here we go! A few weeks ago on a trip to Walmart for baking supplies I spotted the McQueen potty chair. Well, as you know my son is a walking advertisement for Cars, so I pushed the buggy up and asked, 'do you think we need a potty?' One glance up at the box with Cars on it, Xander was sold. Yep! We put it into our buggy and picked out some Cars underwear and pull-ups. There was no turning back!

I sat the potty out for awhile, and we talked about it, read some books. Ariel was eager for Xander to learn and one night brought him downstairs and got him to pee on it! Whoa, that surprised me, but of course he wasn't going to do it for me. Bah!

My weeks were filled with orders and little time to devote to training properly. I remember with Ariel how I picked a week, and we stayed home and just did hardcore learning! It worked great with her and I figured I needed to do the same with him. So when the calendar showed my week break between orders, I jumped at the opportunity to finally do this. With him being closer to 3 I did worry since he started to have that 'defiant' attitude that seems to show up with that age. Terrible 2's have nothing on 3! Haha, at least with my kids.

Saturday morning it was raining and we were all home for a change. I pulled out a pile of underwear, filled Xander's Cars bottle with juice and we started... sort of. Like all first days, it was awful. I remember being the same way with Ariel. Pee everywhere, going through underpants like crazy. I also was painting the bathroom so Ken was watching him and having not gone through training Ariel, he was a bit in the dark on how things go with things like this... although it was funny hearing him yell. UGH, no Xander, not the couch! Ack, Ariel get the papertowel! Ok, its not that funny but he missed out on training Ariel so its only fair right? Hee.

I came down afterward and took charge, drink, play, sit, pee, yay, repeat! All evening we kept doing the same thing, drink some juice, run around and play for 10 minutes, sit on the potty and wait, pee comes, happy dance (Xander's favorite part) and do it again. Repetition is the key for us, no treats, charts or rewards. It never worked for Ariel, and I tried them all, but the happy dance they LOVE.

There was one set back that evening that led us to using pull ups during the training process for now at least... he had a diarrhea attack from eating something that didn't agree with him... while wearing only underwear... sitting on Ariel's bed... while we were skyping with Ken's mom. UGH!!!!!!! Ken could smell it first, then saw it, then I saw it and then poor Ariel saw it.... XANDER!!!!!!! My BED!!!!!!!!!!!! She was fighting back tears and I quickly stripped the bed into the washing machine (Thank you Lord for our own washing machine and drier!) I scooped up the stuffies that were hit, only 3 thank heavens and washed them in the sink while Ken dealt with Mr Poopy. Lets just say Ariel got to stay up a tad later reading since we had to wait on her bedding.

Sunday morning came and Xander had dry pants, big success! So we went to church, came home and started the process again. He now seemed to be more willing for me to sit him on the potty to wait as long as he had something to keep him busy.

Monday morning and day 3, again dry morning pants! With everyone gone it was just us 2 and that was great. He sat when I told him to and peed, and then surprised me at lunch while I was in the kitchen as he jumped off the couch and did it himself without being prompted! WOOHOO! I called Ken thrilled, its a big moment, trust me!

Tuesday morning, dry again, the day went well and he even got out of bed after I tucked him in to find his potty to pee (note to self, bring potty to his room for nights). He gets a huge grin whenever he pees, and is so proud of himself.

Now we are on day 5, and we are wearing pants today, working on pulling them down along with the pull up. I am going to be testing the underwear again this weekend, to see how it goes while at home. For it only being a less than a week into this, I am pleased! Xander has been doing great, he is such a special little guy who wants to do his best. I am proud of you big boy in your big boy pants!

BREAK!!!

As of noon today, I have a mini vacation... no orders until the following weekend, so I actually have a FREE weekend!!! The first one in... gosh, I can't tell you when! Its exciting.... I plan to paint our bathroom, yep, excitement eh? Well its been bugging me, and its time, so I shall finally take care of it and I will be happy!

So once the orders were picked up today, Xander and I went off to pick up our paint at Rona's. Xander was gifted with a painters hat, and now is convinced he will get to paint with me... hmmm. This could be interesting.

I am also referring to this break as a calm before the 'cake' storm. The last week of June I am booked, every day... seriously, I have a cake due almost daily... a few times 2 cakes, but its nuts... and it goes on for 3 heavy weeks in July until I break for teaching at the summer camp. I am looking forward to that, been sorting out my lesson plans, and most likely will be doing more of that while I break this week.

Dad and Rita just got back from a trip to China. The kids got a few trinkets and Ariel a pretty dress that she loves.

I got a nice knock off Louis Vuitton, ooh! Haha.

So we got word that Ariel's dance school would be travelling to Disney World next summer to take part in a program called 'Dance the World'. Basically the girls would get to go and dance in the Disney World parade and take part in other events. We were really excited until we saw, must be age 7 when the trip happens.... Ariel will be shy of 7 by less than 30 days... DOH! It was a sad time, and she was disappointed. She could have gone but not danced in the parade but that be hard for her to see her friends take part and not be in there.

Soooo after some talking, Ken and I finally decided that fall 2013 is our year, we are going back to DISNEYLAND as a family! It will be Xander's first visit, and we are excited 'Cars Land' is opening this summer, how perfect will that be?! We are going to start planning and saving, trying to pin down the dates still, but have a few ideas. The nice thing is we can all go, not just how Ariel and I would have gone on this dance trip, so we are excited. The kids don't really know yet, so we will decide if we surprise them or tell them at some point. It would have been nice to go this fall, but I am already booked with orders and a wedding so it can't happen then, and you know me, if we are going, I love to plan, haha. Its the best part, hee... and I need to sew some new princess gowns for Ariel. Oh yay, I am so excited... woot!

Looking forward to Father's Day this weekend, Ariel's been working on something at school, and I finally pulled out our little BBQ to set up and perhaps try out weather permitting on Sunday.

Well, I am gonna go relax and enjoy my night off... the first of several. Ahhhh.

Supreme Weekend

Time to check in again, as life as been rolling by. We are counting the days till the end of school... which is hard to believe is coming to an end soon. Its been nice to enjoy some down time from our regular schedule and Ariel is loving the extra play-dates. This past week besides the many orders for cakes, we had dance photos filling our weekend and a pageant.

On Friday, Ariel's school opened up the 'Stream of Dreams' of all the fish the kids and family had painted. It was a wonderful project and we enjoyed looking for our fish. We have found everyone's fish except Ariel's... who is having a small memory issue to what it looked like. She has a rough idea, and I found a few like it, but she isn't sure... I am sure it will come back to her at some point haha.

Then Saturday was photo day one. We had her ballet picture first thing in the morning, so we were in full mouse mode again. Such a cute costume, can't wait to see her photo. They get a group shot and a individual one. Yay! Ariel got a chance while waiting to get a picture with class helper, aka the 'Cat', hee.

During photos, we got to see the schedule and who is teaching what next year. The way it worked out is that Ariel will continue with her one jazz class during the week, and then 2 classes on the weekend after each other, which she is very excited about. Its also handy schedule wise, yay!

We left the photos and drove up for our pageant. Its always exciting to see our friends and pageant buddies. The girls are so fun and supportive of each other, its really a fun environment. This time it was a 'Rock of Eras' theme, and the girls got to pick a time period and do a theme outfit and routine. Ariel did 50's and a CUTE routine to 'Rockin' Robin'.  She BLEW the crowd away, they were cheering and she of course loves that. I felt like such a dork not taping it, but I was more nervous than she was. I don't know how she does this, I am not a stage person at all!

People kept coming up saying how great she did, and pretty much was the stand out in her age group that day. Come crowning we were excited when she WON! Yes, this time she got Supreme of her age group, and she was SOOOO excited. She got a large tiara, trophy, sash and giant guitar balloon (which I think she likes the best haha). Her friends were congratulating her and it was a special time. We probably won't be doing many pageants come the fall due to her dance schedule, so we will enjoy our time when we get a change to do one... we are going to miss everyone. I am so proud of what she has learnt about talking in front of an audience, confidence on stage and just having fun regardless if you win the big title or not. But today was our day, and she was pretty proud... yay sweetie!

We came home and after a quick dinner together I got back to work on cakes and cake pops. I have lots of big orders these days that include a cake, cupcakes, cookies and cake pops! Its great for me but sometimes the space in the fridge is tight. One of the orders was a cute safari themed cake with matching cake pops, so bright and fun!

These are popular these days!

This was my fav, I want this for my birthday... only in turquoise.... and the 19 would be nice too, haha.

Sunday morning we were back for our jazz pictures and I did Ariel's registration for next year. I also got to sign her up for the special acro workshop they are offering the 'competition' students this summer. Ariel is excited about that as she has a love of tumbling and wanting to learn more and Mommy can't afford both dance and gymnastics, so this is a good way to fill the void and its great for her coming year in competition class. Her ballet teacher was telling me how turned out she is, and a good dancer, and she has a good future ahead of her in dance. Proud Mommy moment, yay! 

Today I was a class driver for taking Ariel's friends for their field trip to gymnastics. It was such a gorgeous day, and fun to finally help as our new car meets those safety needs required. Haha. Ariel of course was pleased as punch to have a friend in the car. Xander was the only one upset.. that he didn't get to go play. I guess we will be doing a drop in class soon! 

Right now we are waiting on updates about Ken's grandmother. She isn't doing well and we are not sure how things will go, all depends on if she responds to treatment. We are praying for peace and strength for all of them as its such a stressful time. We love you Yaya!