Video - a neck breaker!

I took this stupid video sideways - sorry!!!! Here's David after he opened his presents:

Happy First Birthday David!

Whew. I'm exhausted. Planning and pulling off a party - even a small one - is a lot of work. Clean house, have food ready, pick up helium balloons, pick up food tray, decorate house, have costumes ready - YIKES! Thankfully it's over and was a great success. And my little baby is one now - I can hardly believe it. 12 mere months ago I gave birth to David!!! Being so close to Halloween we had a costume theme party. A lot of the photos I got were after some kids took their costumes off. But they all looked super adorable. Pete - being a typical two year old, decided to assert his independence today by not wearing his monster costume. I guess he's saving it for the big day . . .

Anyway, thanks to friends and family who came to our party and especially for the wonderful birthday presents. A huge thanks to my cousin Stacey who made David's great birthday cake! I ordered a fantastic deli and meat tray from a nearby bagel shop - it was delicious and I think everyone loved it. For once I had enough food and not too little and not too much! The little tikes ate grilled cheese sandwiches - YUM!!!!

Here's my little pumpkin David and mommy the witch.
Samantha takes a break from the festivities to play . . .

Here's her brother Ryan who is 6 weeks younger than David but who has significantly more hair!
Nicholas takes a good look at David's toys . . .

Stacey's daughter Emily enjoys lunch . . .

And her puppy dog brother Michael digs grilled cheese too!

Cousin Stephanie holds David for a bit before lunch!

Taylor has a nice snack - what a little lady!

Here's the yummy spooky cake!

"There's no way she's gonna see me sneak a taste of this orange stuff . . . "

"What's goin' on? Is something big going to happen next?"

"Wow! This is really fun and everyone's singing to me!!!"

"I've got to get me some more of that stuff they call cake!"
Pete thought this was the best part of the party.

"Hey, first cake, now presents - this really *is* cool!"

"What does this thing do . . . ?"

Luckily the older guys helped David open his gifts! He wasn't into the whole wrapping paper thing quite yet - maybe Christmas!

Scrapbook pages - David's album

Here are some of the scrapbook pages I finished over the weekend. I'm very happy with my progress on David's album. Although I should note there's a couple pages I'm not thrilled with. Oh well, maybe they will grow on me over time! It was my first all day crop since I had David - very exciting. We had lots of fun, and the boys were very good for daddy. Too good. They took nice long afternoon naps for him . . . and for the record, that *never* happens to me. Peter hasn't napped in the afternoon in a few months (well, with the occasional exception, of course).

Ever had a bad day?

Well, I've recently been devastated by some disappointing news. On Saturday at my all-day scrapbooking crop, my friend Leslie (and I know she reads this blog!!!) informed me that the two new shows that have been cancelled this season are my two favourites. And Paul's too. SMITH and KIDNAPPED were, in my opinion, excellent, top quality shows that were well written and had superb casts. I can't imagine what sort of rating system would render these shows unpopular. Smith especially was a zillion times more interesting than half of what is on TV these days. It was from the point of view of a group of very serious theives and bank robbers, and the writers did a great job of making the characters completely likeable. Oh well, it doesn't matter now, I guess it's back to CSI Miami for me :-)

Ever had a bad day? A really, really bad day? Here's my advice . . . pop your children in a suitcase and send them away for a little while.

JUST KIDDING . . . of course ;-)!!!!




Here is another shot of Peter getting his skates on before skating. I'm getting closer to actually getting a shot on the ice, but he can't stand up that well (and definitely can't skate yet) so it may take a few more weeks. He didn't do as well this week, he was quite overtired on Thursday and just wasn't into it. He was one of "those kids" I used to coach who would lay there and lick the ice!!!
I'll be back later to post some of my scrapbook layouts!! For now, it's 6:50 a.m. and I've been up for two hours!!!

David's First Year!!!!

Reese's pieces

Here are some recent photos of my neice Reese . . . I think she went shopping with her mommy and got her first look at the sales rack ;-)

She looks like one happy camper . . . and I heard a rumour she sleeps better than David does (not like that's hard!)!!

Ahhhhhhh . . . the good ole' days when mommy is their whole entire world!!!

Love you Reese!!! Hugs and kisses from your cousins Pete and David!

Crafts and skating

Well, I realized the other day I have really not been fulfilling the "crafty" portion of a crafty mom's blog lately. I've gotten a bit lazy at taking pictures of some of my work so I thought I better get on board so as not to disappoint some of my fans ;-) . . .

Here is an organizer/planner that I stamped and decorated - can't take credit for the idea (it was Melissa's) although I did all the hard work . . . so darn cute I'm not sure I can bring myself to write in it! I mean, look at that detail - check out the hand made tabs and everything!

And I FINALLY - after 11 months, started David's scrapbook. I got the first two two page layouts finished!! I'm so excited because I'm going to an all day scrapbooking event on the 21st - so much fun! No kids (not that I don't love them of course), no distractions, just good company and tons of scrapbooking to get done. My goal is to finish 20 pages - meaning 10 two page layouts. I need to get my butt organized to get the photos and embellishments and paper I want ready to take with me that day!!! I will *really* deserve this day off because Paul is in Houston for the next seven days (yes, over a weekend!!! grrrrrr . . . ) and I am a single mother.



OK, I guess the bottom picture there showing half of my breast is a bit much for the internet but little newborn David's face was soooooooo cute in that picture :-)!!!!

I thought this birthday card was cute and I added some Crystal Effects to give some texture and a raised look to the candles . . .

I have a ton of other cards finished but have been a wee bit lazy to take photos of them. I took a bunch this morning and they were all blury. It's on my to-do list, ok?

If I get ambitious I'm going to try to knit a bag like the one my mom did for me. If you want to look at it check out her knitting blog - http://novaknitter.blogspot.com/2006/09/button-hole-felted-purse-finished.html
I think she mailed it to me before she left for England but I haven't received it yet :-( Hopefully the pattern is not too hard for me - I'm not a great knitter!


Paul was sad to be away to miss Peter's first day of skating lessons. Yes, skating lessons at age two! Gotta love the City of Ottawa skating program - hmmmm, I should know, I worked and coached with that program for years. Seeing as I was alone at the rink with Peter, it was hard to take pictures and I didn't want to take my camera on the ice since I was holding Peter up most of the time!! Although he doesn't look so enthused, he actually LOVED skating and did really well. He stood up by himself for a few seconds, and was one of the only kids in his group who could get up by himself pushing on his knee. He was thrilled with the zamboni and can't wait to watch it drive around next week and clean the ice - wanted to know where the zamboni "parks" and if he could go do some "work" on it!!!

Hopefully before the session is over I'll get some good pictures - maybe even action shots!

Here's my future NHL star :-)

Hike to Champlain Lookout

On Sunday we drove up to Gatineau park in the Gatineau Hills to go for a hike up to the top of one of the highest hills, to the Champlain Lookout. It took us about an hour to hike up and almost that to hike back down . . . of course we had a lot of little ones slowing us down. Paul and I went with the boys and my friend Katrien and her whole family. Here is Katrien walking with her new baby Lauren! They live in Toronto so we don't get to see them that often anymore. We used to play touch football together in our younger days . . .
And here is Paul at a moment he actually carried BOTH boys. Pete did walk a lot of the way by himself and David was more than happy to make the trip via backpack!! He had a great view!

We stopped an indoor shack for a snack on the way . . . here are Pete and Katrien's son Nikolas eating. Their birthdays are only two days apart!! Rob, Katrien's husband, is in the red sweater.

Yay! We finally reached the top and here we are - look at that beautiful scenery behind us!!! Of course we couldn't possibly have had all four of us looking at the camera . . .
And Rob, Katrien, Nikolas, Jaime and Lauren resting at the Champlain Lookout . . .
David and I enjoying the warm sunshine . . .

And here is the view from the top, looking down the Ottawa valley: