Hooray Collection | Sahin Designs

For Sahin Designs creative gallery for May, I used the Hooray Collection to document the Drive-by Birthday I'd organized for Madelyn.

She turned 15. Birthdays in the middle of a pandemic, are not much fun for anyone. When you have a child, that begins to plan next years birthday, after this years is over, it's even more disappointing. I decided to surprise her with the new Coronavirus-Style, Street Parade.

She had no clue. She thought perhaps Grandparents would drive by at some point during the day. She was shocked when friends first started to drive by. Then extended family arrived. So many came. Lots of smiles from her this day. 

The day was perfection. Not a cloud in the sky. No wind. People ended up parking and staying for a few hours. [I'm glad we didn't get the authorities called on us, because there definitely was a lot of loitering] We all stayed respectfully, 2 metres from one another. 

Having conversations with people, when you're standing far apart, isn't ideal. It still seems so foreign. 

In truth, this was the most people we'd seen, in over 6 weeks. I think everyone needed it. 

Even though she had other plans for her birthday [which involved inviting friends over to watch as many Jurassic Park movies as possible and eating junk food] This is certainly a birthday she'll never forget. 

So, so grateful for everyone who made the drive to help us celebrate our girl. 

The following Sahin Designs products were used: 

Alphas - https://sahindesigns.com/products/hooray-alphas/

J. Cards - https://sahindesigns.com/products/hooray-cards/

Paper - https://sahindesigns.com/products/hooray-papers/

Elements - https://sahindesigns.com/products/hooray-elements/

Happy Happy Collection | Sahin Designs

This newest collection, Happy Happy, is a collaboration with Sahin Designs and Designs by Soco.  Don't the colours just make you swoon? I  love them!

The collection is available now, and will be available for 20% off through the weekend, until January 26th. 

If you're a newsletter subscriber, check your inbox, you should have received a link that lets you get acquire this collection for 50% through January 26th. 

Not a newsletter subscriber? Make sure you sign up today to be eligible for future bundle offers. 

Here's a page I created to add to my scrapbook album. Simple and easy, just how I like them. 

This monumental birthday slipped by rather quietly. 

You weren't interested in a party. You weren't interested in a trip. Well, perhaps if I'd used the word GOLF in a sentence, there would have been interest... Not much chance for that I'm afraid, September is one of our busiest months.  

We met friends at a Pub on wing night Wednesday, you both wore birthday girl/boy badges. We ate wings, had a few drinks, and called it a celebration. 

On your actually birthday, we had to be at a rink [like we have been every year since the kids have been involved in hockey/ringette] But I did decorate the kitchen, and make you a cake. 

It was a low key birthday, but we did celebrate you. 

This collection is super versatile, I love all the colour combinations. Also, can't wait to use the balloons sometime soon. 

One thing we know for sure, everyone has a birthday once a year! 

I used the following Sahin Designs products:

Paper: https://the-lilypad.com/store/Happy-Happy-Papers.html

Journal Cards: https://the-lilypad.com/store/Happy-Happy-Pocket-Cards.html

Elements: https://the-lilypad.com/store/Happy-Happy-Elements.html

May Template Freebie

I'm always so excited to receive Krista's template freebie of the month. 

Here is the template for May 2019.

I love the scalloped look of the paper. I really liked how the 'scallops' were grouped together.  I couldn't wait to dive in.

One thing I knew however, is that I wasn't going to create a 12x12 size template. I won't have them printed. I most often shrink them down to 8x8 size, but I didn't want to do that size either. I currently feel like I have too many of that size.

So, I altered it slightly and made it 8x10 size. It took a bit of tinkering, but I don't think I lost too much of how the original looks. Here is my layout, celebrating Miss Madelyn's 14th Birthday.

It just so happened that April 15th was Leonardo da Vinci's birthday. Mad bought and took birthday party hats to school for a group of her friends. Together, they celebrated his birthday. At the end of the day she got off the bus, still wearing her hat.  This kid... She is her own person. As much as it frustrates me sometimes, it is So. Awesome. I hope she will always be her own person and not care about what other people think. Happy 14th Birthday kiddo! I think you rock!

The following Sahlin Studio product was used:

PM Celebrate - Elements https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Celebrate-Elements.html

PM Celebrate - J. Cards https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Celebrate-Journal-Cards.html

PM Celebrate - Paper https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Celebrate-Papers.html

T W E L V E...

It's happened. My baby has turned 12.

My little, who is not quite so little any longer. 

She's been waiting many years, for her friend sleep over birthday celebration. I, on the other hand, have been dreading it for the same amount of years...

My Mum hated me and my brother having sleep-overs. I couldn't understand it. They were SO FUN. That's what I thought when I was vying to have them and go to them. Now, I get her. I hate sleep overs...  The most obvious reason, my over-tired, cranky, unbearable the next day, kids... Hate that part. They deny it of course, but there are more often than not, epic meltdowns at some point the next day. I hate over tired cranky, crabby kids. Especially my own.

Having said that, we had a 'camp out' themed 12th birthday celebration.

She was allowed to invite 3 friends [my limit for kids sleeping over is 4; including my own] I haven't budged on the number of kids yet. The same rules apply to Mason and his friends. It was a tough decision, but she managed to narrow it down to 3 friends.

Thought I hate sleep overs, I do love planning a party.

I'm not going to lie, Pinterest does make me feel inadequate at times. I mean there are some extremely crazy talented party planning mums.  Some of them go totally over the top.

And that's cool.

But it isn't for me. I do like to pick up my favourite tidbits, and put my own spin on things.

This year, I was feeling a substantial amount of guilt, because last year, she ended up not having an birthday party. I don't need to get into it, but having or not having a party, were on Madelyn. Having said that,  I am still plagued with mum guilt. [Last year she was going through a Wizard of Oz phase, and that would have been much fun to plan also...] Here is last years invite:

It never got finished, or sent out. Like I mentioned, in the end, the onus was on her, and she didn't follow through. But the guilt... Ay-yi-yi... When your kids says, "Yeah, I never even got a birthday party this year..." To friends, aunts and uncles, grandparents. To anyone that would listen actually. Well, it does have the desired effect.

It's obviously going to be long lasting. That guilt.  I digress.

At least I don't have the guilt for this years birthday celebration. This one, thank goodness, was successfully planned and executed.

Here is this years birthday invite:

This was her first sleep over with more than one friend. So we had the idea of putting the tent up in the basement for the girls to sleep in.

She thought it was an AWESOME IDEA, and so operation 'birthday campout' was in effect.

I helped set the stage of course:

The dinner menu was BBQ-ed dogs and veggies and dip. I was surprised at how much some of these kids could eat! I'm used to the teensy amount of food Madelyn eats. Grilled dogs were perfect camp out themed meal. 

I picked up a red and white checked table cloth from the dollar store [I'll be able to reuse it for this years Canada Day celebrations] From the neighbourhood, I picked up twigs and pinecones to decorate a vase on the table. Easy-peasy.

After dinner, the girls did an outdoor adventure hut. They went around the block as group, looking for what was on their lists.

Alyssa did find everything on the list [the feather being the toughest item to find] There were no prizes, they just did this for fun.

The red solo cup... With names, as to not confuse which cup belongs to who... 3 girls with  names that begin with the letter M...

 

Madelyn requested a cookie panookie for her birthday dessert. I turned it into a S'more Panookie. I melted a chocolate chips on top of the cookie, and broiled a layer of marshmallows to create the S'more look. Made a tent out of paper and campfire of candles. 

The happy birthday girl, making her wish.

 The highlight was undoubtably, the trail mix bar...

There was no rhyme nor reason to this, just a bunch of treats. They could choose from pretzels, hickory sticks, miniature marshmallows, gummy bears, M&M's, cheese its, pretzel chips, onion rings, nibs, cheddar popcorn and s'more teddy grahams, marshmallow cones. It was quite a combination.

I crossed my fingers that no one would eat so much, that they'd throw up.

In the basement. In our tent.

And thankfully, no one did.

The girls had a great time. They laughed and giggled and squealed. Madelyn made a point of coming upstairs to thank me and telling me "This is the best party I've ever had!"

So, Mum guilt for this year, isn't happening.

And to be totally honest, they kept themselves entertained better than I thought they would. They hung out in the tent, rather than watching movies. They played a little bit of video games. All of them were gone by 11:00 the next morning. There was however, the anticipated meltdown the next night, at 10:45 pm. Those are always expected though, so I wasn't at all surprised.

Girl is 11

An apparent reoccurring theme here, seems to be the quick passage of time.

As in, where on earth does the time go?

One particular thing I've noticed, is that when you're keeping a project life, or weekly album, you tend to regularly look back through past years or weeks. With this style of album, for me any way, I capture little tidbits from our days, or an event happening in our lives. Looking back at a photo, with a little bit of journaling, can take you right back. Like it was yesterday.

One of my most favourite shows, when the kids were little was called Peep & the Big Wide World... There's an episode called Peep's Can, where Peep and Chirp are talking, about how he came to be living in a can.
Peep is telling Chirp, "How did I move here? I remember it like it was yesterday"
Chirp asks, "When was it?"
and Peep responds, "Yesterday..."


Also, the narrator is Joan Cusack... C'mon people, Joan Cusack. These cartoons are perfection. Go watch it now. I promise you won't be sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4_Xv6jxSw0

The whole reason I was reminded of this, is because so much feels like it happened only yestesrday. 

Another favourite line from this little video, was this:  "It was the best day of my life... It was the only day of my life..." says Peep.

So much goodness in these little videos.

Celebrating the birthday of this girl is a bit sobering, first of all because she's 11. Seriously, my baby is ELEVEN... It also celebrates the anniversary of how long we've been in our current house, which is also eleven years. That particular statistic shocks me because I'm SURE I WOULD HAVE CHANGED or PAINTED INTERIOR DOORS IN MY HOUSE, like I told myself I would long before 11 years has gone by.... Right? Wrong... Same gross doors... We can't possibly have been living with those blah brown doors for that long. Yet we have. [My guess is we'll have them when we've lived her for 12 years as well] Check back next year and see. My guess is they'll remain the same.

It took us 11 years to change out light fixtures in our dining room and living room and front entrance of our home. But we changed them, and I love them. Why on earth did it take so long to do that? Next year, I'll probably say, "Gosh, we've already had those 'new' fixtures up for a year..."

Any way, I digress, back to the birthday girl.

She's 11.

Our tradition of a special birthday breakfast [french toast] and a morning treat continue.

Nutella stuffed donuts... Which were very much anticipated. Sadly, the only bit of Nutella is what you see in the photo. After the first bite, they were apparently, 'very disappointing'.

This was her transformation for the evening. Into Rosie... A grey haired wig, readers and a grandma sweater didn't fool anyone into thinking she was 'old Rosie'. She was involved in the Musical Club at school. She had one of the longest lines in her 'Off Their Rockers' Musical at school, and of course, she 'nailed it.'

Miss Madelyn, you are an independent, strong-willed, intelligent, kind, stubborn, thoughtful and emotional young lady. You can be so very frustrating, but deep down, I know that if you possess the same qualities when you're 25... Girl, you're going to do things. The hardest job I have, is to be firm, to try to instill the things in you that we feel strongly about, and at the same time, be very careful to not knock down your self confidence. Every day is a juggling act. I want you to know, that no matter what, you are AWESOME. You give me a run for my money, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Happy Birthday Baby Girl. Your Dad and I are crazy about you.

Minecraft Birthday Party Re-Cap

I had Mason's 11th Birthday Party at the end of June, June 21st to be exact. Last year he was in disbelief when I told him that once he turned 10, the big parties stopped. It's actually funny, because last years birthday party was hands down, the easiest party I've done. [It was a sleep over/movie/video game party.]

This year, he was determined, that he wanted a small party. Just like last year, he said. 
Well, I'll be honest. He won me over. [That and one of the other Mum's at school insisted we should do parties at least, while they're in elementary school...] So I relented.

The thing is... I sound kind of tough, and I certainly can be... But I got the idea of having  a Minecraft party, and I was pretty darn excited to follow through with it. It started with the invitations:

Awesome right? Especially for a kid who is Minecraft crazy. So I was pretty pleased with myself. I had seen a number of invitation ideas on the internet, and just created this one after a few of the ideas I'd seen.

They got sent out in within the first couple of weeks of June. There was Mason, and 3 other kids. So 4 kids could easily play...

We woke up on June 21st, and found out all the city schools were closed... Our city, was under a state of emergency. I have to admit, that at this point, this was a bit of a shock to me. I had watched the news the night before. I watched as berms were being built in SW Calgary throughout Elbow Park and Rideau Park. It was raining like the dickens on Friday. It poured All. Day. Long. I had planned to pick up a few things for the party, while the kids were at school. Since school was cancelled, they had to come with me. This is the moment, that I actually started to be come concerned:

We stopped to pick up icing sugar and chips... For a boys birthday party... I needed to ice a brownie, and of course, boys need chips... I wanted mini water bottles to wrap a minecraft banner around. We walked into the store, and were met with this scene... The line up snaked all the way down the aisles towards the back of the store. Did I mention I needed icing sugar and chips? And water? Forget it. We left.

We ventured to another grocery store that wasn't busy. I picked up what I needed, and headed to the water aisle. And all the water was gone. Gone. And there was a line up 30 people deep to purchase the fresh spring water.  It was RIGHT THEN, that I might have begun to panic slightly... I went home, got a tip from another friend that the city's water supplied was being turned off, and I was then kind of vibrating a little bit. I then called and texted ALL MY FRIENDS, sorry about that guys, I did get onboard the crazy train for a very short period of time. I may have sounded a bit like a mad woman shouting, "Fill your tub!!" "Get jugs of water!" And when Barry came home, and he came home, with cases of water, thank you Barry, you talked me off the ledge, I opened a bottle of wine, and de-stressed ever so slightly.  The kids showed up for a sleepover, Miss Madelyn went to Ama's house, and I acted like I wasn't nervous at all in front of four 10 and 11 year old boys. The water was NOT turned off, and life carried on. We had a birthday party.

It was very simple to decorate. I blew up some green balloons, and drew 'creeper' faces on them. I also had left over glasses/napkins from Madelyn's Mad Science Party, so I drew creeper faces on the glasses as well.

Chips, pizza, vegetables. Overall, it was pretty healthy. I found and downloaded a free minecraft font to label all the food.

Downstairs, they had a treat 'station'. They were so into their gaming, that this was not very well utilized. I was glad, I didn't want any sick bellies.

See... I got my water bottles, this is why I wanted them, not because I was scared we'd never be able to drink water from a tap again.

  

Mason's Birthday Brownie. That was his request. He's not a super lover of sweets, but he loves his brownies. 

And this was the look on his face when he blew all but one candle out, and the boys he goes to school with said, 'we know who that's for....' And then he got red and blushed when a certain girls name got mentioned. Oy...

  

So, that's how it turned out. We had a party. It was great. Mason told me it was the most awesome party ever.  Such a lovely ring to those words, when you're the one planning the party.

As far as the flooding went. It was devastating. Calgary was hit hard. Southern Alberta was hit hard. Seeing the images on the television was surreal. I've never been so thankful to live up on a hill. Our hearts go out to those who lost so much. Re-building will be costly and time consuming. We donated $$ to the Red Cross. It's going to be a long road for many people.

Birthday Boy

There are so many things I need to touch on. It's been a long time since I blogged. Too long. In the past 23 days there's been Project Life Pages, updated in my 2peas gallery, a yoga retreat, a natural disaster, a birthday party and a birthday. I need to find some time to update, but this post is all about this guy:

It's hard to believe that:

 

In some ways, it seems like yesterday. In other ways, it feels like you've been with us forever.

 

You are a sweet, kind-hearted, little boy.

 

Your sense of humor is definitely emerging. You like to get a laugh. [Definitely takes after his Mummy in this aspect, though I'm sure Daddy would say he's the funnier one...(not)] 

It's been a pleasure sharing this adventure of life with you. Love you more than you'll ever know. Happy 11th Birthday,  sweet boy.

Double Digits

This little dude turned 10 years old yesterday... He's got TWO numbers for his age now... He went from this:

to this:

In what can only be described as 'the blink of an eye...'

He woke up yesterday morning, with a HUGE smile on his face. He is so excited to be 'double digits'. He doesn't care that his Momma wants to burst into tears at the very thought. Nope, he wants to sign up to take the Home Alone course, cause now he's 10, you see... Not only does he want to take the Home Alone course, he wants to stay home alone... Seriously buddy, I don't want to burst your bubble... But your staying home alone is going to happen in intervals of 20 minutes... Long enough to go and pick up a jug of milk, nothing more. 

Gosh it's hard to let go.

We celebrated his birthday this past weekend. He had a sleep-over birthday... Again, once you're 10, you're old enough to do that. The party went great, in the end only 4 kids stayed over night, which was the perfect number. Totally manageable. They stayed up until the wee hours playing video games. There was lots of laughter and lots of noise, but I think I great time was had by all. I have to get my act together, and post a few pictures from his party.

Last night, as is our birthday tradition; the birthday person gets to choose the restaurant they want to have supper at. He chose Vietnamese [seriously, be still my beating heart]. We had a delightful dinner then went over to Ama & Baba's for birthday cake. 

Mason, I can't believe you're 10 years old. I just love you to bits and pieces. Each and everyday I thank my lucky stars that ours is the family you came to. Happy Birthday little buddy!

The Birthday Party, that Nearly Wasn't...

This past weekend, I had Miss Madelyn's 7th birthday party. I just about didn't have one... I'm not going to sugar coat things... When Madelyn is at her best, she can be sweet as apple pie [with ice cream on top and perhaps even a drizzle of caramel] But when she is not at her best.... she can be downright awful.

Lately, more often than not, it seems we've been dealing with awful... I'm sure it's a combination of a number of things. We're heading into the last month of school and perhaps the long days have taken their toll. Maybe she's ready to 'be done' for the year. I know she's trying to push boundaries... [though if the truth be told, she's been doing that since she was in the womb]

She is a lovely, strong-willed, little girl, who has many qualities that are going to serve her well in her walk of life. Those very same qualities are the ones we struggle with as parents. It's good that she questions things. It's good that she has her own ideas about what she does and doesn't want to do. It's good that she can't be swayed once she's made up her mind...  It's good that she is her own person, and doesn't care what others think... Like I say, that's going to be great as she gets older. But living here, in our family, with her Mum and Dad trying to set boundaries... It's often a battle. For example, I don't want to have argue, fight, beg and plead for my child to get dressed on Saturday morning. I simply want to say, "Please go get dressed" and have the answer be "Okay, Mum". And it seems like such a simple thing... Some might think, what's the big deal, let her have a jammie day... But it's every day. Over EVERY thing... That was simply one example. It's about getting out of bed on a school morning ["No - I'm not going to school today] It's about what to have for breakfast ["Nothing... I'm not eating breakfast today"] It's about getting dressed for school ["No. I'm not getting dressed for school today"] It's after school when we have to take Mason to swim club ["No. I don't want to go"] So you can see how the battle might begin, because here's the thing... You ARE going to school. You ARE going to have something for breakfast. You are NOT wearing your jammies to school. You HAVE to come with me while I leave the house for an hour and a half... This isn't arguing about whether or not to put her hair up or leave it down... These are things that ARE going to happen... Whether she likes it or not.

I'm not going to say that I'm a terrific Mum and have all the answers... I don't. This child just turned 7 years old, and I still don't know what works, or how to get a situation from escalating once it starts.  I do however, know what some of her triggers are, so I do my best to work around them. I can often make her do things my way, without her knowing that she's doing things my way... I have gotten pretty good at making things seem like they're 'her' idea... Because if it's her idea it's great. If it's not, it's usually not so great. And even though I've learned how to do this, that isn't how things work in the real world.

Let's face it. As adults we don't always like what we have to do, but we still have to do it. We learn this in school at a very young age, that we have a teacher that we clash with, but the work still has to be done. The same thing happens at extra curricular things, where maybe we don't love the coach, but tough... That's who we're stuck with. Then we enter the work force and we've all come across someone there, that we don't get along or agree with, but your hands are tied behind your back and you do what you're told to... So I can't see that making everything seem like it's Madelyn's idea is going to work out well for her in the long run... 

Sheesh... All this, to talk about a birthday party, that nearly wasn't... I'm not an awful Mum... But I really felt that Madelyn didn't deserve a birthday party this year... Then I began to feel guilty about it...[you know who you are ;-)] So I broke down and planned a party.

We had a mermaid theme. I didn't do the 'Ariel' theme. We finally watched the Little Mermaid movie, and she was smitten with the idea of mermaids, which pleased me very much.  

 

 

I also didn't stress over this party the way I have for past parties... I didn't decorate like crazy... I didn't have a bunch of mermaid themed food to offer [though I found tons of awesome ideas on Pinterest] I didn't come up with a bunch of mermaid games... Heck, I didn't even make a cake... In the long run, it was great. Everything ran smoothly. We did a jelly fish craft, which the girls put way more time and effort in that I thought they would. We had mini pizzas for dinner, and I had fresh veggies and fruit on the table. The girls watched the movie, ate popcorn, had licorice. We had to turn the last bit of the movie off actually, in order to eat cake and open presents.

So, the party that nearly wasn't, was a big hit. And yes, after all the party guest left she came and thanked me for having her birthday party. To which I told her she was welcome and make sure she thanked Ama as well.

But if I was hoping that she'd be thankful and appreciative for a very long time, I was disappointed, it was short lived. Last night at bedtime, she told me that she wished she lived in a different family, and that we were all mean to her and never let her do anything she wanted to do.. This was because it was bedtime, we asked her to put jammies on. As you know, now at bedtime, its not dark. So why SHOULD she go to bed? It's still light outside. I'm NOT going to bed!

And, the fight ensues... After she finally stomped up the stairs to her bedroom, she muttered "I don't want to see you again." and something along the lines of  I'm going to sleep with a kitchen knife under my pillow. Yes... she said that. That was NOT apple pie Madelyn was it? No... That was the little girl I just rewarded with a birthday party for her unacceptable behavior...

I had no idea parenting would be this challenging...

She's Seven

This little girl has turned seven...

We're going with the 'Seven is Heaven' theme... She's totally on board. Please keep your fingers crossed that it keeps up. Six was pretty good. The last few months have been a bit rocky. As we ended six,  it was the pits... She knows it, we know it, things are going to be better from here on in.

We had a little birthday party last Sunday, because it's just too much to try and plan dinner and cake during the busy week. She requested steak along with spinach & strawberry salad. She ate everything on her plate. She also requested chocolate cake, which was delish of course. Ama & Baba and Uncle Chris came over to celebrate. She got some awesome birthday presents:

A beach towel of the Beebs. [Note the grin]

Girl Lego, she's thrilled with it.

Her very own digital camera.

Her actual birthday fell on Wednesday night. Our birthday tradition is that who ever is having the birthday, gets to pick where they want to eat out for dinner. Well, she had a super hard time, trying to decide between Denny's or Boston Pizza. In the end Boston Pizza won. It was a great choice, because they have a promotion on called called wild or wacky Wednesday, and there is a magician who walked around and did magic tricks and of course balloons... So, the birthday girl got treated extra special...

Crazy balloon hat

Motorcycle balloon

I'm not going to lie, the magician/balloon maker was very funny and had Mason and I in hysterics. [Actually, I was laughing so hard because of Mason's reaction, which was hilarious] He had Madelyn stand up on a chair, made her a crazy hat, then got the attention of the restaurant and announced that she was having her 17th birthday...The kids were beside themselves, thinking that was funny. She said "how embarrassing" once she sat back down, and it took me RIGHT BACK to one of my birthdays at the Ponderosa... Where again, I won't lie... Standing on a chair... Being the centre of attention... Wishing I could be UNDER the table... It was awful... Obviously, because I still vividly remember it over 30 years later. No wonder I'm so painfully shy today...

So now I've got a 7 year old and a nearly 10 year old... Eeks...

Planning Miss Madelyn's birthday party in a few weeks. Just wasn't able to fit it in before my San Diego trip.