Arabella and Grammie

We all loved having Grammie visit for a week, but I think Arabella was the happiest!  She had so much fun t aking Grammie to school with her, playing games and with some of her new birthday toys, reading and taking her all around town.  I hate that the week went by so fast and we were all sad when Grammie had to go back to Florida.  We miss her so much and Arabella is already asking when we are going to see her again. 

Some of the fun that Arabella and Grammie had invloved playing in the yard and exploring...



Opening the Mother's Day picture that Arabella painted for her...



Putting together her Playmobil birthday presents...Grammie was really good at it!



We took Grammie to the Ecomuseum! It was fun to see Arabella lead the way and tell Grammie all about the animals!



We went to the library...



They did some crafts, went for a bike ride and played basketball!



We went to dinner in St. Anne-de-Bellevue right by the water...YUM!

I Love Auntie

Arabella had so much fun with Auntie Lori when she was here.  Arabella (and I) are so lucky to have her in our lives.  She is one great Godmother and one amazing best friend.  Thank you for all you have and continue to do for and with us.  We love you!

Arabella's Owl Birthday Party

In keeping with her owl obsession, she decided she wanted an Owl themed birthday party.  For a few months now, I have been checking out Pintrest for ideas and I was able to find a lot of cute ideas that Arabella really loved.  We had beautiful weather last weekend which was perfect since we had it in the backyard - she insisted on having her party with all of her friends (all 27 of them) in our yard!  I am so lucky and thankful to my Mom and Lori who were here to help with all of the prep work.  Lori came in on Thursday night and we got to work on the loot bags and other decorating prep that needed to be done.  Grammie helped with food prep and keeping Arabella occupied while we decorated the backyard on Sunday morning.  I don't think I would have been able to pull it off without you two - THANK YOU! 

Loot bag prep with Lori!

Yummy sweet and salty pretzel snaps for the party...we literally made thousands of these. Pretty easy and they were a hit!

We decorated the cabana in the backyard as "Arabella's Owl Nest"  - she loved all the streamers and owls that Lori and I made.   There were lots of balloons, one of Arabella's favorites.  We also hung her pinata in the middle - it was perfect for when it was time to break into it.  The kids did a craft - decorating foam owls, they played with the hula hoops, and loved the bounce house.  I also put Jay in charge of making a "owl tree" out of press board so that the kids could get their pictures taken with it - it came out great!  We hired Arabella's babysitters to help with kid control and it worked perfectly!  Emily and Megan are awesome and all of the kids had so much fun with them. 

I made the cupcakes for everyone but Arabella had picked out a cake on Pintrest, and I knew that it was totally out of my cake making ability. So one of my friends recommended a local woman who makes cakes - Made by Maya - in Beaconsfield and she did an amazing job! I feel in love with it as soon as I saw it and so did Arabella! It was perfect. I decided to make cupcakes for everyone since it was easier and there would be no waiting for the cake to be cut. We saved it for later in the evening after we opened her presents and Arabella was able to blow out her candles again!

We also saved the opening of presents for when all the guests left. I decided that with 27 kids and some parents it would be too much chaos. It was nice to be able to do it at a relaxing pace too. Arabella was totally spoiled by her friends. She loved opening her gifts and we have decided to hold some of them for "rainy days" since getting to use all of them at once would be total overload. She received a lot of nice things - but I think her favorites were the Playmobil sets. She loves to play with them and had fun putting them together.

Arabella had a great party and it was totally worth all the time, effort and planning that I put into it. She had a wonderful day and loved being with all her friends and family. Her smile and the joy on her face was priceless! Thank you everyone for making her day so special!

Fun Week Times at Preschool

It is hard to believe but the end of Arabella's school year is FAST approaching!  And with that, her teachers have had a lot of fun activities planned.  They have had sprinkler day, where they played in baby pools, on a slip-n-slide and running through the sprinkler.  It was the perfect weather...26c...and then they had ice cream sandwiches for a treat!  Arabella had so much fun - she loves water!  Even our friend Bram got in on the slip-n-slide action - I guess it was a great way to cool down after our Monkey Bar Gym workout!  Before the kids went home, the released the butterflies that had hatched from their chrysalis. 

This week we also had Crazy Hair Day! It was hard to come up with something to do in Arabella's hair and she wouldn't really it still for a picture. I brushed it out so it looked pretty crazy and then put pony tails all over the place with all different bows! It looked pretty cute!