Birthday Celebrations!

signing "blue," and then indicating his favourite Wiggle, Anthony (the guy in blue)

So, the morning of Jordan's birthday was, of course, not the end of the birthday fun around here!  In fact, it is the end of the day Sunday and we are only just winding down, it has been KER-RAZY around here!  But a fun kind of crazy.  I picked Jordy up from pre-school where they all had enjoyed some chocolate cupcakes, there happened to be ONE extra which four teachers split between them!  After we got home and Jordy had a nap, our friend Eryn came over for some dinner and to have some birthday cake, because even though we planned on a big celebration on Saturday, Mommy had to do a cake and a little present on the "day of."  And since we wanted as little cake hanging around this house afterwards as possible, we invited our kindly neighbours, Orval and Sandy from next door, over too.

 

checking out the goodies Eryn gave him

Here he says Eryn's name! 

We love the way he tosses his ball into the new glove too!

While Eryn and I were having dinner with Jordy, he said "Happy Birt-day!" about fitty'leven times, but as soon as the camera was on he refused to say it, no matter how much we asked.  He did however, say how old he turned!  We're calling it a victory.

     

Wellington's Rainy Day from Orval and Sandy

He stars out by saying thank you to Mommy, then Eryn, but I can't get him to say Mr. & Mrs. Cosby!  Instead he calls Orval by his first name, he can even say the name of their doggie, Chloe but doesn't know how to say Sandy!  Poor Sandy, left out!

Dad with Mom: freshly coiffed and enjoying a night without kids!

As many of you know, Jordan's birthday is the day before Mommy's!  On Friday, Mom went and got her hair cut and coloured and then Eryn kindly watched the Little Dumers while we went to The Boathouse for a delicious dinner.  And a surprise present was Mommy's new Kitchenaid stand-mixer which I used at midnight that night to whip up some buttercream frosting to decorate my little dude's cake!

 The birthday feast! 

Thanks to Cindi for taking many of these pics,

as I was pretty busy that afternoon and am glad someone snapped them!

For Jordan's celebration day, we got the most gorgeous warm and sunny day!  It was beautiful!  And we were happy to see the sun, as it would have been mighty crowded in the house with munchkins running all around. 

Trio of Mums: Me, Michelle & Cindi

Jerry kindly gives me a little break and holds the princess for a while

 

 Owen wanting me to hurry and take the picture already!

 Jake explains to Jordy that The Gruffalo is his favourite book!

 Ooh!  The Big Red Car from Mom, Dad & Cygni!  This gift was a huge hit!

There's not just blood, sweat and tears baked into that cake,

there is a whole lot of yellow #5....

 One of the biggest crowd-pleasers was the Balloon Typhoon.  "What on earth," you might ask, "is a Balloon Typhoon, Deb?!"  Well, it's a big inflated space (in this case shaped like a clown's noggin,) and the fan that inflates it also blows around as many balloons as Daddy and Auntie Michelle can blow up before passing out.  Add kidlets, and your recipe for fun is complete!  Check out the snaps and videos we have below:

 In that big happy clown head is a BALLOON TYPHOON!

When we first set up the Balloon Typhoon, we had to talk Jordy into coming out with us, not always an easy task, so I said, "daddy has a surprise outside for you, come outside!" And henceforth, as far as Jordy was concerned the Balloon Typhoon was called The Surprise.  And the video above demonstrates how you sign surprise.

Nolan catches one!

After all the kids left, all of us went down for a nap! We didn't have to return the Balloon Typhoon til the next day, so we invited some of the other neighbourhood kids to come play inside for a little while, then we had some family balloon typhoon fun! It wasn't long though, before we had to say good-bye to the the balloon typhoon, and Jordan was sure to say, "B'bye!" to the balloons, and the fan and the clown's head. As Mommy took the kids up for a bath Daddy packed it all up to take back to the rental place Sunday morning, bright and early. We went with him then had breakfast together. Jordy took his Wiggles and The Big Red Car with him, and I am sad to say that somewhere between the restaurant and home, we lost Anthony - the Blue guy! Looks like we're going to be doing just a little more online shopping! O'course the chaos hasn't quite ended... shortly after we got home Cygni felt really warm, and has had a bit of a fever all day. She is sleeping soundly now (nearly midnight,) so we hope this will blow over soon. But a HUGE thank you to all our friends and family who helped us celebrate Mommy & J-man's birthdays, even from afar. It was a very special weekend for both of us!

3rd Birthday

Today is Jordy's THIRD Birthday!  And he's already celebrated a little:

Opening cards from Aunts, Uncles & Grandparents yesterday! 

Thanks for all the monetary gifts, the cash will be going into Jordy's savings!

And this morning, I saw this face....

and then I saw the cupcakes that I made for Jordan to take to pre-school today...[GASP!]

I managed to save enough for his classmates,

but I am afraid his teachers will have to go without!

And once Daddy gets home tonight, we will celebrate with cake and a couple of birthday presents.  Then of course is the big extravaganza on Saturday!  We'll be sure to post pics from both.  Happy Birthday to our favourite little man!

Happy Mom's Day

We hope everyone had a delightful Mother's Day out there!

Yesterday, the family allowed Mommy to sleep in for TWO WHOLE HOURS.  Wow!  After that Daddy made a yummy breakfast and we went to Jordan's final Sea Turtle swim lesson.  He passed!  We are admittedly, a little surprised, he can do nearly all of the requirements, but almost never performs them on command.  We're assuming the swim instructor must have sneaked a peek a time or two when Jordy didn't know it and gave him the go ahead for the next level which is Sea Otters.  In Sea Otters he will go with the instructor and two other kids and Mommy and Daddy are not required at all!  Won't that be exciting?  But we're thinking it may be a good time to take a break from hard-scheduled swim lessons; this last stint with lessons on both weekend days was pretty demanding.  After swimming we went out in the back yard and enjoyed the pleasant sunny day, had lunch al fresco, then later in the afternoon (after everyone but Daddy had a nice nap,) we went to see Mommy's friend Vanessa to help celebrate her birthday and partake of BBQ and cake.  It was nice to go have someone else make us dinner and be left with the clean-up.  And Jordy had a ton of fun playing with the Simpson kids in their big back yard!  It was a great way to end a lovely weekend. 

Thank you, everyone, who was a part of my Mother's Day and for all the kind wishes that were sent my way!  It was a good day!  xo  -Deb

 The classy jewelry box Jordy made for Mom in daycare

The Mother's Day Haul

 Pretty cherry blossoms in the Simpson Family's back yard

Jordan enjoying cookie on a stick while in the tire swing

Happy Birthday, Vanessa! 

(I dunno why there're 40s all over that necklace,

you're much too young looking to be that age!)

The 6 month mark

She turned 6 months on Saturday,

and now she thinks she is grown up enough to sit up on her own like a big girl!

Hooray for Cygni!

Polls are now closed, and results are in:

84% of voters think Cygni will have Hazel coloured eyes!

Birthday Parties and Other Fun

This weekend we attended Cousin Isabella's 1st Birthday Party.  We had a lot of fun!  In fact, when Jordy saw the photos we took at the party he said and signed, "Birthday party, fun!"  Jordy now says his friends' names: Isabella is "Lella" and Nolan is "Noey."

Om nom noms!

Guess who took a swipe at the frosting....

Daddy reads to Cygni

Rockin' a party hat!

Below are some photos that Preschool sent home with Jordy:

 Having fun at Gym Time with his buddy Ano

That is one of the signs for Pineapple

Jordan wearing the Special Helper Badge.  When you are the Special Helper, you get to help cut up the fruit for snack time and head up the line, among other things.

Baby Sister has started on solid foods.  First thing we tried was some rice cereal; it didn't really go over so well.  Once Mommy tried some sweet potatoes she was a little more willing.  We've tried carrots, prunes and oat cereal by now too, and she is starting to get the hang of it.  Right now she is only having a meal at dinner time, but once we've expanded her repertoire we'll branch out to lunch and brekkie too.

sweet potatoe 'stache

Sad to say, our Canucks were elimated in the first round of the playoffs this year.  At first we thought that in a fit of despair our little girl went and got another team's logo tattooed on her arm, but we later discovered it was just one of Jordy's potty reward stickers.  Hm, I wonder how it got there....

 We love this kid!

Last week our friend, and sometimes babysitter, Eryn came by to visit and she brought FINGERPAINTS for J-man!   This photo about sums it up:

He even got it on the bottom of his feet!  Wow.

Instagram moments

One of Mommy's current addictions is playing with Instagram on her iPhone, here are a couple of favourite shots:

Bath-ketball

Perfect baby girl!

You can follow Debbie if you have Instagram on your mobile device @debbiecakeslou.