Little Dumer News: Late Spring with the Little Dumers

Spring is coming to a close and the hotter, sunnier days of summer are just around the bend.

The little Dumers are growing up all the time.

In fact, Cygni is turning into quite the playground rock climber!

Not only that, but she now has her very own big girl bed and a redecorated room to go along with it. She was doing so well in the toddler bed that we decided to upgrade her sleeping arrangements. She was excited to pick out her own bed-set, and went for CUPCAKES! So Mom also picked out cupcake kingdom themed wall decals to coordinate. We were lucky that the bedding complements the wall colour too.

new dresser and mirror too!

Our babysitter Yasmin had the honour of tucking little C into her big girl bed for the first time last April and though we were a little worried she might be emotional about bedtime that night, Cygni proved to be excited for the change. She is happy as a clam sleeping in her new room, and what's super nice, is that with the larger double bed, we can now offer Cygni's room for guest accomodation! And that is exactly what we did when Nanny and Papa Charlie came out for a visit these last couple of weeks.

Nanny and Charlie came to visit following a two week Panama Canal cruise with my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Larry, and we were pleased to hear that though it was Charlie's first time meeting my favourite Aunt and Uncle, they all hit it off like a house on fire. Not surprising, really, as they all have much in common. After their cruise, Mary and Charlie visited Las Vegas for a weekend and then headed here. What a busy month for them!

We thought that the two weeks they would spend with us would be R&R for Charlie after a busy cruise, but after Chris' confession, on the first evening they were with us, to scrapping plans to re-do our backyard deck due to budget being blown on other home repairs, Charlie quietly said, "well I'll take a look at your deck in the morning." And that is how it came to be, that after being at our house for less than 24 hours, Charlie had our old deck pulled out and a fresh new stack of pressure-treated lumber delivered.

Jordy wants to know what became of his old deck!

In fact, we was quite upset and emotional that it was gone.

It was a surprise to us too! So we hadn't had time to prepare him for the change.

Daddy helps out!

I forgot to get a photo of the fully finished result, but I will do soon!

Don't need a picture though to convince you it is SO nice to have a bigger new deck,

one that is solid and built with a lot more care and smarts than the last one.

We can hardly wait to entertain on it! Thanks Charlie, you are one in a million! We loves ya, b'y!

Well, Charlie and Chris weren't the only people in the house who were flexing their creative juices! The night Chris and Charlie put the last screws into the new deck, Mommy was finishing up birthday preparations for Jordan!
I made my own pinata from scratch because I couldn't find one to fit my Pete The Cat birthday theme. Pete the Cat is one of Jordan and Cygni's favourite story characters and besides having groovy buttons, magic sunglasses and thinking that "it's all good" and "Groovy," he also loves his shoes! So I made up a Pete and Converse inspired pinata. Chris wasn't so sure at first, not only about the bare structure of it, but also about how well it would hold up to a few whacks of a bat! By the end he was convinced though.
I also decorated a cake with Pete and some mini-loaf cakes in the spirit of Pete's shoes too. It was fun to make and delicious to eat.

Unfortunately, I had less control of the weather and it turned out wet and grey. But that didn't stop us from having a grand time at the picnic shelter at Belcarra Park. Mommy's friend Eryn helped decorate and set up, Daddy and Charlie grilled up some burgers and dogs and the kids managed to find fun despite the rain.

Can you believe that our Biggest Little Dumer is already FIVE?!

The Pinata was the highlight for many of our guests, and that shoe took quite a beating! It lasted through two rounds with the kiddos until Jordy let fly on it several times before giving up its bounty of candies! Mommy may have a future in pinata making (actually, no thanks!)

We also asked our guests this year to bring a donation for Jordy's school, Children's Hearing and Speech Centre, in lieu of gifts. And we raised $225 in donations at the party alone! That's not even counting the handful of donations the school got online in honour of J-man's birthday, the totals of which we haven't been informed. Thank you everyone who came our despite the rain and who gave to CHSC, a place that is very close to our hearts. Happy Birthday, Jordan.

After the kiddy party, we went back home and some more family and friends visited to wish Jordy and Deb
a happy birthday. It was such a nice feeling to have our friends around us. Thank you everyone!

Though we got a lot of donations, some people couldn't resist a little giftie here and there. Here's a photo of Jordy checking out a cool present he got of a "dino egg." We put it in the water for several days and watched as it hatched and grew to a triceratops dinosaur!

And of course, Mommy and Daddy got little J a gift too, a new bike! He likes asking his friend Daniel to come ride with him now, and between Daddy and Nanny, he's finally nailed steering, though he still enjoys "crashing" his bike into the curb anyway!

Of course SOMEone in the house wanted to ride Jordy's new bike too, so Nanny bought Cygni a new bike of her own. We wonder how long it will be until she is riding circles around her big brother, poor little guy.