Two Two!

Maya is TWO!!!!

Happy birthday to my beautiful, sweet little Maya! It is so hard to believe that she is already two years old, it's flown by! Maya is the sweetest, kindest little girl. She has the biggest heart. She is a peacemaker and she brings so much joy into our home!! 

We had a fun day and it was so special having Ben home for her birthday- one advantage to having her birthday be on Thanksgiving day!! Here are some pictures from her special day:

We gave Maya a special breakfast in bed. Blueberries and donuts! She made me so proud when she reached for her blueberries first... before the donuts! Yeah!!

Caden was so excited that it was Maya's birthday. He helped her with everything- breakfast in bed, opening presents, feeling special... he is sure a good brother!! 

We spent the morning at one of Maya's favourite places... the ZOO! She loves animals so much. We had a great time!!

We had a fun Dora themed party this evening. For those of you who may not know... Maya is obsessed with Dora! Birthday signs look a lot better when there is an artist in the family! Ha!

Maya's Dora cake. Caden was probably just as, if not more, excited about the cake then Maya was!


The tradition of "smoking" heads into cakes... ha! The kids love it!


Thankfully Mom brought some pies with her for everyone else to eat for dessert... I guess she remembers what the kid's cakes usually end up looking like! 

Cuddling her new doll. She has become quite the Daddy's girl this past month!


Story time!


She is such a girly girl!!


Pushing her new baby


Maya loved the attention!

Maya got some really awesome presents and I know she felt so special all day long!! Ah, I just love being a mom! It was extra special having Maya's birthday be on Thanksgiving day this year... I truly am grateful to have her in my life. Being a mom is the most wonderful blessing.
Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped celebrate her! It meant so much to us!! 


We love you, Maya Moo!!! xoxox

Joy School

My kids are growing up WAY too fast.

Today Caden had his first day of Joy School!!

He was a little nervous about going but ended up having a GREAT time. I feel very lucky to be able to do this Joy School. I really didn't want to send Caden to preschool for various reasons, so I got a group of moms together and organized this. There are 4 other families doing it with us and they are all great. I will host every 5 weeks, which is perfect. I am excited for Caden to get to know the kids even better and have some awesome experiences!!

Maya was devastated to have Caden gone. She is so used to having him around. She cried in the car on the way home when she realized that we had left Caden. She kept asking where Caden had gone. It was really nice for me to get some one-on-one time with her, but I know she probably would have preferred to have Caden their playing with us :) (We played trains, trucks and lego while Caden was gone... haha, can you tell she wants to be just like him?)

Big Girl

Right now Maya is having her first nap in her new "big girl" bed...

How can she be that old ALREADY??

Monster Party

Caden's much anticipated "Monster Party" finally arrived, and we had a blast!

Caden helped to make and deliver monster invitations to his friends. It's funny to see little 4 year olds interact with each other. Friends are very important to Caden and he just loves to be around people!

Caden just couldn't figure out how to contain his excitement and was BURSTING with energy the entire time! Maya couldn't figure out what to wear to the party... so many bows and so little time!

I loved that Caden included Maya in the party without being asked to. He always ran to her to give her hugs, made sure she was sitting right next to him and paid special attention to her.

Here are some pictures from our party:

We started off making foam monsters which the kids had fun with!

(I was so grateful for all of Ben's help getting ready for the party and during the party.

He was awesome!)

Playing outside!

Playing "pin the eye on the monster". Caden thought it was SO funny!!

The kids all ready to eat dinner (chicken fingers, fries and veggies)

Caden's 5 eyed-monster cake (The eyeballs are cakepops.. so delish!)

and the furry monster bodies ready for the kids to decorate!

Maya discovered that she LOVES cakepops!

(She calls them "eye... bahs!")

I made chocolate monster body parts (eyeballs, horns, fangs, arms, bows, teeth, etc) for the kids to decorate their own monster cupcakes. I wasn't sure if 4 year olds would enjoy this or not... but thankfully they loved it! One of the best parts of the party!

Hard at work decorating his monster cupcake

Maya didn't care about decorating... but she did manage to eat her fair share :)

Doesn't Caden have some adorable friends?!

Caden got some really awesome presents!

The monster pinata I made. Isn't he CUTE?

Smash!!

The kids gathering the candy from the pinata. All of the kids got a turn hitting the pinata, and Caden was able to break it on his second turn. Couldn't have turned out better!

Instead of treat bags, we sent the kids home with the cutest monsters!!

(Thank you Superstore sale section!)

This is Caden after the party with his presents. I couldn't possibly get him to look at the camera because he was too excited about his presents to take his eyes off of them! Ha!

So we had a great party and I felt very grateful that Caden has such good friends! I love birthdays and that they are such a good way to help kids feel important and special! And he definitely did!

Caden is FOUR!

I can't believe that my baby boy is FOUR years old! We had a blast today celebrating him. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make him feel SO special. He had the time of his life and felt so loved!

Here are a couple pictures from the day:

Caden enjoying his breakfast in bed (He requested Fruit Loops)

Caden teaching Maya how to say FOUR!!

Dad and Caden playing with Caden's new lego

Kung Fu Party!!

Auntie Lara with the kids

Cousin love!

The annual tradition of "smoking his head" into the cake!

Love the expressions in this picture!

Caden and Maya eating the cake!

I'm too exhausted from the day to write too much, but I wanted to post the "birthday interview" I had with him today!

-What's your favourite food? "Noodles and hamburgers"

-What are your favourite movies? "Toy Story, Cars 2, Monsters Inc, Kung Fu Panda"

-Who is your best friend? "Xander because I love playing with him and George and Jack because they teach me a lot about Mario"

-Where's your favourite place to go? "Grandma's house, Boston Pizza in Airdrie, upstairs and the zoo."

-What do you want to be when you grow up? "A zoo worker because I want to take care of the animals and even if they are about to poop on me I'll just open up the cage and let them walk around the zoo for a few minutes"

-What's the best thing about being four? "You can go on the Super Jet (at Calaway Park) and play Super Smash Bros."

-Who do you want to marry? "Maya, because she is so special and cute to me."

-Anything else? "My favourite utensil is a knife because you can stab things"

I love that kid so much. I am so grateful to be his mommy!

Happy Birthday, Caden!! xoxo

(Just wanted to say how special it was to have Sheri there for the party via Skype! Love that we can do that!! Thanks Sher!)

Roxie

We had such a fun week watching Roxie. The kids are helping to earn some money for our upcoming Disneyland trip and they took their responsibility very seriously. They were the best dog watchers ever. I think I may want a dog sooner than I realized!

Caden spent the entire week carrying around his toy dog (also named Roxie). He took him everywhere! We even tied his belt around the dogs neck and brought him on our walks. Every few minutes his toy dog needed to stop and go poo.

Maya shrieked with excitement every morning to see Roxie. She gave her lots of hugs and kisses (and I think Roxie actually enjoyed it!) and also lots of cheese! Both Caden and Maya loved to take Roxie on walks and they both especially loved to hold the leash.

We have missed Roxie the last few days and are excited to watch her again!!

Caden pushing Maya at the off-leash area

Caden and Roxie playing "hide and seek"

Not "Roxie related" but I just love these pictures of my kids...