Mother's Day 2013

Happy Mother's Day! Especially to my mommy, I love you mom.

Today was a super fantastic way to spend Mother's Day. It started off with a sleep-in, because the munchkins had been over at my parent's place for a sleepover the night before. Seriously, a sleep-in is better than almost any gift you can give this mother. 

Any gift, that is, aside from kid-made flowers, cards and a puppy!

The sleep-in and homemade gifts were awesome! But I got spoiled even further with fruit. Blueberries and strawberries to be precise...

My amazing husband slaved away all weekend, with "help" from the kids and a little from me too, to create an unbelievable raised garden bed for blueberries and strawberries.

 Mikayla shows off the strawberries for Momma

 Gavin gives mommy a handsome smile and strawberries, double win.

 My new favourite summertime drink: homemade iced tea

I could drink gallons of this. A great way to cool off when working up a sweat in the sun.

 Here are my blueberries!!!! Getting ready to be planted in their new home. Jan built the raised garden bed from wood he had laying around from previous projects, then stained it to match our fence.

 My babies water the blueberry plants

 Planting is hard work. Bubble break.

 Could he get any cuter?

 TA-DA!! Mikayla shows off the finished product. WOW!

 And, the unobstructed view of my beautiful Mother's Day gift.

Jan came up with this unique design idea. He drilled holes into the front of the planter box, and planted the strawberries through the holes. This way the strawberries can hang down like they like to. Plus, I think it looks absolutely stunning!

Gavin decided he would not pose in front of the planter, Spiderman had walls to climb.

Jan finished up his big project just as the family arrived for dinner! We capped off this great Mother's Day with a barbecue with my Mom and Dad, my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. Delicious.

Soccer Season

Spring soccer season started last week! This year we have all three little ones playing, so needless to say this spring is going to be busy!!!! Soccer three days a week from now until the end of June, oh boy!
So far everyone is loving soccer, even Levi has taken to it really well, this is his first year and he is the youngest on the field (his birthday being only two days before the cut-off). The U4 team is so sweet to watch, with all the little kids swarming the ball and often heading in the wrong direction.
Last week was really cold, poor Gavin had his first game cancelled due to snow! Levi and Mikayla got to play the next day (with lots of layers under their uniforms, and even toques on their heads!) But this week sure made up for it, so beautiful and warm. Looking forward to more days like this week.

Levi shows off his new uniform. Check out those awesome shoes! He's number 4 this year.

 Mikayla stretching on the side lines, her number is 7 this year.

 I was pleasantly surprised by how much she was right in there going after the ball. Last year she had been a bit more reserved, waiting for the ball to come to her.

Levi gets a breakaway!! Don't tell him it was toward the wrong net!

 Gavin running like the wind. He's number 8 this year.

He's a natural!

They are having so much fun. And I have to say, thank goodness for nice weather and getting outside and active more often. We do try to be active in the winter months, but it always seems to be less than when the weather is nice. It feels so good to get all that fresh air.

Angry Bird Birthday Cake

My poor Levi had his third birthday hijacked. His birthday party was supposed to have been a big huge bash, back at the end of March. Both a celebration of my sweet three year old and of the fact that our home is now diaper-free (woot woot). But... unfortunately a bad case of pink eye and strepthroat had our party plans flattened.
It was especially sad because this was the first birthday Levi was really looking forward to. He had been talking about his party and looking forward to his angry bird cake for weeks. It seriously broke my heart to call off the party. So, we only partially called off the party. We decided we shouldn't expose our friends and their little ones to our bugs, but our family had been exposed to us already that week, so we figured they could handle another day of exposure.
With all that in mind, you can imagine how the party turned out to be pretty low key. I just put out a few appetizers, no real decorations even made it up, but of course I couldn't pass up the cake decorating opportunity. I had baked 6 or 7 cakes prior to cancelling the party, so half of them ended up in the freezer and I put together a cake on a smaller scale than I was originally planning.

I had been doing Angry Bird "research" on-line for weeks in advance, looking up tips on how to make an Angry Bird out of fondant. I have to admit, I was supper happy about how these little guys turned out. These were the first fondant "sculptures" I had ever done, not so bad for a first!

 Umm, how adorable is my little guy and that coy smile!?!?!

The slingshot caused me the most angst. I couldn't get that stupid thing to stand-up on it's own. Oh well, no one noticed or cared either way. On the up side: I just love the wood grain look I accomplished for that slingshot and the blocks the piggies sat on.

All-in-all a big hit! Delicious banana cake with chocolate ganache hid beneath that Angry Bird exterior. Yum!