My Beautiful Family

This is hands-down my absolute favorite picture of my family EVER. It captures "us" more than any picture we've EVER taken!

I am blessed beyond measure by my family. I have an amazing husband, and 2 fantastic children. You might notice, loyal readers, that I am missing a header to this blog. I am revamping it! We just got our new family pictures done, and I can't wait to update it. (I'm also still pondering switching the blog over entirely, but that was another post).

In the meantime, here are some pictures of my beautiful family!!

(thank you to Denise at Eye For It Photography for the amazing pictures, and her amazing talent and patience!)

Candid family shot as we tried to convince Tobes that taking pictures is fun!

My beautiful girl!

Just like last year, the DuLocks were able to join us, and so this is their son on the left, along with Princess and Tobes!

This picture is blown up and on my dining room wall.

Tobes was throwing leaves like confetti

Whee!

My husband and his beautiful girl!

They couldn't look more beautiful to me!

Not us! But these are the DuLocks! I'm so glad we got to do pictures together again this year!

Another one of Tobes' action shots. That was the theme of the day for him!

My hubbyman and my little man!

Chillin'

Us!

Again, my amazing little girl! I love her so much!

Group shot! The grown-ups are smiling like idiots because we think this one might actually look good! ;)

Me and my Mr Man!

I have a whole other blog with a whole other blog post on this, but this is what nursing 2 year olds look like!

Just hanging out ;)

I'm so glad we got this shot!

We snuck in a picture of Z and I while we were at it! ;)

Me and my daughter

My Princess!

We changed the boys into matching outfits. We didn't think of how much they'd look like little monkey-covered convicts! Cute though! ;) Tobes is on the left in this shot.

There's my handsome Mr Tobes!

Hubbyman. I loves him. What can I say?

This picture is especially important to me. We have a wedding picture that looks a lot like this. We laugh often, and I hope we always will!

Ohm nom nom...

My cuties!!! <3

Hubbyman and I <3

A Tea Party Fit For a Princess

 

Last weekend I threw my first ever little-kid party!! It's not that my children have never had a birthday party... Except for the year Tobes was born (just 2 days after Princess's birthday) they have had some pretty epic parties (including one at the zoo last year for Princess). But they've all been family barbeques. All of Princess's friends are the kids of my friends still, and so we set up the backyard for a big celebration with all our friends!

This year was a little different. This year Princess desperately wanted a tea party with some of her best girl friends (and a few little brothers too). So the first weekend in June we threw our annual barbeque (with a guest list of over 30 people) for Princess and Tobes, and then we planned the tea party 2 weeks later.

Barbeques are easy. Barbeques involve a lot of families, a lot of visiting, a TON of food, and an assortment of toys for the kids to occupy themselves with. We keep it pretty low-key usually and everyone has a pretty good time :)

Growing up I had epic birthday parties. Snow days (with snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and flavored hot chocolate), pirate themes (complete with treasure hunts around the house and a HUGE map my dad painstakingly drew for me), puppy themes, and more! I'm excited as the kids get older for them to be able to choose themes and have favorite things to help them celebrate!


Princess's tea party was going to be awesome! She chose the guest list, which was kept considerably smaller, and the girls came over for a few hours. I needed games, I needed activities, and I needed a plan!

First things first: the theme! It was pretty easy - a Fairy-Princess Tea Party. I went on Pinterest and scoured the site for ideas on decor, food, and activities. I handmade tissue paper pompoms, found teacups at the secondhand store, and my husband and I tried out recipes for the food. I also coaxed a friend into making fantastic sugar cookies for the event. I got art supplies, and found a list of games to play with the parachute my kids had received from another awesome friend for the birthdays (the theme here: I have awesome friends!)

And here's the result!

Flower scones (there was a theme...)

Prepping sandwhiches

Pinterest told me to make a chalkboard, so I did. I also made egg-carton flowers for the lights on the trellis. They were all over and looked like a vine :)

Tissue paper pom poms - they were all throughout the trees!

And more :)

Making crowns. The activities were decorating crowns (that I cricutted out myself), and then decorating foam butterflies that went onto dowels that my husband cut. The dowels had eye hooks with ribbon and voila - fairy wands!! I need to take a picture of the finished product.

The spread.

From left to right: butter, whipped Devonshire cream, raspberry butter, and jam. The whipped cream and the raspberry butter were made by me.

Outer ring alternated peanut butter and jam, and ham and cheese. The inner circle were cucumber and cream cheese.

The scones and the sugar cookies made by a friend. Not the best shot, but they were shoes, tiaras, castles, and hearts!

From her website! These were the pictures of the actual cookies (custom-made)

Parachute Tobes!!

Parachute Princess! (without her glasses... and I hate that she looks weird to me now without them!)

Playing games.

Happy Father's Day

We just got new family shots done, and I'm so excited to share them with you guys! The pictures of my kids with their daddy this year are AMAZING!! <3

It's not quite the epic post I made last year, but I wanted to take this time to wish all the awesome dads I know a Happy Father's Day!

This year I saw some of my favorite men become fathers. Some for the first time, some had repeat performances. I saw some people lose their fathers, and grandfathers. I saw people battle with their exes, fathers of their children, and I saw other people wish their exes happiness today, recognizing the contribution they make in their children's lives. This year my husband continues to cook, clean, kiss scraped knees, read stories, play, tuck into bed, and snuggle, all while working his butt off to provide his family with everything we have!

I am grateful for the amazing fathers in my life. My father, my father-in-law, my husband, and the husbands and fathers of my favorite little people. I am grateful for the positive impact they are making in their children's lives every day.

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there!!!

Decisions, Decisions...

I am not necessarily an indecisive person. I can make decisions. The problem is I can also change my mind as quickly as I've made it.  I have also had too much on my plate lately to worry about the decisions that don't effect my immediate circumstances. I have several decisions to make that are in my queue. Some of them are big, some are relatively small. I need to start making them though.

Decision number one is my twitter handle. When I joined blogspot and twitter, I was newly married and without kids. My journal title is a play on my married last name (it's Ukrainian - I'm a "Chuky"). It had nothing to do with the movie, I just thought it was funny.

But I'm now using my twitter account for more than conversing with friends, or letting everyone know how awesome my dinner is. It's become part of my business, and now the name no longer seems funny (especially when you need to explain the joke over and over and over again).

It's not as simple as just changing my name, though. I need to figure out if I want a separate business account, or combine the two. Do I want to just use my name, or something that incorporates what my business is? (I'm a private consultant as well as a health care provider, so my "company" is in essence my name).

Decision number two is my blog address. It's the same as my twitter handle, which was useful when I first started it (actually, my first blog was "Life and Times of Your Friendly Neighborhood Superstar), but again, it no longer has the same effect as when I first started out. And if I'm going to change my twitter handle, what's the point in keeping this blog the way it is? Or do I change it, and attempt to move everything over?

So here I sit, with these two decisions. And it's about time I make them.

For now, my loyal readers, I will let you know that I have secured http://theprincessandthetobe.blogspot.ca/ What I'll do with it, I'm still not sure... :P

Happy Birthday, Tobes!

Today I celebrate the birthday of my little man, Mr. Tobes. Today I celebrate my little boy who loves cars and trains and anything that goes! My little boy who loves to make music and dance. My little boy who loves to be read to and snuggles and coloring with his big sister. My little boy who loves to tackle and horseplay and wear his big sister's heels and tiaras because then he's just like her. Today I celebrate my little boy who loves his big sister and his mommy and daddy with all his heart.

Today I celebrate the little boy who made our family complete. We were missing a piece before he came along, and he filled it perfectly. I can't imagine my life without his smiles and giggles and morning kisses, and I am so excited to see the man he becomes!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Tobes! I love you so much!!

My little boy the day after he was born!

I love this picture of him - so peaceful!

1 year old Mr Man!

Exploring the Drumheller Museum last month! Mr Man is 2!