Belated Birthday Parcel Party

Last week Alia received a very exciting belated birthday parcel from Auntie Erin and Uncle Josh! When I opened up the mail compartment, and she caught a glimpse of the box, her little eyes just sparkled and she asked "Is THAT for me?!?!" You can only imagine the squeals and skipping when I answered "yes!"

I carried the box most of the short walk home, but she wanted to take the finishing leg and take it across the thresh hold!

All hands were on deck when it came to ripping into the box...

... unless little sister was distracted long enough with packing tape! Alia's played this "distraction game" before, can ya tell?! :) 

A special birthday card for Alia...

... AND a little love note for Larren! SO SWEET!

It was an opening frenzy, I tell ya! (And Erin and Josh... what a special little touch to wrap everything! It made the excitement level that much higher!!)

And when all was said and done, she sure hit the birthday parcel jackpot!

Books, socks, puffy stickers, jewelry, nail polish, an Etch-a-sketch, and some hair pretties!

"Ahh... here we go... Mommy's lens is useful for something after all!" :)

The instant her necklace was on and her hair clip secured, she grabbed some paper towels and made her way to the verandah! It was T(oe) time!

Little sister had never had her toe nails painted yet, and figured what better time than now?

She tried her hardest to sit ever so still...

but that bottle of sweet, colorful, creamy nail polish about turned her first pedicure SOUTH... in. a. hurry.

It may not be the prettiest, but we had one little Larren feeling mighty fine with her new look...

... and one very happy Alia, with all her new treasures!

Way to make the WHOLE HOUSE feel extra loved Erin and Josh! It was a huge blessing indeed! Thank you again!!! :)

Mighty Neighborly

Not a neighbor goes past that doesn't get a BIG HEARTY wave from our one year old!

Sometimes we don't even notice when someone is driving down our road, but Larren doesn't miss 'em for anything! Whether she's eating a meal, playing in the play box, splashing around in the water, or about to take a turn down our slide... she stops to wave!

Add a loud "bboowwww" (bye!) in there, and it's a sure fire recipe for friendliness!

Birthday Boy

Today, is my handsome hubby's 27th birthday...

... but our celebrations happened a day early this time around! 

Jon had plans to get his restricted gun licence (it's kinda like concealed carrier in the States, but not... cause Canada is a PEACE LOVING country and will allow no such thing!) today, then tonight he and some friends from Jer and Joe's church are out shooting skeet and eating meat until their hearts content! 

All in all... a very fitting evening for the birthday boy!

SO... last night our little family did our best to let Daddy know how much we loved him!

We made him his favorite supper - farmers sausage, perogies, grilled red peppers, and green beans. Though, I gotta be honest, cause the pictures don't lie...

I asked HIM to grill on his BIG DAY.

(The carabiner on the back of Larren's shirt is compliments of big sister... apparently it's how we roll these days!)

I know, I know... I still feel bad... but at the rate supper was going I would have been standing at that grill all night!! So Jonathan happily obliged with kiddos in tow!

Alia just HAD to put balloons somewhere, so we decorated Jon's chair with his favorite colors and a little medical tape for added flair!

After supper the girls took Daddy on a treasure hunt for his birthday gift.

Upstairs they went... with lots of "Nope, not here(s)" and then I finally heard Alia say, "Let's just go look in the bath tub." The novelty of the hunt must have been wearing off! :)

GASP! Low and behold, it was there!

Since I'm too cheap to wrap such a big gift in nice wrapping paper, when I know Jon won't care... we were left with only ONE gift bag (large enough) in our stash. A pretty ole' flowery one! :)

And as you can imagine, the girls were ever so curious as to see what Daddy was getting! I knew Alia would try her hardest... but still wasn't convinced she could keep a secret, so the only tip off I gave her was "a tool!" 

And because Daddy is so smart, he knew what "tool" it was even before he opened the case!

Though I think he was quite surprised! A Snap On cordless impact has been on his Christmas list for several, several years! 

The chitlins are never too young to get a proper lesson on how to use such fang findangled things!

Alia was impressed with the power. a.k.a. How loud and fast she could make it spin when she pushed the button!

And if big sister gets to play with it, than little sister will be by her side faster than you can say little Miss. Mechanic!

After another mini lesson for the little one, she was ready for a turn...

We couldn't get a clear reading as to Larren's evaluation of the power...

... she was just in pure shock that the thing could actually talk!! :)

After our little tool school, we zipped to town to OFFICIALLY register Jon's old '47 Chevy as his daily driver (a long awaited day for him!) and went to our favorite hang out spot for ice cream!

Once again, I'm so blessed that I get to "do life" with this amazing man... and am wishing him another year of soul deep smiles, fresh revelation, new experiences, safety (I'm a mom... it's ever on my mind now!), and blessings as he blesses others.

Happy Birthday, my love!

The Pic Pickle

So remember when I asked ya'll THIS question? I wanted your imput on the pictures being bigger, and if that was actually better? Well, no one really mentioned any pros or cons (a reminder that I'm really just writing this ole' blog for moi and ma grand-mère!!) so I kept going with plan B. 

But after a month or so of plan B, I've noticed a glitch. 

Let's let my lovely 3 year old model assist us in demonstrating this glitch, shall we?!


** Experimental note**
These pics are all straight out of the camera without a lick of editing... which, of course, ya'll know is my lazy habit!

Photo 1 - Plan A
 .... mmm, nothing like picking blue corn chips out of your teeth and having Mommy document it!! 

Photo 1 - Plan B

Photo 2 - Plan A

Photo 2 - Plan B

Photo 3 - Plan A
 ... blue corn chips for all the world to see, thanks Mom! 

Photo 3 - Plan B

and finally, last but not least (just to drive the point home for me and Gramma!!)...

Photo 4 - Plan A
 ... this was her "happy face", as she liked to call it. Maybe she's trying to tell me something, eh?! 

Photo 4 - Plan B

So... all that to say what?!?

Plan A it is! And now I wanna go back and change every picture ever uploaded for like the last month. If my fairy blog mother would like to step in and do that for me, that would be much appreciated!

Experiment officially over.

Thank you, and we will now resume with your regular scheduled program!

:)

Park Play Mate

Yesterday I promised Alia we would go to the park, since it was such a nice day... but my mid-afternoon the timing simply still wasn't working out. Which means we had one sad little pumpkin pie. So... I e-mailed Jon and asked how a park date sounded after supper? He was all in, and Alia was all smiles as I made a big hurrah about DADDY going with us when he got home!

What can I say? Daddy always makes a park run better!

Maybe it's his carefree nature, or the extra set of (way more fun than Mommy's) hands, or because the girls are thrilled with every minute they spend with him, or because he lets them go on item after item after item... no matter how many times they ask!

Whatever it is... Daddy makes everything more fun!

Alia's always a tad bit more adventurous when Daddy is close by! :)

While Alia and Daddy climb the highest mountain, Mommy and Larren play it safe on the kiddie slide!

The new found rocket ship sure became a hit!

Monkey see...

monkey do.

But again... when Daddy's close by, there's no fear! He's not telling them to be careful every 5 minutes like someone else they know!

And he was more than willing to check out the new splash park at the first ohh and ahh that escaped the girls mouths!

We had to smile at Larren's hand positioning. She was right... no matter how much we tried to help her get a better grip!

Though now that I've brought it up... she seems to be a tad bit shy about it....

so just smile and keep the pushes coming if you happen to be the next chosen park play mate!