Helping My Mojo!

** April 30th: I finally have edited this post. All added text is in blue. Sorry for the delay!**

I've been working on 3 layouts (for Marley's baby album) of our trip to the UK in September of 2004. It's been a slow process! I used a PageMaps sketch for the first page and then just adapted it (kind of) and used the same papers for the next two pages. The last layout has been sitting unfinished on the dining room table for about a week or so (just got it done a little bit ago) so Paige decided to help me out. I'd been playing with adding button embellishments to it so she took it to the next level!!

Picking JUST the right button ...

... and thinking about where to place it!

Pretty pleased with her composition!

She was so proud of herself that I hated to wreck her hard work! Then again, having buttons all over my journalling wasn't the best idea. LOL!

SO without further ado, my 3 layouts:

As mentioned above, I followed a sketch for the first layout (from the January 2009 PageMaps collection) but not for the other two. I made the decision to keep them looking cohesive with the same Basic Grey papers, simple blue cardstock and similar floral embellishments. Here are the closeup/detail shots.

Our fist stop was to visit my guardians (my dear Aunt May and Uncle Alasdair) in Southampton. We managed to fit in a lot in just a few days!! Oh, and even though wee cousin Lucy was kept away from Marley, she ended up catching her Chicken Pox anyway!! Kids!

On a personal note (and totally NOT scrapbook related), Aunt May has been battling hard lately and I am very worried about her. Staring at her picture as I was creating this layout made me feel closer to her. I wish I WAS closer to her! The miles are many but my heart doesn't know them!! Be well, Aunt May.

From Southampton we went to visit another Aunt and Uncle (I have LOTS in Britain!!) who lived at the time in a little village called St. Neots. The added bonus (besides getting to visit Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Arthur) was the fact that St. Neots was really close to the village where I grew up - Bar Hill. So we popped in to show Greg and Marley my old house (looking SO small!) and then went to explore nearby Cambridge.

 

From St. Neot's we went to London to stay with cousins. Marley got her first taste of jealousy when my cousin's little girl kept going to Greg! LOL!

And our last stop was in Glasgow - where all my family originally hails from! This was mostly a time to see family but we did sneak in a day in the city. We tried to go through to Edinburgh one day (I lived there for a couple years after univeristy) but that was right about the time Marley started to feel the effects of the on coming Chicken Pox and voiced her dissatisfaction quite loudly! So the trip was abandoned!

 

I will try and come back to add commentary about the pics but right now I have a raving lunatic in my lap (i.e an extremely unhappy 13 month old!) Thanks for checking out my pages. Hope to get back to this soon!!

Well, thanks again for checking back. Oh, and the "raving lunatic" is also on the mend. She been teething or something this past week and has had the worst poops and diaper rash imaginable. Plus she'd taken to only sleeping with Mommy and Daddy! NEVER a good arrangement for the Mommy and Daddy!! But (fingers crossed) I think we turned a corner last night and are on the mend. No sign of more teeth though so I'm sure a repeat or two are in our future! Great!!

Something to share ...

I am a fan of Moms Who Need Wine on FB and there was an article today that really struck a nerve. Today is actually a quiet day here and I have enjoyed blog surfing with my morning coffee while Marley is at Kindergarten. I have grand housework plans for the afternoon so hopefully all the kids cooperate and play nicely together (HA!) But on those busier, hectic days when I wonder what the heck Greg and I got ourselves into when we decided to have kids, I will remember this article and know that the future is bright!!

LOL!

Paige's Birthday Celebrations

Paige has somehow managed to stretch out her birthday celebrations over several days! She's only 4 but she knows how to milk it!! What a quick learner!!
Last Thursday (the 15th - her actual birthday) was a busy day. Thursday's are extraordinarily busy for us because I somehow managed to book multiple activities on Thursdays. Won't let that happen again let me tell you!! So hugs and kisses had to suffice for her in the morning before rushing off to preschool. I was the duty parent and we brought cupcakes as a special treat (for the sake of record keeping, let's call this celebration #1.) After preschool, we rushed home for a quick lunch and to open presents (celebration #2) before heading off to gymnastics. Gymnastics was followed a little later by the last swimming lesson of their current set and from there directly to Marley's field hocky practice. Phew! Are you tired yet?

I like to call this the "how do you expect me to eat my lunch with those huge tempting presents right in front of me?" shot. LOL!

Paige now has her very own soccer ball. No pressure!

Yay! Another really noisy game to drive Mom crazy with!!

Friday we gave her the recognition she deserved and took her out for a birthday dinner. In our family we have a tradition that the birthday girl (or boy - poor Greg is SO outnumbered!) gets to choose where they want to go for dinner. Within reason of course. Not that it's a factor YET! Paige being Paige chose McDonalds. What can I say? Not great for us but the kids love it and (bonus) they can run off some energy before bed. So that was celebration #3.
Saturday we prepped the house for the BIG ONE - celebration #4. Namely, a Go Bananas birthday party! Sort of. We planned to meet at Go Bananas for a hour of play before returning to our place for food, cake and presents. Paige was really into it but had trouble with the concept that the whole party wasn't going to be at Go Bananas. Ah well. Confusion aside I think she had a great time.

First the "little cousins" at Go Bananas. Sadie, ...

... Griffin, ...

... and LC.

I call this one "The Paparazzi!" When there are 12 kids 6 and under sitting around a table it is inevitable that their parents gather close by!

The present opening frenzy!

Blowing out the candles - take 2 (because Daddy wasn't fast enough on Take1!)

The cake - there is a story here ... but it's a long one. Suffice it to say that icing is a great glue alternative when your cake breaks into pieces coming out of the pan. Oh, and lesson learned about putting the fresh strawberries onto the cake and then letting it sit out of the fridge too long. Oops!

Good thing Paige loved it regardless!!

Celebration #5 happened on Sunday when we met up with Greg's parents at Marley's field hockey game and had cupcakes and presents in the park afterward. And then celebration #6 happened yesterday (Monday) when my parents took her (and Marley - because it wouldn't be right to go anywhere without Marley) to McDonalds (surprise, surprise!) and the park. Again. The girl is swing obsessed!
So ... lucky girl! 6 parties just for her! No wonder she had a melt down on our preschool field trip to Thrifty's today! She really doesn't like being the centre of attention and she's just had days and days of it. I guess a few tears about putting on a hairnet to go into the meat packing area is to be understood. Right?

There was some initial trepidation about turning 4 but I think she has come around and is now embracing her new age. Greg and I have seen her take new strides forward recently and we hope that trend continues as the year passes. It's neat to see her heading off on her own, blazing her own trail so to speak. I can't wait to see what happens next!!

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Marley has had a couple "wiggly" teeth for about 5 or 6 weeks now. Basically since her 6th birthday - that was when I discovered the first one anyway. On Saturday as we are getting ready for Paige's birthday party she comes racing over to me with something clutched in her hand.
"Mom! Mom! Look!!!" She squeals. I'm used to such emotionally charged outbursts from her that usually are to tell me that she unlocked a new bike on MarioKart or to show me a Goldfish cracker with no smile or something along those lines. Needless to say, I was not expecting to be blown away.
But I was! There in her hand was her tooth! So small!! Such a milestone! (And to happen on Paige's "day" too ... hmmm, if I didn't know better I'd say she planned it that way. But that would be mean spirited of both her and me!!)

Here is that first little tooth ...

... and the proud, gap-mouthed Marley!

We wrapped up her tooth in a tissue but instead of putting it under her pillow right away for the Tooth Fairy, she wanted to save it and show it to her Kindergarten teacher. She quite innocently asked if we could ask the Tooth Fairy to come on Monday instead. Hmm ... yup, I think that could be arranged! LOL! So after the pictures were taken and sufficient attention paid to the now gap-mouthed 6 year old, preparations for Paige's party could be resumed. (I'll post about that in a bit!)

The next day was Sunday and Marley had a field hockey game. We scrambled to get there and once there discovered we'd forgotten her mouth guard. It went something like this:

Greg: "Where's Marley's mouth guard?"

Me: "I don't know, where'd she have it last?"

Greg: "At practice I'd assume. Is it in her bag?"

Me: "I'm looking ... no, it's not here. Is it in her stick bag?'

Greg: "I already looked there!"

Me: "Well, I don't know where it is! Why are you looking at me like that?!"

Greg: "Like what?!"

Well, you get the idea. Nothing like organized sports ('fun' leagues at that) to bring out the best in parents!! In the end she played with out it. I figured the worst that could happen is that she'd lose the OTHER loose tooth in her mouth! By this time it was looking like a good hard sneeze would knock it out! But she did not. At least, not then! We'd been home for all of I think 15 minutes when she came running with the familiar "Mom! Mom! Look!"

Tooth #2 was in her hand!

"Now I can stick my tongue through the gap, Mom. Want to see?"

So we added tooth #2 to tooth #1 and returned them to the school bag. Now she had an even bigger surprise for her teacher! And the Tooth Fairy was saved a return trip!!

After much research, we determined that the going rate for teeth these days is $2/tooth. So this morning this is what Marley found under her pillow. Diggin' the bed-head btw!!

(For my non-Canadian readers, these are Loonies - our $1 coins!)

Greg and I are suddenly faced with the harsh reality that our little girl is not so little anymore. When did that happen?!?!? Sigh. Soon she'll have adult teeth! Sigh. What's next? Bras and makeup? Yikes!!

Paige is 4!

As hard as it was for me to wrap my head around LC turning 1 a few weeks ago, it is equally (if not more so) hard to figure out how the heck cute little, blondey blonde Paige became a 4 year old. An extremely independent, fun loving, athletic, did I mention independent (?) 4 year old!! She was my baby girl for 3 years and even now I still have a soft spot for her. We struggle to get her to eat vegetables. We struggle to understand her speach. We struggle to get her to do anything new that even remotely looks different from what she is used to. We sometimes even struggle to get her to do things that she's been doing for months and months!! But through it all, she is a joy. She has a way of giving you a full body, cheeky grin that melts your heart and makes you forget about the hour long screaming tantrum she just had about .. oh, I don't know ... putting a coat on in the middle of winter or something equally inane.

Here are some of my favourite pictures from the past year. You know how hard it has been sometimes to get pictures of her so enjoy these!

June 4/09 - Paige and her BFF had some fun playing in the sand during one of Marley's Blastball games!

June 17/09 - Father's Day Picnic: This was a typical shot of Paige at this time. She LOVED to pull faces!

July 1/09 - Canada Day pancake breakfast in Ladner Village. I just think she looks so serious here. Like she's concentrating on waving that flag so hard there's no room for anything else. So cute!

July 11/09 - We had such a hot summer last year! A LOT of time was spent in the backyard with some sort of frozen treat. Can't you just see the impishness oozing out of her in this picture?

July 26/09 - More of her impish side coming out. She is such a jokester sometimes!!

Oct 24/09 - Paige has a lot of love for her baby sister but sometimes shows it a bit too roughly for LC and my liking. Not here though. Here she is all Proud Big Sister!

Dec 4/09 - I can't remember if I blogged about this moment already (probably) but I was SO proud of Paige this day! She had made a card for our Mailman and one day when we opened the mailbox there was a letter with HER name on it. Inside was a thank you note and these stickers. I don't think her feet touched the ground for the rest of the WEEK!!

Dec 23/09 - I remember that Paige wanted to me to take her picture with her favourite bear ("Shakey Bear"). It was kind of out of the blue and we had been in a long hiding-from-the-camera phase with her so I agreed! She looks so grown up in her jeans but I know if I tried to take that bear away I'd rediscover my baby girl!

Jan 18/10 - I'd just bought my Canon Rebel so took it to her ballet class to "play with it". Paige loves to dance! She is constantly hopping, twirling, skipping, jumping, ... you get the idea. Music speaks to her in a way that is special to see.

Jan 23/10 - More playing around with the new camera. But I just love how this photo captures her cheekiness! Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE my new camera?!?!

Feb 15/10 - This was taken during all the festivities surrounding the Olympics (ah, the Olympics ... how I still miss them!! but that's another ramble!) We nicknamed her older sister Monkey because she was climbing before she could walk but I often think it's a moniker we could easily have used for Paige too. And LC for that matter!! Maybe our particular gene pool isn't as far removed from the apes as others? LOL!

Mar 13/10 - Ah Hawaii!! Let's all take a moment to hear the surf, feel the tropical breeze and be warmed by the sun .... and we're back. To reality. Sigh. Greg can't look past the sand around Paige's mouth in this picture but somehow this is one of my absolute favourite snaps of her. I don't know if it's the colours, the grin, the flyaway hair ... but I think she looks amazing here!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little montage of Paige's 3rd year of life. She is a wonderful little girl that I have the privilege of raising. Scary as that thought may be sometimes!! She's moody and uber-cautious but once she finally conquers her nerves she is able to do things that amaze me. Like the flying leaps from the side of the pool in her swimming lessons lately. I'm talking full on swan dives without the actual diving part (water's a bit too shallow to allow that!) Arms and legs stretched to the max. Her characteristic grin plastered ear to ear. It's a sight to behold! Or the acrobatics she was (mostly successfully) pulling on the monkey bars at Marley's school today. Just heart stopping. Quite literally! She has spent the later half of this past year of life really coming into her own. I can't WAIT to see what she does next! Although, according to her she wants to stay 3 forever. Go figure.

I love you Paige! Happy 4th Birthday Sweetheart!!