Hudson's 11th Birthday

Maira's 12th Birthday

Maira turned 12 in January and wanted to have her friends over for a murder mystery party. I found a Hollywood themed murder mystery game online that I could download and Maira helped with the prep work. We invited 7 guests and assigned them each a role. Only I knew which was was going to be the murderer and which one the victim. The premise was that they were each famous teen stars who had just attended an awards ceremony and they were at our house for an after party. They all came dressed up and excited to play their roles.

Part way through the party, I had them sit down for a dinner. The menu was especially challenging as we had one guest who was allergic to dairy, another who was celiac AND allergic to peanuts, and a third guest allergic to artificial food colouring. Trying to find a cake that was safe for everyone was the hardest part! (I ended up going with meringues topped with fresh fruit). But I managed and I think everyone went home full and without any allergic reactions. They had a great time although I think everyone's favourite part was when I let them take the balloons down from the ceiling and they had a girls vs. boys contest to see who could pop the most balloons with their feet, ha!

Most of these kids will be going to the same junior high as Maira and it will be fun to watch them as they grow up and go through their teen years together.

My 39th Birthday

Shae and Jess baked me my favourite chocolate cake and we had a potluck dinner with family.

After dinner was finished, Jess got out a kit of cardboard screws he had that you can use to attach cardboard together and since we had stacks of old boxes leftover he thought it would make a pretty awesome fort for the kids to play in. After they were done building it, they had lots of fun turning out the lights and pretending it was a house in Minecraft and that there were zombies and creepers (aka Spencer and Connor) outside the fort. Sometimes it got a little too intense...

Hudson's 6th birthday

We drove to Raymond on Hudson's birthday. We had originally planned to ski at Nakiska on his birthday but the weather didn't cooperate.

We all enjoyed a few days together visiting with extended family.

I brought Hudson's presents with us so he could open them in Raymond and then Mary-Rose made him a spaghetti dinner and an ice cream cake. Our visit even coincided with a visit from Hudson's great-grandmother Cathie so that was nice to share this special day with her.

Jess and the kids having fun with the exposure settings on the camera:

Later during our stay, Paul and Ron built a snow ramp off the back deck for the kids to slide on.

We spent New Year's Eve in Raymond before heading home the next day. The kids loved having their uncle Paul and Uncle John around, as well as their cousins Brinsley and James.

John got quite an arm workout flinging his nieces and nephews onto the couch. My kids aren't light as a feather like Brinsley so it was very kind of him to include them.

A couple days after we got home, we had a "friend party" for Hudson's birthday at a wall climbing gym.

Shae and I worked together to sculpt the fondant for the cake. Hudson's main request for his cake was that it have rope on it so I made sure to add rope around the bottom.