a kindness

We survived 10 days without Jamie! He got in last night and we were all super psyched to see him again. I love watching my boys love on their Daddy. Seriously. Is there anything more adorable?

And this morning it was as if my body knew Jamie was home and I woke up feeling nauseous and with a migraine. I slept for a bit and now I'm feeling a bit better, but honestly I don't have time to be sick! I want to enjoy every last second of this season and I also have a bit {okay a horseload as my friend Tamsin would say} of baking to do before our neighbourhood Christmas party on Friday.

Also my brain has gone completely mushy and I totally thought yesterday was Friday and almost wished Jude's teacher a good weekend. Goodness. And then because I was all mixed up, I forgot that we had made plans to visit our neighbour who has chickens. But being the sweet lady that she is, she came over with six lovely eggs for us! I felt so bad, but we're going to try and head over there on Thursday during the day some time and meet the chickens.

We had scrambled eggs for breakfast!

Yesterday I lost my phone and I almost had a full-on cry in the parking lot. I had Blaise with me and had thought my phone fell out of my pocket and so there I was, walking around staring at the snow and slush covered parking lot for my white and brown phone. Awesome. I must have traced and retraced my steps three or four times. And I wasn't really upset about the phone itself. I meant I would have been sad as it was expensive and I've only had it for a few months, but it was everything else! Lists, to-dos, people's numbers, pictures, videos; everything is on there! Eventually I went into a store and asked to use their phone so I could call my phone. And then mercy of all mercies, someone picked up! A man had found it and had come inches away from running it over. He was working in the pizza shop and I could pick it up there. Thank you Jesus!

I have just experienced the sweetness and love of God in so many ways this past week and it's been in the little things and some unexpected blessings. One thing I've wanted to do forever is pay for the person behind me in drive thru so while the boys and I were picking up hot chocolate for a friend we were about to see, I decided I would do it. Well the lady at the window was such a sweet heart and ended up giving me three large cookies for the boys for free {especially cool as we were able to share a cookie with our friend's son too!}! It was so sweet and a cool way to show my boys that sometimes when you show kindness to those around you, people often will show kindness to you.

So all that to say, I'm hoping that our neighbourhood party would be a kindness to the people we live near and that this would be a fun first step in building a true community of people who look out for one another and freely show kindness to each other.

If you remember, pray for our little party this Friday night between 7-9pm!

Jude's laid-back birthday party

I decided to keep things low-key and relaxed for Jude's birthday party. seeing as we'd be in someone else's house, I wouldn't have any of "my" things and not really a large place to host our families, I decided it would be better to just chill at the beach.
and so a week ago we did.

and it was awesome. and relaxing. and a lot of fun. and exactly the way birthday parties should be.
don't get me wrong, I've done the themed birthday party and there's a part of me that enjoys all the details and planning but this was definitely not the time to do one of those parties.
it was a time to celebrate Jude, enjoy some good food and hang out with family.
so we set up a table, some blankets, camping chairs in the shade near the beach and tied some balloons to a huge tree.
then we did cake and ice cream as soon as everyone arrived so that it wouldn't all melt before we had a chance to enjoy it.

Jude loved singing and blowing out his candles and he insisted that he was in fact, not two, but three and a HALF.
funny kid.

my awesome photographer sister took a bunch of pictures of the day since I left my camera back at the house (which really wasn't that far, but it was nice to not worry about getting "the" shot and just enjoying the moment).

my favourite shot of the day. 

Noah and I had prayed ahead of time that it would be a nice day (as it was forecasted to be thunder showers and feels like 41 degrees!) and it was an amazingly perfect day.
later in the day I said to Noah:
Remember when we prayed and asked God for a nice day for Jude's birthday?
Noah: Yeah.
Do you think God answered our prayer?
Noah: I think SO!

it was a lovely, laid-back birthday party for a two year old and I wouldn't change a thing.

1/2

i am the best person to throw a surprise party for.
simply because i am always completely clueless and totally blown away.

example:
today.
a week or so ago i got an email from my sweet friend jen, inviting me and a few others to join her today to have a little birthday celebration at her place. myself and several others replied saying that of course we'd be there.

today i had lined up a hair appointment that was conveniently right before the party and as i walked in to jen's house with freshly cut hair {whoo boy i needed it: as in i couldn't remember exactly when i last had my hair cut} i saw that jen had a funny look on her face. within seconds a bunch of people jumped out holding signs with "1/2" and "30" on them and it took me a minute to figure out that this party was not for jen, but for my 1/2 birthday. you see, i turn 30 on october 21st which means i'll be in uganda by then.
my amazing friends jen & suz had organized a surprise 1/2 birthday party {i turned 29 and 1/2 on april 21st} for me in the guise of a birthday party for jen so that i would get to celebrate my 30th with my friends!

wow.

there were tears, folks. and then i believe i said that i was thankful i had just gotten my haircut. {oh the vanity.}

and if that weren't amazing enough it was a "1/2 and 1/2" party which means that people gave money in lieu of gifts and half of it i get to give to an orphanage in Uganda when i go! this speaks so deeply to who i am and what i'm passionate about. and my friends know it and are now a part of it.

best 1/2 birthday present EVER.

it was also a really great opportunity to say some good byes and spend some time with people that have been such a part of my life here in guelph and i truly pray and hope that we will stay in contact with each other over the next few years.

i feel very loved and very blessed and am still in shock.
thank you jen and suz. i love you both very much and am trying not to think about how very much i'll miss the both of you. {please write. and call. and skype.}

more tears.

green

happy st. patrick's day!

i often stumble upon crafty, wonderful, yummy or exciting ideas online and want to follow through on them.

so this year i decided to do a st. patty's day party/play date with some moms from my church.

we had all-green fruits and veggies.

home made potato tots (like tater tots, but healthier. gotta have potatoes on st. patty's day!).

green and yellow veggie tortilla chips with hummus.

ham & cheese muffins.

zucchini muffins.

peanut butter and jam muffins/cupcakes.

jen brought some amazing green cake pops.

and jude LOVED eating his allocated two "pops" later on. he savours his "pops". 

little licks.

bobbing it in and out of his mouth until it falls apart.

such a silly boy and completely giddy to be eating "pop" after dinner tonight.

oh and the party was a blast. so many kids and so much fun! we crafted, chatted, ate food and watched this with the kids.

the party

i love birthday parties. going to them. planning them. eating cake. {who doesn't?}

we celebrated noah's 3rd birthday yesterday. it was awesome.

the photo journey of noah from 2-3yrs.

when noah saw the mcqueen banner he said, "oh WOW! McQueen!" it was awesome.

about 30 of our closest friends and family came to celebrate noah's life and to play games, eat cake and shower him in presents.

he got a lot of presents. {to be honest, i was overwhelmed by it all!}

i had the kids decorate their own licence plates with sparkly glue {the big hit at the decoration station}, alphabet stickers {to put their names on it} and tons of fun stickers.

there was also a "tattoo" station where the kids could get temporary tattoos {do you know how hard it is to find non-gory/scary tattoos right before hallowe'en?}.

we played "red light, green light" outside and then the kids found worms in the backyard to play with.

then it was present time {whoa}

and then

the cake! {made by my mom's friend, joanne. thanks joanne! it was amazing!}

it was a fun day and so wonderful to have so many people in our lives that love us and our kids and we are truly, truly blessed.

thanks to all who came and helped and loved and celebrated our noah.

spiderman-noah. he wore the mask to bed. love this kid.