Woman in Real Life

I am expecting a great day on this particular Wednesday, it being my birthday and all. You know you're getting old when people ask you what you want for your birthday and you can't think of a single thing. Well, I did think of one single thing. The same thing I always ask for - a vegan chocolate bar, preferably a Go Max Go Jokerz bar. In frustration, my husband said, "I'll buy you a whole box of them then!" If only he weren't joking.

I also asked for a candle, another gift I want on every occasion - because, frankly, with two dogs and two children, my house stinks...really bad. Fyi, if you own a candle company, feel free to send me vast quantities of lead-free, soy candles scented with natural essential oils.

My baby boy turns 13 today. Imagine my surprise. When he was just six months old, I used to hold him in a standing position and say, "Look, you're standing up!" with all kinds of enthusiasm. I'll never forget the smile on his sweet face - he looked so proud. It feels like it was yesterday.

My mom doesn't like being the centre of attention. And she certainly doesn't like having her picture taken. So, a couple of months ago. when I asked her, "What do you suppose the subject of my next Nikon MOMents post is going to be?" she answered with a bit of trepidation, "My birthday party?" You guessed correct, Mama!

Luckily, Mom will do anything to support her "baby." (I'm the youngest of three.) Mom turned 80 in September and we celebrated with a small family gathering at my brother's house. Mom urged me not to invite too many people (there's that centre of attention issue again).

Unbelievably, my little girl is almost 10. My youngest child, a full decade old! I have trouble accepting that she is no longer my chubby-cheeked, sweet Gerber baby. But she is something just as great - a unique, friendly, happy, social being who brings sunshine wherever she goes.

We celebrated her birthday a bit early to coincide with a special arrival in the mail - a pre-release copy of the Monster High Freaky Fusion DVD. Watching this movie proved to be the perfect activity for my little gal's birthday, because it's all about teamwork, the power of friendship, individuality and acceptance of others. In other words, we are all perfectly imperfect and freaky fabulous.

I went with a chocolate cupcake base...because you really can't go wrong with chocolate. I threw in some peppermint flavour for a little twist. Of course, cupcakes must be topped with thick, creamy icing. I added a hint of peppermint flavour to the icing as well.

My daughter's birthday is today, just slightly more than a week before Halloween. The timing opens up some fun possibilities for party themes. And indeed she chose to go with a Halloween theme this year, asking her friends to come to her party in costume.

We held the party on a Friday evening and I pretty much spent the entire day shopping and decorating. The kids and their dad helped out after school too. Here's the birthday girl adding washi tape flags to party straws, above.

It’s now the middle of November, and I am still in denial about Christmas. The kids are busily cutting out toy ads from store flyers and making lists, complete with prices and store availability. They know me well.  A thorough source of information will better ensure I actually remember what they want. Don’t be like me. Start planning your presents now, so you can better enjoy the days leading up to the holidays. Make some cookies before Christmas instead of rushing to a crowded mall.

My little girl turns eight this week. Instead of heading to the movie theatre or the bowling alley for her party like we usually do, we decided to party old school this weekend, inviting some of her girlfriends over to our house to celebrate.

When it comes to little girls, the party theme usually starts with the cake. Once she settled on a pumpkin cake, it was all simple from there. There's certainly no shortage of pumpkin-themed items in stores right now!

In my earlier post today, about Papa's birthday party, I mentioned that we generally end parties with a bit of live music. Here is a short (poor quality) video of brother-in-law #1 singing and playing guitar, with my husband also playing guitar.

We had more than one reason to celebrate as we gathered together for my father-in-law's 75th birthday party this past weekend. In addition to reaching a significant milestone in years, "Papa," as the kids call him, has just finished chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer, and he is recovering nicely.


The girls enjoyed eating at this special table, with logs for chairs.

The kids (including my niece/our hostess's daughter, above) appreciated the colourful curly straws.


Here are Papa's four granddaughters (including my daughter, second from left).


Our hostess, in a rare moment of rest.


I discussed some of the party food on Wednesday. The woman behind the amazing tofu lasagna is my mother-in-law, above right.


Here she is with her eldest grandson.


 Papa with his son (my husband).


And, with his daughters. I think you can tell from the photos that Papa is a kind, gentle soul.



Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

I didn’t have time to visit a thrift store this weekend, however I still ended up with lovely treasures. On Saturday, we were at my parents’ house celebrating my dad’s 85^th birthday. Here is grampy with my kids (on the left) and their cousin. On Sunday, we visited my lovely sister-in-law and her family—husband, four children, large dog, two cats, rabbit, turtle, rooster and chickens. I’ll have some photos of that visit to share later this week.

We haven’t had much snow yet this year, so it took me awhile to realize that Christmas is coming soon. No, I haven’t done all my gift shopping or baked my holiday cookies, but at least we have the outdoor lights up and the Christmas tree decorated. Baby steps…

That's me, wondering where the years went.