~I adore Autumn!~

Autumn is my absolute fave season. I don't think that I know anyone who doesn't like Autumn! The colours, the crisp air and sun shining days, the smell of wood burning...everything about it is just cozy!

My absolute favourite thing to do is cuddle up with a warm blanket, a cup of tea and a good book. I also love to go for walks with the kids. The kids love it too. We have going for walks at Heber Downs. Caleb loves to collect all the different colour leaves and pick his favourite to take home.

We also make sure to have a trip to the pumpkin patch. We haven't gone yet, but are thinking about going on the long weekend.

I hope everyone else is enjoying the wonderful Fall weather!

~Madison's Birthday~

Madison turned 13 years old yesterday! She had a wonderful day!

Getting ready to blow out the candles. Look at that smile!!

Her awesome 13th Birthday cake

(I would love to take credit for this but...The Sugar Chalet in Oshawa were the creators)

Liking her gift from Mom and Dad!

Opening another gift

Getting ready to open her gifts

She said that she had a Great day from beginning to end! She's now at the mall, spending all of her birthday money!

~The Tooth Fairy Sucks!~

Unfortunately, The Tooth Fairy keeps forgetting to come to our house. Luckily I have a very patient and non-demanding almost 10 year old who is okay with this!

I do believe that The Tooth Fairy will visit tonight

...if she remembers *sigh*

It would be nice if the male Tooth Fairy stopped by once in a while but I don't think he exists!

~Counting Down...~

The Hendry girls will be celebrating Birthdays soon and the countdowns have begun!

Birthday Tickers

~August has been busy!~

August just seems to be flying by. We have been busy with birthday parties, vacations, day camps and lots of different day trips. The kids have been loving it! & Mom and Dad are tired!
Only 2 weeks left now till school starts and we are going to make the most of what is left of summer.
I have to say that this summer has been a very good one, both with the weather and the amount of time we have been able to spend together. This is the first year that the kids have not gone to visit my parents for a couple of weeks and it has been nice to have them home the whole time.
We are now busy with back to school shopping. We've already gotten backpacks and lunch bags and next on the list is to get school supplies. Then it is first day of school outfits.

I usually try and do a back to school craft with the kids. Something that they will be able to use at school.
Last year we made cute little toadstool pencils found at this website. Avery loved them as she is so into the whole Mario Bros theme.
A few years ago we also decorated pencils, the idea taken from the Martha Stewart website.
I'm on the search for a new idea for this year.
When I find one, of course I will be sure to share!

~Family Night Out & A Yummy Idea~

Last night we went out for a family night of fun. The weather was mostly rainy and wet all day, so we decided to take the kids out for some pizza and then to NEBS Fun World. The kids had a great time!

Waiting for the pizza

Our beautiful Avery

First they went on the bumper cars

Avery wanted to do some rock climbing

She almost made it all the way to the top!

Caleb was happy to go on the big slide in the jumping castle area

Then we all did some go-karting, this is Madison

Then when we left NEBS, there was a beautiful rainbow and the kids were excited about that!

It was a great evening for everyone!

And then check out this cute candy box that I made for a Birthday treat for one of our nephew's.

Making this couldn't have been easiser!

And really what kid wouldn't love to get one of these on their birthday!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

~Caleb turns 5!~

We celebrated Caleb's 5th Birthday yesterday. He had a Great day and was spoiled from the time he woke up till the time he went to bed. After all, that is what having a Birthday is about!

He was excited in the morning to get up and open his presents.

Colin and I got him a Wii. Really we know that it was a purchase for the family but he was still happy!

In the afternoon we went to Colin's Dads house for a pool party and some cake with family and friends. He requested a Batman cake, but then wouldn't take one bite of it. Cheeky little monkey!

He was impressed with the 5 sparklers that I put on his cake. He said to me after 'that was a nice touch Mom.' He is too funny!

I can hardly believe that it has been 5 years already. Everyday he continues to amaze us and we know that it is only going to get better!

~& the celebration begins!~

Caleb's 5th Birthday is on July 18th & when it is one of my kids birthdays I can't help but create something for them! This year I made Caleb a curly ribbon wreath. I saw a blog where someone else made one and thought 'I have to make that!'

It turned out pretty good and he likes it, the girls have already asked me to make one for their birthdays!

With a styrofoam ring;

(I bought mine at Michaels but sometimes you can find them at the dollar store)

Some curly ribbon bows;

(I bought mine at the dollar store and choose the colours blue, yellow and red)

and a glue gun...

(at first I tried to use staples but they just kept falling out of the styrofoam)

I created this!

It was so easy and inexpensive to make. The blue and the yellow are actually the colour theme for his party based on the fact that he wanted a Batman theme.

I look forward to making these for the girls in some girly colours!

~An update~

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks. We survived our crazy busy weekend of Avery's dance recital and I am so happy and proud of her. She did so well and thoroughly enjoyed herself. She received 2 awards, one for ballet and one for jazz (the 2 classes she was in). She was smiling the whole weekend. I think she was pretty proud of herself as well!

We had a visit from my parents over the Canada Day holiday and it was nice to visit and spend some time with them. We don't get to see them nearly as much as we should.

This past weekend, we went up to Colin's moms (who we also don't get to spend enough time with) and Avery and Caleb are there for this week. Soaking up the sun and having fun with Gramma & Grampa, and keeping them busy no doubt!

Madison has gotten her first babysitting job this summer and is liking that she has more responsibility and some of her own money.

The pics below were taken at a restaurant we stopped at to have dinner while on the way to Colin's moms.

All in all, the summer is going well so far.

This upcoming weekend is Caleb's Birthday, so the planning is underway. He is getting excited and so am I!

~Treats for Madison's Class~

Here they are. The last of the school treats for the end of the year.
For Madison's class we made gumball bouquets.
These turned out really cute!

And they were so easy to make,

That's it, school is done! Bring on the summer!

~Treats for Avery's Class~

Avery was very excited to give these out to her classmates.
They are chocolate bars and gum packets with homemade wrappers to give them a personal touch.

Probably, not a real good idea to give out gum and chocolate bars to a bunch of kids on a Friday afternoon, but oh well I'm not the one that had to deal with them!

2 down, 1 to go...

~Treats for Caleb's Class~

I started with a pack of mini bubbles
Some lollipops

Elastic bands

And of course, some homemade tags :-)

I attached the tags to the bubbles using an elastic through the hole

Then tucked the lollipop under the elastic

And there you go...an end of school treat to hand out to JK's

However, the lollipops made them a little top heavy and they kept falling over!

Oh well, the kids won't care!

These were so easy to make, took maybe 15 mins to assemble. Cost? The party pack of 24 bubbles was $7.00, the lollipops were from the dollar store, 20 for $1.00. So $8.00 to make 20 to giveaway. That's $0.40 cents each!

Keep checking back, I will be adding Avery's idea tomorrow.