Help With Travelling Tips

Okay So I can barely contain my excitement.  I will be heading off to Perth, Australia in 13 Days, that's right only 13 days left.  

If I am lucky I will get to see these guys in real life, how cool is that!

While I am so excited to see this wonderful place I overall am just so excited to see one of my best friends and her family who moved there about 6 months ago. She is one of those friends who when they are not there you feel a void as they are not just friends but more like family.  And her little monkeys I am sure have grown a foot since I seen them last.  

Okay so I am not a good flyer just in the sense that I don't really like to be cooped in a space for an extended period of time, so no worries it's only 26 hours from Canada.  Nothing to it right, Ha.  So as I will be starting to prepare for my trip next week I wanted to know if you had any travel tips or a good book or three to keep me going for this flight. 

Watch Me Grow

Oh could there be anything better than seeing how much your children have grown, it is actually amazing how quickly it happens.  My kids love to get measured.

  This time I have made two different Height charts, one for a little princess who turned one.  And one for my niece and nephew who have moved and now have room to put one up.  

For the numbers I like to go up by 2 inches so that it doesn't feel to cluttered.  I finished it off with a few fun flowers on each end. 

For this one I wanted to make it gender neutral so I went with a simple design using black lettering and no extra decals.  

The thing I like about these movable growth charts is that it doesn't matter if you have to re-paint or you move you can always take it with you.  Trust me I have made the mistake of doing this on the wall and then moving and having to leave behind.   

Family Fun Day At The Westerner Days

This past Sunday we were able to head out and enjoy a fun family day together at the Westerner Days.  They come every year and this is actually the first year I have ever gone to them.  The kids were so excited and once we got there you could barely contain their excitement.  I wanna go on this ride and that ride!

 On our way to the grounds, they were being so patient.

Keegan & Me hanging out while the other boys went on the Ferris Wheel, we just aren't that into the high rides so we hung out and watched.

There they are way up there, this was the first ride and they got to scope out all the fun stuff they wanted to do.

The fun houses were a hit for all the kids, of course we had to stop and check out the funny mirrors.  

And aren't these big slides the coolest thing ever, my kids could have done them 100 times.  At the end of the day Makai figured they should really have an elevator to get to the top. 

It was such a good day and we can't wait to go back again next year. 

Mellow Yellow Birthday Party Cake

This week was my sister in-law Lisa's birthday and my brother wanted to do up a little surprise get together. So he called in the troops to help him get ready for the day.  Of course I was more than happy to help out with the decorations and the cake, two of my favorite things to do.  

I wanted to go with Yellow, Grey & White for colors, so for
the banner I picked a grey fabric and a yellow ribbon. 

I found this triangle template over at Lovely Traub Life and simply cut them out and then sewed the edges.  I used my heat transfer vinyl for the lettering and then sewed the ribbon on top.  I love the look of the pendent banners. 

I wish I had taken some pictures of all the flowers that I had picked up, I think we had about 8 or 9 vases full of beautiful flowers.

Of course you can't have a birthday party without a cake. So going with the flower/garden theme I made these funky flower pot cakes. 

My mom had this pot that she thought would work perfectly.

I baked the cakes in here and then filled the center hole with a butter cream/cake mix. 

This was before putting all the finishing touches and fondant flowers on the cake, I know not so pretty yet.

After putting on all the flowers and leaves it sure came to life.  The difficult part for me is always to transporting, I kinda cross my fingers and hope it makes it there in one piece, lol.

Did anyone else help to celebrate a birthday this weekend?

Dinosaur Fossils

One of the ideas on our Summer Fun List was to do Dinosaur Fossils so after searching around I found this cool idea on Pinterest over at Summer Campground Director and my kids had such a blast doing it.  


Of course they loved putting all the ingredients together because it was messy it just makes it that much better.

After mixing up all the goodies we made up the eggs by making little patties and putting the dinosaur in the middle and packing them really good. 

After waiting 4 days it was finally time to crack them open and find their Dino prize.  

They had a great time doing this and most of the ingredients for the mix was either in my backyard or in my pantry.  You can get all the ingredients and the full tutorial over at Summer Camp Director.


So another check on the Summer Fun List and some happy boys.  

Project Popsicle

This Summer we have a big list of fun things to do and one of them is to make homemade popsicles each week.  This is something fun for the kids, they love coming up with the different flavors we will make each week and of course helping me make them.  

Don't worry this was a totally supervised project, no finger cutting involved

For our yummy Strawberry Yogurt Popsicle we cut up some fresh strawberries and mixed it up with some yogurt and a little milk.  Sorry not sure on exact measurements as I am an eyeball kind of girl. After blending everything up it was time to do the dirty work and fill up the popsicle holders.  My kids fight over this Job. 

Once that was done I asked my kids the unthinkable.  I asked them to be Patient and wait for them to freeze.  But it was definitely worth the wait as they were pretty darn yummy.

The kids think this week we should do chocolate so I will have to come up with a yummy idea.

Getting to Know Me

With all the new followers I thought what a better time for you to get to know me a little bit better. 

This is the Lisa you all know from my profile picture.  Truth be told I am rarely that well put together.  In fact my hair is longer these days so that I can ever so nicely put it in a ponytail, okay well maybe not nicely but you get the idea.  

This is my idea of a good time, well maybe a little less muskeg though.  My hubby bought me a bike a few years ago hoping to make this a fun family sport and I love it.  If only those darn trees would stay out of my way. 

I would rather give than receive, I love the way that one simple gift can change a persons entire day.  I don't like to give gifts just to give they need to be the perfect gift.  My mom can tell you this as she usually gets her mothers day gift in July when I finally find something perfect.  

I would rather have a few quality friends than hundreds of faux friends. 

I can wash laundry like nobodies business but when it comes to putting it away that is where I really lack, I go to bed hoping the laundry fairy will do it but she must be really busy these days. 

Coffee is my friend

I have high hopes for a really nice garden but I think it is just a pipe dream this year,  oh well maybe next year.

I cherish the time my family gets to spend with all the special people in our lives.

These boys mean the world to me, I think that if they come home this dirty they must have had a good time.

My husband and me have put an offer on a piece of land and are not so patiently waiting for the owners to finalize the subdivision so we can call it our own.  10 years ago if you asked me I would be living on an acreage I would have told you, you were crazy.  Today I can't wait to get out to where there is piece and quiet and space for my kids to run and play. 

My favorite project to date that I have done and shared on the blog is my boys playhouse.  I loved how they helped me with parts of it and how they were so excited when they seen it all done.  

So I hope you learned a little something about me that you didn't know before.

Summer Fun List

Summer is here and my little boys are wanting to be fully entertained.  So we sat down together the other day and came up with a list of all the fun stuff we should do.  Some of it things we would normally do but a lot of really fun places and things we have never done before.  

 As we do each item we have been taking a picture so we can do a book at the end so they have memories of their fun summer. 

I can't just let them only have fun, so I have been trying to sneak in a little learning while we are at it.  The kids each helped me come up with a list of Places, Things & Animals that they would like to learn about.  So I have found a Story, Craft and some facts for each of these.  I find this is something good to do on a rainy day.  While the youngest doesn't really understand the facts he does like the stories and the craft so I find it is fun for all kiddies. 

Throughout the summer I will give some updates on all the fun activities we have completed off of our list.

What have you been doing to keep your kids active throughout the summer?

A Fabulous Party

This weekend was spent visiting family and celebrating our cousins 10 year anniversary.  I was so excited that I got to be a part of it.  I love making someones day even more special when it all comes together and the room looks beautiful.

My husband doesn't understand why I would put so much work into something like a party.  For me it is all about the final results and seeing how happy it makes someone. 

 We wanted to make this a really fun and bright atmosphere to show it was a celebration.  My favorite part was the hanging paper lanterns and this picture does not do them justice at all.  There were about 70 of them all together and they looked amazing

For the centerpieces we used two different vases filled with gerber daisies and then surrounded the square vase with limes (which I love).  For each picture frame there were two pictures of Ryan & Jackie and their 4 children from throughout the years, which I think adds a more personal touch. 

Ahhh, the Candy Table it was the most popular spot in the entire hall for the kids.  it was adorned with a ton of different candies and guarded by two wonderful girls to make sure that the kids didn't go to crazy. I made the cute Sweet Love banner out of card stock and ribbon.  

Then of course there was the cupcake table.  I thought that this turned out so good.  I made the rectangular cupcake stand out of 1x4's and mdf.  I painted the tops of each one with a fun bright color and then wrapped a ribbon around each to add a little something extra.  

In total I think I iced about 300 cupcakes between the big and the small ones, but it was all worth it in the end to see it come together.