36 More Days

Posted on | May 10, 2013 | No Comments

Until Jovie’s birthday party!

And I’ve gone a bit overboard on the planning — but hey, what’s new {::SMILES}

Jovie and I decided to do a fairy and pirate birthday party for her upcoming fourth birthday. Since we just decided a week ago, I moved the party back to the 15th instead of closer to the 4th of June (her birth day), so that I can prepare accordingly.

Soooooooo, to make the party oh so pretty and fun, crazy mama here ordered over 600 yards of 6″ tulle to make six tutus, a few pom pom tulle decors, and tulle wands. I think I may have also purchased enough ribbons to tie around our village. I’ll give more details on where I purchased the supplies later after the order comes in. That way I can also do a bit of a review on the shop’s shipping — in case you need to buy lots of tulle and ribbons.

I’ve been on the Internet whenever I have the chance Pinning ideas and using Evernote to organize my notes and check list. If any of you have ANY fairy and pirate party idea, please don’t hesitate to email me or comment here. I’d love all (easy and affordable) ideas.

Last night I started creating and got four cards done. After I post this blog entry I am going to finish making the last two. With Jovie, there will (hopefully) be six girls and one boy. She said they are her best friends {::SMILES}. The party is scheduled to be an outdoors party and I seriously hope it’ll be lovely that day. BUT, I have plan B aka in our living room, in case the rain decides to visit.

The card is simple and whimsical I think. Initially I wanted to use WPlus9′s Oatmeal cardstock to print the invite on. That card stock is my FAVORITE and I have been using it for 75% of my cards. But, I couldn’t run the card stock through my printer because it was too thick. The card stock is 100lb (lovely and thick — perfect for card making) and my printer can only handle up to 85lb (Stampin’ Up! card stock would work fine, their card stocks are 80lb paper). Boo!! After some messing about, I decided to just print on normal printing paper and adhere it to WPlus9′s Ballet Slippers paper. While I miss the speckles of the Oatmeal paper I was quite happy with the change of plan.

I also wanted to include a photo of Jovie in the invite. I’m not sure why since these kids are her good friends and all the parents know how Jovie looks like but I just wanted to add a photo and give the invite a bit of scrapbook feel to it. The buntings idea came from my friends and I love of buntings. There will be buntings at the party and I thought that buntings on the invite would be the perfect extra touch. So buntings I made!

I didn’t use a template or die-cutter. I just cut out estimates squares for the buntings and a rectangle for the banner. Then I trimmed the edges accordingly. Two minutes (did two/three layers at a time) was what it took to prepare the pieces. After the trimming I had to do another thinking moment. Baker’s twine, hemp twine, clothes pins, stamping, hand drawing or sewing? I went for the later. I figure it’d be quicker and flatter. And it was.

I know I said flat, but I had to have some sort of dimension. And that’s where the button came in. I just used a glue dot and voila, all done!

If I had the idea thought of beforehand, I could have created all four invites in 30 minutes. BUT, I was faffing about as usual and I didn’t go to bed until 4 a.m.

Jovie saw her invites this morning and she approved. Later this afternoon we will hand a few of them to her school friends. Yay!

Hey, Let’s Take a Photo of You Two!

Posted on | November 1, 2012 | No Comments

But I don’t want to take a picture with Emma!!

Jovie, let me sit next to you!

No! I don’t want you next to me!!

Emma, don’t laugh at me! I don’t want you to take a picture with me!

Mommy, take the picture now!

(Mommy was too busy laughing out loud to take any serious photo)

Emma, go away!

Now, mommy!!

Mommy, hurry take a picture of me!! (And look, I am not going to take my eyes off of Emma while you’re at it)

Jovie, let me hide behind you while you take your picture!

Ok, Emma.

(Emma sneaking into the photo)

(Now, too bad I wasn’t ready, still laughing, because this would have made a great photo. Oh well, it’s the memories that matter for this set!!)

This Little Girl

Posted on | September 6, 2012 | 2 Comments

Went to school yesterday and she cried, cried, cried. So I couldn’t get any before school pictures because she was already refusing school the minute she woke up.

BUT, school went well for her. Yes she screamed the loudest before I left and yes she was air kicking and clawing once the teacher pulled her away from me (probably more like peeled off me) but after a few minutes, she calmed down and after a few more, she was doing all sorts of fun activities – painting being the highlight. Most of the mums said that Jovie was fine when they dropped their children off. So yes, despite the dropping off issue, I was quite pleased with Jovie’s behaviour.

She was happily and nicely sitting on the carpet when I came to pick her up and all the way home she told me about her fun day. At home, she willingly posed for me and so these are her first day of school pictures:

Uhm, yes, that’s how my girl poses for pictures.

Snack?!?! Uhm, no, Max. That’s just Jovie posing. Sorry, buddy!

And another pose.

A special treat. Chocolate buttons. She’s cherishing it more I think because the day before she was punished for not cleaning after she played with her toys: No chocolates, no ice cream, no cookies, no anything nice.

Last Day of Summer

Posted on | September 4, 2012 | 1 Comment

I never thought I’d say this but, I am going to miss the girls when they start school tomorrow! Emma will be in year 4, or 3rd grade, and Jovie in pre-school. We had so much fun going places, swimming and gymnastics (well M at gym and Jovie and I either at soft play or a coffee shop) that each day whizzed by without a pause.

During the summer a few goals were achieved. M’s goals were gym related and she got all of them accomplished. My goal was to go through some old stuff and even though I did go through them, most are still stacked in the garage or in the spare room. Hopefully the next few weekends we will be selling a few things at a car boot sale — yard sales aren’t common here, instead, folks will sell things at a field from the trunk (or boot as the Brits call it) of their cars. Jovie… well, she achieved the goal of suckering me to let her watch something on TV almost everyday.

Very fun and memorable time for us and while reluctant to not hang out together every day, I am ready for this school year! I have a lot of goals and plans for the girls and I am looking forward to see how much we can learn together in the next few months.

PS: The girls were checking out a slug and later saving it by moving the little guy to a quiet field.

The Girls and Nice Restaurants

Posted on | August 31, 2012 | No Comments

Maybe we’re lucky, but we’ve been able to take the kids to nice restaurants (places that most people would only go on anniversaries) since they could sit on a high chair. Even with Jovie’s pickiness, I never ask whether they have a kid’s meal or not. While I do ask what the kids want to eat for lunch/dinner (if I am cooking that is), when it comes to eating out, mom and dad gets to pick and they eat whatever is on the menu.

I remember when Emma was about Jovie’s age and I booked a dinner at a French restaurant. On the notes section I wrote: Two adults and one VERY well behaved 3-yrs-old. After dinner the owner stopped by our table and commented on how true I was about M’s behaviour. Not only was the owner impressed by M’s table manners, she was also impressed with the fact that we didn’t order a kid’s meal AND that M ate the escargot and cheeses. So for Emma’s good behaviour, the owner treated M to dessert.

Fast forward to a month ago when we were in Paris. I booked lunches and dinners at restaurants that food bloggers (well, mostly David Lebovitz) and Chowhound folks were clamoring about and the girls sat nicely throughout the meals (I think one was a two hours meal). Fast forward again to a few weeks ago. We were at a casual restaurant and in the middle of our meal, an elderly gentleman stopped by and praised us on how well the girls were eating and how great of a job raising them I did. That comment made my day and M (Jovie doesn’t get stuff like that) was pleased too.

Earlier in the year a book was published by an American living (or maybe used to live) in Paris: Bringing up Bebe. I haven’t read the book, but the WSJ article made me believe that if we were to live in France, our kids would just fit in. At least in terms of eating and playing.

What have we done to make the girls this way? Well, I’m not quite sure but we do the following when we eat (with special days here and there):

We always eat together as a family at the table
There’s no slurping (although I told hubby that in Asia, slurping is a sign that you love the food, but then he argued that we’re not in Asia)
There’s no chewing and talking
There’s no leaving the table unless you’ve been excused
We eat everything that’s served, even the yucky vegetables (or in M’s case: Fish)
We respect each and every food (so no food playing)
There’s no TV (and this is where the special days come in, we watched the Olympics opening while eating a few weeks ago)
We all talk about our day and whatever else that comes to mind (nothing negative or work issues – we save those for hubby and I time)
We practice our pleases and thank yous
And we do punish during meal time for table misbehaviors

They’re all pretty basic and I have to admit that without hubby, the girls wouldn’t be as good (he’s louder than me). It’s kind of cute too because when Jovie’s done she’d go, “Can I be excused?” and if I said yes, she’ll go off an play quietly until we finish or if I say no, she’ll just sit there and as long as I keep talking to her, she’ll be just fine.

There is one nice restaurant tip for toddlers/preschoolers. Always give them something to do, always interact with them, and give them something to eat that will last a bit. Jovie’s favorite is bread and butter, which most restaurants (at least here in Europe) serve.

Yes, she likes posing with her food.

Also, let the kids use the same glass and cutlery you’re using (sans real knife unless the kid’s old enough) and they will feel pretty special about eating with mom and dad at a nice restaurant.

Yes, she drank water from a wine glass, got her own gaspacho, and spreading butter on her own bread.

I did make a few projects too a few weeks ago. Presents for M’s twin friends. And matching cards. I enjoy a bit of stitching now and then and I always think that hoop art is just fabulous. I used Waltzingmouse’s stamps for the little girl and I just winged the rest of it.