Fairies in the Garden and Monsters in the Closet

We have a lot of magical creatures living all around us. The fairies in the garden have been with us all summer. Liam and his friend Maddy go in the yard and put out flower petals for the fairies and build little dugout homes for them. Maddy gave Liam a book on Garden Fairies for his birthday. So, when Liam was wondering what to do on Sunday afternoon I suggested he build a fairy house in the garden. We found some rocks, some sticks and a nice spot. Liam piled up the rocks, and tried to build a roof structure with the sticks. I gave him some glitter glue and ribbons and he went on to make a pretty cool structure for his fairies. He then put some glittery jewels in there as well.

So I asked him whether he thought the fairies would like the new home he built for them. He gave me a look that said :"I'm way ahead of you, have been pursuing a different project all along..." He says: "It's not a house for them. It's a fairy trap. They'll come because they like all the jewels in there and then I will have them in my trap and I'll put them in the watering can and pour them out all over the garden!"

It certainly attracted Anouk - so his plan seems to work in theory. We have yet to find fairies in the trap, but that's OK.

When I opened my closet the other day I found a small stack of pictures at the bottom of the closet. All pictures by Liam - all pictures of monsters. He thought that these monsters should live in the closet. I'm unsure whether they were supposed to scare me or whether he wanted to put them away with other monsters that live in the closet...

Late summer birthdays and back to school

You know it's back to school / university time when blogs aren't updated... I actually started back last week with my first tutorials and lectures - so today, one day after labour day I feel like I'm already back into things... :)

But of course, I did stay away from the blog for a few weeks while I was trying to get everything ready for the new term, then Anouk got sick, then the birthdays came - Anouk turned 1!! and Mark had his birthday too.

We start celebrating a birthday in the morning with the presents and cake and we sing happy birthday! I set everything up the night before, bake the cake, put out the presents and the little birthday wreath for the candles, Anouk had her first candle...

And of course I tear up as I set it up, feeling so proud of my growing children, hoping they will be happy and surprised in the morning.

Here she is enjoying her birthday cake:

And then, on the weekend we had her birthday party with family and friends and chocolate cake:

The cake completely fell apart when I tried to get it out of the pan (too soon, I know but I needed the pan...) Thank goodness for icing and smarties and big smarties flowers that can be placed strategically over the cracks. And nobody would have ever guessed.... :)

And here is the birthday girl climbing up the stairs in her birthday dress.

Singing "Happy Birthday"

In the morning of her party I was scrambling to get everything ready, cakes finished, snacks set up, the house cleaned and decorated. There's this old lady down the street with this amazing yard full of flowers behind an ugly chain link fence. She has a little stand in her driveway under a sun umbrella where she sells bouquets of her garden flowers for $1.50 each. She is hunched over and walks very slowly and usually sits further back in the driveway binding the bouquets. Every year I am overjoyed to see that she is still there and that her bouquets are there to brighten up the neighbourhood. I see her bouquets sometimes on my walks: in windows, on little tables on front porches, in people's hands as they are cycling through the streets. So that morning of Anouk's party I went over to her driveway and bought up all the bouquets on her little stand and used them to decorate our back porch and the inside of the house.

I found this idea of hanging flowers in mason jars on a string and thought it would be perfect for this:

Here's a picture of our back porch ready for the party with the beautiful flowers hanging and the garland of little flags. These flags are the reason I started sewing a few months ago. I saw them somewhere and thought I should make some of those. I guess it's like when you start knitting, you start with a scarf. And when you start sewing you start with little flags. And you discover how addictive it can be and move on to new and exciting projects and fabrics...

The Monday after the party was my first day back to class - one week before Labour Day - and I had to start at 7 in the morning... And it was Mark's birthday. No singing, no cake for him in the morning, poor guy. We went out for dinner with the kids, which was fun and we extended the birthday celebrations into the week when things were a bit more quiet...

Last weekend we just relaxed, enjoyed three "home days" together and welcomed fall. It's cooled off and it's been raining. And I actually like it. It's been a wonderful summer...