being a tourist with sharlene

Sharlene, who has been my friend for as long as I can remember, came to visit me in my not so new new city last week. We had a great time being tourists and doing girl things together...

We thought it would be fun to take a fabulously cheesy bus tour, but only if we could sit on the top of a Double-Decker, so we took the Lady Dive Hop On Hop Off tour...

We hit all the touristy spots in Ottawa and Gatrineau. We started on Sparks Street...

visited Parliament...

the Fairmont Chateau Laurier and the Rideau Canal locks...

We admired the tulips in Commissioner's Park at Dow's Lake...

and shopped and ate in the Byward Market...

and spent some time on sunny patios relaxing and catching up. With cocktails, of course.

We also spent some time in my favorite little village, Merrickville {see my posts about it here and here}...

eating, drinking and being merry {i.e. shopping}. And spent a day shopping across the border in New York state. Sharlene's husband most likely will never want her to come back and see me again, after he sees the amount of stuff packed in her suitcase for her return trip home!

rideau antiques

All one and one + two of us went antiquing Mother's Day weekend because K didn't buy me a gift and thought it would be smart to suggest I go find one for myself and act like he intended to do that all along. So off we went, on the hunt for some it is art to me even if you don't think so to hang on the big empty boring wall in our family room. I had my heart set on three antique church windows from here, that I spotted a while back, but by the time I finally convinced K how cool they would look in our home, they were gone.

I remembered Rideau Antiques having some windows, so we looked there...

{Read about the shop here}

Some windows, it turns out, is a major understatement. There is no shortage of windows...

or doors as it turns out. I thought about hanging a perfectly peeling door on my big boring wall, but K did just not 'get it'...

He did not understand how pretty the shutters would look on the flat, empty yellow vastness that is our family room wall either...

It was not really the right time to tell K how cool I thought one of these posts would look, just leaning elegantly in a corner of our home...

or about how I have always wanted an antique claw foot tub...

in every room in the house...

In the end we went home without finding the art of my dreams to fill the wall of my decorating nightmares. We were worried that because the windows have been out in the Canadian elements for who knows how long through wind and crazy humidity and rain and snow and more snow and more snow, they may have too much mildew mold, maybe??? and ick on them. Which might be hazardous to the kiddie's health. And I should probably not endanger my kiddies health with my Mother's Day gift.

I didn't find my art that day, but I did have fun taking photos at Rideau Antiques.
I love that place!

my heros

My little caped crusaders...

Superboy...

and Miss Supergirl...

Off they go to save the day...

{photos taken before they decorated their capes at R's Superhero Party}

calling all superheros...

R is still very into superheros right now, so it was no surprise he wanted a Superhero Party for his 5th birthday.

He invited 12 of his friends to share the day with us. These are the invitations that I made, using some "want ads" from the newspaper {the back said "Come help save the day..." and had all the party info}

When the children arrived at our home R greeted them with a superhero mask...

and a plea for help. We told the poor, unsuspecting children "The Joker has snuck into our house and stolen R's cake. We need some superheroes to save the day and find the cake"! They were given superhero orders to go to the kitchen and decorate a cape, so they could save the day...


{I made the capes out of superhero red t-shirt material and some ribbon - I wanted them to be quick and easy since I got the idea at 8pm the night before the party, ran out and bought the fabric and started cutting...}








{the crests were cut from adhesive felt and decorated with the kiddies initials - I wanted them to do that part themselves but it took hours to dry so I did it the night before}












Photo op: "Show me you're a superhero"...












Then the superheros followed some clues that were hidden around our home...




























{these superheros did not know how to read, so they needed some help with the clues}...








The cake is missing! It's hidden from view.



If you want your dessert, here's what you do:



Follow the clues, they'll lead you to more...



You'll find the first clue...by the front door!
























until they finally found the cake in the laundry room, of all places! And just in time too, it was an ice cream cake, and it was starting to melt...





All that saving the day made the superheros hungry.



What do superheros eat for lunch? Why, hero sandwiches of course...
















How lucky for these superheros that we made some gi-normous sandwiches, just for them...





And of course we ate the cake.

With more energy to burn after eating all that ice cream, we played a game of "Find the Green Lantern's Ring"...



K had hidden some green candy Power Rings around the house...

and there were prizes for the superheros that found them.

While opening gifts, R told his friends in a very authoratative voice to sit "criss cross applesauce so everyone can see". That lasted all of 2 seconds before mass chaos ensued...

Love Miss S peeking in the gifts when she thought no superheros were looking...

And we wrapped up the party with more games and a few rounds of hot potatoe "Kryptonite Toss"...

The superhero that got caught with the kryptonite....

when the music stopped, lost thier superhero powers and was out of the game. More prizes for that game, and loot bags for all...

Such a super good time!

happy mother's day

to my Mom and to all my Mommy friends!

{photo from R's 5th birthday}

donna downey

Here it is, my long overdue post about the Donna Downey event that I went to in April, with Renee, Stephanie and Mellisa.

Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Donna is fabulous! So creative, and so fun. Renee and I met her right away after arriving in Smiths Falls - we ran into her at the hotel as we were checking in. She was so friendly, and so in need of a Starbucks, we decided to grab a coffee together...

Our coffee plans fell apart when we found out Smiths Falls doesn't have a Starbucks {the horror!}, but Steph and Mel ended up finding her a chai latte that rivals Starbucks, later on anyway! And we enjoyed more time with Donna later, when after a long day of teaching she decided she needed to unwind with a BIG Canadian beer. In a paper bag. Again Steph and Mel {the beverage queens maybe?} came to the rescue...

and we stayed up waaaayyy too late in their hotel room {not much to do in Smiths Falls after hours, we discovered} getting to know Donna. So cool to hear about her experiences in the scrapbooking/mixed media industry and the "famous" {yes they do exist, and yes I know I am a dork} scrapbookers whose work and creativity we admire. And Stephanie made me her famous Caramel Candy Apple Martinis...yum! Good times.

The classes were great, and Donna is a wonderful teacher. I tried all kinds of mixed media techniques that were new to me, and so much fun. Check out this link to the classes we took - Swatches and Bloom and Paint.Watercolor.Doodle. All the painting and the oil pastels and the ink, made me feel like a real artist...{sigh}. When I grow up, I want to be an artist.

After all this, I wish I had signed up for Donna's Inspired event in her home town of Charlotte, North Carolina...but it was too late, the event sold out a while ago. Oh well, there is always next year! Who's up for a trip???

i have a 5 year old

How is that possible?
How did my baby turn into a 5 year old?

So many other things to update you on too...

I had an awesome time with some great girls, at the Donna Downey event.

I have been in my new city for a year. A YEAR - where did the time go?

I missed had my one year blogiversary. Who knew I would have a blog?

We were down and out with some kind of crazy stomach bug. All four of us at different times. Ick.

The Grandparents have moved to our not so new new city. They have decided they cannot live apart from the grandchildren. Welcome to our new city and when can you baby-sit?

We celebrated R's fifth birthday superhero style - photos to come soon.
Now I'm back in the groove...talk to you again soon!