Our Gender Reveal Party!

We had out gender reveal party of Friday May 22nd! I have really been planning this party since even before we knew we were pregnant, so it was pretty nice to start preparing all the pinterest pins that I have had saved for months! We invited our immediate family and close friends to share (and learn) the news with.

We had our gender ultrasound over a week before the party on May 14th. The ultrasound tech doesn't tell you the same day what the gender of the baby is, but I filled out a form so they would email me the results. I received them in my email the next day! The email sat, so easily accessed on my phone for a week. I was dying to open it but knew I had too much invested in planning the party to spoil it!

Part of the party prep was a pink and blue candy bar. We went to the bulk barn and picked out the blue and pink tootsie rolls, salt water taffy, and mini eggs.

And those pink and blue bags were some left over from the prepared bags I made of pink and blue rose petals. The plan was to have Warren open the email with the gender, grab the bags stuffed with the correct colours and give to all our family and friends to throw.

Andrew came by early before the party and helped with prepping our decorations... well the balloons anyways.

I was all over the pink and blue.

We set up a station where our friends and family could put their guess of what gender our baby is on the board. I cut out little hearts for the girls guesses and little blue bow-ties for the boy guesses.

We printed out our 12 week and 19 week ultrasound pictures and put them on display.

I have been taking pictures of my bump every other week since week 10, holding a chalkboard where I wrote what week it was and what fruit our baby was a size of. We printed these pictures and hung them by the board too! Because lots of people say they can tell the gender of the baby by the way I am carrying or ultrasound, I thought these may help with the guesses! Although lots of people have already been firm on their guesses for months!

Our spread of food! I prepared a veggie tray, mexi dip, cheese, kielbasa, and crackers, meatballs, and I made shortbread squares with pink & blue sprinkles!

It was all pink and blue plates, cups, cutlery and we even bought some pink and blue platters!

Aleksy's Mom made the most delicious desserts: a lemon blueberry crumble bundt cake, and brownies topped with a peanut butter sauce... so glad there's leftovers and we'll have dessert all week (or a couple days...)!

The banner that Aleksy made! The plan was to have this is the backdrop of our picture with everyone throwing rose petals, but I think we overestimated the size of our living room with everyone in it, so you couldn't really see it in the official picture (but it looked great!).

Everything went exactly as planned! Warren opened the email and grabbed the bags for everyone and everyone threw the rose petals at us at once! Warren and Paul were the photographers.

And it's a boy!! We are so excited!

Blue rose petals! The rose petals were cleaned up in record time by everyone who took some home and my Rachel who took home a ton!

I have a lot of little bags of unopened pink rose petals in my basement!






The votes were almost split down the middle but there were a few more who guessed boy. My guess was boy and Aleksy's was girl (those are on the board too!)

This is the email attachment that the London XRay place sent to me! Our baby boy is predestined to love football (and I know Aleksy will be a firm encourager)!


It's a boy! Time to start shopping and baby room decorating/furniture buying!

May 2-4 Long Weekend Kinds of Things

We have had a super duper busy, and most fun long weekend! This May 2-4, we continued our tradition of trailer camping with Al and Steph. We have gone long weekend camping together to kick off summer in 2012, 2013, 2014 and again this year! It gets a little different every year as we both add to our families. Luckily, my 19 week bump doesn't take up much extra space at this point, but this year we did have an extra 6 month baby! On Friday evening, we headed up to Wildwood conservation centre in St. Marys for a 2 night adventure with our Osborne friends!

We got to the trailer on Friday around 6:30-7pm. Our pulled pork supper was all ready to be eaten when we arrived, and afterward Aleksy and I pulled out our birthday surprises for Steph! Her bday was Tuesday, so I made her a chocolate on chocolate bday cake and we brought her bday present too (a baked good cookbook wrapped in some new tea towels). Colton was very excited to be eating cake for a week straight with Mothers Day and his mommys bday celebrations! It only took the 5 of us (Colton incl.) 2 days to finish that off!

After supper, we went on a brief walk to the park for Colton's enjoyment (and also to exploe the campground). I also like swings. But I was probably a bit more pumped to get the fire started and pull out my fav thing about camping: smores! Several were had. That night I had a later night and went to bed around 1am... but Aleksy and Al were even later ad said they stayed up until 3... we wouldn't know because Aleksy and Al were tent sleepers. The trailer is getting a bit tight these days with the 2 babies plus us, so Aleksy and Al "real camped".

The next morning, we were awaken around 8am by our little people (not so bad for 2 babies!). It was cloudy and a wee bit chilly, but after a healthy breakfast of egg sandwiches (better than a sausage egg mcmuffin!) we headed into the town of St. Mary's for the morning.

We started at the park by the river in St. Marys where there was a little park for Colton to play on then headed up to the main strip. Chase slept a good majority of the time in his stroller.

And we walked all the way up to the waterfall and got this shot for old times sake: we have one from our 6 year anniversary about 4 years ago, which I blogged about then:

http://kat-todaysanewday.blogspot.ca/
2011/09/our-6-year-anniversary.html

St. Mary's is so pretty!

After a morning of walking all over St. Mary's, we wanted to finish off our adventure with an ice cream. The place that Aleksy and I had gone a couple years back was closed down so we tried the chocolate factory, which was on the main strip. They didn't sell ice cream (but we did get some chocolate), and they recommended Hearns for ice cream just down the street. It was a cute little ice cream place and by that time it had gotten warm so business was def picking up for the ice cream place. I had a blueberry cheesecake flurry which I was sure I couldn't finish until I did.

We got back to the trailer just after lunch time and although we were pretty full after the ice cream, we whipped up some lunch anyways. We had some sausages, salad and potato salad. We hung out for a bit lounging outside of the trailer and enjoyed the super nice 25 C weather, where Colton targeted and attacked me with his watergun until I was soaked! We then decided to do one of the trails of the conservation area. We left around 3:30 for the trail.

And this is us on the trail! It took us over an our to complete the trail and we were pretty tired at the end after walking out in the sun all day. Colton was especially feeling tired toward the end and we could tell by the increase of his tripping over roots. He was very cute though gathering "gifts" for me all day: flowers (dandelions), rocks, and sticks.

It was a nice trail, and we were impressed by the size of the campground and how much there is to do and see (we didn't even have time to visit the lake that the campground was built around!).

That night we had some supper, smores and went to sleep a little earlier around 12am. We left the next morning after breakfast so we could shower (because 3 days without a shower was kinda dirty) and get ready for birthday celebrations for my sister and Kenny's birthdays!

On Sunday afternoon, Kenny had set up a surprise birthday party for my sisters 33rd birthday! She was out with my Mom shopping for the afternoon and my Mom was to bring her home for 4pm and we all were hanging out in the back yard... Steph only knew Aleksy and I would be there because we had made supper plans. Kenny had planned everything out from having extra tables, decorations and food!

When Steph got home, we had some awesome bbq and hung out in the backyard... me with my special non alcoholic drinks and everyone else enjoying their cold beverages (I'm finding it isn't so bad.... yet!).

Kenny had bought fireworks for the night too! Before it got dark, Kenny set them off in the park across from their house! This is the kids loving their lives watching the fireworks going off. Rachel is all dressed up in her batman outfit and she was jumping up and down in excitement! Birthday fireworks!

It was a bit of a tiring weekend with all our camping adventures so Aleksy and I called it a night early around 10:30 on Sunday. We did have an extended birthday celebration today: the holiday Monday at my dads!

And today was a good day to recuperate with a good sleep in (until 9!), catch up on laundry and get some "me" time in at the gym! We headed over to my Dads around 5pm for some pizza, cake and (extended) birthday celebrations.

We had the best weather all weekend, feeling like summer! The best kinda May 2-4!

Weekend Awesomeness

Aleksy and I are really good a filling up our weekends with plans... most of which make for some pretty sweet weekends. Aleksy likes more down time than I do, so sometimes it works out well when I make plans separate from him. On Saturday April 25th, I bought tickets for me and my little to go to the Superdogs show, which was at the Western fair.

I didn't know what to expect when I bought tickets. I saw an advertisement on my newsfeed on Facebook and suggested it to Brooklyn. And it was so good! There were a ton of little kids there and Brooklyn and I were not the majority in the crowd, but I though it was such a good show for anyone.

The doggies were so cute, I couldn't stop smiling! This picture here is 2 fluffy dogs: they called them the twins, Waffles and Syrup. They did most of the show together... with one in the front and the other practically nudging the other form behind.

The show was filled with doggies races, some dancing by the dogs, and general entertainment with the dogs as entertainers. It was a great afternoon and nice to have something new to do with Brooklyn!

And just this past weekend (May 2-3), we had the nicest weather and spent both days in the 22-25 degree weather. On Saturday, we decided to do a little something about our dead grass and top soiled and seeded our grass. It was the day to do gardening.. everyone was doing yard work. Raking sucks... I got a blister. But I was very excited to get a little sun on my shoulders.

An Sunday, we headed up to Stoney Creek to visit the Browns. We had some bbqed hamburgers for lunch before heading to the Hamilton hiking trails to see the waterfalls.

This is Aleksy, Paul and the girls on the hiking trail... such a pretty trail. This was our 2nd time doing this trail and it is definitely worth a re-visit.

After about 2 hours and a bit, we made it to the big pretty waterfall toward the end of the trail. Here's Aleksy and I by the Sherman falls (with my 17 week bump you can see in this picture!).

After our hike, I made a strong case for wanting to go out for ice cream (because the marble slab I had the night before wasn't enough!). Andzelika suggested a place on the Burlington Lakefront, so we headed there after the hike.

It was a gelato place... the best gelato I've had!! I got half peanut butter chocolate (of course) and half wildberry and it was just the best time in a cup. I wish we could have that gelato in London...

And after the best gelato ever, we headed back home to finish the weekend off with yet another bbqed supper! Love nice weather bbqs! Sunday was a good day!

I Love Free Stuff!

Everyone who knows me, knows I love me a good deal... and love to talk about good deals that others have found (and hopefully reap the same benefit!). Couponing? Redeeming a Groupon? I have no shame at all!! The only thing is... I wish I had more time so I could find coupons & sign up for the things that get me FREE (or cheap) stuff!! Well, earlier this month, I found myself with an overabundance of time as I took a week off for my birthday.. a "stay-cation", which I have not really taken since I started! I was bored. I like to occupy my time. But... while I was browsing Facebook, a couponing site came up that said time was limited but if I signed up I would be sent a bunch of free stuff through Samplesource. So.. nothing else to do at that time... signed me right up!

And this is all the freebies I got from Samplesource! My "special package" came in the mail this past week and all for free I got samples of these 9 products! They actually offered me 12, but I didn't take the ones I wouldn't use. I was so excited for my free stuff... a little present in the mail :)

Babies Become 2 Real Fast!

The weekend of April 18th, we celebrated Colton's 2nd birthday! I am learning from my friends' kids that I need to savour each stage with our baby because time just flies and then they're 2! Colton was the first born of our friends' kids and I remember the pregnancy announcement like it was yesterday.

An now there's another too with 5 month old Chase! Here's Colton with his Dad, Mom and little brother. A whole 2 candles on his awesome homemade birthday cake!

Colton opening up our present with a little help. We got him an extension track for the Thomas train track that we got him for Christmas along with an adorable summer outfit we got from Carters!

Colton had some friends over too that are pretty close to his age (Steph's friends' kids).

Little Colton is 2! This cake was multicoloured on the inside with red, green, blue rainbow colours!

Pregnancy Announcements!

So... now that word is out that we are expecting, I want to share how Aleksy and I (really excitedly) announced the news to our friends and family on a few different days!

So, when I found out I was pregnant (or maybe even before!), I went online and bought a sperm cookie cutter... it was a very specific order.

I had this brilliant idea of presenting our news to our friends with sperm cookies!!

This was our very first announcement day! It  was so nice to tell someone after keeping the secret to ourselves for 2 weeks (which I know isn't long for most people, but for us it seemed long!). At 6 weeks, we invited over our friends Chels, Warren, Al & Steph and let them in on our secret (which they had guessed already anyways).

And we also announced with some sperm cookies a few days later to our friends Nikki, Jon Jon, Tabi and Don!

I made my announcement (solo... Aleksy wasn't there for this one) on Valentines day (well the day before) to my sister, Kenny, Rachel and Brandon with Valentines day treats and a card (treats for Brandon and Rachel!). It is really hard to find an aunt and uncle Valentines Day card... guess its not so popular to give Aunts and Uncles cards on that particular occasion!

We like baking announcements... we baked cupcakes to announce to my Mom and Paul and brothers when we went to celebrate birthdays on March 21st weekend! We brought our cupcakes with the announcement written in icing but we covered it in tin foil. I gathered everyone and said that I had made something that was a creation from Pinterest and had my Mom open the tin foil!

We did the same for Aleksys parents the next day since we were also celebrating his brothers March birthday that weekend! I made a lot of cupcakes that weekend...

This was what our cupcake announcement looked like!

Aleksys parents must not have been expecting a pregnancy announcement at all because when they opened the tin foil, it took a second for the message to sink in! Then Aleksys Mom had the best reaction and tears were shed! They were so excited! First time Grandparents!

That same day at Aleksy's parents place, Aleksys Babcia had come for dinner (the very same Babcia who whispered in my ear at Christmas to get pregnant) so when she arrived we had her read the cupcakes too! Her first great-Grandchild!

Our next announcement was on Easter weekend! On Good Friday, we went to Aleksys Gran's place for an afternoon gathering with Aleksys parents, brother, Aunt & Gran! Earlier that day, we coloured some hard boiled eggs and wrote our message on the eggs!

We sent our pictures of our announcing eggs to my Dads side of the family with Easter Greetings and that concluded our family & friends announcements! Easter weekend, we were 13 weeks!

Once most of our family and friends knew the news, we were ready to announce to our friends on facebook... We took this in our backyard to share the news with everyone!

Easter 2015!

Well if I don't say so myself, this Easter was a pretty special, unique Easter for us and our family & friends. As you read on to this post, you will fully understand why (and I am the most excited to write about it!).

The week before Easter was my birthday week, so I took the short week off work! I made plans to pick my Rachel up to make some Easter treats during the week, but she got sick and so we postponed our Easter treat making until the Saturday!
Here's Rachel with her Easter carrots (rice krispies cut into triangles and dipped in orange chocolates with a green jujube candy for the leaf!).

Rachel was so good at dipping these and putting on the leaf all by herself, she didn't need me!

And our cookie birds nests: Rachel was very particular with her selection of mini eggs/jelly beans and is very colour coordinated! I did the icing on the sugar cookies and she put the jelly beans! Rachel was also very helpful with making the sugar cookies.

All of our completed treats: our Easter Carrots, sugar cookie birds nests, and chocolate birds nests (with corn flakes, peanuts, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips). We put them on a platter and Easter basket all ready to go to Grandma Ritas (my Mom) for Easter supper!

We went with Rachel directly to Easter supper after an afternoon full of baking (and a brief visit to the park before Rachel started feeling not so well).

This was our Easter egg colouring, which Aleksy and I did on Good Friday: this activity was actually without Rachel (its fun for adults too). We coloured up our eggs to bring to Aleksy's Gran's in the afternoon for an Easter get together on Aleksys side of the fam.

And we coloured the eggs so we could send a message on the eggs to Aleksy's Gran and Aunt (the rest of his family was there too, but they already received the message a couple weeks prior!). We brought the eggs to Aleky's Grans...

Our Message!!! So excited to announce that we are expecting a mini-us on October 7, 2015!!

Aleksy's Gran and Aunt were so excited! Aleksy will be the first in his family to have children (except his cousins), so his family was surprised and excited for the news!

We have now spread the word to all of our families and friends... such a fun announcement to make!

Aleksy's Mom wasted no time purchasing the first piece of baby clothing for baby! On Easter Sunday we opened this gift (which was wrapped in an old Easter egg from Aleksys childhood). In 3-6 months because we anticipate a large baby... but I 'm still crossing my fingers for a 7-8 lb er!