lion’s birthday par-teh!

July 9, 2012 by mama lola

we had a small and simple birthday party for lion’s second birthday. we invited everyone to join us at a local park, next to the river and a playground.
it was perfect.
we found a picnic table next some big ol’ shady trees and set up our party.
there were carrot cake and chocolate lion cupcakes.

rainbow fruit kabobs.

beautiful handmade pinwheels made by dear hubby. inspiration from HERE.

balloons for all the kids to take home!

colourful bunting flags quickly sewn up by your truly. see instructions HERE.

we had flowers from our backyard.

drinks sitting in a bucket of ice.

signing happy birthday and paljon onnea!

we ate all the goodies with goodie friends!

and lion was spoiled with lots of wonderful new toys and gifts!

and, lion was the recipient of lots of special birthday hugs and kisses!

lion’s birthday was a success! it wasn’t nearly as emotional as i had suspected, although i did have a few good sobs in the days leading up his birthday. and, as usual, i got a lump in my throat when singing paljon onnea; i am such a sop sometimes!

a how to :: birthday bunting flags.

July 9, 2012 by mama lola

for my sweet lion’s second birthday party, i decided to whip up some bunting flags last minute. i have some old sheets i have purchasednand collected over the years for just such a quick project.

i cut the flags with my pinking sheers, not worrying too much about size or symmetry, as the flags will be outdoor decorations.
then i just pinned the flags to the bias tape, sewed then together with my machine with a zig-zag stich and voila, they were done!

happy, colourful decorations, perfect for a two year olds park birthday! if you used more care and different fabric you could make them for weddings, or any fancy occasion, not just birthday parties. see, like HERE.

don’t they look lovely?
i love that i can reuse them and only spent $1.54 on the biased tape; way cheaper and eco friendlier than streamers!

ballet camp was a disaster.

July 8, 2012 by mama lola

my eldest guy is a tad on the what the experts call the sensitive side of things. he has difficulty during transitions and has great difficulty separating from me, especially when an activity is new. like preschool or as we experienced last week, ballet camp.

each morning as i was trying keep the ball rolling, getting the two boys ready for the day, bear would shout “i hate ballet camp, i never want to go”. he was in fact shouting and crying this on the first morning, before he had ever stepped foot into ballet camp. i signed him up for dance camp at the same school he has been taking weekly ballet lessons for the last year, in the hopes that he wouldn’t feel anxious or stressed. he also went with a very good friend of his, which i thought would make the process easier.
but, boy did i miscalculate things and boy did it all backfire in my face!

on the first day the ballet teacher phone and left a worried message. and each day we chatted about when he cried and what calmed him down. he was fine during the actual dancing parts, but became upset during craft, snack and whatever else they did.

the class did an interpretation of “sleeping beauty” and seeing as bear was the only boy in the class, he was the prince. but in this version, the prince was a bit of a grump and a meany and stomped around a fair bit pointing wands and swords in various directions. the girls on the other hand were given opportunities to dance freely with sparkly fairy wings and my guy had to stand there and watch.
i think this was a part of the problem. he was isolated from the rest of the class because he is a boy, and this upset him. but, i’m just guessing. who knows anything with four year olds!

this terrible experience at camp creates tremendous stress in the pit of my stomach, because it makes me think of september and when he will start school. and where we live, kindergarten is all day, every day.

*******
we had a lovely birthday for our ferocious lion, today. it was such fun to celebrate with our family and friends! bear has been receiving lots of special, focused attention because he graduated preschool had grandparents watch at ballet a few weeks back, so this morning he threw a fit of jealous rage threatening to “ruin lion’s party”, yikes! he of course didn’t and was a delightful big brother helping open gifts!
i will post about the party soon!

someone’s birthday is coming up!

July 8, 2012 by mama lola

i can’t even take it!
my littlest lion is going to be two, TOMORROW and it’s kinda breaking my heart. has it really been two years since i was pregnant and waddling around like a beached whale (no, really, i was HUGE. i attribute the mammoth weight gain to my tumour creating imbalances and then the ensuing depression that made me eat tubs of ice cream).

two years since all the stress and fear and worry?

has it really been two years since we had a new born at home with us?

we’re busy prepping tonight for tomorrow’s grand party! cupcakes, bunting flags and fruit oh my! can’t wait to celebrate my littlest dude with our friends and family!

i am so behind with my blogging…
i am hoping to catch up on
bear’s dance camp performance,
patty’s BACHELORETTE and the burlesque dancing,
and other fun things that we’ve done in the past few days!
and never mind posting about lion and his birthday!

…

July 6, 2012 by mama lola

~ this moment ~

as inspired by souleMama; one photo from our week, no words. only an image to sum up our time as a family, one that captures a moment in time and is a visual reminder of where we were at this moment.

this mama is tumour free!

July 5, 2012 by mama lola

i had my long awaited follow up in the big city with my neurosurgeon and endochronologist, about the tumour that was removed from my non-malignant pituitary gland 18 months ago. i have been symptom free, but i have been closely monitored, having MRI’s and blood work every six months. leading up to this last appointment the tension was building in my body with muscles tightening in my neck, shoulders and jaw. i have also been pretty tightly wound and have lost my cool faster and easier than usual, but it’s understandable, right? perhaps i am allowed to have some leeway.

anyhow, all is clear and my specialists gave us the all clear to have more babies, which is to say that now we can at least talk about it from the same perspective as other parents considering to grow their families. now, we don’t have to worry about another tumour growing, because the two are not related.
phew.
lion’s conception and the high risk pregnancy and the disastrous c-section that followed were all an unfortunate coincidence indirectly connected to the tumour. but, even though the process of getting our sweet, spunky lion here was so stressful, his presence has made our family so much brighter and fuller.

[ yesterday was hottest day EVER, so after the docs dear hubby and i walked around some cute areas of town. got some fancy smoothies to help cool down. yum!]

which brings me to, my littlest guy is turning two on the 8th of july, which is sunday. and although his birthday brings with it upsetting memories of his birth and week hospital stay, i feel incredibly fortunate that we are able to celebrate two wonderful, healthy years of him. his personality and character are so passionate and spunky, he really is meant to be here with us, even if he was a surprise.
i love him so deeply.

i will post more about him, his birthday and where my emotions fit in with it all.

went for a celebratory drinks and dinner double-date with our dear friends in the big city. it was the hottest day ever, but who notices the dripping sweat when your among good friends! we had such a lovely time sans kids, which is something we never do. it was refreshing and allowed our friends to maintain the nasty habit they rediscovered a few weeks ago on their trip to the amalfi coast in italy. yuck!

my lovely, dear friend has big birthday coming up.

love her so!

it’s a busy, busy few days with prep for various parties.

loving the busy, fun, happy summer thus far!

cottage.

July 3, 2012 by mama lola

we spent a glorious weekend swimming and soaking up the sun up at the cottage this past weekend. it was such fun; the boys love it up there surrounded by trees, nature and peace.

we cottaged.

we swam.

we savoured.

we played.

we ate.

we spent time with family.

we made decorations for canada day.

we enjoyed simplicity.

i tried to relax and enjoy, but i was distracted. i have another follow up in the big city with my neurologist and endochronologist this week. the tension has caused great pain in my neck and the top of my spine. fingers crossed my MRI and bloodwork from a few weeks ago are all clear and i that i continue to be tumour free. i hate to worry. i hate tumours.

my garden.

June 28, 2012 by mama lola

my dream has always been to have my own garden. when we moved into our house, i was so excited about the prospect of being outside and digging in the dirt, that i completely forgot in those fantasies that i was about seven months pregnant! in those days i was consistently exhausted from being pregnant, chasing after a two year old bear and living with the tumour on my pituitary gland. any one of those circumstances alone is tiresome, but triple the effect and it’s kinda amazing that even got out of bed daily!

so, to my shame and shagrim our garden was a disaster. my parents would visit, and within an hour or so my mom would be out there trying to make sense of the weeds. it was embarrassing. we didn’t have any of the right tools for maintenance either. check out the grass in the second picture; dear hubby would try to cut it with scissors! oh, boy!

but, we’ve come a long way baby. the wildflower seeds that we threw into the yard have taken and now after a few years, they are growing beautifully and continue to seed more and more of the garden. i love them. their bold colours are so summery. my perennials are thriving and things are finally taking shape. we did cut down some trees on our property as they were leaning but we have replanted them. i didnt realise how long it would take to cut down trees on your property as it did take a couple of days but im glad its all sorted now. with this being said, as it did take a lot of time, if we had used the services of a tree surgeon, this job would have probably been done a lot better, a lot faster and would have saved us a lot of time. but at least we know for next time. when you take care of your garden, you realise how much time actually needs to go into it to get the look you are going for. saying that though, if you do want to give your garden a makeover, but are not sure where to start, getting in touch with companies who provide something similar to a Gresham Landscape Maintenance Service for example, could be something worth looking into, especially if improving your garden has been something you’ve been putting off.

this week my succulents are exploding with flowers.

the kids made some decorations for our porch (can you spot them?) and then ate apples!
check out their cute new hair do’s too!

it’s getting hot, hot, hot again here.

come find me and follow me on twitter (@bearandlionmama).

twitter!

June 28, 2012 by mama lola

i keep forgetting to mention that i am now on TWITTER!!! i’m still new and slowly learning the ropes and symbols and the flow of it all.

come and check me out @bearandlionmama.

see you there!