Showers, Babies and Birthdays

Well, since the Narnia party Aaron & Jeni (a.k.a. Turkish Delight!) welcomed little Benjamin Findley Norris into their lovely family. At 8lb. 2oz (i think re the ounces....) and born at 2:11am on February 3rd. What a little cutie-pie he is! So Sherisse (Aaron's sister) & I hosted a baby shower at the church and over 30 lovely ladies came out to welcome the little one.

So I haaaad to make a cake....! The plan was for it to be in the shape of a baby crib and in the colours of little Benjamin's nursery. And of course in honor of Jeni's awesome rock 'n roll vibe there were a few personal touches on the walls of the crib!
Then the Norris' along with Luke (whose lovely wife was up island) came over for supper and Brooklyn got to hold the little munchkin. So cute.


Then last night was my mother-in-law's birthday so I made a chocolate-raspberry cake covered in some of her favourite things - diamond rings, purses and shoes!!! Dinner was the Paesano meal at Macaroni Grill. Most delicious.

Pictures as Promised!

The Long Awaited Narnia Party

Ok. So it wasn't long-awaited for the guests as they knew nothing about it until this month. But it was long-awaited for me. Be warned, this will be a long post!

Rewind to November 2007. My Mum & I were sitting on my living room couch enjoying a nice hot cup of tea (as we often do!). I believe I had just had a Christmas party at my house (or was just about to, can't quite recall) and we started discuss the fun concept of theme parties. As The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was such a hit we came up with the idea of a NARNIA party. Well as many of you know, tea gets the creative juices flowing and before long we had a string-load of ideas as to how we could make this work. The plan was to throw it in January of 2008 (so as not to interfere with Christmas too much) but the month got away from me before you knew it and February seemed too occupied with Valentine's Day etc., and not so wintery.

Now fast forward to November 2008. Again, not wanting it close to Christmas but January 09 looked good. So, this past Saturday 44 people (12 of whom were children) entered the wardrobe into the wonderful winter-wonderland of Narnia.

Costumes were optional but as I hope you will soon find out, in abundance! I turned my outside house lights off and instead had a lit lamppost that I had borrowed, outside of my front door. I had also covered the base of it with some 'snow'. Upon entering the front door (where the interior entrance lights were off) guests could hear the soundtrack to the movie which I downloaded and had playing in the entrance. Immediately in front of them were the 'fur coats' that they had to separate and walk through in order to get into Narnia. In reality I had hung a shower curtain rod in my ceiling skylight and hung two fur-blankets down from it. It was fantastic! I was thrilled with how it turned out.

Once in Narnia everything was white with winter! I covered all of my coloured living room couches with white sheets (thank you Kelly & Sherisse!) and all of my tables with white tablecloths. I also strung snowflakes in a line across the middle of the living room (above our heads) and there were sparkly white beads hanging everywhere on lamps, pictures and chandeliers. In the kitchen, again on a white tablecloth was a table full of.....white food! If you've never before seen a full table of only white food, it is honestly not that appetizing-looking. I think God invented colour so we would eat better. However, it was yummy! As Yvonne pointed out - surprisingly yummy! And you do have to rack your brains to come up with enough white food items to keep everyone full.

There was white cheese & cracker plates, white cheeseballs, white chips, pita bread with tzaziki, white triangle sandwiches with cucumber and cream cheese, devilled eggs, a veggie plate of only cauliflower and mushrooms with ranch dip, white pastries with various fillings, and a clear punch to drink.

In the dining room was the dessert table - a white chocolate fountain (yum!) with apple slices, bananas, cream puffs, shortbread, honeydew melon and powdered doughnuts. All very wintery and icy looking.

And the costumes were fantastic! I went as the Snow Queen - or White Witch. Darrell was the professor, Brooklyn was Lucy and Zachary was a centaur. I am rather proud of his costume as I made the entire thing from things found in the house! We even had a costume vote - you could vote once for the best child costume and once for the best adult costume. Luke won the adult prize for his brilliant Mr. Tumnus and Zachary won for the centaur. To be fair though (in case anyone's calling foul play....) you were not allowed to vote for your spouse or children. Following that we had a very quick 'fashion show' of the top 10 voted costumes. Each had to walk the 'stage' to a Hannah Montana song. (I know, nothing to do with Narnia but the easiest dance number I could find......)

So many people were creative - I believe we had 5 Lucy's, 3 Susan's, 2 professors, 2 Mrs. Mcready's, 3 Aslan's, 2 Peter's, 1 Edmund, 1 Lamppost (BRILLIANT!), 1 Dwarf Guard, 1 Mr. Tumnus, 2 Mermaids, 3 White Witches, and one Piece of Turkish Delight played by my dear friend Jeni whose baby is about to pop out any minute!!! I know I'm missing some but you get the general idea.

And to add the icing to the cake, my sister, brother-in-law and 2 nephews were able to be there from Kelowna! They came to Vic. for only 36 hours but made the most of the whirlwind visit to Narnia.

So - to all my friends who arrived with glorious outfits and festive faces - thanks for the memories. Here are the photos I have so far - hopefully the others who took a gazillion will send me some soon that I can add to the pile.Attaching the icicle eyelashes! And yes, that's my wedding dress.Next year's Family Christmas Card...haha
Mrs. McCready with her centaur nephew.
Some Lucy's, an Aslan, a centaur and little Jack with his back to the camera.

Christmas 2008 !

I know. I'm way overdue in blogging. But one thing lead to another and one function became another and there you go. Our Christmas season was varied and busy as usual. The kids had their musical production at GT and both of them did us proud with large speaking roles (Zachary making a VERY convincing cowboy with his Texas drawl). The school also had its concert. I never like it quite as much but mostly because its individual pieces and I love the theatrics of a full musical. Nevertheless, all the kids did a great job.
The rest of December has been very full. We had a gala dinner at the church that Rayael somehow persuaded me to play the part of Joey Fatone in an N'Sync lipsync that we did. Apparently my 'costume' was so man-like my husband ended up quite disturbed after it was finished!!
Then there was a shower at the church for Kendal Jones whose wedding to Evan Alnutt we attended just last week. As it chucked down snow I might add. It added to the magic of the day.
The next day (last Sunday) was our choir's concert with Leon.
We had Leon, Alison & Aria over with some of our friends on the Friday but also ended up having them stay the night with us Sunday night to save the trek to Sidney after the concert. They arrived Sunday afternoon to put precious Aria down for a nap and while Alison got her all tucked in, Leon and Darrell had to get Leon's rental car into our driveway. No easy feat as you will see from the photo.
The snow didn't stop falling! To save any further snowploughing by other vehicles Darrell then drove Leon and I in to the church and returned home to pick up Alison, Aria, our two kids and Sherisse who also couldn't get her car out for the concert. After the concert (which was FANTASTIC!) Darrell then did the shifts in reverse! Because the snow continued to fall this entire time I actually stopped at the shops on the way home and bought a turkey. Just in case we all ended up snowed in at the Richmonds for Christmas! Not what was planned, but still would have been a fun Christmas had it come to that.

After we were all back from the concert, Darrell, Leon & I had to shovel the road out to Haliburton to make sure Leon could return his rental car out at the airport. It was decided it would be best to return it that night and have Darrell drive them to the airport in the morning as the rental car could get buried in our road otherwise. Needless to say, the 3 of us were out there on a brilliantly white snowy night with an eerie but beautiful silence. In a strange way I kind of enjoyed it. We all cracked jokes to keep the time from lagging (burnt toast anyone?) and there was something a bit therapeutic about being out at midnight, shovelling in silence. My muscles did not agree however, but exercise was had nonetheless. And for us, the change in sleeping location meant that we all got a lovely extended visit on Sunday that was not originally on the books. The kids loved playing with Aria (her cute little voice is a bit hard NOT to get attached to) and we got some hang-out, tea-time with Leon & Alison catching up.

Despite being told the next morning that all the flights were cancelled, the Leontaridis' did finally manage to get home that night via a nightmarish combination of ferries, taxis and airplane rides.

Then on the 23rd we had a party to go to but at the end of it I felt a bit under the weather. That night it hit me. COLD ! I've been pretty much sick ever since and am even now writing this in my housecoat. But I do have to count my blessings and be glad it's just a cold and not the stomach flu. That I could NOT handle getting at Christmas. We had a mellow day here at the house (I slept for a few hours in the middle) and then headed over to Darrell's sister at 4pm for a lovely turkey dinner. At least I think it was lovely. I couldn't taste it as well as normal but what I did taste seemed delicious.

So now it's Boxing Day and Darrell has just taken our kids to the Boxing Day Skate. It's something we go to every year and I look forward to it as much as anyone but I just couldn't do it today. Too run down and congested. So, hopefully they will all have a good time and I can catch some zzzz's while they're gone.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Mission-Mindedness

Lately I've been very concerned and preoccupied with trying to cultivate mission-mindedness with my two children. I really felt after I returned from Mexico that every Christian should try and do at least one mission trip in their lifetime. After seeing the people, especially children, living in that level of poverty I was crushed in the realization of what we have here.

Because, as North Americans, we really don't get it. We really don't truly understand the suffering that is going on elsewhere in the world, and I suppose we really can't until we've seen it with our own eyes. Sure, television and visiting missionaries with their slideshows give us a small indication of what it is like in troubled areas, but until you have seen it for yourself it isn't enough to really settle into your psyche.

Couple this with the fact that my two children, as I'm sure many other parents are feeling these days, are spoiled. Not in a 'we will give you anything because we're loaded (! haha)' kind of way, but in the way that they've never had to sacrifice anything or go without life's necessities. And they've had plenty of extras on top of the necessities.

So, when I heard that the Life: Just Add Water tour was coming to Victoria I had a talk with Zachary & Brooklyn. I told them what it was all about, that they were raising money to build water wells in places where children are without water and that anyone who paid for a concert ticket (Vicky Beeching and Bluetree) would be helping fund that cause. I emailed their teachers and told them my thoughts, and that if the kids wanted to go, could they please be allowed to come in a little late on Friday morning. Both teachers were fully behind the idea but the crux of it was, if Zachary & Brooklyn wanted to come, they needed to pay for it with their own money. The tickets were $10. Well, I was very pleased that they were both interested and wanted to pay for their own ticket (even Brooklyn, who really doesn't have much to start with). So we went to the bank, withdrew the cash, and then I drove them down to the church where they both handed Becky their $10 bill.

The concert was great, although poor Vicky Beeching lost power 3 times in her set. And yet, her response to it and her testament that Satan would not stop us worshipping no matter what, was very inspiring and led to some sweet worship time. Bluetree were electric! They had a great rock sound with some added computer sounds too. And the funniest part, being that they were the loudest band, was that Zachary fell asleep half way through their set!! I guess that proves what level I play my music here at home, it's rock and loud and it makes him the most comfortable. http://www.lifecampaign.org/flash/

This of course was only a small part towards trying to keep their eyes open to the plight of others and how God has called us to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and stand up for those without a voice. I pray that he will work in their hearts to really feel a burden for those less fortunate than ourselves.

Fall so far....

Well, things are well underway with school, jazz, musical theatre, football and church activities. We are finding the fall 'groove' so to speak. So far so good.

We may have to move Zachary's football to another district though. Unfortunately this year things are completely chaotic and two weeks of only finding out Friday night the schedule for Saturday, have left us feeling pretty frustrated. We will see how this pans out but he may be wearing a new jersey sooner than you think.

Both kids love their teachers although Brooklyn's is pregnant and she will get her replacement in January. But Zachary is especially thrilled as he has his first male teacher, and it's the same guy who taught him Art last year and who with he struck up a special 'artistic bond'. So that's a blessing.

I finished another wedding cake - for Derek & Crystal Fonk. It turned out well I think; exactly the same as the picture she gave me, but with flowers in colours that matched her wedding. The decor at the reception was beautiful, all in deep reds and at Olympic View facing the golf course. Beautiful Location.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all, enjoy your long weekends before we all head back to the grind on Tuesday!

The finished forest/mushroom wedding cake

Here is what the end result looked like: