paper wonderland

The Little Papercuts home is finally looking a lot like Christmas. The tree is dressed, the presents are wrapped, our paper chain garland is hung and we've just finished putting up the last of our extremely large paper snowflakes.























We decorate our windows every year (we live in a condo, and overlook the center courtyard, we also face two other buildings on either side), it helps to provide a bit of a screen between ourselves and our neighbours. This year we decided to make our snowflakes extra big...read less cutting for mom:) I am thrilled at the end result! Now I know some of you may think we went a little overboard and yes 'less is more', but hey, it's Christmas! I love the graphic quality of the large snowflakes, and we mixed in some medium and smaller sized ones too.















To make these beauties we followed the templates provided over at Martha Stewart for a six pointed snowflake and the lovely blog of How About Orange for some sweet five point stars. For the large and medium snowflakes we used a roll of MALM craft paper from Ikea ($4.99 a roll). So get out some paper and scissors for the kids and turn your house into a winter wonderland too:)

for the birds

Just wanted to post a little pic of my eldest Papercut's project on the Trumpeter Swan, complete with a diorama and a family of swans made out of plasticine. She received an A++ on it! Good job sweetie!

brace face

As kids the Mr. and I both had braces, so we knew somewhere down the line one, if not all of the kids, would need braces one day. And yesterday was the day. Alison, the biggest mini papercut, got a headgear. She only has to wear it at home and when she's sleeping, and she didn't get any actual braces on her front teeth yet (those are coming), so unless you know she has braces on her back teeth, you'd never suspect she has braces at all.

But apparently kids this age are excited to get braces, even asking for them when they don't need them! The dental hygienist told us that they get a lot of little girls who come in and when they get their elastics changed each month, they colour coordinate with all their friends, all getting pink or blue that month. Boy, how things have changed!

I have to admit, I hated having braces and was thrilled when I had them taken off. Alison seems to be having a really positive experience so far, she even has a schoolmate who's jealous that she was going to get braces yesterday! Hopefully she'll see that the end result will be worth the next few years of a mouth full of metal, because these things are EXPENSIVE and I'll be broke by the end of all of this! On that note, thanks Mom for paying for my braces, I am very grateful you did ;)

dear santa

Vintage Pedal Plane from Restoration Hardware baby & child

How cute is this airplane? I am in love with all of the adorable little retro pedal cars and vintage tricycles available right now. Especially this gorgeous airplane from Restoration Hardware baby & child (which is a tad out of my price range), as well as the sweet pink speedster (fittingly named Driving Ms. Speedster) pictured below from The Land of Nod.






















Driving Ms. Speedster from The Land of Nod

And at $89 it's definitely within reason. I don't know if it's the classic lines, or the old-fashioned feel of these cuties, but whatever it is I'm completely sold!





















Sky King Junior Tricycle from Restoration Hardware baby & child

The older papercuts have added these both to the mini's Christmas List. I guess we'll have to see if Santa thinks she's been naughty or nice:)

tadpoles

The kids started swimming lessons over the summer this year, and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they seemed to pick things up, as well as their fearlessness in the water. I was also surprised (read shocked) that my daughter received her Level 1 badge in the first session. My son wasn't quite there yet, but did achieve Salamander status, which we were extremely happy with :)

But in the second session my eldest got her Level 2 badge and the little Salamander was still sitting with a big goose egg. So when we entered into the Fall session, he was determined to get his Level 1 badge, and I'm happy to announce that last Tuesday he succeeded! I now have 2 little swimmers going into Level 2 and Level 4 (the oldest papercut got her Level 3 badge too!). I'm so proud of them both...good job guys!!!

lazy bones

As of today we have only 2 more weeks until the kids are on Christmas holidays, and there is so much to get done! I have to admit, my absence as of late has been due in part to one thing...laziness. Maybe it's the cold weather (we were graced with a beautiful blanket of snow this weekend), maybe it's the excitement of Christmas, maybe it's the thought of all the housework that needs to get done for Christmas ;) Whatever it may be, I am guilty of succumbing to it and donning my lazybones pajamas.























My Christmas tree sits completely naked waiting for me to get all the lights and ornaments out of storage. Our paper snowflakes have yet to adorn our windows and there is a mountain of presents that need to be wrapped. I'm usually super excited about Christmas, and quickly put up all the decorations around the house. I don't know what it is this year. I wouldn't say I'm being a Scrooge or a Grinch, but lazy for sure. It feels kind of nice...relaxed. I'll get it done when it gets done. Maybe it's a little bit lazy and a little bit selfish? Hey with 3 kids, I think I'm entitled to just a pinch of each:) Lazy bones. I'll happily admit to that :)

{embrace} the camera thursday

This is what pictures have been looking like lately at our house. The mini papercut is so busy that it's virtually impossible to get a pic with her actually in it. So today this is the best we could get...oh well. Hope you all remembered to embrace your cameras today, and link up with Emily:)

omg it's justin bieber!

This week has been filled with a flurry of activity, mainly for my eldest papercut. It started with Justin Bieber and ended with prep for braces.

At the beginning of the week the mister took our daughter and her cousin to see Justin Bieber. We are big fans (not really of the hair, but we like the music), so it was a real treat for her to see him in concert. This is the second concert my daughter's been to in her 9 years, which is 2 more than me:) A good time was had by all, and I'm sure the mister is glad that it's over...especially his eardrums!

But yesterday was a really big day for my girl, as we're currently at the beginning stages of getting braces. So we had x-rays taken, photos taken, impressions done and spacers put in. We get everything in about a week and a half, and I think she's a little bit nervous and a tad excited too. I had braces as a kid, and I do not have fond memories of them, but they were worth every penny and every annoying trip to the orthodontist to have them tightened (OUCH!!). Hopefully she'll be able to look back when she's older and be grateful to have had them...hopefully ;)

happy belated birthday baby

A few weeks ago my first born child turned 9 years old. Her last year in single digits. My tween queen, who loves all thing Twilight, Taylor Swift and anything guitar related. She is my right hand girl when it comes to watching the two little ones, and my reminder that I must be doing something right when it comes to mommyhood. She is loving and sweet, thoughtful and kind, spunky and sassy. I wouldn't change a thing about her...well maybe a little less attitude :)

Happy belated birthday baby! You are such a special girl!

my apologies

I feel like a child that is always late for school, saying 'I'm sorry, I won't do it again' only to find myself in the same predicament. I hope all of you who have been reading my little blog haven't lost interest. Sorry y'all. I have so many things to tell everyone, but haven't had a chance to sit down to write about any of it! And here's the one thing I've been meaning to blog about...

I plan to get started on some new artwork soon. Artwork! YIPPEE!!!!

Now I'm not sure as to how much is going to get accomplished, but I'm itching to get out my paper and scissors again. My mini papercut is on a better schedule now, so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get something done! ANYTHING! I'm not sure if I'm really telling you all about this to let you know, or to keep myself accountable. Either way I'm optimistic that 2011 will be a much more productive year...on the work front, that is. Fingers crossed, and thanks to all of my 'friends' out there! You guys are the best:)

{embrace} the camera friday

I know I'm a day late, but all 3 kiddos are sick. So not fun.

Anywho, on any given day this is what my house looks like...toys strewn all across the floor, nowhere to walk and not even a corner of the carpet is visible. My son loves all of his toys. Doesn't matter if he hasn't played with them in a few days or a month, he loves them all equally. Today was a Thomas the Tank Engine day, and it seems as though it was necessary to pull out all of the tracks, as well as every other toy that had wheels on it. So here we are, just the two of us, watching the trains go by, while Ben 10 Aliens sit waiting for their train:) Hope you all weren't slackers like us and remembered to link up with Emily!

we now return to your regularly scheduled program

Did you notice we were gone? We've been MIA the last couple of weeks, prepping for Halloween kept me pretty busy (I decided to take on the task of making a Little Red Riding Hood costume for my eldest...more on that later), but things have settled down considerably. Thank goodness for that!

Seriously, where does all the time go? Do you ever feel like you have no time to do anything, and spend all your time doing nothing, missing out on all the little moments? That's how it's been here lately. Oh well, what can you do? I promise not to be missing for so long again, and there's lots of new stuff to fill you all in on, so stay tuned friends :)

birthday girl

My sweet little pumpkin is 1 year old today! She is funny, spunky, loving and determined. She has brought so much laughter and happiness to our already happy home and I can't believe how quickly the year flew by! I love my cookie monster... with her messy, cookie crumb kisses and her giggly snorts of laughter. The way she runs and squeals with delight every time we open the front door, and the joy on her face when she spies cupcakes (especially if she thinks they're for her). That's our Zoe :) How did I get so lucky to have such a wonderful little person like her in my life?

Happy Birthday Zoe bean! We love you baby :) xoxo

{embrace} the camera friday

So I know it's not Thursday today, but yesterday was just one of those days (believe me, I don't think anyone would've wanted to see a picture of us). So we're embracing the camera today, dribbly milky mouth and all :) Better late than never, right?

This week is 'Share the Love Week' over at Emily's blog. Her family is in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia, and they're trying to raise funds to bring their little lady home. If you'd like to help this wonderful family out, you can find out all the details here.

yummy cupcakes + cake

I know, I know, you're probably sick of seeing these by now, but yesterday was the mini papercut's 1st birthday party and all of those pesky little monarch butterflies were finally completed, and happily consumed by all our family and friends.























I have to say, they looked pretty good, and the cupcakes were super yummy (read SWEET!!). Everyone really loved those chocolate butterflies, especially all the kids, which made it completely worth the time and effort.























So did the mini papercut like them?























The expression on her face kind of summed up the whole day for her. Umm...yeah, not impressed at all. The only time she even smiled was while she was eating her cake, and when we got home. Gotta love her! But that's what you get for waking up a sleeping baby, even if it is for her own party. At least everyone else got to enjoy the yummy cupcakes :)

gobble gobble

Just wanted to wish all my fellow Canucks a very Happy Thanksgiving! We're having a very quiet day today. Just me the Mr. and the minis. Us :) Hope you all have a wonderful day!

recipe for disaster

Recipes don't like me. You would think that as long as you follow the recipe, the end result shouldn't be too bad, right? For me, not so. I have yet to meet a recipe that ever turns out the way it's supposed to. After several tries I'm still unable to make an edible risotto.
















Today was our big baking day for the mini papercut's birthday party on Sunday. 140 vanilla cupcakes + vanilla buttercream + extra frosting for the cake my grandmother was baking for the special occasion. Now this isn't the first time I've used this recipe, but I haven't made it in over 2 years, so I figured better follow every step exactly to ensure no mess-ups. WOW, what a mistake that was! Let's just say the first batch of 24 cupcakes ended up in pieces and eventually in the garbage. Yup, that's right 2 dozen cupcakes completely wasted. Thankfully the recipe was also wrong in how much it actually makes (it was supposed to make 48 mini cupcakes and we ended up with 60 after you take into account the ruined ones) and I only needed to repeat the recipe 1 more time.
















In the end we had roughly 150 perfect vanilla cupcakes, after I stopped following the instructions:) But I don't think the mini papercut minded all the wasted cupcakes at all!

a bucket full of loot

We are in full on party-prep mode here at the Little Papercuts house. With the mini set to celebrate her 1st birthday party this weekend (her actual birthday isn't until next Friday), we've got tons to do and very little time. So today we're getting all the loot bag stuff organized. With Halloween around the corner, we're taking advantage of all the trick or treat goodies. We have about 18 kids total, but they range in age from 1 year old to 10 years old, so we had to do 3 varieties of loot bags for each age group ( baby, toddler and kids age 5 and up).

I always try to fill the bags with items that are age appropriate while still being fun and somewhat useful. On several occasions we've gone to parties where the kids have received a 'bag full of junk', meaning a lot of cheap plastic toys, candy and stuff that ends up in the garbage. But don't get me wrong, we've also been lucky enough to bring home bags that seemed to be tailored specifically towards my kids' interests. Our goodies are probably somewhere in between, running roughly $5 per bag, which I think is pretty reasonable. I know we can't please everyone, but for me it really is a way to say how thankful we are for all the gifts we receive from friends and family :) Fingers crossed that the kids like their loot!

{embrace} the camera thursday

This past weekend we took the kids to Chudleigh's to pick apples. As you can see it was pretty cold, but no one seemed to mind:)
























October's off to a great start for us, how about y'all? Remember to hop over to Emily's blog and link up! Happy Thursday everyone!!!!

practice makes perfect

Okay maybe not perfect, but much better than the first batch. Remember these? Ya, not pretty, but after making nearly 100 pairs of wings I'd say that my technique definitely improved. I still have about 30 more to make, and they still all need to be assembled, but things are going swimmingly so far.
















I do have to admit that I was kicking myself a few times for not just making something along the lines of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Oh well, I'm off to melt more chocolate:)

{embrace} the camera thursday

With the bigger kids at school, it's just me and the mini papercut out for a walk. It's kinda nice having this time with just the two of us, but boy does she miss her siblings while they're away!

I'd like to say a huge 'Thanks' to Emily for being such a smart cookie and coming up with {embrace} the camera! My kiddos are certainly grateful for all the pics of us together, as am I :)

fly, fly away

A few weeks back I posted about some adorable apple cupcakes. I was going to make them for my little one's first birthday, seeing as we were planning to have her party at an apple orchard. Well, since then there's been a change of venue , so I decided to make butterfly cupcakes instead. The cupcakes themselves are pretty simple, it's the 3-D chocolate butterfly that's a bit tricky.























These are really pretty, when done correctly, but as you can see, my first attempt did not turn out quite as I would have liked. I'm hopeful that round 2 will look a lot better than these, and I'm gonna chalk this one up to a learning experience:) On the plus side, they taste delicious!

this little kitty

I know if a black cat crosses your path it's supposed to be bad luck, but this one was too sweet to pass up. Isn't this little guy cute? While the mini papercut and I were out shopping, she spotted this kitty on a shelf, so I just had to buy him. And the fact that he's also a piggy bank was a hidden bonus!




















I find that I'm drawn to all thing Halloween inspired for my youngest. I'm not sure if it's because she's born in October, relatively close to Halloween , or maybe it's because I love the Fall and everything that goes with it.



















Whatever the reason, the mini papercut is my Halloween baby...whether she likes it or not, black cats and all :)

rock on

Yesterday I took my brood to my niece's birthday party at Joe Rockheads...rock climbing(that's my eldest at the top there)! It was an awesome day, and we'll definitely be doing it again. I'd never thought to take the kids to do anything like this before, so it was really nice to find something new that they liked that didn't involve video games and got them up and off their butts :) So much fun!

{embrace} the camera...friday

I've been sick this whole week, so it's a wonder that this picture even took place. Me and the littlest papercuts (the oldest papercut was occupied elsewhere), just sitting around doing nothin' :) Hope you all had a fabulous Thursday with your kiddos embracing that camera! Remember to link up with Emily:)

birthday boots

A couple days ago I celebrated my 36th birthday very quietly with the family. No party. Nothing fancy. Just dinner with the kids and hubby. The Mr. is getting me something I've wanted for a couple years now, and never really gotten around to buying. Hunter rain boot:) I know, not very exciting, but considering how much time I spend standing outside in the rain while dropping off or picking up the kids from school, they are definitely a necessity. I can't wait to get them. Happy birthday to me:)

the lesser of two evils

This is the face of a well-rested child up to no good:) Trouble with a capital 'T'.

When the mini papercut was very little she slept like a champ and ate like a beast. She remained this way until the kids started summer vacation. With the older kids home all day, she gave up on her normal nap times, opting to stay awake in fear of missing out on some of the fun. She also stopped sleeping through the night, waking at least 3 or 4 times to breastfeed...not fun!

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since the kids started back at school, and I'm happy to say that the mini papercut has returned to her old sleeping habits! WOO HOO!!! Over the last month or so, I've also cut off her night time feedings, as she was only really doing it to soothe herself back to sleep and she'll be 1 soon. She has not protested and it went surprisingly well, considering how much this kid likes to eat:) But I made the mistake of substituting her breastfeeding with letting her lay on my chest to fall back asleep at night, something I swore I would never do again! I learned my lesson with my eldest child, who slept with us until she was about 2, and was a pain to get out of our bed.

The first few nights of adopting this new routine went smoothly, with her falling asleep on my chest and me placing her gently back in her crib, where she'd sleep contently until about 5 or 6 am and wake up to either breastfeed of be soothed back to sleep for another couple of hours.

This no longer is the case.

For the last week or two, the mini has had the luxury of sleeping in my bed the whole night. Yup, exactly what I didn't want to happen. But I'm not too worried about that, that's not the problem. The problem is that I've been sick for a week, and exhausted, which means my little one has been sleeping with/on me for the same amount of time and now my back is a MESS!!! I am in so much pain that I can't even bend over to put her back in the crib. I'm having pain in my lower back when I walk, when I sit, heck, even when I lay down. NOT FUN!!! To say I'm not a happy camper is an understatement, but what can you do?

On the plus side, the mini papercut is sleeping right through the night now. I'll take what I can get.

{embrace} the camera thursday...we remembered

I know we've missed the last couple weeks of etc, but today we're back on track. With the older papercuts at school, it's me and the mini papercut this afternoon. Hope you all had a wonderful few weeks without us, embracing your cameras, and little ones too:) We'll be linking up with Emily, hope you all do the same!

11 months old

Yesterday the miniest of my papercuts turned 11 months old. I can't believe that in a month my baby will be a 1 year old...a big girl :( She's walking and babbling, getting into everything she's not supposed to, and eating up everything in sight! I adore my little munchkin, with her sweet open-mouth kisses and her secret smiles. She makes my heart sing:)

tell me more, tell me more

My oldest papercut is going to be 9 this fall. I've been trying to put this off for a long time now, but I think I've got to take the plunge.

It's time to have 'the talk'.

I'm nervous. I don't want to give her too much information, but I want to make sure she's really informed. I'd rather she have all the right facts, as opposed to finding out stuff from her friends that is pretty inaccurate (you remember the one about drinking orange pop and jumping up and down to prevent pregnancy, right?). I'd like to think my daughter and I have a pretty open relationship, and that she feels comfortable asking me anything, but kids these days...who can tell what they're really thinking! Plus she's still a baby to me. OK blogging mommas, your help is needed! If anyone has any suggestions as far as books or ideas that can move our 'talk' along smoothly, without scaring the bejeezus out of her, it would be greatly appreciated:) Wish me luck!

did you miss us?

Hi. Did you notice we were gone? Well we've got a lot to catch up on, and so much still going on. Where do we start?

Hmm, let's see...the last few weeks seem like a flurry of activity! Between trying to enjoy the last weeks before school started, packing as much fun as possible into what was left of the summer, and the hustle and bustle of getting the older papercuts ready for the first day of Grade 1 and Grade 4, you can imagine how busy things have been.

The kids have been in school for almost 2 weeks now and things have finally settled down. We've fallen right back into our old routine and the kids are really happy to be back with their friends. I'm happy to have a relatively quiet house while they're gone, and the chance to have some alone time with the mini papercut. Thankfully, she's also reverted back to her old schedule of napping consistently in the afternoons and sleeping through the night. Phew, thank goodness!

So, I'm getting back to my blog. Hopefully it means a return to other things as well (I've been sewing lately:), more to come on that!), but I'm content with what I have on my plate right now. I hope you all are well, and will check back with us soon:)

{embrace} the camera thursday

Okay, I know Halloween is like 2 months away, but c'mon...how cute is this costume (not to mention the little bee inside the costume)?!?!























Just me and the mini papercut buzzing away:) You guys know what to do, go link up with Emily already! Happy Thursday everyone!