Xander turns THREE at Chuck E. Cheese's house

Xander went through a phase of loving Chuck E. Cheese -- like, he didn't just enjoy going there to play the games, he loved seeing Chuck E. Cheese whenever he'd come out and interact with the kids.

He even called it "Chuck E. Cheese's House"

So we thought it would be fitting to have his birthday party there, bearing in mind that it would likely be INSANE and OBNOXIOUS for the parents, but wildly amazing and fun for the kids.

Invitation design by none other than Terlie Design Co.

The sample cake was MUCH nicer than the one we got :P

Xander and all of his friends :)

The birthday boy had a blast...

...and some AWESOME gifts!

A big thanks to everyone who showed up and helped make Xander's 3rd birthday party a fun one!

Cassie & Mario's candy-themed wedding

Remember that wedding I was planning...and designing...and crafting...and coordinating...and baking cupcakes for...and making floral bouquets for...and decorating...and standing up as a bridesmaid for...and (you get the idea)

Well it happened.  And it was awesome :)

Here are the photos from the Wedding that was held at the Byron Colby Barn in Grayslake, IL

My beautiful family <3

We collected jars from friends and family for 4 months prior to the wedding.  Some jars were decorated with lace, or burlap and twine.  All 250 jars were filled with candles or flowers and they were clustered on the tables as the center pieces.

Once the sun set, the entire barn glowed so beautifully, from all of the candles

Every Guest received an empty Ball jar to fill with candy from the candy table.  The tags read "Love is Sweet, fill your jar and Enjoy a Treat"

Here are some other detail shots of the other projects I worked on for the wedding

And here's the best photo from the entire event:

It was a lot of work, and there were nights that I stressed so much about it that I lost sleep -- but it was extremely rewarding and I gained a ton of experience from it.

And after all was said and done, I connected with the lady that runs the Barn, and she is recommending me to her Bride's as a wedding consultant / coordinator!  Super exciting opportunity :)

The Christmas season

This season was filled with parties galore!

We went to the city to visit with Brian's old friend, Wojtek, who was visiting from Iceland with his fiancé

I was so stoked to spend Christmas in Chicago.  We spent the season with friends and family and got to see people that we hadn't seen in a long time.  

Gift exchange at Rocky and Lucille's place

 We started new traditions and got to hang stockings with Xander for the first time

We spent Christmas Eve with the Schmid's

4 generations : Great Grandma & Grandpa Schmid, Grandpa Larry, Brian and Xander

My first attempt at making creamed spinach, and it was a HIT! 

Christmas Day
Headed over to my in-laws house for an over-the-top breakfast, and gift opening

wait... we need SNOW to be able to use this!

Mama got her pro series mixer!!!

Since the only thing missing this Christmas, was Xierra, we FaceTimed with her and watched her open all of her gifts from us and from all of the Schmid's.

 We headed over to our aunt's place for a delicious italian dinner in the evening

Like father, like son

Although much of our time was spent EATING, fortunately, I managed to survive having gained zero pounds over the holidays :)

Mini-Me Centre Pieces

This post is over a year and a half overdue - better late than never

My dad celebrated his 65th birthday and retirement.  Me and my siblings decided to throw him a party...

And any time there's a party, the first thing that comes to my mind is:  What can I MAKE??

I love the idea of personalizing decorations, whenever the opportunity presents itself.  And in this particular case, the opportunity was all up in my face.

My dad is hilarious.  He's always been a clown - maybe a little too vulgar for some people's taste, but always amusing, in my opinion.

When my sister and I found ourselves weaving the aisles of my favorite local wholesale warehouse, we asked ourselves "what can we make as centre pieces for the banquet tables", I had an A-HA moment.

"DAD!"

Yes, we decided to make centre pieces that look like my dad -- here's how I did it:

Head:

- Using a foam ball as the head, I used white glue and 'beige' coloured tissue paper and applied it similar to paper maché.  I chose this method over painting because the foam balls are too porous and would just absorb the paint.

- This was a very time consuming process, as I had to wait for each layer to dry before applying the next layer

Body:
- We bought 1 litre carafes as the base of the bodies, since the shape of the bottle kind of mimicked a human neck and shoulders
-  I created a template for the shirts, and using various colours of scrapbooking paper, I cut each one out individually and attached a separate piece for the collar
(My dad always wears Lacoste golf shirts)
- I filled the carafes with different coloured jelly beans

Finishing touches:
- Once the heads were dry, I drew smiley happy faces on them
- Glued ears to the sides of the heads using beige construction paper
- Put little glasses on each head (these were meant to be used for doll-making)
- Finished off each 'dad' with a tiny little Lacoste logo on the chest of the shirt

TA-DAAAAA!! The finished product (and the Birthday boy!)

Playing catch-up

Wow, what a crazy month it's been.  I've been on blogging-hiatus for the past month -- I went back to work after a year long maternity leave, and have come to realize that there isn't a whole lot of time to do much of anything anymore.  The transition back to work was fairly smooth.  Everyone was so welcoming and patient with me, and now that I've been back for a little less than a month, I feel like I never left.  


So much has happened since my last post -- visits from out-of-towners, my dad celebrated his 65th birthday and retirement, we celebrated Brian's 2nd official father's day, Xierra finished up her year at H.S. Paul school, Xander started daycare full time, and I started back at work.  Oh and of course, summer is in full swing and the weather is nothing short of gorgeous.


I'll try to follow this post with some detailed posts, but for now, here are some photos and short blurbs on what the last month of my life has looked like:




It's always tough when Grandma Jan and Grandpa Larry leave Winnipeg to go back home to Wheeling, IL -- their visit was short but sweet but they got to spend some quality time with the kids and were able to celebrate Xander's first birthday -- best present this little guy could ask for!

l-r: Brian, Xander and Grandpa Larry

l-r: Grandma Jan, Xierra, Me



We had the pleasure of visiting the newly renovated Manitoba Children's Museum before G'ma and G'pa headed back home.  What a great time!

How lucky am I to have a dad with an awesome sense of humour!  I made these centre pieces for his 65th birthday party that me and my siblings held for him at Marigold restaurant.  He was so amused by them and was letting everyone take pics of him posing with them.  Happy 65th dad!

It's rare to have all of us siblings together, considering one sister lives out in Mississauga and another sister lives out in Vancouver.  It was great to hang out with them and with the rest of the Cuevas family. 

Here's a pic of the little ones:

I love that Xierra's probably the only one that's going to remember taking this pic.  The rest of them are gonna see it 10 years from now and be like "who ARE these people?!"

This was breakfast for Brian on Father's Day.  I'll post more about this delicious recipe later:

Xierra had her last day at her school.  To ensure that she can keep in touch with all of her awesome friends, I sent her to school with these little 'cards'.  They were supposed to mimic little books:

"Xierra's New Chapter"

Library cards on the inside, with hand written notes by Xierra

As a little 'good-bye' and 'thank you' gift, I made this Candy Cake for her class on the last day of school:

Packaged and ready to go!

This was just a random day that we decided to take Xander to the nature park at Assiniboine Park.  Happened to be the same day as the 'paws in motion' walk -- bonus!  We got to play AND see doggies!

This was the day that Xander's fever started....it would be one week later that we would discover that he had a case of BABY MEASLES! :(

Our Canada Day weekend was pretty awesome.  We watched the Forks fireworks from Brian's office building with the kids.  That weekend, we made our first trip out to Grand Beach with my cousin and her family.  What a beautiful day to spend bumming around on the sand!

The next day, we enjoyed lunch at Kum Koon with the family for my little cousin's 7th birthday. 

 

Here's a photo of daddy and baby Beckam...I mean, Xander.

Well that was just a quick rundown of what's been going on around here in the last month.

I'll be sure to add details on some of the projects above, for anyone that might be interested.

Have a great weekend!