A Mixture of Mediums: 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!