zoë's 5th birthday party

While I'm on a roll of birthday party postings...here's Zoë's 5th birthday party - we went with a Fairy theme. The school year had just started and as much as Zoë wanted to invite everyone, I talked her into a small gathering at home.  I realize that hosting birthday parties at home is coming to an end...I really don't want it to - I love having them at home.

Auntie Denise made the cake...a masterpiece in all it's purple/lavender ombre glory. The cupcakes were from Sweet Bake Shop and the cookies were once again from Whisk. I bought the marshmallows at Butter Baked Goods, Denise made the squares and my mom made the tea sandwiches. It was a rainy day & surprisingly dark outside for late September. All of the photos are by Kyrani Kanavaros.

It was a great day and fun to look back on these photos. I'm already planning this year's birthday parties, just tossing the ideas around in my head...hoping I can squeeze in one more year at home! xx

poppy's 3rd birthday party

Aloha - it's about time I got around to posting Poppy's 3rd birthday party, it was only eight months ago! I'm not sure where the time goes but it sure goes fast. As you can probably gather from the above photos, we went with a Hawaiian theme - the party was in August so we felt pretty confident that we would have sunshine! As always, my good friend Denise made the cake - this time she did fondant (which non of the kids liked)...Denise always backs it up with cupcakes, so we were covered. My husband carved the watermelon (love it) and the cookies are from Whisk...the hula girls are too cute!

This was probably the easiest party to plan, it's colourful and fun. The food was pretty simple, we ordered sushi, prepared chicken skewers the night before and sprinkled the table with lots of sweet treats. All of the decorations, including the balloons are from The Party Bazaar. All of the Hawaiian birthday photos are by Joy Chen.

For Poppy's first birthday we invited the babies we knew that were born in her first year...we took a photo and have taken the same photo each year. They're getting tough to wrangle!

This is Poppy's first birthday....

Poppy's second birthday...

And Poppy's third birthday...

We had a great time, looking at these photos now reminds me how special the day was and how excited Poppy was to be turning three. They also make me long for summer again! Aloha.

beckett's 6th birthday party

This post is incredibly late....Beckett's party was in August, it's now December - time sure flies. Our boy loves HotWheels, so the theme this year was easy. It was a beautiful, sunny day & we shared it with friends and family. I loved that some of Beckett's friends from school were able to make it.

The photo in the middle is Beckett & his best friend Finn. Seriously, how cute is that? Finn is in the other grade one class at school, the boys find each other at lunch & they love spending time together. Finn also happens to have Down syndrome. My heart is full when I think of the boys going through their school years together.

My sweet friend Denise made the cake (again), she really is the queen of cakes. Sonia at Sugary Sweet Things made the cookies. We set up two major HotWheels tracks in the backyard & the kids raced cars all afternoon.

It really was a great day. Beckett had the best time, he loves a party & party he did. Our kids like to blow out candles, over and over and over again. So we light the cake, sing and relight it. Then we light a cupcake, sing and relight it. It's quite the process & there is pure happiness with every candle that gets blown out.

The only chance we have of getting a family shot is during the cake...we have til the end of Happy Birthday to sneak in a five-shot. There are lots of hugs, many kisses and too many smiles to count. It was nice to do this post five months after the party....such a great reminder of a fantastic day. xx

zoë is five

Zoë Frances Noriko Genn is five today. I remember the day she came into the world so well. Born at 8:55am, ZoZo (as we like to call her) was 8 pounds, 1 ounce and 21 inches long. Dave & I were so excited to have a baby girl join our family. It was an emotional day for a number of reasons, I was grateful to also have my best friend Saleema in the delivery room. There were tears of joy & a sigh of relief - she was healthy.

Beckett was very intrigued...I love this photo of Beckett inspecting his little sister. I knew in this moment that the relationship between Beckett & Zoë would be intense and important. My biggest fear when Beckett was born was that he would be alone once Dave & I were gone...he needed a team and I was going to build him one.  Zoë was the first person on his team, Poppy would follow two years later. Our boy has his little sisters to love him and he loves them back with pure joy.

Zoë was an easy baby, she ate and slept like a dream. She always looked at people with her brows scrunched up, as if she was trying to figure out who they really were. Dave always joked that he hoped Zoë looked like me but acted like him. Personality-wise, she is my clone. It's unbelievable, she opens her mouth to talk and my words and attitude come out. I'm secretly overjoyed.

Beckett & Zoë are 13 months apart in age, ZoZo quickly caught up to Beckett - she walked before he did, she talked before he did. Zoë doesn't know that Beckett has Down syndrome, it hasn't come up yet.  We'll talk about it one day, maybe soon - maybe later. I love how Zoë sees Beckett just as he is - perfect.

It was difficult to choose just a few photos of Zoë...These are some of my favourites. As you can see the girl has a sense of humour, a zest for life and the ability to create an atmosphere of love and happiness wherever she may be.

Everyday is a new adventure with all three of our children, the experiences are unique as they are each so different. This morning at 6am,  Zoë climbed into our bed...I whispered Happy Birthday (she giggled with excitement) and I asked her if she felt different.  She replied "Yes, I do". "How do you feel different?"...."I feel five".

Happy Birthday my love. Thank you for filling my heart.  

beckett is six

On this day six years ago at 8:21am I became a mother for the first time. It was the most glorious moment of my life, followed by some dark, scary days. Thankfully the fear was short lived and we have had six beautiful years filled with love and pure joy. Beckett is six today. I can't believe how fast it has gone, I'm desperate to hold onto each day and savour every second. These are the best days of my life and it's because of my children. Here's each year of sweet Beckett's life so far...

This is Beckett minutes after he was born, 6 pounds 14 ounces and 19 inches long. It's also the moment I fell hopelessly in love and my life changed forever. This photo means so much to me, there's more here than I can ever explain.

photo by KA Davidson

Beckett is seven weeks old in this photo, his first photo shoot.  We were getting settled at this point, we knew Beckett had Down syndrome and had been to numerous doctors appointments. Our boy was healthy and happy. Dave and I were in love with this boy and so was everyone who met him.

photo by KA Davidson

This is Beckett at 1 year old, getting cuter and sweeter by the second. I could get lost looking into those big brown eyes.

photo by KA Davidson

Beckett is two years old in this photo, he had just started to walk and we were thrilled.  As you can tell from this photo, he liked to laugh a lot - and he still does. His laugh is one of my favourite sounds.

photo by KA Davidson

I love this photo. This is Beckett at three years old, playing the drum set Dave bought him when he was born. We had the drums in the back yard, which he was pretty happy about.

photo by KA Davidson

Oh those eyes, how I love them. Beckett is four years old here. A beautiful boy and a great big brother to Zoë and Poppy.

photo by Kyrani Kanavaros

At five years old Beckett loved trains and dinosaurs, not much has changed in that department - but we can now add Hot Wheels to the list! This would be the year Beckett entered Kindergarten, a big step. He loved his first year at school and even lost his two bottom teeth, his new chompers are still growing in.

photo by Kyrani Kanavaros

And this is what six looks like. I still can't believe it, our boy is six. We had a birthday party for Beckett last Saturday, the theme was Hot Wheels (of course) and we had a great time. I'll post more pictures of the party soon. I love that some of Beckett's friends from school came to the party, he was so happy to see them. This boy has grown a lot in the last year. We started an intense food therapy last November and now Beckett is eating the same foods as his sisters. He has his favourites, he loves peanut butter, cucumbers and cherries! Beckett is continuing with his reading and speech therapy sessions and improving each month. It's been a big year of growth. It has also been a year of love. This boy has brought us more happiness than we could have ever imagined.

photo by Kyrani Kanavaros

Happy Birthday Beckett. We love you. xx

zoë's 4th birthday party

I thought this was the perfect time for a "princess party" - Zoë's 4th birthday. I went with pink - and a surprise visit from Cinderella. With three birthdays in a row it's hard to make them totally different, it's a little intense scrambling to get it all done but once it is, I have a year to rest up!

This party had many things similar to Beckett & Poppy's parties...my friend Mika took the photos for me, Sonia from Sweet Sugary Things made the cookies & my friend Denise made the cake - how perfect are those roses?! I follow Sheila from Pink Ribbon Bakery on Instagram, she makes amazing cupcakes (and cakes) & delivered the most delicious, beautiful cupcakes for Zoë's party.

Months ago, as I was walking out of swim lessons with the kids I picked up a card from Princess Dreams Vancouver and tucked it away in my desk. That card came in handy when I decided to splurge & have Cinderella show up at the house for an hour to read the kids a story, sing & entertain them. Cinderella had 12 kids eating out of the palm of her white gloved hand. It was amazing to watch the magic.

Like her parents, Zoë loves a party so it was a thrill to throw this one for her. With three parties in a row our kids are becoming quite skilled at celebrating, not a bad skill to have.

Beckett was the only boy at the party, that was okay with him. He thought Cinderella was fun & he enjoyed getting a little sparkly eye shadow with everyone else. The girls love his dinosaurs & he loves their princesses. Perfect.

poppy's 2nd birthday party

A week after Beckett's dinosaur bash we went toadstool crazy & brought out the gnomes. Poppy loves gnomes and I love that she loves them. I mentioned in Beckett's birthday party post that I would lay in bed while recovering last January and dream on my kid's birthday party themes. Poppy's was easy, she loves gnomes...it then became a challenge for me to come up with different ways to decorate.

Once again the cookies were made by Sonia at Sweet Sugary Things. My incredibly creative mom made the toadstools on the table and gnome hats for everyone...the dahlias were picked from her garden that morning. Beckett enjoyed playing his birthday gift for everyone. I bought Poppy's sweet dress from The Cross months before her birthday, I saw it & knew it would be perfect on her. The little edible toadstools are cheese & cherry tomatoes with cream cheese dots. Dave painted eight brown stools & transformed them into little toadstools for the backyard.

I can't begin to express how much I love the cake. My friend Denise was the mastermind behind this sweet, little gnome cake. You can see Denise watching me pipe...she is so much fun to dream up a party with. I was given the gnome on the cake by a friend years ago and I ordered the toadstools on Etsy.

It was was so good...barely a crumb was left. With Beckett & Zoë nearby, Poppy didn't stand a chance blowing out her candles. Once again my friend Mika was there to take photos of the party.

This photo kind of says it all.....

As you can see, getting a family shot is a challenge. We eventually gave up.

It was a good time. A gnome garden party is a fun theme, the possibilities are endless. One more party to post...and then I'll start dreaming of next year's parties.

beckett's 5th birthday party

Okay, I'm a little behind in my posts...just a little. Beckett's 5th birthday party was in August & I'm just getting around to posting some photos now. Yikes. We had a great time, it was a beautiful August day - friends & family gathered around for a dinosaur party to celebrate sweet Beckett turning 5.

The cookies were made by Sonia at Sweet Sugary Things (she made our cookies last year too) they were so delicious....and sweet. The beautiful cake was made by my friend Denise, she is incredibly talented - a realtor who can bake & cook like nobody's business. My friend Mika Inokoshi took the party photos.

Just about everything "dinosaur" came from The Dinosaur Corporation - they had it all and the delivery was fast. The piñata was a big hit, although somewhat dangerous....we had to hold off the crowd of toddlers!

My mom made the dinosaur terrariums & the big balloons came from The Party Bazaar. The best part about the party was just watching it happen.

When I was in the hospital last January I would fall asleep while dreaming of my kid's birthday parties. I would go through every small detail...I truly believe it's what helped me heal. It made me so happy to dream of the parties & anticipate the look of joy on my little one's faces.