a mother's day at home...

if you live around here, you know it was a stay inside sort of day.

last year we had a great time on our mother's day hike
(kind of a tradition)...

this year, we had a lovely family day at home.

it included a 7 layer breakfast cake (in bed) created by emery,

piggie back rides from daddy to make mommy laugh,

 tons of beautiful art work from the girls,

a mommy makeover by emery

(outfit, hair and makeup...  my first time wearing red lipstick - ever!),

 showing the girls photos from when i was little,

and introducing them to an episode of the flintstones (great show!).

i also may have gotten a new purse from jude...

impressive, eh?!

and a quiet hour at home while the girls went to the mall to pick up 

some special gifts they had in mind for me...

 one pair of earrings for each of us from selah,

and a mother/daughter necklace from emery.

super cute.

~

and in case you're wondering,

emery has reapplied my lipstick twice since my makeover.

many reasons to smile today...

what do you like to do for mother's day?

six year old cousins

these two were born four days apart in april 2007.  

chris was 6 lbs, selah was over 9lbs.

buddies from the start...  

 here they are - six years later!

it's always fun when it works out for them 

to celebrate their birthdays together!

 and what's a party without an uncle who can fly you to ceiling?

i'd say that's something to smile about...

happy weekend friends.

mini-yo-we fundraising dinner

during the down season of my photography business,

it's been my privilege to do some graphic design work for 

camp mini-yo-we.

tomorrow is their annual silent auction and fundraising dinner.

this is the invitation i designed for this year's event:

for all those who are attending, it will be a great evening!

a scooby party for my girl...

as you know, selah had a scooby doo party this year!

selah and her friends made scooby collars, worked on a scooby maze,
and listened to a scooby story before we had pizza and scooby snacks...

the mood of the party changed after all the scooby snacks were gone.  

selah was hoping to open her presents and they were nowhere to be seen!

what we found was a video message from a scary ghost 

telling everyone they should go home...

fortunately there was also a clue that led us up to the girl's room,

which was full of balloons.

surprisingly there was something inside each balloon,

so we had to pop them to find out what it was!

inside one balloon there was another clue 

that helped us convince the ghost to come out of hiding.

just to be safe we trapped him with a hula hoop,

removed the mask and convinced him to tell us where the presents were hidden...

(and he would have gotten away with taking 

all those gifts if it weren't for those meddling kids!)

after opening presents, it was time for the cake!

and then one more visit from our new friend, the ghost of the presents...

zoinks!

(click here for more detail images from this party)

easter in jersey

this easter it was just the mommas and the girls 

who made the trip to NJ to see the rest of the cousins

(the daddies didn't get a long enough weekend to come).

as always, it was well worth the drive!

cupcakes at crumbs - they're so big you eat them with a knife and fork...

selah gets a swing from her big cousins

my sister and i love putting together the easter egg hunt for all the cousins.

as you will see, emery wasn't feeling very well that day...

so instead of returning to our favourite egg hunt location,

we did it on the front lawn.

selah was the first to spot the eggs that uncle rich hid

poor emery only lasted about 2 minutes outside

above is the after egg hunt cousin shot.

(emery cried when she saw this because she wasn't in it...)

~

fortunately we took another group shot before we said our goodbyes.

i love these kids, 

and it's obvious that they love each other too!

great memories are made for these cousins in jersey.