{Tapas Shower}



I recently hosted a baby shower for my dear friend Michele (yes, the same fabulous Michele who designed this blog). She is expecting Baby #2 in a week (if not earlier).





Our Mommy-Baby group moms got together and we decided to go a bit non-traditional and have a Spanish tapas party!




Guests each brought a couple of different tapas dishes, and our friend Masha (the magical cake maker) made a fantastic tiramisu cake with a marzipan figure of a pregnant lady on top! Hilarious! (My favourite part was the painted fingernails!)












To decorate, I made some paper flowers, which were super easy but look quite fancy. As favours, I made everyone a hair accessory (either a hairband or elastic) decorated with flowers, to fit our Spanish tapas theme. Guests were invited to dress the part.




And as a surprise for everyone, I arranged for a flamenco dancer to come give us a demonstration and then teach us a few moves - so fun! (Unfortunately, Michele isn't in any condition to dance herself, but we put on quite a show for her!)









Not quite the 'usual' baby shower, but it was loads of fun and a unique way to celebrate an amazing woman!





{Pictures by Maribeth}


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{Baking with Granny}

Baking with Granny


Princess Pea and Granny did some baking when Granny was visiting here the last couple of weeks. Cinnamon buns and scones. Mmmmmm.....


I think this is called 'cutting in the butter'

I know that cooking and baking are so educational for kids, what with all that pouring and measuring and mixing and creating and watching it rise in the oven and whatnot. And I know that I should do much more of it. But I'm not really much of a baker (or cook), so it's great when someone else can do it with her!




The finished products!

I tried making these same scones with her a few months back and they turned out like little rocks. Ah well. Thank goodness for Grannies!



The taste test...

These ones were truly delicious! Maybe Princess Pea can teach me how to do it right next time.



"Yup, I'm a good baker!"


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{Happy Mondays - Sweet Pea's Snuggle Blankie}



My very good friend made this snuggle blankie as a birthday present for Sweet Pea. I just love it! Look at those gorgeous ribbons!





Happy Monday!


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{Printable Stuff}



I don't have a printer at home, but if I did I would for sure make these adorable Paper Dolls for Princess Pea (ok, I mean for me)! There are so many cute printable things out there! (Maybe I need to just get a printer....)

Here are some other cute printable things I pine after. Some for the kiddos, some just for me.




























And some more useful printables, suitable for home or school:









By the way, several of these links I found through How About Orange. She often posts links to free printables, so check out her site for more.




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{Baby-Proofing Your Home}


Last week our neighbour left his car running in the parking garage downstairs and went away on vacation. Yes, vacation!! (I'm still stunned!) But it did get us thinking about how much attention we pay to safety in our home. As we opened all the windows and googled whether or not CO rises (we're one floor above the garage), we realised that we really haven't made our home as safe as it probably should be for small children. Ummm....not so good parenting.

For one thing, we don't have a CO detector or a smoke alarm in our apartment. There is a CO detector in the garage itself, though I highly doubt that it works (now that I think about it, the fact that the running engine of the neighbour's car didn't set it off is a pretty good indicator that it doesn't work). In Canada, and I think most of the US, it's illegal to rent out an apartment that doesn't have smoke detectors already installed. In Europe, that's not the case. We have never rented a place in Europe that had smoke detectors, let alone CO detectors.

Now, when Princess Pea was a baby we did get all safety-conscious (for a while). We put baby-safe covers on all the electrical outlets, locks on all the drawers and cupboards, removed the glass top from the coffee table, put soft thingys on the corners of furniture, packed away everything breakable, put spongy underlay under all the rugs, looked up the potential poisonousness of our houseplants, tied up all cords, bolted taller furniture to the walls, and went out and bought our own smoke detectors and installed them ourselves. Then we moved, took them with us and reinstalled them in our new place. We had stairs then, so we also added a few baby gates to the mix, and my father-in-law built extra spindles on the stair railings to make the gaps smaller. Then we moved again, and.... well, they've been sitting, useless, in the cupboard for nearly 2 years now. By the time we moved into our current home, Princess Pea seemed old enough and trustworthy enough (erm, at age 2) not to need the rest of the safety gadgets. She's pretty sensible about safety and is generally terrified of doing anything potentially unsafe. When Sweet Pea came along, we covered all the electrical outlets, and have recently put locks on 2 low kitchen drawers and two kitchen cupboards. We keep the bathroom doors closed. We have a few strategically-placed soft corners. We have the wardrobes and really tall furniture bolted. But that's about it. We still haven't unpacked the smoke detectors.

That said, I did once meet a mom (a princess, no less...but that's another story!) who told me that it was all over-the-top and that the only thing she did with her 3 babies was put the caps on the electrical outlets. But, being a new mum, there was no such thing as over-the-top, so I did everything the books told me to. The second time round, of course, we've definitely slackened our safety-consciousness. For better or for worse? I suspect worse.

After this garage incident, Mr Pea went out to buy some CO detectors. And I suppose this weekend he'll probably install them. And maybe even the smoke detectors too.

I'm interested to know what you've done in your home to make it safe(r) for your kiddos. And how much is too much? Is there such a thing?


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{Searching for Signs of Spring}

We've been on the lookout for signs of spring. Here's what we've found so far...


Pussy Willows


Snail Shells


Somethings' Growing!



A Sprout!



Buds on the Trees



More Buds on the Trees



Pansies


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