Celebrating Life

So today we celebrated a life that was lost, my Uncle Bill's mother past away and today was the funeral. I decided that I was going to take Loralai with me, as she gets older and starts to understand, I will likely be more reluctant, but for now, I feel that a child being present can actually help bring a little brightness to sad day. Loralai I have to say was amazing! She stayed quiet through the service, I did save a sweet treat and gave it to her just before the service began which helped, but honestly I really think that she would have been quiet through it anyway, and if you think approx. 30 minutes for a 3 year old is a very long time. I was very proud of her! 

I did take the opportunity since we were dressed up anyway to take some pictures of Loralai before we left, and I think that they came out so beautiful! :)

 The picture of the left has been enlarged to an 8x10, framed, and hung on our shelf in the living room already! p.s. Did you take notice of my brand new porch chair? Regular $150 from Pier One Imports, and I got it for 70% off that price, what a steal for a beautiful chair I think!  

Summer Update!

Hello Everyone! I haven't blogged in a very very long time; partly because we have been out enjoying the beautiful weather, partly because I have been working a lot, partly because my computer drives me crazy and I need to upgrade, and the rest is because well I have been lazy after doing all of the above! ;)

Well I wanted and needed, to pop in and provide an update of our summer so far, mostly for memory preserving of my own, but also for my family and friends who follow my blog and have decided to now boycott me until I post! lol. I have decided that I need to actually schedule blogging into my week to make sure that I stay on top of documenting our lives, and therefore the memories we are making,  so drum roll please (dun dun dun)...Friday evenings is when I will blog about our adventures of the week! If I end up blogging more than on Friday's it will be a welcomed bonus for me! 

What fun things have we done you ask? well....

We have also been going swimming (lots), to parks, gardening, bike riding, to festivals (Kempenfest, Promenade, Canada Day),  to Paramount Canada's Wonderland (lots), going to the beach, recovering from a bad case of poison ivy (me), etc etc etc. Phew! lol. We have just been enjoying the warm weather while we can! My problem is that I have so many pictures on my Blackberry, I really need to be more vigilant and actually take my camera with me! The camera on my phone takes good pictures as long as they are small, once enlarged they become too pixely.  

What we still plan on enjoying this summer:

Alliston Potato Festival 

Camping in the backyard

Celebrating my 28th birthday, & Loralai Great Grandma's 98th!!!

Camping in the backyard
Possibly a blog facelift?!

So stay tuned! :)

Happy Father's Day!

A day to celebrate how important Daddy's are in our life! 

Daddy and Loralai. This picture was taken on Todd's phone so the quality is not the greatest, but how cute is Loralai's smile? 

This morning Loralai and I let Daddy sleep in, we made cards for both Daddy and Papa. While Loralai was colouring the cards, I asked her a bunch of questions about her Dad and Papa to include on the back of the card:

All About My Daddy

By: Loralai

Age: 3

My Dad's name is: "Daddy"

How tall is Daddy? Raises her arms up as high as she can 

How old is Daddy? "I dont know"

What is the colour of his hair? "Brown"

What is the colour of his eyes? "Brown"  (They are actually blue lol)

His favourite TV show? "movie"

He likes to go to? "go my room"

His favourite food is? "apples" (lol definitely not his favourite)

For fun he likes to? "Play my toys"

His favourite drink is? "Water" 

My favourite thing about my Daddy is? "He likes to colour with me"

All About My Papa

By: Loralai 

Age: 3

My Grandpa's name is: "Papa"

How tall is Papa? "Big"

How old is Papa? "Big"

What is the colour of his hair? "Nope, it's gone" (lol Papa is bald)

What is the colour of his eyes? "Blue"  (They are actually hazel)

His favourite TV show? "He likes Grandma's show" (LOL)

He likes to go to? "for coffee and a movie" (he does like to go for coffee)

His favourite food is? "Apple Juice" (? lol)

For fun he likes to? "I dont know - like be funny"

His favourite drink is? "Water" 

My favourite thing about my Papa is? "Go downstairs" (Papa and Loralai always go into the basement to play together)

Then Daddy and Loralai played while Mommy went out for lunch to East Side Mario's, and to the flea market with Grandpa. Then the 3 of us went to Orillia because Todd had a job interview, and then my parents came over for dinner. 

What a great weekend :)

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Introducing....Loralai the 3 year old!!

 We celebrated Loralai's 3rd Birthday Yesterday and it went without a hitch! 

 We decided to hold her birthday from 11am-2pm, and I think that was just perfect timing for us. We served lunch, played games, opened presents, and ate cake, then there was still enough time to clean up and enjoy the rest of the day relaxing while Loralai played with all of her new gifts. 

Unfortunately Loralai's 3 good friends from daycare were not able to make it, but her long time friend Drake was present and they had SO much fun together. Other than a pool, bubbles, and a pinata, I did not really have a whole lot of activities planned for the two of them to do, but they are just 3 of course, and having too much structured play/activities planned likely would have not have worked out as well, I will save that for next year! 

It was a gorgeous day and our ice cream theme was just delicious! I wish I had taken more pictures of the details, but of course hosting a party is busy! The pictures below give a glimpse of our fun...enjoy!

Delicious cake by Loralai's Godmother Carrie. 

Loralai blowing our her candles again for the photo op! :)

Still cannot believe Loralai is 3, time has just flown by. But I cannot wait to see what this year brings!

Loralai's 3rd Birthday Invitation

I cannot believe that Loralai is going to be 3 in just over a week. I mean she very much looks and acts like a 3 year old, and she is so tall that when I tell people she is two, they look at me funny. I have resorted to saying that she will be 3 in (so many) days. 

Well I gave you a sneak peek before, but here is Loralai's 3rd Birthday Party invitation! 

I am so excited for her party! :)

Organized Toys!

So I was tired of having random toys spewed all over the living-room just because Loralai couldn't find which toy she was looking for. I swear I pick up toys CONSTANTLY! I wish that our home was big enough to have a playroom! But until such time we move or finish the basement, I had to come up with a plan to keep the toys in order and under control! So I decided that labels for the buckets would make it easy for her (and me) to put the toys away, and make it very easy for her to find the toys she wants, and have all like toys in the same spot!

So I had seen many different labels around the internet, that were nice but a little generic, so what I decided to do is take pictures of her toys and make labels out of them. I figure she is a little young to be separating the toys, but having pictures of her actual toys would speed the learning process up a bit. I also included words so that when she eventually learns how to read, she would be able to associate the pictures and the words together! 

So if anyone wants to achieve the same look, all I did was take pictures of her toys, used Photoscape to edit,  print them on a colour printer (I printed them 5X7), laminate them, hole punch two holes at the top, and used cable ties to secure them to the buckets.I liked the idea of the cable ties just because when I eventually needed to change up the contents of the bucket, then all I have to do is cut the cable ties off and I did not permanently alter the bucket in anyway.

Update: We have had the labels up for two days now, and Loralai does amazing separating her toys! 

Birthday Sneak Peek!

So I can not believe that Loralai is going to be 3 years old in less than 1 month, 24 days to be exact! My little girl has already been a infant, baby, toddler, and now she is going to be a preschooler! Anyway, I wont get all sappy right now, I will save that for her 3rd birthday post ;) 

So of course party plans have started, and I am hoping to have the invitations made up this week so we can get them sent out by Friday! The theme for Loralai's 3rd birthday is a Vintage Ice Cream Parlor.

So there is a cute little ice cream truck near our house, Loralai and Mommy went there for a little photo shoot this weekend for a picture for the invitation. Below is a sneak peek, these are not the photo's that were selected for the invite, but it does give you a hint to the direction we were headed! 

 I will post the invitation as soon as they are made up and sent out! 

Now since the party will be held in my parents backyard (we wanted to hold it in our backyard, but with the amount of friends and family we wanted to invite, there is just not enough room in ours) here's to hoping for beautiful weather...rain rain stay away!

A day to celebrate being a Mommy!

Happy Mother's Day Mommies! 

I had such a good day Mother's Day yesterday. I got crepes for breakfast in bed, which Loralai so lovingly helped me eat =), Loralai, my Mom, and I went out shopping then had sushi for lunch. I had a couple of hours to myself in the afternoon (heavenly!), and then Daddy made pad thai for dinner for my mom and I. So although it was a day full of carbs, it was so nice! 

I did not take any pictures yesterday =( but I thought that I would provide an update of what us Baker's have been up to, plus the moments that make being a Mommy so worth it.

 First we have been doing a little gardening! Last year since we had just moved into the house recently, we did not get a chance (or have the money) to spruce up the outside of our home. I want to make sure that we keep it as low maintenance as possible, which is why there are no flowers in our garden, just a few trees and mulch. Why you see all the dirt is that there is two tiny sections next to the garden that have grass, so because it is tricky to get the lawn mower over these two sections, I decided to take out the sod and replace it with river rock. When we get the river rock in (should be this week) I will post a picture. We are also updating the backyard, but I will create another post about that later.

The next post is another one about her dance class. She loves it, and last Tuesday was parents week. The sense of proudness I feel is overwhelming! I honestly can say that I will be proud of her no matter what she does, no matter how good she is at it, just as long as she gives it her all and has fun! Being a Mom to me is about instilling good values, morals, a good sense of self worth, giving her lots of love, and hope that she turns around and makes good choices and continues to be good person with a big heart; in addition to that, I also want her to know that she will make mistakes, but what matters is what she learns from those mistakes! Those mistakes will just add to her understanding of who she is, and who she is meant to be, so embrace them. Every time I look at Loralai my heart smiles, and these are the reasons why I love being a Mother, and why I look forward to watching her grow up so much!

Why we are laughing in the video above is because this night in dancing, three of the little girls thought that Loralai was just so touchable! haha...too cute!

Love you my baby girl! :)

Hoppy Easter!

 lol OK I know I am a few days late...but better late then never right?

So our Easter weekend was a lot of fun! Friday we went to my Grandmother's retirement building to celebrate Easter with her and my Dad's side of the family. There is 9 kids in total ranging from 2-16, so we had an egg hunt for all of them, along with crafts to keep them busy. Then we all brought a dish for our potluck lunch YUM! 

Then on Saturday we went to Orillia to the country produce store. They have the best salad bar around, we literally drive 30 minutes to have salad! lol. Then in the late afternoon Loralai and I went to my managers daughters 3rd Dora themed birthday party! Although Loralai did not like Dora too well, she did have a fun! 

On Sunday the Easter Bunny made his appearance and we had an egg hunt! Loralai had a ball searching for all the eggs.

Lots of fun! Lots of smiles! Lots of memories!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Dance Dance Dance!

Loralai started her first dance class this evening, and she did so great! I was literally on the verge of tears the entire class, I am afraid that yes, I am going to be one of those blubbering Mommies! Loralai was a little clingy before the class started, so I was a little nervous that she would be shy during the class, but no, she was so excited and in there participating, and listening so well to her teacher Miss Stephani! 

Loralai before the class started!

Having so much fun during the class!

This Ring Around The Rosy song was teaching them how to do side steps. They also pretended to be pony's, and when Miss Stephani asked Loralai what her favourite colour was she said "Rainbow" lol, they also pretended to be butterflies, make pizza, and be the little mouse in the Hickory Dickory Dock song.

So parents are only allowed in maybe the first two weeks if the child needs them, I don't think that I will have to go in next week though. They will in the 3rd week have a little routine to show the parents, and then in the final class they will put on a recital for the parents! :)

After the class was over :)
 

Loralai starts soccer in May as well!

So quick Loralai update:

• She is stuck in  "what" phase and it is driving me bonkers! So I am now trying to get her to say pardon instead. 
• She can count to 13 without any trouble 
• She can also count to 8 in Spanish (Thanks Dora)
• Loralai can really sing her ABC's well now
• She calls all words ABC's. i.e.: I had a stamp on my hand, and she said "Mommy what is that ABC's on your hand?" LOL
• Loralai can pick up sushi maki with chop sticks!