Photographer Cousins

Last week my cousin, Ginger came over to the house and we had a great play date with our little people.  We got out on that rink and tested it's frozen condition (which wasn't totally frozen).  Everyone picked up a hockey stick and got into the fun of being outside in the winter.  So far we have been out on the ice everyday--skates or boots, it doesn't much matter so long as we are soaking in Vitamin D.

I treasure these days that our little people are all at home and we can spend time together as cousins with them.  And I feel lucky that my cousin Ginger is around and can capture the moments for us (when my camera is packed full of client photos).   Thanks for making memories with us on the rink and then getting some great shots too!

And this was the day we got some beautiful shots of little sister, Bronwyn in the studio at 3 months old.  (I'll attach a few).  I've also attached the blog post I wrote about our session in the studio with all the little ones running around.  Gracious. It's a miracle we got any photos.   Here is the link to the post about Bronwyn and the pictures from the session:

http://www.magnoliacoastsphotography.com/#!Toronto-West-Mississauga-East-Photographer-Three-Months-for-Baby-Bronwyn-Grow-with-Me/c2ju/56a1a7f20cf2009838b67451

Next time, we are planning on getting a little video of the session maybe when Bronwyn turns six months or a year!

Happy Birthday Maggie!!

Today we had a beautiful birthday party for our sweet and sassy little Maggie who just turned 2!!  I am not entirely sure how she suddenly became 2 before my very eyes but we are crazy in love with her.  Anytime she does something really sweet and cute, Jordan's eyes meet mine and we quietly melt over whatever adorable thing she has just done--we stifle a quiet "awwwwwwww."  She is the sugar in the family to be sure.

Ps.  That is Maggie trying to eat the cake with her mouth...  She is such a rascal too.

We decided this year to have a party just for her.  When she turned one, we did a quiet family party, but now she has friends and opinions about things--like she loves doggies and the colour pink and she really wanted to wear her party dress--so we were happy to put together a party to celebrate.

The only person more excited than Maggie, was Gabriel who couldn't wait for balloons and cake and for his friends to come over too, since they share many of the same friends right now or many of Maggie's friends have older siblings.

Last night I had to pop out to pick up balloons...  For some reason it didn't even occur to me that I would have to fit all of the balloons in our small station wagon.  I was a little worried when I tried to get them in the car in the pouring rain....  It took a little bit of fancy maneuvering to fit in all the balloons, but eventually I was able to find a way to get them all to fit.  Sometimes... I am just a little over the top.  But balloons are my FAVORITE thing about parties.  And as you can see, everyone wanted a balloon and it caused hours of fun as they ran and ran and ran around the house with balloons, shrieking and laughing.

Puppy wanted some spaghetti too.

What?  Just chillin'!

Doggie cake!!!!!!!   

Big brother Gabriel has the honors of opening the presents for his little sister.  She actually doesn't protest even a little bit.  It's like her lot in life to have her brother do everything for her I guess.  Ohhhh... and she loved that Ken doll! 

I felt pretty lucky today to have such wonderful friends to come over and celebrate with us.  The kiddos and us are really really blessed to have such kind and warm people in our lives.  Anyone who meets them says so too--you guys are the best!

Thanks cousin Ginger for capturing some funny and precious moments with the kiddos today!  You are so talented! xo

Spooky!

Happy Belated Halloween!!!  This has just been an insane time of year but we did get into some fun with the littles gearing up for Halloween.  We popped out and got ourselves a PUMPKIN family.  We named them all Daddy Pumpkin, Mommy Pumpkin, Gabriel Pumpkin, Magdalene Pumpkin.  You can see here that Gabriel is standing on my head.  What else is new?? 

They loved the whole idea of a pumpkin family and set about chucking them in the front yard.  Oops!  Sorry Maggie pumpkin!  They got a great laugh out of talking to their pumpkins.  Oh the imaginations!  

Under Daddy's supervision and direction, we carved the pumpkins the other night.  Admittedly, Halloween is not really my thing, but as a Dad, Jordan is finding his artistic side and taking on all sorts of these things, from creating dinosaurs out of watermelon, Lightening McQueen out of playdoh, a Paw Patrol lookout out of a few boxes of Raisin Bran and an empty roll of paper towel.  And he says he can't even draw his own name.  What do they say about children?  That they stretch you?

The littles have been pretty excited this year.  They have been talking about ghosts and pretending to be ghosts.  Magdalene's phrase of the past three weeks has been "Ohhhhhh!!!  Ghost!!!!  Scarrrry! Spooky"  And she does a mock shiver.  If I get a chance I hope to catch a little video of it to share with you.

They had so much fun digging around in the goopy pumpkins.  I do have a couple of cute videos of them that I will put up SOMEDAY.

And because celebrations are better spent with friends, we had our good friends Victoria, Jason and their littles over for chili and shinanigans.   Always drama and chaos and excitement here.  Although I won't go into great detail here....  Let's just say, when it's too quiet, something bad is going down.  A mother always knows.

We dressed up the table and had wine and at least pretended it was a sophisticated event.  Even if it really wasn't.

Finally it was a nice warm Halloween night and no rain.  The kids went totally nuts running from door to door with the realization that, yes, they actually got to ask for candy and get it from neighbors.  Today Gabriel said, "I know!!!!  Let's go trick or treat!!!  And get some candy."  Sadly, it doesn't work that way buddy.  Once a year.  But they were very polite.

It took me three weeks of looking around and taking Gabriel to various costume stores before I convinced him (after a number of complete and utter meltdowns) it just wasn't possible to be Lightening McQueen (the racecar) for Halloween.  I'm pretty sure that there is likely some way to make a costume, but admittedly I don't have it in me this year.  I'm apparently not the crafty one in the house.  Everyone knows if you want to build something, ask Dad.

And while we are on the topic of being "stretched" I would just like to mention that Daylight Savings.... is the worst invention ever.  After all that sugar and craziness, we got to wake up at 4:30 (Yes, thank you!)  to overtired and hungry (because they were too excited to actually eat a proper supper last night) toddlers.... 

But, you know, watching them run around so excited and spending time with friends celebrating is really making me start to like Halloween again.  I've really got to get my game on in the costume department for next year!