STORY TIME

One thing Hugo loves are his books and story time.

 

At our baby shower, [hard to believe that it took place two years ago today], guests were asked to bring a book in lieu of a card if they wished. It was such a great idea and I would highly recommend it. This was the invite insert ...

 

Hugo received a wonderful assortment of books that we will treasure for years to come. Roxy was trying to decide which one was her favourite. (Before Hugo was born she would sit and pose for the camera every time I took photos in Hugo's room).

 

Story time is so much more fun when there is a wonderful selection of books to pick from.

 

 

It is always so nice when we open a book for story time and find out who it was from -- guests were asked to write their names on the inside page! Some guests even wrote a little message.

 

 

This is one of his favourite books. His favourite part of the story is "Clang, Clang ..."

 

 

Over the past twenty months Hugo has received more books. I think he gets them throughout the year, which he loves.  He received some of these for his Birthday, Christmas & just because he's awesome ... 

 

 

 

 

 

When he was first born my cousin gave me a "What to Expect the First Year" book, but since I already had that book I exchanged it for this "B is for Bear" Touch & Feel ABC book. Hugo has enjoyed this book since he was able to sit up on his own and he still loves it!!

 

 

If you need a book for a little one, I highly recommend this one! As far as I know you can still purchase it at Indigo.ca. If you click on the photo it will take you directly to the page.

There are so many different styles of kids books out there. Hugo has a couple neat ones, but if I went on about them all I would be here forever (maybe one day I will do another post). This is the latest book Hugo received . His Oma & Opa brought it back from their trip to Ottawa in the Spring. As you move the page from left to right, the animal appears to be moving. It's kind of hard to photograph it, but it is super neat watching the horse gallop as you move the pages.

Do you have a favourite children's book?

 

Snow Cone Cupcakes

Last week we had the annual Family pool party at my Aunt & Uncle's place. Like last year, I decided to bring cupcakes again. I think we (my sister and I) may have started something last year with these cute teddy bear pool party cupcakes (if you missed the post you can check them out). A couple weeks back my sister and I went on a search for this years cupcakes. She found some bright coloured slushy ones and I found some snow cone ones so we decided to combine the two ideas and we created the following.  Once they were done and put away in the fridge for safe keeping, they created such a beautiful burst of colour  every time the fridge was opened!

Byron found these Twizzlers at the grocery store, which were perfect for our cupcakes!

 

Aren't the colours just so bright and cheery?

 

 

Cupcakes ready for icing. We just used a simple buttercream icing.

 

Icing is on, ready for next step.

 

 

The finished product ...

Since we had some Twizzers left over, we cut them into bite-sized pieces and scattered them around the cupcake tray, which added a little more colour.

At the party, they were a hit {mission accomplished}. Some people even thought they were real snow cones when they saw them at first! Again with my sister's help, we created some fun cupcakes!!

A Special Day for Hugo.

It is hard to believe that a year ago today we were celebrating Hugo's Baptism. The weather was so hot and our Lil Man was so small. I thought I would quickly share some of the things I did for Hugo's special day seeing as I never blogged about it last year. Here is a photo of him sitting on my lap all dressed up.

Guests were invited to come to our place following the Baptism for a lunch buffet. We served an assortment of finger foods (cheese and crackers, DIY bruschetta, veggie platter, pumpernickel & spinach dip, Portuguese style fava beans, butterfly shrimp, cocktail shrimp, Tuna Tart, 7 Layer Naco dip, Portuguese ground beef sandwiches). We also ordered a couple Subway party platters and some Subway cookies. Plus we had an assortment of desserts. There was a lot of food.

Initially I thought the Subs from Subway would be a great idea.  I figured they would be super convenient  and make things a lot easier on us, which they were. But I was not impressed with the Subway here in town though and I will not deal with them again as they did not complete my order as I had requested. When I contacted them about it the day after the party they didn't even seem to care that they messed up my order nor did they seem to care to keep us as future customers (they didn't even offer us a discount on future orders). When I went in to order the platters I specifically stated that I wanted the toppings on the side {which I have seen done at other Subways before} but our local Subway put all the toppings on the subs. This meant they all had hot peppers and we had a bunch of little kids that we were serving them to. Plus the cookies they gave us were over baked, hard and gross. To say the least I WAS NOT IMPRESSED. I have not gone back to them as a result of their lack of customer service.  If I ever have to order sub/ sandwich platters again we will be taking our business elsewhere.  Now that I have that off my chest, here are some of the details.

I find I really like sticking with a colour theme when we host a party. It seems to make things all come together nicely. So for Hugo's baptism it was no exception and the colours were white and baby blue. I also pay a lot of attention to detail because it's the way I am. When we host a party I try to get as much done as possible ahead of time, since there is always a lot to do the day of the event. For Hugo's special day, I prepped the cutlery a couple days before so that it would just be ready to set at each place setting the day before the party. I find when a buffet meal is served, it is nice when the cutlery is already on the table as oppose to having guests grabbing it when they are getting their food. Often guests already have their hands full carrying their plates and a drink and can't really carry the cutlery too.

I like sending guests home with a little thank you favour. Either something for them to snack on at a later time or something they can use. For Hugo's baptism I decided to give out a reusable shopping bag to each family that attended. I purchased the bags from Canadian Tire {I like how their company name isn't all over the bag, plus they are big and appear to be strong bags}. I set up a little assembly line.

 

I folded the bag up and attached a photo thank you card {I took the photos of the Lil Man at home, and then I designed the cards and had them printed at Costco. I could not decide on just one photo to use so I made a couple different ones with my favourite photos. Around the photo it said Thank You in three different languages - English, Portuguese, and Dutch} and I attached it to the top of the bundle. 

 

 Here they are all complete about two weeks prior to the party. 

 

I made little triangle treat boxes for each place setting.  On the outside of the box I included the Lil Man's full name, baptism date, and his Godparents names (they deserved a little recognition too). Inside each box there were a couple mint puffs. I think they turned out cute and were a nice touch. [I apologize for the poor photo quality, the following two pictures were taken the night before the party before I went to bed and the lighting was horrible].

For the centrepieces on each table I used white Astramaris (also known as Peruvian lilies) in mason jars.

On our dinning room table I had some more Astramaris flowers in between Hosta leave in a vase. I found the Hosta leaves helped fill up the vase and hold the Astramaris in place.

We decided to have cupcakes instead of a cake. I find cupcakes are a lot easier. You don't need a plate or cutlery to eat them which means less garbage. I made the cupcakes the day before the party. I stuck with the white and blue colour theme. Just before guests arrived I placed them on my 3-tiered stand and it worked out great.

They were blue and white on the inside too ...

And that's a summary of one of Hugo's Special Days in 2012 - his Baptism Day.