"Mommy, there's a mini grape growing out of our tree…"

Classic. 

This morning, before heading off to school, I was setting up the stroller on our driveway and you happened to be looking at our tree. The buds are starting to come out now and you kept picking at the tree. You called me over and said in a matter-of-fact voice that there were little grapes growing out of our tree. I told you they were tree buds, but you insisted that they were grapes. Haha. 

You are also beginning to demand more play dates with your classmates. Today, I picked you and your best friend,
Mateo up from school for a play date. It's actually pretty nice having your friends over because you guys play
very civilized and it gives mommy a breather. I noticed that having play dates with your school friends are
much less crazy than having play dates with your non school friends. I guess it's because you guys have a certain
way of playing at school with rules and boundaries so it's very interesting to watch.

Brown E

You said you made me a brownie for me at school when I picked you up from school today. Then you pulled out a brown 'E' from your backpack. I was confused at first, but then you said, "Get it mom? Brown "E", brownie? April Fools! Haha!"

I was not impressed…

The classic kissing sibling shots

I think every family has a shot where the parents took photos of their kids kissing each other. I know I  have one where my mom dressed me up as the 'girl' and dressed my sister, Jessica, as the 'boy'. It's actually a pretty twisted shoot because Jessica is wearing our dad's army jacket and aviator sunglasses and I'm wearing a pretty dress with a flower in my hand. We are actually kissing like we are 2 lovers in love!

I didn't go as far as dressing you up as lovers, but I thought it would be cute to shoot some shots of you guys kissing. 99% of the time you guys are fighting, but there's that 1% when you are actually pretty sweet together. 

Is this the lip balm?

Just a week ago, I've been teaching you how to recognize familiar things and expressing it with your words. I find that you are slower in your verbal skills than Aidan. I want to teach you how to use your words to communicate with me. 

Every evening, when I get you ready for bed, I put lip balm on your lips after washing/brushing and putting lotion on your face. It's the same routine we do every day. I use a pretty distinctive looking lip balm- the EOS lip balm that is in the shape of an egg. I started asking you, "Is this the lip balm?" while pulling out random things from my bathroom drawer wherein you will say, "no." Eventually I will pull out the lip balm and you will recognize it as your lip balm and break into a big smile and shout, "Yeah!" 

Birthday boy

As I write this, I'm dead tired and basically running on adrenaline. I'm in the busiest time at work, but I've been staying up late every night to make Kendall and your loot bags for your daycare birthday parties. Never have kids with birthdays 1-day apart! #deadtired #whydoidothistomyself

Yes, I could have gone to the dollar store to pick up loot bag items in their party section and I did do that, but nothing was good enough for my taste. My occupation is a graphic designer/art director so I can't put my name on something that is not up to par for my liking. I decided that I would again, hand make something. Of course, once I start something I go all out. I hardly got any sleep this week, but it was all worth it. You were so excited to see the finished product and super excited to go to daycare this morning to give them all out to your friends.

It all started with me seeing something on my Instagram feed. I follow a crafter, Sharilyn Wright and she
posted something not too long ago of her handmade notebooks with washi tape spines. I thought that was
such a great idea. I modified the notebooks I made by adding the names of all the kids as well as some
more personal details that they could fill out at the bottom- age, birthday, favourite colour. Since your
writing skills have drastically improved as soon as you started junior kindergarten, I noticed you are always
drawing and writing. I figured a personalized notebook would be the perfect gift for all the kids. I scored
the cover stock a 1/4" on the left where the washi tape ends so that it would open easily. 

Just a close-up of some of the washi tape patterns. Aren't they pretty stacked like that?

Instead of just plain, blank pages, I printed grid paper and lined paper to give it more of a custom feel.
I also added a page at the beginning where it had a box that you had to draw a picture of your family. 

As well as the custom notebooks, I added a bag of flavoured popcorn- white cheddar popcorn or butter
popcorn to the loot bags. 

If I had more time, I would have added one more thing to the loot bags, but I didn't have anything left in
me to design something else.

I love the Ikea-brand ziplock bags (purple bag behind the notebook). I covered the Ikea logo with the
tags of all the names of the kids. This is your loot bag.

There were 26 kids in your class, so you can imaging just how many I had to do. And that's just for your
daycare. I worked on Kendall's daycare loot bags too. The Longo's bag on the bottom right had peanut-free
cupcakes to bring to your daycare this morning.

This was you after I picked you up around 3:30pm. You guys were all eating the cupcakes when I picked
you up. When you got the car, you declared that this year was the best birthday of all. 

Waiting on our front porch for daddy and Kendall to come home. BTW, since Kendall's birthday is on
Monday, I will be giving out Kendall's loot bags then. Yours falls on a Sunday this year, so I had to do your
birthday party today.

While we were waiting for daddy and Kendall, you enjoyed eating your popcorn.

Welcome home Kendall!

She had show and share day at daycare where she had to bring in a teddy bear so she brought Muk Muk,
one of her large entourage of stuffed animals that she carries around these days.

My cutie patootie.

Watching Aidan eat his popcorn.
"When can I have some???" —Kendall

I end this post off with a cute video I took of Kendall today. She is constantly saying no these days. 

But it's not just a short "no!" It's a long "Nnnnnnnnnnno!"

Rules are for fools

Daddy sent me this image he took of you guys after dinner time today. Apparently both of you were bad so he put you in time out. A little ironic that you are wearing a shirt that says, "Rules are for fools." Oh really now???

Mario and Mario

Daddy got McDonald's takeout for you guys tonight as a special treat. Your Happy Meal toy was a Super Mario visor. So cute, no?

I feel loved

There were no shortages of Mother's Day cards this year. I guess now that you can pretty much read and write simple words/sentences, you made me so many cards expressing what you wanted to say to me. Honestly, I'm going to treasure all these little notes and cards that I get from all of you for the rest of my life.

This was the card you made at Korean school on Saturday. You actually wrote the message in Korean!
It means, "I love you" in Korean.

You made this card from your daycare.

Such an artiste. You said we were wearing space suits. Not sure why…

Kendall even made a present for me at her daycare :-)

A beautiful butterfly painting made with her foot prints.

Kendall presenting the present to me. I almost cried.

I just love it.

Your masterpiece that you made from school.

Don't you have great penmanship?

And this was from daddy this morning. I had woken up and went to the bathroom to brush up and there
was a box of chocolates and a card left on the bathroom counter. I was so pleasantly surprised.
Daddy isn't one to get me cards (even when we were dating) so it means so much to me when he puts in
the effort to do so.

Short and sweet.

Daddy took you to Canada's Wonderland this morning (we got season's passes again this year) so I had a mother/daughter day with Kendall.

We went grocery shopping and had lunch at McDonald's.

Daddy had to leave for soccer at 4pm so I decided to have a picnic in our backyard with you and Kendall. It was a nice way to enjoy the weather (first time this year passing the 20 degree mark) without packing a ton of stuff and driving somewhere. You've always asked me to take you on a picnic so I surprised you with one. It was sooooo nice spending time outside and enjoying the sunshine.

Blankets rolled out, food ready. Time to eat!

Kendall with her sunhat and best friend- baby Elmo. She takes him everywhere!

My sunshine boy/girl.

Kendall eating Sherpherd's Pie.

You guys had such a blast eating, playing and dancing outside. We have to do this again!

I taped a cute video of you and Kendall jumping outside. I asked you how high can you jump and this is your response.

Sunday at the grandparent's

Since Auntie Jessica and her family are living at Toronto halbi and halmi's house, we've sort of made it a thing to visit every Sunday afternoon. That way, you can play with Emma (who you love) and I can see halbi and halmi. 

Today, halbi took you and Emma upstairs to his bedroom. You and Emma love going upstairs to lounge on his bed while watching cartoons. When I went up to check on you, I saw the three of you side-by-side lying on his bed. It was so cute!

Smallest to biggest.

All wearing funky panama bottoms.

Tktktktktktkt