Maelie's 11th birthday party!

This year, we decided to have Maelie's birthday party at a hotel. We went to the Travelodge in Ottawa, which is certainly not a place you go to get a peaceful sleep ... but you go there for the pool and waterslide!

Maelie invited her friends from school. There were 6 kids in total. Two sisters had to cancelled due to lice, but we were still a good group! This is the girls room (I had a connecting room of my own).

Of course the weeks leading to the birthday party, I was busy preparing treats!

This was a cute idea I saw on Pinterest and it was quite easy to make! My friend Nicole sewed them all for me which was a blessing as I was running out of time!

The little travel pouches opened up and you can put your toiletries in there!

We had little garbage cans with candy. They can be used for little stationary stuff once the candy is gone!

Little gum all wrapped up!

More jelly beans!

Little bags I stamped and filled with Runts candy.

Nerds boxes all covered nice and pretty!

Little cake slices with more treats!

A close up look at the box. There were so many treats that I didn't get a picture of! I must say they were pretty spoiled!

The party started off with some swimming in the wave pool! The kids loved it! They are at an age where I am not afraid they will drown!

The 6 of them stuck together. I love this picture because they actually look like a group of syncronized swimmers!

A bit of fun in the wading pool area...

They spent hours enjoying the slide!

After a little while, we had to get more energy so we had supper in their room. Hot dogs, Mc d's fries, Pizza Pizza, Alphaghettis, etc.... They were full after that so we had to burn off energy!

We had a scavenger hunt throughout the hotel. The kids were so awesome. No one was rowdy. They all had fun finding the answers without causing a commotion in the hotel.

They all waited for each other and worked quite hard!

After the hunt we had push pops and presents!

Of course they were also rewarded for all the work at the scavenger hunt... some kid of flashy game I found at Michael's.

Maelie loved opening her gifts of course! She was very very very spoiled. Sonia had hid some gift cards inside of sponges. Naomie had to help her figure that one out!

Aren't they so adorable??

I love this picture! They are just having a blast!

Once we got back upstairs, I gave them some finger lights and they turned on the music and dance for a bit!

After that, they all settled and got ready for bed. The room was perfect for all of them!

The next morning was more pool time! They had a nice breakfast of cereal, muffins, fruit, and probably candy - it's a party!

Afterwards, we had project runway going ... each child had a pack of foil paper and had to design a costume! It was quite a daunting task to get the foil to hold! They paraded to the front desk with their new outfits!

More pool time after that until all the kids went home. We had a wonderful time! Maelie has such a wonderful group of friends. They participate in everything and are just so happy to be there! I was really happy to have them there to make Maelie feel special :)

Easter with friends

We were invited for supper at Sonia and Patrick's house for raclette for supper. Maelie LOVES raclette so she was excited! Of course we couldn't leave the house without an Easter treat for Peluche too!

Here are a few of the Easter treats that i made this year. I made some for Maelie, Naomie and Elena (Sonia's new student). Here are some pringle chip containers wrapped in Easter paper and filled with pop corn!

Little triangle bags that look like carrots!

Small decorated brown bags with Gobstopper inside.

The all so popular 1 X 8 bags with Smarties

"Sour cream containers" made to look like carrots! The tutorial for this container can be found in lots of places online... simply do a google search.

Long rectangualr tubes with jellybeans :)

Here is a pic of the place settings that Sonia made! So springish and adorable!

We had the girls do a hunt for eggs with clues!

They had to get dressed, as the first clue led them outdoors!

Off they went to the trampoline!!

Naomie was very eager and ended up first everywhere!

A little picture break !

A clue in the BBQ! Makes us yearn for summer...!

They ended up at the mailbox at the end of the driveway! Getting treats is not THAT easy you know!

After lots of clues they managed to come back inside, sit and go through their surprises. Of course Maelie went through the edibles and gave the ones she didn't like to the others!

After the hunt came the commercial for "Manni Petti"... Naomie and Maelie's new business of manicures, pedicures and massages.

After their brief commercial and jingle, that stays in our heads for hours, they informed us of the logistics. Prices, deals, prices for seniors, discounts for students, etc....! I get it for free they said because I supplied the t-shirt markers! woo hoo!

While Sonia prepared the supper, Elena got a mani and pedi! Patrick was able to get a massage. Sonia and I are scheduled for the next time we hang out.

Here is a cute little gift I made for Sonia and Patrick. It reminded me of them! So cute and cuddly!

After the raclette, we even got to enjoy a chocolate fondue! Yum! What a wonderful meal!

Thanks to our friends for having us over even in the midst of all their renovations!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!! As usual we were up bright and early! Maelie is was allowed to wake Bill up after 6 am :) I had said 7... but he said 6! Maelie has trouble staying in bed on special occasions. She woke up quite red in the face, no fever, but just look like she had been beat up a bit! That didn't stop her from wanting to gather eggs!

Since Maelie is not a candy eater, I filled the eggs with jujubes, and she had challenges to find the eggs with 3 red jujubes, 3 orange jujubes, mismatched eggs, etc... Once she found all the eggs with jujubes, she had to fill the empty jar with them to trade them for prizes! Bill likes jujubes so he was also a winner in this game!

I kept the eggs in one room and tried my best to remember where they were! Maelie likes hunting them but if it is too complicated, she will get discouraged.

It kept her busy for a little while! She is still just as excited now as she was when she believed in the Easter bunny :)

Here she is at work emptying her eggs into the empty jar...

We played with some of the simple games!

We enjoyed catching the popping bunnies and chicks!

A bit later in the morning, we had a visitor... the Easter bunny came by. Oh wait, it's more the Easter kitty! Mika is our neighbor a few doors down. He is the neighborhood cat... walks around and is nice to everyone. He even comes inside peoples' houses if you invite him!

Happy Easter everyone!

Spring garden

What is better than a spring garden to celebrate Easter?

Here are little mini sheppard's pies! With a little baby carrot and cilantro leaf!

I had bought these silicone flower pots a long time ago on sale, and hadn't used them yet. I love how these look!

pre-Easter Fun

Naomie came over to hang out a couple days before Easter as her parents were tearing down their kitchen to renovate. The girls had a plan for a new business they are venturing into... :) more on that later....

What is Easter without dying some eggs? We set up on the table with some hard boiled eggs and got to work with various dyes with water and vinegar.

They worked really hard at making their eggs, it was sweet. i am glad they still WANT to do it, you know, with being so old and mature! LOL

Here are Maelie's eggs. They turned out tye-dyish!

Oh..... so did her fingers!

Here are Naomie's eggs. Their eggs seem to reflect their personalities!

We had a great time :) Even if Easter snuck up on us, we still managed to be ready!

Grand maman's visit & speech

Before Easter long weekend, Grand-maman had some time off so we asked her if she could come see Maelie present her speech at school. Of course, the routine now when grand-maman and Maelie see each other is to measure each other back to back. Maelie's almost there!! Not many inches to go!

It hadn't been half an hour yet and grand-maman was already in the kitchen making colored deviled eggs! She got Maelie to work dying them.

Gorgeous colors! The purple ones had a marbled look!

Here they are once done! Maelie brought some to her classmates.

Also routine when visiting is the manicure. I don;t think grand-maman can complain much!

I was off on Thursday and Friday but I wanted to drop off some Easter treats to my boss and manager for their sons. 2 basketball lovers, and 2 soccer beginners! (not pictured here are the two monkeys with soccer balls)

We went to school for the french speech presentations. Naomie surprised Maelie by showing up! She had taken the day off at her school.

Maelie did an amazing presentation and she won 2nd place! Her and Mathieu (1st) did a great job. I am so proud of Maelie. She takes her speeches very seriously and she is such an awesome public speaker!

Before grand-maman left, she got a taste of Just Dance 4.

....and a nice spa pedicure.

One person per foot? Now THAT'S a great deal!!