The Wedding - Boy Edition

The main reason we took this past V-town trip is to celebrate our friend's wedding. Hubby and Girl were both in the wedding and I will put up pictures of them tomorrow. Today, I'd like to share some pictures of my all grown up and dressed up boy. For comparison, please check out these pictures.

Without further delays, may I present, Master Boy.


Here he was getting dressed. I tried to get him to take a picture without his lovey but then I decided it's the only evidence I have that he is still part baby.


What a goof ball!


"When I grow up, I will marry a super princess like this one." (Super princess is how he referred to the bride all day.)


We had some errands to run in between the ceremony and the reception. My mom took the Boy on one of these errands and I snapped this picture. Don't they look like a celebrity mom and her kid? Like one of those paparazzi pictures you'd see in a magazine.


Ladies and gentleman.


Me and my Boy on the dance floor.


This picture was taken very late at night. Things were winding down so the jacket came off and the Boy had to be entertained by his cars again.

Canadian Spirit

Although we missed the Olympic Winter Games, we were in town for the last day of the Paralympic Games so we tried to see some of the sites.

Our day consisted mostly of rides on various trains. We commuted for over 2 hours and spent maybe half an hour at our destination. The kids were fine with it though. The rides were new and exciting for them.

We started with the Skytrain. Here we were at the platform, getting ready for our first ride of our day.


Then we got on the mildly busy train.


We took this picture downtown during our first transfer.


Then we walked to another platform for another train.


This is as close as we got to the Mint.


We transferred to one last street car to get to our final destination.


The street cars were borrowed from Europe. I think they are giving them back after the Games.


At long last, we arrived at Granville Island.


We were pretty tired and hungry by the time we got there. Fortunately, these nice ladies were giving out string cheese.


We had lunch at Granville Island. This was my lunch, salmon burger with a chunk of that free fun cheese. Yum!


On our way out, we saw a street performance. Look at how much the kids enjoyed it.


Our entertainer.


We reversed our trip to go home with one small detour. We went to see the Cauldron. It was lit for the last day.


"Kids, what did you like more - the Olympic cauldron fire or the dude who juggled fire?"
"The juggler!"


"Did you have fun today?"
"Yes!"

Will Sew For Food

We just got back from a 10 day vacation to Vancouver. Naturally, we were crazy busy before the trip so I have a lot of catch up blogging to do. If you just can't wait, I will soon put some pictures up on FB.

So, this has been a very tasty trip. One BIG (in every sense of the word you will soon see) highlight is the Pork-Turducken feast. It started out as some pictures innocently posted on FB. Friends of mine had the good fortune to enjoy one for Christmas and they put up pictures to show off their meal. I've heard lots about turducken and it's always been somewhat of an urban legend to me. Sure it's a great concept but do "real" people ever go into all the trouble to make one from scratch?

Seeing the picture made me strongly drop hints/beg/bribe/cry for one. Long story short, the kind chef agreed to make one for my next Vancouver visit. In return, I were to sew for his family.

I am quite sure I got the better end of the deal in this situation. All that was asked of me were a couple of crayon rolls and a clutch. As soon as the deal was in place, I started fabric searching for the crayon rolls. Making things for boys is sometimes tricky. They can't be too cute and I don't like things that are too loud. These are what I came up with.

I love this one. I think I should make one for the Boy. I have made at least 10 crayon roll ups and my children use ziplock bags to carry their coloring needs. I am ashamed.


This is the second one that was school themed. Both the outer and inner fabrics are Japanese linen and I think it has a great feel to it.


I thought the ribbon closure was too girlie for the boys so I used elastic and a button instead.


These were great fun to make. With that I held up my side of the bargain. Check out what I got in return!


See that cross section of the art piece. Starting from the top, the layers were turkey, pork stuffing, duck, pork stuffing, chicken, pork stuffing and turkey. We had four side dishes that went with this beauty: Eggplant Parmesan, potato casserole, cucumber salad and steamed broccoli.


This was my SECOND slice. Look at it. I know I am known to exaggerate but seriously, this slice was 2 inches thick! What mad man would serve this to his guest???


I made it through half of this before I threw in the towel. There was a spectacular chocolate pudding after the scrumptious meal as well. My brain was just too stuffed with food to remember to take a picture of that.

Going back in time a little. Putting on the finishing touches and getting ready for the feast.


Here is a picture to document the completion of our transaction.


I have always had a love-hate relationship with turkey. I think I eat it mostly because it's festive and I love cranberry sauce. The meat itself has always disappointed me but the turkey meat in the turducken was so so so moist. It was truly huge bites of heaven. The duck was my favorite part of the bird trio. Did I mention the gravy was also divine? Okay, I am salivating again just thinking about the meal. I am proud to report that I gained 2.5 lbs after this one meal. Honestly! I weighed myself before and after. 2.5lbs translates to at least a month of working out. It's all worth it.

A quick break after dinner. The Boy connect with another Cars fan.


After the meal, we all needed to work off what we consumed. Here is one way to do it. Choose a kid and do 20 reps of bicep lifts. Hint: If you plan on doing 20 reps, only promise the kid 5. He/she will keep demanding more. Remember, the kid you choose had also just eaten his/her fair share of turducken and is also likely on a sugar high.


We were all very happy that night. Great food, great company. Thanks so much A and T for hosting and M and M for cooking. I can't imagine how much time and energy and money you all put into this gathering. I can't promise anything this fancy but our home down south is always open to you and you will be well fed during your visit.

"What do you mean we were all happy? You forgot me! You all got to eat turducken and all I got was mush!"

So Sleepy!

I don't think I have ever seen this baby sooooo sleepy. We took these during dinner time one night.

A few seconds later.

Art

I was inspired by this blog to try drawing with the Girl. The idea is that we take turns coming up with a picture and the other would try and draw their version. Sometimes, I encourage her to copy me but other times I just let her loose and she can draw however she wishes to. This is what she refers to as "I want to draw with you" these days. She would draw tons of blank grids on a page and wait for us to draw with her. Here are some of my favorites.

This is one that the Girl draws first and I try to copy her. She is a big fan of the rosy cheeks.


Penguins.


Birds. Can you tell which is the original and which is the copy? Guess who started this one?


Robots.


What I wanted to be tiger stripes turned into some kind of a scar on her "baby kitty".


Snowy and Nakrc. She is pretty big on naming things these days. I started this one and after I drew the snowman, she wanted me to name him. I walked away and when I came back, she had her snowman and some letters that are supposed to be the name. We should have named the Boy this way.

Girlism and Boyism

Scene 1:

Me: (lying down on bed) I have a headache.
Girl: You are okay. Just get up. (In the tone of voice I'd use when she falls down.)

Scene 2:

Boy: She opens her mouth. (refers to stuff toy he's strangling.)
Girl: Okay, I am coming with the ice-cream.
Boy: In her mouth, now! (continues to sit directly on top of said soft toy) Get her! She will feel better later. She will say thank you. (???? I have no idea what they were doing to that poor stuffed toy.)

Scene 3:

Boy: You have to share! (referring to a bag of candies)
Girl: Why?
Boy: Because I am your mommy! (wonder where he heard that one from...)


Scene 4:

Me: Who gave you that piece of apple?
Girl: I am snow white and the witch gave it to me.
Me: (Looked around the room to see all her teachers and school master standing around, hoping desperately that a friend gave her that piece of apple) Who gave it to you again?
Girl: (Points straight at the school master) She's the witch! (loud and proud)
Me: (A little embarrassed) We don't call people witches.
School master: No, we were playing. She's snow white and I was the witch.
Girl: (To me) That's what I told you. Then she chases me and pretends to bite me. Only pretend though. School Master doesn't really bite. Only mommy does that.
Me: (Even more embarrassed.........)

Why did I ever teach my children to speak?

Here is a random video of me watching my kids watch another kid on the computer.

Smocked Dress

I've been pretty productive lately. After I finished the cropped jacket, I have since made another sun dress for the Girl and I am trying a vintage doll pattern. I don't want to show pictures of the doll yet because so far, I just have a couple bodies, three heads, 3 arms and 2 legs. None of them are sewn together so right now it just looks like a spooky pile of body parts. I am not making a bunch of dolls nor am I making an alien doll. The pattern I have doesn't include seam allowance and I am trying to figure out the fastest, laziest way to produce the best result.

Anyway, back to the dress. Here it is.

"Pssss, I have a secret to tell you..."


"Mommy made me a new dress! She named it the carnival dress. Doesn't it look like something you would wear to a summer carnival?"


"My standard princess pose."


I used some left over tweedle dee and a strip of random left over yellow fabric to make this dress. It was super simple and took about 3 - 4 hours total. I think it should be a little longer but the cool thing about this style is that it can easily be worn as a top. I left the shoulder pieces really long in case I want to lengthen them later.

This is what I would call an instant gratification project. I am craving another more complicated more detailed garment sewing project. Maybe a dress for myself. We'll see if I can find a nice pattern.

Which Hand?

The Girl has always been kind of a magician. Remember when she was about ten months and would toss a ball over her shoulder and went "where did it go"? Well, her newest "trick" is to hide something in her hand and make you guess which hand it's in. Instead of trying to trick you into guess the wrong hand, she is very enthusiastic to help you guess the right answer. In fact, she would go as far as putting something in each hand to make sure you don't mess up.