In Remembrance

    The week of Valentine's Day/ my birthday I was feeling especially depressed about the lack of my third child. And I got to thinking. After our first miscarriage, we decided to honour our baby by sponsoring a child in need. But how do you choose one? They are all equally deserving... how do you narrow it down? We decided to choose one with the birth date of our lost child's due date: June 29. We chose a young boy from Guatemala whose name is Danny Alexander BaCaal. I thought he was especially fitting because his middle name, Alexander, was what we would have called our baby, had it been a boy. So we have been sponsoring Danny for 5 years now; he writes to us often and sends pictures, etc. and he holds a special place for us because of  how we came into our relationship.
     So anyway, about two weeks ago, I got to thinking about all of this, and thought that perhaps we should consider sponsoring another child to honour our second lost child. I got the girls involved and we chose a little girl named Pipi Pierrette Akossiwa Edoh from Togo whose birth date also matches our lost baby's due date (also June 29). We received her information package in the mail today, and are excited to get to know Pipi! I'm glad that a ray of light can shine for someone from the darkness that we have been through.

Our Little Mermaid is Four!

   Laura has really loved The Little Mermaid for a while now, and even though I keep trying to not pick birthday themes way in advance, I couldn't help but become really excited about the idea of having her party at the pool this year. Having the party at a place other than our home added a challenging new level of planning for me, too. ;)

I bought some inexpensive towels in mermaid colours to make hooded towels for favours for the guests.
I stitched their names into them and wrapped them up a la "You look sensational!"
I had wanted to get a picture of the guests wearing them, but mostly everyone brought their own towels.

 

I also sewed a mermaid dress for Laura to wear, and my mom made Rachel a cute little Flounder-inspired dress.

I got a new camera for my birthday - one that can get wet! :)

 The guests went swimming while my Mom and I set up the party room at the pool:

The backdrop for the table was not exactly what I had wanted, as I don't really like to buy licensed merchandise for parties, but it was the cheaper, easier option, so I settled. I did up the balloon arrangements without any commercial Little Mermaid input to create the 'under the sea' atmosphere, so I guess it evened out.

The kids really enjoyed the bubble machine,
but it started making the floor a little slippery after a few minutes, so we had to turn it off.
We also had The Little Mermaid soundtrack to play, but forgot the CD player. :(

I wasn't able to go all out with the decorations since we were having it out of house, 

so I put more effort into the food/ table instead:

I made little bubble trails to include a picture and quotes from the movie to tie in each food item:

• "I think you've swallowed a bit too much seawater" beside the 'seawater' drink (blue Koolaid + lemonade)
• "It's a dinglehopper! Humans use these little babies to straighten their hair out." beside the forks
• "The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake." for the sushi
• "We had fantastical feasts when I lived in the palace" beside the shrimp (pictured: Ursula eating a shrimp)

• "You want thingamabobs? I've got twenty!" (pictured: Ariel's corkscrew collection) for 'thingamabob' salad
• "It's time Ursula took matters into her own tentacles!" for Ursula's veggies and dip 

 "Shark! Shark! We're gonna die!" with the watermelon shark

"The fish on the land ain't happy, they sad 'cause they in the bowl." beside blue Jell-O with candy fish

• "Let's eat before this crab wanders off my plate!" beside the crab croissants

and the cake. My first attempt working with fondant.
I had been put off by attempting something new and challenging in the past,
but this is the cake Laura said she wanted, so I decided to give it a try.
It was a little frustrating to get the fondant on the cake without wrinkling/ ripping it,
but other than that it wasn't too bad.

 

Laura opened her gifts afterward, and actually showed interest and gratitude this year. :)

This was the card  that Rachel and I made for Laura to go with our gift. Rachel was painting the other day and painted something that actually resembled a mermaid tail, and then went on to paint something else that resembled seaweed, so I cut them out and made them into a mermaid card. :)

For her actual birthday (today) we decided to do something special. The girls were given money for a fun 'outing' for Christmas, and so we had planned to go to the new aquarium the week that I broke my toe, but then had to postpone. I thought it might be fun to stick with the 'under the sea' theme and take her to the aquarium today, instead. So Josh took the day off and off we went.
The aquarium was very cool, and both the girls seemed to really enjoy it. So much that they didn't want to stop and eat a proper lunch, which subsequently caused several meltdowns. :/

 

On our way home, and since they were starving, we went out to Laura's favourite restaurant (Kelsey's).
Hope you enjoyed your birthday, Sweetie! <3

29

       I read a quote a little while ago that said, "Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many." It resonated with me because I nearly was denied the privilege. So I'm not sure why I'm feeling so depressy, because I really am grateful for the privilege. But I've been thinking the past few weeks about my 29th birthday. Mostly not good things. Maybe it's just the terrible depressing winter we've been having. Or maybe its because I am officially in the last year of my twenties. Thirty - that's like... middle-aged... which I guess is... okay. Or maybe it's because this week I've noticed some fine wrinkles beginning to form on my forehead and around my eyes, and while I usually place next to no value on my physical appearance, it was a little... surprising. I don't know.

    Also, there have been a lot of new babies born to our friends in the past couple of weeks, and while I am truly overjoyed for them all, it still serves as a painful reminder to me that I am incapable of that anymore. For as long as I can remember, it had always been my plan to have three babies between the time I was 25 - 30. And now, I am in the last year of that time frame, and it won't be happening. Today is just a sad reminder of that.