The Birthday Girl

I didn't have a chance to post these pictures of Elly's birthday celebration with me before heading for Pigeon Lake on Thursday.


This snowman cake was for her family party that I wasn't able to stay for. It was quite impressive.


Elly is the first child I've known who very carefully removed the card from the envelope before getting all involved with the gift.


To save the snowman cake for the party, we put a candle on a cupcake and let her blow it out. Actually, she didn't even try to blow it, but following the example of her big brother's first birthday, she pinched the flame out. Ouch!


She had no problem eating the cupcake though, starting with the frosting of course.


Think she enjoyed it???

Home Again

I got back from the weekend scrapbook retreat at Pigeon Lake a few hours ago. It was every bit as fun as I had expected. The weather was beautiful, bright and sunny with no sign of snow - very rare for this time of year. We arrived on Thursday night and stayed up past midnight laughing and visiting and doing some scrapbooking.

At supper time on Saturday Mickey got a phone call from her husband saying that their daughter-in-law was in the hospital in labor, so she and her daughter Andrea (who was also at the crop) drove back to Edmonton so Mickey could be present when the baby was born. Andrea was back at Pigeon Lake in a couple of hours but Mickey stayed away all night and was back at our retreat working away before Emily and I got up and made our way to the cropping room. Mickey's new 8 lb. grandson, Charlie, was born safely and all are doing well.


Emily and me at our work table.


Two sets of mother/daughters - Emily and Me, Mickey and Andrea.


The birthday girls - Kim (store owner and organizer of the retreat, in pink), Laura Lee, and Amber all had birthdays in the past couple days (it was actually Kim's birthday) so one of the scrapbookers had this cake made for them.



And Santa paid us a visit, handing out treats to everyone. He and I were very well color coordinated.


Some of Emily's wedding layouts. She's doing a lovely job with them.


My main project was a small album for grandson Anson. This will be a Christmas present for him. His mom says he loves looking at pictures of himself so I gathered up a bunch I had and put them together in this album.

It was a great weekend. We've already booked our room at the Inn for the one next October.

Weekend Retreat

I'll be missing Elly's first birthday party today but it just can't be helped. Mickey, Emily and I are headed to Pigeon Lake, about an hour south of town, for a weekend scrapbooking retreat. This will be our third retreat in Pigeon Lake and we look forward to them for months. Lots of preparation is done, deciding what supplies to take, what pictures to work on, packing, etc. Here's some pictures from last year's retreat. There was plenty of snow last November...not so this year...hoping it holds off till after we're home.


The main building of the lodge, where we have a large work room that'll accommodate a couple dozen scrappers and all their attendant paraphernalia. The back wall of the work room is floor to ceiling windows overlooking a large deck and acres of woods.


The second building, where our room is (Emily, Mickey and I always share a room), as well as the spa, hot tub, fireplace lounge, etc.



The townsite - it is very quaint with several good restaurants, one in particular which offers wild game and organic vegetables, free range chicken, etc. Our favorite eating place. There is also a scrapbook store there for those essentials that we might have forgotten to bring, like adhesives. Always fun to browse in when we feel the need to escape the creative mode and stretch our legs.

This is Mickey standing on the boardwalk/bridge between the two buildings.

So you'll have to excuse me if there's not another blog posted for a few days. I'll be enjoying some serious R&R in an idyllic rustic location with lots of like-minded friends. We usually stay up till past midnight scrapping, grab a few hours sleep, then get back at it, taking breaks during the day as we need them. A great way to spend a weekend. See you back here on Sunday night.

You've Come A Long Way Baby

A year ago today Eloise Patricia Hardwicke-Brown joined the family - the third child in her immediate family and the 14th grandchild in the MacKenzie clan.


It's been a busy year for the little girl - she has her own passport and at the tender age of three months made her first international flight to Arizona with her Mom and Grammie. She's a seasoned traveller now, having flown to Kelowna, BC with her Mom and siblings in August.

She also participated in the first MacKenzie family reunion in June where she already was the big cousin to James and Alex.


Now at the ripe old age of one year old, she is a force to be reconed with - motoring around the house, climbing stairs, turning her mother's computer off while Sara's busy working on it, terrorizing the cat, and learning to walk.

Happy birthday sweet girl.

Winter Coats

Remember this cute bunny that I blogged about in October...the one who lives on our cul-de-sac and likes to hide/rest under the tree where Lloyd parks the truck???


Well here he is again...all decked out in his white winter coat. Doesn't he look nice. I took this picture yesterday at the same tree that he was under last month. I talk to him but he never answers and doesn't stick around long enough for much of a conversation anyway.


And that's it for today. Sometimes I really feel like my mother's daughter.

Brooklyn's Birthday

Although Brooklyn's 5th birthday was earlier in the month, Lloyd and I went to their place tonight to celebrate with her with a birthday dinner. She was excited to have us there - she's such a sweetheart.


Don't you just love watching little kids open their presents! So much excitement and happiness.
Brooklyn doesn't hesitate to show her appreciation - it's a pleasure to give to her.


She made short work of the wrapping paper.


and loved the Disney crawling baby princess..."it's just what I wanted"... and we were glad that it behaved the way it was meant to - crawling to Brooklyn, laughing and cooing. When we were kids it was enough that our new dolls had 'rooted saran hair and eyes that opened and closed.

She loved her new baby doll. We had good visit with our firstborn and his family, as usual.

Preview of Christmas

First, here's Elly, standing but not walking. She actually did take one step yesterday but she doesn't realize that it's something she could be doing on a regular basis.


Sara's Christmas tree and ornaments were destroyed in their floods earlier this year, so this year she gets to buy a new tree and new ornaments. From among the ones she put up last night, these are my favorite...

A feathered owl, bought because Grammie loves owls - and she's very smart too ;)

My very favorite, Sara's frog prince, to honor Quincey

I love pictures of babies by the Christmas tree.
Here Elly is playing with Max's favorite ornament, a penquin.

Another baby picture.

It's a bit too early for me to put our tree up, but I always get a few new ornaments for it - it's part of the fun.