My twin girls jut turned one and in the stress of planning the best party for them I wanted to make sure that I would capture every moment for them so that once they were old enough to actually appreciate that special day; they would be able to do so.  I am a photography nut. I think everything is worth capturing on film so I was worried about enjoying the party and taking pictures at the same time.  

That’s when I decided to hire Jen from Jenny B photography: http://www.jennybphotography.blogspot.com/ . 

She showed up at the party ½ an hour early as planned and took some family portraits.  She then spent the next few hours documenting everything that went on at the party.  That very night, she had a few sample pictures posted on her website for us to look at!  They had already been edited and Jen even added some special effects to some of the photos!

Included in her package was 40 photos touched up and edited as well as a disk that she was going to send to me with all of the photos on so that you can have them all printed on your own.It is so nice to be able to sit back now and go through all of the pictures and be able to see how all of my hard work paid off. I loved seeing the pictures of the kids having fun and all the moments that I missed as I was busy being social, thanks to Jen! Jen did such a great job. 

I highly recommend her to anyone whose celebrating a special milestone in their life- and let’s be honest, we want to document each moment - we just don’t have the time to do it all!

Thanks to her I was able to enjoy the party knowing everything was being captured for me, or shall I say my little 1 year old girls to cherish.

http://www.jennybphotography.blogspot.com/  

My daughters 3rd birthday was coming up.  Where do I begin?!Planning her party was a no-brainer.  I heard about Gymalaya  (http://www.gymalaya.com/) a few months ago and knew that it would be the perfect spot.  And it certainly was.Having about 25 children and about 35 adults doesn’t give you too many options that can accommodate that many people.  Gymalaya, offered up more than enough room in the air-conditioned state-of-the-art modern facility.The staff were amazing.  They were helpful from the minute we got there.  Setting up the food, plates, party hats and just ensuring everything that we needed to organize was taken care of was such a treat for Mom and Dad.  It’s nice to feel as though you can take some time to sit back and watch your child and interact with them at their party. The room was set up wonderfully for a birthday party. It lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes, 1 hour of fun instructed activities in the gym where they taught gymnastics through “Fun, Fitness and Fundamentals” , followed by 45 minutes in the largest and cleanest decorated party room that I have seen.Before I knew it, lunch time had arrived and once again the staff made it so easy and enjoyable for me that I was actually able to sit down and enjoy lunch with my daughter.  I didn’t have to lift a finger.  I had brought matches and a knife for the cake, but they were all prepared with the essentials that I didn’t even have to take them out of my diaper bag. One less thing to worry about.All of the kids had a wonderful time, and the parents were equally impressed. Most importantly, my Birthday Girl had a blast and really, that’s all that mattered to us. Check out their website for classes or to book your birthday party - your child will thank you for it!www.gymalaya.com   

I have this friend Steve who was recently on a flight. Across the aisle was a new mama with her babe and a very elderly man, who from here on in shall be called ‘old dude’.

As the airplane was taking off, mama started breastfeeding babe. As any travelling mama knows, it’s good if you can get babe to feed on the way up and the way down to relieve any ear pain due to changing air pressure.

As she is feeding, old dude is shuffling around, mumbling under his breath, clearing his throat and basically looking uncomfortable with the breastfeeding situation that is going down beside him.

It was a short flight so before long decent had started and mama sensibly put babe back on breast. Old dude could not contain himself any longer and said “this is clearly making me uncomfortable and yet you continue to breastfeed that child.”

At that point, old dude should have been happy he was not sitting next to me. I feed anywhere, anytime and in front of anyone. If someone feels uncomfortable, they are welcome to leave. Indeed if that sentence had fallen on my ears I likely would have experienced something very close to rage.

Old dude had the good fortune of sitting beside a very gracious mama who very politely and respectfully explained why it helps baby to feed when there is change in air pressure. Old dude seemed satisfied and quite pleased that he had learned something new that day.

The plane landed and old dude was shuffling around looking for his cane and belongings when he turned and looked at my friend Steve and with a quiet smurk said:

“Huh, and to think for all these years I’ve been chewing gum”.

I go to the Mabel’s Labels HQ about two and half days a week and work from home the rest of the time. I like going to the office for the obvious reasons – it’s quiet, no one interrupts me to say they want a snack, and I get to dress up a bit (OK, admittedly “dressing up” is only about a half step up from my mama uniform).

There’s something else about the office that I like that’s tricky to describe – a certain dynamic that makes ours not your average office.

One thing is that our staff is just plain fun – a real mix of humour, passion, intelligence and quirkiness. All this while also being completely professional and skillful. It’s a tall order, but we seem to have pulled it off. I’ve always had a hard time exactly pinpointing what it was about our office dynamic that made going to work so enjoyable. I never knew how to define it until Elia came along.

Elia recently completed a co-op placement with our Production Department. She was diligent and made countless contributions during her time at Mabel’s Labels. Elia also has autism. One of the skills we appreciated most was Elia’s ability to spin a regular occurrence into something memorable.

There was one situation that we all got a kick out of – whenever Elia was placed alongside a certain male student to work; she got a little twinkle in her eye and spring in her step. She would giggle and joke with him as they worked together. Then one day she said about this student what I have not been able to summarize about our work environment. She said “Oh Alex, you’re contagious!”

Contagious! That was the word that best describes our staff team – we hire people who are contagious. To celebrate Elia’s completion of her term with us, we had an office ice-cream party. Even though Elia is back at school and done here at Mabel’s Labels, her contagious personality will not be forgotten anytime soon.

Elia with one of the Mabel babies

Several years ago, I reluctantly moved to the suburbs. I missed my life as an urban mama cruising all the mama haunts with my three babes loaded up in a triple stroller. Suddenly every outing involved a mini-van. Since the move, my kid crew has doubled in size and like it or not, suburbia is the very best place for us.

This was reinforced last week when we held the Mabel’s Labels Staff and Family Summer Sizzler in my backyard. I gotta say, life is pretty good if you are a kid hanging out in my backyard. We keep things pretty kid focused around here so there is no shortage of activities – we have a heated swimming pool, trampoline, sand pit, swing set, and bikes and riding toys galore. To top it off, our house backs on to a huge park that is easily accessed by a gate in our back fence. Last Thursday, the Mabel team (and kiddos) rocked up and had a taste of my life in the suburbs.

Many years ago upon arriving to Canada, my grandparents co-founded a local Irish Club. Every year there was an annual picnic that was jam-packed with activities like running races and relay games. We enjoyed the picnic so much that it became a highlight of the summer.

In the spirit of the old Irish Club picnics, I put together an agenda of cheesy games and races. On top of doing the usual three-legged race and egg-toss, I added a few new ones to the mix that were nothing short of hilarious!

1) The Mommy Call:
You sit all the kids in their sibling groups at the finish line. The mamas get blind-folded at the start line. The kids then all start screaming “MOM! MOM!” and the first mama to find her kiddos is declared the winner.

2) The Daddy Piggy Back:
This activity requires dad to carry all of his children on his back while racing to the finish line. If a child falls off, dad is not allowed to move until child is back on. Clearly, the daddy-o in our family was at a disadvantage, but that didn’t stop him from giving it a good go. I pulled some rank and only allowed him to carry four of them at once – the thought of them all falling and landing on the baby was really too much for one mama to handle.

So maybe life in the suburbs is not so bad. Just imagine trying to pull off some of this fun elsewhere – dads stumbling through the city streets, loaded down with kids and tripping over the latte-sipping city folk in sidewalk cafes. Yep, I think for now this is right where we belong.