Another iPhone Photo Shoot - V-Day!

Although we don't celebrate Valentines Day here in Brazil I thought it would be fun to put together a little photo shoot with the twins. We do celebrate a similar "holiday" in June, but it is much more focused on couples rather than friendship and love in general, (and less candy which is good!) It is hard to believe that this time last year David took me out for breakfast - long-haired and big-bellied and now my little ones are almost 9 months old!

Anyways, enough sentimentality for now. We have a nice stone/brick wall in our parking space outside and it's a great place for setting up a shoot. I made a simple heart garland backdrop with four colors of cardstock; red, dark pink, light pink and white. Each heart was taped to a string and the strands hung up with masking tape. It was pretty windy so some of the other hearts had to be taped down as well.

Since my last "photo shoot" with the twins in December, they have gotten a lot more mobile! Making it that much harder to get a good shot. Also it's quite difficult to get them in position and then run back, pick up the phone and get the shot before they move. Difficult, as in, impossible. Twin photo shoot tip #1 - have at least one baby-wrangler on the scene!

Attempts...

Props are always a good idea when working with babies. Obviously they thought my backdrop was fair game too. I was hoping the blocks would keep them in one spot, but they kept coming after the "love" blocks I wanted in the foreground. My ideal shot was one of them holding "x" and "o" with the "love" in the foreground. Didn't happen.

More attempts...

More toys brought out to keep them immobile. Finally I resorted to cookies.

This is the best I got! Lisa is just incredibly hard to capture because she is always on the move!

I'm still glad I got to capture them at this exciting stage, because they are growing up so quickly and I can only imagine how much harder a photo shoot will be when they are walking!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!! Spend it with someone you love. :) 

Wordless Wednesday - New Sofa

If you saw my Friday's Letters last week, you'll know I was extremely excited about receiving the call that my new sofa (ordered, like, for. ever. ago - ok, ok it was only 3 weeks) was to be delivered on Tuesday. Why was I so excited? Well, when we lived in our tiny apartment, we only had room for one little sofa, a very small love seat. With two small kids, it was ok, put a kid on each lap and we were set. Now the kids are getting bigger and we moved to a larger house and our love seat was looking rather small and lost in our huge (to us) living room.

A rare clean house. 

See that little couch just barely sticking out on the right? That was ALL we had for the first few months in this place. We didn't even have the big bean bag for a while. Lots of open space for the kids to run, though, which was nice. However, we knew we'd like/need something bigger for hosting people, as well as for our growing family. After slightly recovering from moving costs, I went on the hunt. 

Here's our living room now (pardon the slightly blurry photo.)

Now the couch that occupied the alcove on the right has been replaced with a lovely corner sofa, upholstered in the same material as our love seat. The love seat is now basically in the middle of the room, creating a division between the living and dining areas. And you can see the kid paraphernalia is starting to multiply there in the left corner. 

Here's a better look at our beauty.

 We are in love. It's comfy, just the right size for our space and being covered in fake leather is super easy to clean. Yes, in just one day we've already had at least one yogurt spill. 

Now, to get a few more throw pillows and get something up on our painfully naked walls.

Isn't settling in fun? Now, if only I had a decorating budget! 

Children's Week at Pre-School

As I mentioned on Monday, the kids had all kinds of special things planned for them by the teachers at their pre-school to celebrate Children's Day which is tomorrow. Their patience at taking photos only lasted for the first day but I did manage to get a few of them in their various outfits for the different days.

Crazy hair day!

Pyjama day - Lucas in Backyardigans and Elena in a Princess set.
Side note: my kids L.O.V.E. the Backyardigans, they ask to watch it at least twice a day, and I could probably sing you a song from every. single. episode.  

Dress-Up Day - A princess and Superman. You can tell Lucas was really not into taking photos on this day! 

Mismatch day - two very different plaids with mismatched shoes. 

Mismatch day - flowers, dots, stripes and mismatched shoes.

The kids had a great week, and even though I picked out all their clothes, they enjoyed wearing something different each day, and it also gave me a few days to wash all their uniforms. Tomorrow they have the day off school, and hopefully the presents they get in the morning will keep them occupied for a good few hours. I can hope, right?

Wordless Wednesday - Shadows in the Window

Yes, those are my kids, standing on the window sill in our living room, 

in between the glass panes on the inside and the metal bars on the outside. 

What a Wonderful World

A few days ago someone asked me what was the most beautiful country I'd lived in. We were having a conversation about where I was from and how I'd grown up. Seeing as I was talking to a Brazilian (with my faltering Portuguese) I of course said it was a tie between Brazil and Canada - Brazil has amazing beaches, and Canada has amazing mountains. 

Not Canada

Clearly it's not as simple as that. Brazil does have amazing beaches, but it also has mountains, rain-forests, rivers and plains. Canada does have stunning mountain ranges, but also boasts beautiful coasts, islands and long stretches of prairie.

I grew up in Canada, Bangladesh and India. I realized that all those countries have so much beauty. Not always in the cities and I think this is the case around the world, but the actual countryside has so much to offer.

Not Bangladesh

The world God created is indeed magnificent. Beauty has no borders. When I came home after this conversation I started looking through my photos and pulled some from Canada, Brazil, Bangladesh and India to show you some of the beauty that is around.

Not Brazil

Not India

Not Brazil

A lot of places I've been remind me of other places I've been. Some of this is due to the natural landscape, some is a result of the way the cities have grown and developed.

Sometimes when dusk hits and a musty orange light descends on the mountain range on the outskirts of our city, I am transported back to the Nilgiri Hills of India where I attended boarding school for 7 years.

Sometimes on a rainy night, when the sky is grey and cloudy and I see the reflection of the street lights glistening on the wet roads, I am taken back to Langley, BC, where I went to University.

Sometimes when I am walking down the street and I get a whiff of incense I am carried back to the streets of India.

Sometimes in the crowded streets of 25 de Março, I could close my eyes and be back in a bustling market in Bangladesh.

Can you tell me what two cities these are?

 Of course, we all know what really makes our world wonderful. It's the people, the friendships, the relationships we have that make our world beautiful.

What a wonderful world indeed!

Leave a guess in the comments as to where the photos above were really taken. I stuck with Canada, Brazil, Bangladesh and India. 

No Balloons Needed

Ok folks, here it is - the big party reveal! We held Elena's second birthday party at our house - the first time for most people to see our new place. It was a good chance to see how our house would hold up to guests. It seems like we hit it right on the head - about 20 people (in addition to our family) is about all our little house can handle.

Here's how it all panned out: we moved our car out of our parking space, put up white fabric to cover the gate, hung white lights, pennant banners and pompoms, and set up white tables with white and pink tablecloths. The centerpieces were just glass bottles that I have been collecting with two tissue paper flowers in each, grounded with some white rocks for weight and stability. We are able to fit 5 tables pretty comfortably out there. 

Inside we had the drinks, food table and sweets. Since we've just moved in (and from a much smaller place) we didn't have to move any furniture out. 

Here are some of the details of the sweets table - definitely the most fun part of any party! We decorated the tables with flowers, and used flower pots and cereal boxes (wrapped in coordinating paper) to hold some of the sweets and cupcakes. The "cake" was a flower made of one big cupcake and eight smaller ones, covered in marshmallow fondant and icing.  I had a lot of fun making the tiered cupcake stand. I was going to use it for the cupcakes but in the end decided to use it for the fun and colorful brigadeiro that my sister-in-law made for the party. No brazilian party is complete without brigadeiro*.

The numbers on the photos show the items I'll be making tutorials for in the coming days/weeks.

1. A super easy No-Sew Banner

2. A simple and colorful cupcake stand

3. Gummy flower favors

4. Mini muffin (cupcake) flowers. 

Hope you enjoyed a peek into my little sunshine's birthday party. Despite both her and her older brother fighting off colds, fevers and a strange allergy, they had a great time! 

*brigadeiro - a simple brazilian chocolate bonbon, made by mixing sweetened condensed milk, butter and cocoa power together, and heating it over the stove until it becomes smooth and sticky. It can then be rolled into balls and covered with sprinkles - here my sister-in-law put it into small cups and added the sprinkles on top. Yummy! 

Snapshots of Life

Since I got my new phone I've been taking a lot more photos of the kids. Here is a small glimpse into our daily life and routines...

Ready to go pick up Lucas from school, and can't leave without her purse.

Waiting outside for Lucas at his school.

On the way home, Elena takes Lucas' backpack. Getting ready for school herself?

A very common occurrence at our place, Lucas and his cars, all lined up, just so...

My very eager "helper". We had just come in from playing outside, which is why he still has on a hat and jacket. It's starting to get cooler here in the southern hemisphere.

Getting ready for bed. Lucas has transplanted all his pillows, blankets and bed toys from his bed onto the sofa saying, "I'm sleeping over at Dog's House" (from a Word World episode)

Happy kids!

Sharing a snack on the sofa.

They are growing up way too fast.

(and some days not fast enough!)