creativelykate

  Last weekend my hubby and I hosted our second annual Hockey on Hathaway street hockey tournament.  This is a tradition we started last October with all of our neighbours.  When we moved to our new neighbourhood a couple years ago we were overwhelmed with gratitude.  From the moment we moved in to our new home we were welcomed with kindness, generosity and new friendships.  We felt an immediate sense of belonging and realized how lucky we were to be a part of this wonderful community. In the weeks and months that followed we were invited to take part in neighbourhood functions, parties and get-togethers.  When our third child was born each one of our neighbours had taken the time to drop off either a small gift or a yummy treat.  We were truly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people...they say you can't pick your neighbours but we couldn't have picked a better group if we had tried. Last fall my hubby and I stayed up late one night discussing how we coul

Last weekend we celebrated Hudson's 5th Birthday.  This was an exciting birthday for him because for the first time ever he got to have a party with his friends (and not just his family).  This is something he has been looking forward to for a long time. It all started last year in Junior Kindergarten.  Basically every time someone celebrated a birthday invitations would go out to the entire class (in order to not leave anyone out).  It was a little overwhelming at first...do I respond yes to all of them or do I pick and choose and then worry that by saying "no thank you", I might be offending someone.  I asked my neighbour and good friend (whose a mother of 3 boys) what to do and her advice was that I respond yes based on what Hudson wanted to do and that's just what I did.  I really took the time to listen to Hudson everyday after school and I definitely noticed there were certain friends he mentioned time and time again and they were the ones we said yes to. 

As many of you know...I love photography!  This is a hobby I've begun to take more seriously in the past 5 years.  Just before my oldest son Hudson was born I invested in a fairly decent entry level DSLR camera - the Nikon D3000.  Up to that point I had never spent more than a couple hundred dollars on a camera so my hubby (boyfriend at the time) thought I was breaking the bank when I invested over $500.00 into a camera I barely knew anything about.  That being said, when Hudson made his arrival my husband and I were both very grateful we had invested in the camera we did...our lives had changed in the most wonderful way - we were now parents to a beautiful little boy and it was time to start documenting every aspect of his new life.  From his first trip home from the hospital, to his first bath, first smile...we (ok mostly me -ha!) have literally caught almost every milestone on camera and as a result we've been able to share those moments with friends and family all over the