welcome to life candy's 4th birthday blogstravaganza!!!

We're 4 years old today, and I'm so excited!!!  Just like these 2 adorable people of mine on their own combined 4th and 2nd birthday celebration in 2006...


See?  They can barely contain themselves!  Ahhh!!!

Who can blame them?!  Birthdays are so awesome, and today, I'm celebrating -- not like I did for our 1st and 2nd blogoversaries, where the festivities lasted for days (seriously, check out those links, they're unreal) -- but it's still going to be so fun that you'll be well and truly hung over and will need the whole weekend to recover.

This year, I'm going to try to pack a whole bunch of crap into this one blog post, but because I understand your need to do other things like work and maybe go to the bathroom, I'll try to keep this post as short as possible by condensing all of my lists to 4 items each.  You know, because it's our 4th Blogoversary.  I'm going to be so screwed when we turn 25...

Anyway, come on in, grab a drink and a slice of pavlova, give the DJ your requests, and enjoy the par-tay!!!


Where are we at?
Compared to the rapid growth of the first couple of years, year 4 of Life Candy was a time of slowing down.  I spent less time blogging and tweeting about life and more time actually living it.  And you can tell by the numbers.  Which I'm totally okay with.  Totally.  I think.

Since last October 7th, I...
  • wrote only 108 blog posts, which is an all-time low.  I'd like to double that over Year 5.  Yay!

  • added 43 new subscribers to my total.

  • grew to 283 Facebook Fans.

  • only have 101 Google Followers, probably due in part to the fact that I keep removing the gadget from my sidebar, then putting it back again.  Repeatedly.  I still don't know if I should take it down again like I did with the Facebook widget.  Yeah, I'm out of control.

Favourite Blog Posts
It was difficult choosing the posts that best encapsulated Year 4.  Do I go with the family posts?  Or the simple/green living posts?  Then there are the writing prompt posts.  In the end, I just decided to choose the ones that gave me a good laugh.

1: A Simple Misunderstanding
This is like a regular day here at home.  We are confused a lot.  And share our space with Pokemon.

2: More Confessions of a Happy Girl
I love doing confession posts.  I never realized just how odd I really am until I started doing these.

3: Car Conversations: The 11th Anniversary Edition
My husband is really my best friend.  And we talk about weird things.  Especially when he's a tad tipsy.

4: Seven
A look back deep into the bowels of my archives.  Bowels?  How about 'annals'?  Nope, too close to 'anal'.  I really love this brief retrospective.


Favourite Comments
Over all 4 years here on LC, you, my beloved readers, have shown me what a hilarious group you are.  (Check out the comments from Year 1 and Year 2)
This year...

"And whenever someone mentions Having My Baby as a detestable song (OK, it is) I like to bring up that old gem by Musique. Fast forward to the 60 second mark for the highlight. I was going to call it the climax, but that would sound like a cheap pun."
- by Albert Bannatyne, 30 Songs

"I just had a lengthy internal dialog that involved your freebie lists. I thought it was weird since the subject usually doesn't come up until April. This is kind of weirder...
...and thanks for the Reese's mental image! I'll hang on to that one for a while (that's actually way more sincere than it sounds, nudge, nudge, wink wink)"
- by Harmzie, More Confessions of a Happy Girl

"Happy anniversary!  It sounds like you had a such a great day together! I can't even imagine an entire day without kids. How awesome.  You and Roomie should totally celebrate by getting his ass waxed. :)"
- by Jenny @ Exconsumer, Car Conversations: The 11th Anniversary Edition

"I'm with you on the 'I' and 'me' thing. Also the misuse of 'myself'.  I could never have a shared email address with hubby. that guy never deletes an email."
- by Myrtle, Things that Make Me Go 'Hmm... I want to stab things'


Blog Shout Outs
The 4 blogs (and bloggers!) that made the biggest impact on me this year...

Ex-Consumer
I've come to consider Jenny one of my bloggie friends.  She's such an inspiration and is one of the forces keeping me on track living simply and paying off debt purposefully.  And she's so much fun!  Oh, and you must check out her awesome homemade fabric softener recipe.  I use it, and it rocks!

Bees With Honey
I'm an introvert (yes.  I am.  weird, eh?) and tend to become a hermit if my friends don't come and drag me out of my little cave to participate in the world.  In my blogging world, that friend is Bruna.  Her reminders on Twitter to join her Let's BEE Friends project every week keep me active when I just want to sit around and eat cheese or surf for pictures of Bradley Cooper, my other pretend boyfriend.

sweet fine day
Jenna and Mark's blog is beautiful in a very simple and classy way.  The pics are breathtaking, and the way they share their daily adventures with their 2 daughters are a true snapshot into their life and lifestyle. When I grow up, I wanna be just like them!

Cheaty Monkey/LouLou's Views
Okay, I cheated.  But these 2 blogs of my dear friends Haley-O and Loukia have been my go-to sites for daily inspiration for maintaining balance and sanity.  I had to mention them both!  They are brilliant, gorgeous, capable, and so very real.  I had the honour and pleasure of writing with them for Canada Moms Blog, and I really couldn't see my online life without them.
And they have great taste in pretend boyfriends, right, Haley?  ;)

Well, I guess that's it.  Thank you all for coming to read me.  I appreciate it more than words can say.
And to all the new readers, welcome to my insanity -- I hope it doesn't scare you off and make you cancel your internet connection and throw away your computers in the off chance you'll see my crazy blog again by accident. At least not permanently.
Year 5 is going to be a great year, so I hope you all come back and join me in all the fun here on Life Candy.

xoxo

PS - I'm also featured at my friend Bruna's Bees With Honey to help her celebrate her blog's 1st birthday.  Head on over there to continue the party!

10 comments:

  1. Happy four years! I'm glad I get to see those two ladies next week, but sad that I won't get to meet you!

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  2. Happy 4th year blogaversary babycakes,
    tiger balls!

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  3. Aw thank you! I adore you. xo

    Happy 4 years - here's to many more!

    P.S. I so wish you were coming to BlissDom next week!

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  4. Here's to another four years! Your blog keeps me sane, you know! :D

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  5. So nice to meet you! You sound like my kind of girl...bring on the funny!!

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  6. Happy 4th birthday! What a milestone!

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  7. Happy 4th Blogversary! I just discovered your blog from Bruna's! Enjoyed reading your post over there and nice 'meeting' you! :)

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  8. Happy four years! I also love the smell of gasoline, not farts.

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  9. Happy 4th bloggiversary! I can't wait to go and catch up on some of your older posts! Here's to more great years!

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  10. Happy 4th Birthday, Life Candy!

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