Art & Play ~ Fun with Paint!

During the warmer months, we often have fun painting in the park. We call these events Picassos in the Park, and everyone gets a little bit creative and sometimes unavoidably messy while using paint. Our babies regularly have their hands and feet painted during different events each month and quickly become used to having it between their fingers and toes. When its colder outside and we use indoor space, our toddlers mostly make crafts with paper and glue instead of paint.

Well not today. Today was a day to get painted for both of our babies and toddlers!

When we told our older aged children that we were going to paint, they were very excited. Luckily for us the Book Outlet where our event was held, was okay with us getting a little bit messy! The best part about today was that we had the chance to see all of our school aged friends because it was a PD day! We sure miss having fun with them at our events.

Our infants made an adorable footprint snowman complete with a 3-D carrot nose made out of pipe cleaners.

 

Our toddlers made handprint wreaths just in time for Christmas. At first some of the younger children were hesitant to put their hands in the green paint - not that I blame them. But it didn't take long to give it a try once they looked around to find everyone else painting. These turned out so nice!

Surprisingly all of the paint stayed on the paper, and our friends hands and feet of course. It turned out to be a non messy kind of day. After overhearing some of the moms talking about their art work, I think I will frame our wreath so we can enjoy it for years to come!

Art & Play is one of our 20+ monthly events and is included in your membership fee.  Your membership also includes a one year subscription to Today's Parent!  To get in on the fun this winter register here http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register.

The Letter K sponsored by Post Alpha-Bits Cereal

Today during Alphabet Play we had fun learning about the letter K.

We talked about the letter K and the sound that it makes. It was a little more difficult to try to come up with different words that begin with K, compared to some of our previous letters. We traced an uppercase K and a lowercase k and we sang the alphabet.

During our circle time, we decided to try something a little bit different when we read our story. Today's story was called Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. To assist with our story we handed out some tambourines.
Whenever I read the letter K........we made lots of noise by shaking our tambourines really fast! It was a lot of fun.



Our craft today was K for Kite and k for kangaroo.

Our babies even made some cute koala foot print crafts!

Our event was held at the Creative Dance Company, which has plenty of space for playing with our parachute and for playing red light green light. This game is great for learning to follow instructions! During the first game, the instructions were a little difficult to follow, but by the 3rd or 4th round almost everyone had the hang of it.

One of my favorite things about alphabet play..... is getting to eat Alpha-Bits cereal! Thank you to Post, our generous sponsor for providing this great snack!

With the letters of the alphabet becoming  more easily identified, its fun to try to find different letters in the cereal while eating it. We had fun trying to find the first letter in our names!

Alphabet Play is one of our 20+ events that we have each month. A momstown Niagara membership is great for the whole family and includes events like these all year long. Join us today at http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register.



New Years Resolutions.....Will you make one?

Around this time each year millions of people decide to make New Years Resolutions. What a better way to start the new year by making a positive change in your life.

There was a time when I was one of those people. My resolutions would generally be to lose weight....like the most common resolutions are. The problem was I would end up breaking my resolution by the middle or end of January. Afterwards I would beat myself up and feel extremely guilty......and try to make myself feel better by eating some chocolate. Big Mistake.Why was I setting myself up for that kind of impending failure knowing I did not have the willpower to follow through?  Needless to say I had decided that I was not going to make any new years resolutions anymore.

Over the last few years when people have asked me what my new years resolution was, I would look at them with a serious look on my face and tell them "I am not going to smoke this year." Any of my friends will tell you that I have never smoked, so although it became a running joke - I knew it was a resolution I could keep.

Something is different this year though. I'm feeling a little bit older, and with my fourth daughter turning one in January I have decided to make a New Years Resolution for 2014. Thinking back, I think society may have caused me to look at resolutions in a different way. I'm not going to promise myself that I need to drop 30lbs or that I need to try to get a perfect bikini body by the summer.

My 2014 resolution is to start to take care of myself. The combination of getting older, carrying some additional weight and having 4 children has changed by body in a way that I would have never expected. I spend every hour of every day trying to please everyone and make sure that they have what they want and need. Not that there's anything wrong with that - but I've had a few health problems that I've been putting off and a really great friend recently pointed out that if I don't take care of myself now I won't be around when my family really needs me in the future. This has changed my way of thinking and has rang true in so many ways.

Being a mother it's so easy to put your family first that your needs always get delayed, rescheduled or in most cases cancelled. Whether it's watching what I eat, or trying to squeeze in some exercise, or going to the doctor when I'm not feeling well - I need to start taking better care of myself.

So I've decided that this year is going to be for ME. Whether I call it a resolution or just a real eye opener. Things are going to be different. If I lose some weight ... great! But it will no longer be a focus as it once was in the past. If I need some help, I'm going to ask because I've realized that I can no longer do everything myself and try to be healthy at the same time.

So please learn from my mistakes and join me moms in focusing a little bit more on yourselves. Not only do you deserve it...but there are a lot of people who need you - both now and in the future!

Scholastic Tales for Tots presents The Night Before Christmas

Still to this day, The Night Before Christmas is one of my very favorite stories to hear at Christmas time. Although I love to read, it just seems so much more enjoyable listening to someone read this story. Today Mrs. Jillian read this book for all of us to enjoy.

This mousey version of The Night Before Christmas was written by Clement C. Moore and illustrated by Barbara Reid. This classic poem is brought to life by Barbara Reid's signature Plasticine illustrations, full of humour and astonishing detail, making this a Christmas treasure to read year after year.

When our story was finished, we raffled off a copy of this special book. Here is a picture of our lucky winner with her new book!

We also made a Santa Claus craft to go along with our story and our "Here Comes Santa Claus" theme this month. We used construction paper for Santa's hat and face, a cotton ball for the ball on Santa's hat and packing peanuts for his beard!

Our crafts were great. They looked just like Santa Claus! Then it was off to find some books in the Book Outlet. They have a large selection of books for all ages.

Thank you to Scholastic Canada for your continued support and for providing us with great books for our literacy programming.

Scholastic Tales for Tots is one of our 20+ monthly events that are included in your membership fee of only $45 per year.  Your membership will also include a one year subscription to Today's Parent! 

If you and your children would like to come out and meet some new friends, please register here   http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register

**SPECIAL: If you purchase your membership before Christmas, we will give you three months FREE!**

Scholastic Mama Book Club!

We talk all the time about the importance of mamas taking time for themselves.  We don't do it often enough and I think for many it seems a bit selfish when there are so many other important things calling our names and taking up our precious time.

I have spent most of my "reading" time over the last year reading books that will help my business and didn't realize until recently how much I enjoy sitting down and reading a fun, light, fictional novel.

Our mama book club chose the book "The Raven Boys" by Maggie Stiefvater which was provided by Scholastic Canada, our literacy partner.  I really loved how the story began to unravel right from the first chapter.  The characters were interesting and relateable, even though some were merely teenagers.

There is magic, the supernatural, mother/daughter strife, and what novel would be complete without the promise of  true love.

I often find myself spending the last bit of my day in front of the television in an attempt to unwind and transition from busy daytime activities to going to sleep.  These last few weeks I have spent this time reading this book and remembering how much I love to read before bed.  I fall asleep much easier (without my husband having to wake me up and turn off the television) and I have even been going to sleep a little earlier.  I have also been so captured by the book that I have taken breaks during my day to squeeze in a chapter.

Sometimes as moms we forget to take those little breaks that can really help us reboot during our hectic days.  Taking those quiet moments to ourselves can help us have more focus when things are a bit crazy and when life gets chaotic.  Those breaks don't always have to come in the form of a whole day at a spa, or a two hour bubble bath (that would probably involve a little person yelling outside the door anyhow) but may be just a few stolen moments to get a chapter in before it's time to start dinner.
 Although I took my time reading the book, most of our mamas were finished just days after opening it...they said they couldn't put it down.

Reading this book was a good reminder that life shouldn't always be just work and family.  There should be at least a few minutes everyday that we dedicate to something maybe not so linked to our reality. 

I am really looking forward to reading Maggie Stiefvater's next book...next mama book club book?

November Baby Basics: Scholastic

In our house we introduced books to our children at a very young age, starting with bedtime when they were infants.  We always found, and still do find it such a great way to have a snuggle and wind down after a busy day.

At momstown we believe the importance of teaching our children to love books at a young age is crucial for development and encourages a love of reading as children grow.

Scholastic is one of momstown's partners and they are huge supporters of our literacy programming each month.  Each month they participate by providing books to our Baby Basics program that we read with the infants and then raffle to our members.

In November we read Kiss, Kiss Goodnight by Ken Nesbitt. 

"What happens when baby animals need to rest their little heads? Their mothers tuck them into bed, of course! Read along as baby bunnies, lambs, chicks, kittens, and cubs settle down for a good night's sleep while their mommies give them nuzzles, cuddles, and good-night kisses! A lulling, soothing bedtime poem perfect for getting little ones to settle down."

During our Baby Basics program we always like to make a keepsake craft and incorporate seasonal themes.  November includes Remembrance Day and for many babies this was their first Remembrance Day so we marked this date with fingerprint poppies.  One of our extra crafty mamas made heel print poppies! 

This and many other programs are all included in your one year membership with momstown Niagara!

Gingerbread Houses - A Fun Family Tradition

Easy to assemble pre made gingerbread kits are sold everywhere during the holidays. They are a simple and fun task for the whole family.

These are supposed to be easy to put together right? Well not in my house. Both my husband and myself are incapable of putting a gingerbread house together. I'm not sure why. I can do a lot of things - but this isn't one of them. Gingerbread houses have always been a family tradition that I'd like to say we try to keep. Unfortunately in our house ..... assembly usually includes stress, disagreements, and arguments over who gets to put what candy where. But surprisingly that doesn't stop of from attempting to put one together each year.

This year we decided to decorate a train instead of a house. Mainly because most of the pieces are rectangle and there is no pointed roof that can fall in. So the night prior, I took out all of the pieces and had a moment of genius (or I thought it was anyway). I hot glued our gingerbread train together. Yep you read right. I hot glued the train....no one eats it in our house anyway so I figured why not save myself the frustration. The best part is, we could have decorated it almost immediately since the glue dries so fast. The next day we decorated our train with minimal arguments and it didn't fall apart! It was a good year!

It wasn't until our graham cracker house event I had a major breakthrough. These houses were so easy to put together that why not decorate individual houses every year and make a Christmas village? This way we can show our different personalities through our individual houses.

During our event we had an excellent time decorating our houses. Surprisingly not a lot of the candy was eaten. Way to go moms! The housed looked great and were so much fun to make! There were a few roofs that fell in....but its difficult having to make a child wait while the icing dries.

This was the first time that I had made royal icing. The icing worked just like glue and dried pretty quickly. I used the following recipe that I found online:

Ingredients:

• 1 pound sifted confectioners' sugar or more as needed (3 3/4 cups - I needed more)
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preparation:

1. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine. Scrape down sides. Turn the mixer to high and beat until thick and very white. Mixture will hold a peak. This should take at least 7-10 minutes. (I am impatient so after a couple of minutes I added some extra icing sugar till the mixture was thick enough that when I tipped the bowl sideways my icing stayed in place)
   
2. When finished, cover with plastic wrap, making sure it touches the royal icing so a crust doesn't form. (Even after sitting in my fridge over night the icing was soft and worked great the next day)

I can't promise that this was the last year I will use hot glue on gingerbread......but I can definitely say I am actually looking forward to making our Christmas village next year!

Here is a picture of our finished train and houses.

 

Movember with Clare's Harley Davidson

My husband has found it funny in the past to grow a moustache during the month of November, but this year after a visit to Clare's Harley Davidson he decided to join their team and help raise money for Movember.

Movember is an organization that raises funds and awareness for men's health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health by having participants grow a moustache for the month of November.

Harley Davidson across the world  got involved and challenged their friends to grow the best moustache and raise the most money.  Canada had the largest amount of money raised with over $167,000.  Of that $167,000, Clare's Harley Davidson in Niagara raised over $7000.  In Jim's first year participating he raised almost $500. 

We had a really fun evening at Clare's where Black Beard's Barber Shop generously donated their time to come and give hot shaves to all of the participants.  Jim said it was like a spa for men!

Prostate cancer has recently affected our family in a very personal way so it meant even more that Jim participated this year.  Next year he has committed to doubling the amount he will raise and continue to help raise awareness of this disease.