Cheerful Choo Choo Birthday Cakes

A very special birthday cake for a very special little boy. We baked and decorated FIVE of these train-themed birthday cakes, complete with licorice rope train tracks, rock candy landscaping, and cheerful choo choos emerging from tunnels. Decorating five of these was no small feat – but absolutely worth the effort when we saw the end result. We know one little three-year-old was smiling…

These cakes would be perfect for a “Thomas the Tank Engine” birthday party, but we used “The Little Engine That Could” trains instead – just as adorable but a lot less expensive (particularly since we made five of them). To make your own train and tunnel cakes, just use a large round cake for the bottom layer. We used our “Barbie dress” cake pan to make the tunnel, but you could simply build the tunnel out of layers of cake baked in a regular pan. The simply ice your cake using green for grass, blue for a pond and waterfall, grey for your mountain, and black for the opening to the tunnel (a trip to the cake decorating store is a must – professional quality gel colouring makes your icing colours so much more vibrant). Then simply trim the edges of your cake with rock candy, build your train tracks with licorice rope, and finish off with a cheerful-looking train and perhaps a plastic tree or two. Perfect for any train-loving girl or boy (and have you ever met a preschooler who doesn’t love trains?).

These cakes were a labour of love for us, and we were so happy with the result. We hope they bring smiles to your family as well…

Endlessly Entertaining Easter Eggs

While Easter basket fillers are still available in stores, I thought I’d pass along this fun activity suggestion that can be used any time of year. This twist on the traditional Easter egg hunt is a fabulous activity for promoting fine motor skills, language learning and sensory exploration with your little one. Simply find a large container and fill it with multicoloured Easter basket hay (you’ll find packages of this thinly shredded paper or plastic anywhere Easter baskets are sold). Then use an assortment of plastic Easter eggs (also usually available in bulk packages in the Easter basket aisle) and hide them in the hay. Throw in a few clean sandbox toys, such as buckets, rakes, and shovels, and you’ll be surprised how long your kids will be thoroughly entertained! (Be sure to supervise  little ones, as you don’t want them trying to eat the hay or mouth the eggs).

As with all great play activities, there are endless variations you can make to this game…

·   Pulling the plastic Easter Eggs apart and putting them back together (tricky!) is a fantastic way for kids to strengthen fine motor skills.

·    Try hiding little toys and other objects inside of the Easter eggs for a great language building game. Little ones will be fascinated as you pull toys out of the eggs and tell them the names of the things you find. Beginning talkers will delight in telling you what they’ve discovered. And older kids will love the challenge of trying to guess what’s inside the egg before they open it.

·    When your munchkins grow tired of playing in the hay, throw in a fun sensory twist. Try hiding Easter eggs in a container full of uncooked rice, cornmeal, puffed wheat, or even some fabulously fun and slimy goop (click here for goop recipe). Happy Easter egg hunting, everyone!

Dinosaur Princess Cupcake Tower

Today was cake baking day at our house, as we prepare to assemble FIVE choo choo train birthday cakes, complete with tracks, tunnels, and mountains, for a very special upcoming birthday. And as the sweet smell of confetti cake wafts through my kitchen, I am reminded of the fact that I haven’t yet posted anything about our last birthday cake adventure…The successful creation of our sparkly, dinosaur birthday cake cupcake tower!

We threw a dinosaur-themed birthday party for our two-year old daughter this year (little girls love dinosaurs too!), but still wanted her cake to have that girly, princess touch. We based the theme of the cake on four brightly coloured, polka-dotted, wind-up dinosaurs that we found in a quaint little toy store featuring hard to find and retro-inspired toys. We followed that discovery up with a trip to the cake decorating store (an absolute MUST if you want to find easy ways of making your cake a stand out). We used brightly-coloured icing, coordinating polka-dot cupcake liners, some pre-made sugar flowers, and the ultimate secret weapon for any truly magical birthday cake fit for a princess – sparkle sugar!

Although cupcakes are more work than they may initially appear (it takes longer to ice multiple cupcakes than just one large cake), when arranged on a cupcake tower (which can be rented, but are fairly inexpensive to buy) they really do look impressive. We chose to make the top layer of the tower a small, individual cake, which allowed us room for a little dinosaur scene and that all important birthday candle. This cake was probably the easiest and least labour-intensive of any we’ve made over the past several years, but still had the wow factor we always try to go for. Hope you’re inspired…

All Things Green

It started with just a simple gift – five little plastic bracelets, made of clear tubing filled with water and green sparkles, purchased at the dollar store for 50 cents apiece. Thirteen years ago this St. Patrick’s Day, I was caring for five little girls under the age of six. On my way to their house, I saw the green bracelets while shopping at a dollar store, and picked them up on a whim. The girls, of course, were thrilled with the gift, and became quite suddenly convinced that St. Patrick’s Day must be something very special. And never one to pass up on a little child-like wonder, I determined that it would be.

So I made up a story about a land in which princesses wore magical sparkle bracelets. And about how those magical bracelets could turn the whole world green. And while the wonder of the story still danced in their eyes, I bundled all of the girls up into coats and boots, and very ceremoniously placed the bracelets on their arms. We headed out the door for a walk, two six-year-olds and two four-year-olds holding hands, and one toddler in my arms.  And within moments the older ones were shouting, “Look! We turned the grass green! And the trees green! And the leaves!” They were so entertained that we walked longer and farther than we ever had together, all of the older girls completely absorbed in the game, and the littlest one thoroughly entertained by the excitement of it all. At the end of that magical St. Patrick’s Day walk, one of the four years olds leaned back and smiled in satisfaction, “I never knew there was so much green in the whole wide world! I think this day is wonderful!”

And it was.

This year, I’m planning to take a little colour walk with my own munchkin on St. Patrick’s Day, and to look for all things green. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find any magical green sparkle bracelets at the dollar store today. But if not, any little gift will do. A dollar store ring, a treasure bucket, a pair of mittens or a little green hat…Kids can find wonder in anything. And that’s the most magical thing of all…

Dots of Fun

I love the idea of adding a homemade touch to every gift I give, and homemade gift wrap is such an easy way to do that. It’s a wonderful pre-Christmas activity to share with children of almost any age. But this particular twist works even for the tiniest of Santa’s little helpers…

Bingo Dabber Gift Wrap

You will need…

Plain brown parcel post wrap

Bingo dabbers in your choice of colours

Simply unroll the brown paper across a table, and show your child how to make polka dots (or for older kids, how to make polka dot patterns or pictures) using the bingo dabber. Even very young babies and toddlers can grasp a dabber and tap it on the paper (my daughter has been creating bingo dabbber art projects since roughly ten months of age). The brightly coloured polka dots result in surprisingly stylish looking gift wrap. And because it is quick and easy, you can easily create a fun and colourful roll of gift wrap in ten minutes or less!

Helpful Hints:

·    Plan ahead and buy coordinating ribbons and bingo dabbers. The fancier the ribbons and bows, the more impressive your gift wrap will look.

·    This is a fabulous fine motor activity for little ones at the pre-drawing stage. Just be sure to supervise closely so babies don’t mouth the dabbers.

·    This is also a great activity for preschoolers and school aged kids. For a fun challenge, show preschoolers how to create pictures using dots. Or draw out a pattern for your school aged child and have them replicate it using dots on the paper.

·    Bingo dabbers don’t generally contain washable ink, so be sure to throw an art apron on your child and use the table-saving "no stress mess" strategy.

·    Have fun, and Merry Christmas!!!!!

Baked Clay Christmas Ornaments

So it’s less than a week until Christmas, and unless you are among the super-prepared “I was finished all my shopping in July” few, this will likely be a busy week. But there is no better time than Christmas to slow down for a little while and just enjoy the moment with your little one. This baked clay recipe is perfect for making Christmas ornaments, but can be used for a fun craft activity any time of the year. My daughter (who turned two this weekend!) LOVED playing with this clay and using cookie cutters to cut out shapes. The following day, we painted our homemade ornaments and they look (while very homemade) wonderfully cheery and festive…

Baked Clay Recipe

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

2 cups water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and knead until smooth.  Form dough into shapes or roll and cut using cookie cutters. Bake at 300 degrees for approximately one hour, or until dough appears dry throughout. Happy creating!



Very Merry Clay Making

  Helpful Hints:

·   Thick dough takes much longer to bake than thin dough. For best results, roll or press dough thinly before shaping.

·   To make Christmas ornaments, use the end of a drinking straw to punch a hole at the top of the ornament. Once baked, thread a colourful ribbon through the hole and tie into a bow (be sure to double knot).

·   Handmade ornaments make great gifts for grandparents, or can be added to gifts for teachers or babysitters. Be sure to write your child’s name and the year on the back of the ornament.

·   Homemade ornaments also make cute, creative gift tags. Simply paint the gift recipient’s name on the front of the ornament, or write it on using a colourful sharpie.



Christmassy Crafting



Tropical Luau Cake and Pancreatitis

One month ago tonight, I was in my kitchen attempting to make a festive, tropical-themed birthday cake. It had been a chaotic day, and I had run out of time to even visit the cake decorating store. So I ransacked my cake decorating box, and made my very best effort at cake decorating in a pinch. Simultaneously, my poor husband was at various intervals writhing in pain on the family room floor. With each attack, I asked the same question – “Should I be taking you to the hospital?” And with each question, the same answer – “I’m fine honey. It’s just gas.” Choosing to believe him, I decorated on.

The following morning, tropical luau cake casting a colourful glow inside of my refrigerator, I drove my now obviously ill husband to the emergency room of our local hospital. What he had explained away as gas turned out to be something much more serious – a case of acute pancreatitis caused when gallstones completely blocked both his liver and pancreas. One month in hospital, one surgery, and a pretty rough road later, my wonderful husband is finally HOME. And boy, are we ever glad to have him back...

So in celebration of my hubby being home and on the road to recovery, a couple of lessons learned:

1)   When your husband is in sick or in pain, always assume that his illness or injury is significantly WORSE than he is letting on. It seems that men hate doctors and hospitals, and avoid them whatever the cost. My dear hubby sat at home while his pancreas began literally digesting itself, not wanting to be “that guy” who went to the hospital with gas pain. Down the hall from him on the hospital ward was a man about my husband’s age. He almost died of a ruptured appendix, and told his wife it was “probably indigestion”. Next time, I’ll err on the side of caution.

2)   With a little creativity and a few basic supplies on hand, you can throw together a fun and festive birthday cake even in the midst of chaos. I WISH I had never made this cake. Wish I had taken my hubby to the ER instead. But the cake was made, and taken to the party in my absence. And it, apparently, was a hit. So here’s the recipe, for you to make under what I hope will be much better circumstances…

Easiest Ever Pineapple Coconut Cake

I box golden cake mix, plus required ingredients

1 cup crushed pineapple

1 cup flaked coconut

Prepare cake mix according to package directions, then fold in pineapple and coconut. Bake according to package directions.  The result is a wonderfully moist, very tropical-tasting cake that takes almost no effort to make. A large bottom layer can be used to create the "ocean" and a smaller top layer to form a "tropical island". Decorate with any tropical-themed items you have on hand. I used some plastic palm trees and sharks and a couple of drink umbrellas, and encircled the cake plate with a couple of dollar store leis. What could be simpler!

Oh – and one more lesson “learned” (never forgotten, just refreshed). Oh my goodness, do I ever love my husband. In my totally unbiased opinion, he’s the best husband and daddy on earth. Is it ever wonderful to have him home! Welcome home, honey. We love you!

Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

As you may have noticed, this joyful mommy has been on a brief hiatus from blogging. More details to follow on that – oh, it’s been a journey – but I MISS writing and will be back as soon as this crazy life allows. In the meantime, I thought I’d re-post my thanksgiving time capsule idea for the benefit of my American friends. Happy (American) Thanksgiving…

Thanksgiving Time Capsule

This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. And one thing is absolutely certain – no matter how challenging life may be or how difficult the trials you are facing, there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for when you are blessed to be a mommy or a daddy. This weekend I’ll be hugging my little one extra tight, and remembering all of the things I have to be grateful for.

As our family grows and our little ones get older, I want them to think of Thanksgiving as something more than pumpkin pie and turkey (or tofurkey in our happily vegetarian household!).  I want Thanksgiving to be a time in which we truly reflect on all that we have to be grateful for. So this year, I’m instituting a new tradition in our home – the Thanksgiving Time Capsule!

I’ve already purchased our family time capsule – a little box shaped like a treasure chest, found in our local craft store. One day down the road, I’ll have our children paint and decorate the outside of the treasure chest. But for now we’ll just focus on the inside. My goal is that each member of our family will create something special to tell of what we’re thankful for this year, to be tucked away in the treasure chest until next Thanksgiving. Then each and every year, we’ll repeat the tradition, reading through past years’ contributions and no doubt smiling at the memories they bring to mind.

No matter what the age or stage of your child, they can participate in and have fun with your family’s Thanksgiving time capsule…

·         Older children can write a list of all of the things they are thankful for.

·         Younger children can draw a picture of things they are thankful for – just be sure you write on the back of the picture, so that you remember what it represents in years to come.

·         Even the tiniest babies tell us what they’re thankful for – it’s just up to us to observe and interpret. Write a little list of the things your baby loves, decorating it if you’d like with a little tracing or print of a tiny hand or foot.

The lovely thing about this tradition is that it can be as simple or as elaborate as you’d like it to be. Some different twists on the time capsule tradition include…

·         Purchase a simple little notebook. At Thanksgiving dinner, ask each family member what they are thankful for and write their response in the notebook.

·         Create a video time capsule, asking each person to share what they are thankful for on video.

·         Create a Thanksgiving scrapbook. Have each person write or draw something that they are thankful for on small pieces of paper. Arrange them on a single scrapbook page, adding pictures of your Thanksgiving as a family, or little reminders of things you are thankful for – souvenirs from a family vacation, pictures of loved ones, etc.  Add a new page (or pages) to your scrapbook each year.

·         Or create another tradition to share as a family. Have fun, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Cool Dads Wear Costumes Too

Just a quick note in celebration of those wonderful daddies who don’t hesitate celebrate. We saw so many cool daddy costumes while out trick-or-treating last night. And while I’m the first to admit I’m a little biased, I think few were as much fun as my hubby’s…The six-foot-seven-inch crazy bird, complete with homemade paper mache bird head (which he could barely see out of, and smelled just awful), and homemade multi-coloured feathered wings. Wings that left a trail of fluffy feather bits around our neighborhood, so bright and eye catching that I was able to follow the trail right back home on my walk this morning.

Just couldn’t resist sharing a few pictures of the fun, dog costume and all…

I’ll spend today recovering from the sugar rush, and be back with more fun tips and tricks soon. Because even dreary November can be fun when you’re celebrating life with little ones…

Cool Moms Wear Costumes

I’ll never forget the Halloween that my mom dressed up as a scarecrow. I was about eight years old, and all decked out in my homemade Pippi Longstocking costume, complete with coat hanger wire wrapped around my head and threaded though my braids to make them stick straight out at the sides of my head. My sister was a Care Bear, with a big felt heart sown on the tummy of her pink sleepers, and a pair of homemade teddy bear ears. Always one to join in on the fun rather than directing from afar, my mom decided to dress up as a scarecrow. She wore an old pair of jeans, a straw hat, a bandana, and one of my dad’s checkered shirts, stuffed with towels for that stuffed scarecrow effect. But the outfit was missing a little something. So at the last minute, my mom decided to cut the leg off of an old pair of pantyhose and pull it over her face, drawing a mustache and eyebrows on with a black eye liner pencil.

If you’ve ever tried putting a nylon stocking over your head (which thankfully, many have not), you’ll know that the tight, stretchy fabric distorts and contorts your face in very unusual ways. So in theory, my mom was a scarecrow. But in reality, she looked much more like some sort of deranged serial killer in a cowboy costume. It was terrifying. And one of the funniest things I think I have ever seen in my life. My sister and I cannot talk about that Halloween without laughing. Even typing this, my face hurts from smiling.

I remember that Halloween more clearly than any other in my life. And my clearest memory (aside from the image of my mom’s distorted face) is of trick or treating at a house down the road. My sister and I went to the door, and my mom stayed back a little bit. Peering into the darkness in the direction of my mom, the homeowner asked “So who’s that? Is that your dad or your mom?”.

“It’s our mom,” we answered, shyly and in unison, as was our style.

“Well, tell your mom to come over here,” he laughed. “She gets double the candy! Only the cool moms wear costumes!”

I grew up always believing quite wholeheartedly that both of my parents were “cool”. But in that moment, I was so proud that the buttons nearly popped right off of my plaid Pippi Longstocking coat. My mom got a lot more candy that night – almost as much as we did. And the fun of that evening is a vivid memory that I still carry with me today.

This week has been a crazy week. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Not just with the usual busyness-of-life type things. But with major, stressful, potentially life-altering things coming at us out of the blue. It would be pretty easy to forgo the family theme costumes this year. Our daughter has an adorable store-bought costume, so she’s all set, and we could just throw on a jacket and bring her out trick or treating.  But what better time is there to celebrate with your child than when the road gets a little rough? What better time is there to invest in having fun and making memories?

So we’ll be up late tonight, and probably tomorrow night too. Creating a mommy costume, a daddy costume, and just for good measure – a dog costume. Because if there’s one thing I learned from my mom the scarecrow…only the cool moms wear costumes.

Last Minute Costume Ideas

All that being said, there is only one shopping day left until Halloween. So here are a few last minute costume ideas from the queen of last minute costumes. They may not be the best costume you’ve ever created, but you can throw them together with just what you have in your closet and a budget of five dollars or less at the dollar store…

·         Wear an old pair of jeans, a plaid shirt, some boots, and a bandana and cowboy hat from the dollar store…and you’re a cowboy (works for dads too)! Trade the jeans for a puffy skirt, and you’re a square dancer!

·         Trade the dollar store cowboy hat for a dollar store straw hat…and you’re a farmer (works well if your child is dressed as a farm animal)!

If you have an old bridesmaid’s dress in your closet, you are set for costumes for years to come…

·         Add a dollar store crown…and you’re a princess.

·         Add a pair of dollar store wings and a magic wand…And you’re a fairy princess.

·         Cut some white teeth out of paper and attach them to your crown or your wand…And you’re the tooth fairy.

·         Bridesmaid dress options are limitless! Other options may include (depending on the dress) – a Barbie, a flamenco dancer, a bride, an angel, or here’s a novel idea – a bridesmaid!



Adventures in Pumpkin Muffin Making

I realized late last night that we had a costume party to attend today. A potluck costume party at our favourite drop-in playgroup, and I had promised to bring something. To make things worse, last year I set the bar way too high, bringing what I thought to be a pretty adorable fruit platter arranged to look like a happy pumpkin. I guess that’s the problem with choosing not to just pick up a box of Timbits on the way in. The next year, people remember. There are expectations.

I am not the world’s greatest baker. But I have a couple of close friends who could easily vie for that title. One of those friends brought the most delicious pumpkin muffins to our costume party last week. So feeling ambitious (and perhaps a little desperate) late last night, I decided that I would attempt to tackle her pumpkin muffin recipe.

I don’t know what it is with me and baking. I just seem to have this strange inability to ever follow a recipe. And as a result, my baking is generally mediocre at best. Armed with that knowledge, I got out my friend’s pumpkin muffin recipe…and promptly began to alter it. While she had stayed up late into the night baking fresh pumpkins and making her own pumpkin puree (she is a much more patient baker than I am!), I just used the canned stuff. And since I was already making changes, I threw in a few more little twists.  And to my great surprise, they ended up being delicious! Wonderfully moist with a very festive flavor, these muffins are healthy and so easy to make…

Pumpkin Muffins

3 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups white sugar (you can reduce this to one cup if you choose and still have yummy muffins)

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups pureed pumpkin (I used canned, but I must admit that the fresh pumpkin my friend used was yummier)

2/3 cup applesauce

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins or line with paper liners. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat together pumpkin puree, applesauce and eggs. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture and combine until smooth. Bake roughly 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean. Makes 24 small or 18 regular sized muffins.

These muffins are delicious on their own, but for a festive Halloween twist, I covered them with cream cheese icing (no recipe needed – just combine softened cream cheese, icing sugar, and a tiny bit of milk, using your best judgment as to consistency and taste). I tinted the icing orange (using red and yellow food colouring) and then added happy pumpkin faces using a little tube of black icing (available in the baking aisle of the grocery store – a great thing to have on hand in your cupboard).

And the verdict? The playgroup costume party and the pumpkin muffins were both a smashing success! The kids loved them, the mommies and daddies loved them, even the grandmas loved them! They make a yummy Halloween treat, but don’t worry if you run out of time. They’d be great for Christmas too! Hope you enjoy them…

Great Gobs of Goop

So here’s an activity not for the faint of heart. It’s probably the messiest adventure you’ll ever have inside your own home. But it is totally worth the mess…

“Goop” is the perfect activity for Halloween, but once you try it, you’ll come back to it again and again. It’s safe for babies and toddlers, but big kids, teenagers and adults will love it too! Goop is an amazing shape-shifting substance that changes from a liquid to a solid and back again right in the palm of your hands. Add a little green food colouring and you have the best ever ooey-gooey bowl of slime. My daughter and I played with our bowl of goop for nearly forty minutes this afternoon, and were both totally mesmerized by this super-cool, almost magical substance.

Goop Recipe

1 ¼ cup cornstarch

1 cup water

Few drops green food colouring

Combine cornstarch, water and food colouring in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly using your hands. If more than one child will be playing with the goop, simply double the recipe.

Playing with goop is a wonderful sensory adventure for little ones, as they explore the very unique textures of this ever-changing slime. And as this is an adventure best enjoyed together, playing with goop is a wonderful activity to promote language learning and togetherness.

And yes, goop is messy. Super messy. But so many great things about childhood are. To save yourself a lot of clean-up time, I’d highly recommend using the No Stress Mess strategy. The great thing about goop is that even if gobs of it do end up on your floor, it turns into a pasty/powdery substance that vacuums up quite easily. And little hands will come clean in just seconds when rinsed with water. So bite the bullet. Be a super brave mommy. And have FUN!

Pumpkin Pizza

Yesterday I wrote that it appeared some sort of toy and snack food bomb had exploded in my house. Well, if we had a bomb explosion yesterday, then today we appear to have encountered some sort of toddler tornado. Today was costume party day, and for about three and a half hours this afternoon, our home was bursting at the seams with cookie devouring, costume adorned, messy, adorable, wonderful munchkins. Two babies, five toddlers, and two preschoolers, cleverly disguised as a colourful assortment of barnyard animals, bumblebees, butterflies and princesses.  It was total, absolute chaos. And I loved every minute of it.

For lunch we had one of my kid-party favourites – “decorate-your-own” mini pizzas. Kids LOVE making their own pizzas, so this is a fun activity for any party. But for Halloween, I decided to add a little twist…

Pumpkin Pizzas

Pilsbury pizza dough (or homemade pizza dough, if you are feeling ambitious)

Pizza sauce

Cheddar cheese, grated

Your choice of toppings:

Pepperoni (cut into triangles for a traditional Jack-O-Lantern look)

Red peppers (cut into long thin slices, for mouths)

Pineapple, mushrooms, onions, green peppers (cubed, for eyes and noses)

To make pumpkin shaped pizza crusts, roll out pizza dough and use a round cookie cutter (or almost anything round, such as the rim of a bowl or mug, depending on the size you would like your pizzas to be) to cut a round mini pizza crust. Use your finger to form a slight indent (as though making a heart shape) at the top of the “pumpkin”. Cut a small rectangle out of pizza dough and attach to the indented portion of the pizza crust to form a “stem”. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake crusts roughly 7-8 minutes on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray.  One roll of pizza dough yields roughly 2 adult-sized and 3 child-sized mini pizzas.

Prepare your pizza crusts ahead of time, then allow your little ones to decorate their own pumpkin pizzas! The cheddar cheese gives the pumpkins their orange colour, and toppings placed on top of the cheese will form your jack-o-lantern face. So simple – yet so much fun! Happy pumpkin eating!

Why Not Celebrate?

So maybe today isn’t the best day to be planning a party. My munchkin is sick, and keeping on top of the goo pouring from her nose has been practically a full time job the past couple of days. I am swamped, ridiculously overcommitted with appointments, events, and looming deadlines both this week and next. Our house looks like some sort of strange toy and snack food bomb exploded mysteriously in the night. My dear hubby works a 14 hour shift today, so party preparations are entirely up to me. And I’ve just realized that my butterfly wings are broken, so I need to go out and buy a costume.

But there will be a costume party at our house tomorrow, come rain or shine, sleet or hail, toy bombs or goo noses (I did send out a germ disclaimer to all our guests, not wanting to be “that mom” who assumes that if her kids are sick, everyone else’s should be too). Five mommies and nine munchkins under the age of five, all coming to our place for a costume party. And I can’t wait!

I was talking with a friend the other day about how ridiculously busy the past couple of weeks have been. When I told her I was planning a party at our place, she laughed at me…Actually AT me (good thing I love her – yes, friend, you know who you are!). But to me, celebrations and parties aren’t the things you do only if life isn’t too busy and you have lots of time on your hands. To me, they are what life – particularly life as a mommy – is all about.

I grew up in a family that loves to celebrate, that never neglected to mark special occasions in a fun, memorable, and often quirky way. And I want my own little ones to grow up with memory banks filled to overflowing with snippets of brightly coloured moments – playtime with friends, celebrations with family, quirky traditions, and frequent, spontaneous outbursts of togetherness and joy. Life with children is wonderful. And it deserves to be celebrated.

So that being said, I’ve learned that I need to pace myself when it comes to party planning. Now a well-seasoned party planner (I’ve been hosting two big parties per year for the past thirteen years for a very special group of kids, who are not so little any more), I do have the tendency to go a bit overboard. Not every party can be a Martha-esque all out super duper affair. I’ve decided to allow myself one over-the-top party per child per year – on their birthdays, of course. But for the rest – the little Valentine’s day teas and Halloween lunches – I’ve set a few little guidelines…

1.       Keep it small. Two to five mommies or daddies and accompanying little ones is plenty.

2.       Make it a potluck. I provide the main course (we usually try for lunch time parties) – something simple and kid-pleasing like mini pizzas or macaroni and cheese. Then I delegate the remainder of the food – fruit, veggies, dessert, munchies – to my guests.

3.       Remain calm. I know that the friends I’m inviting all have little ones too, and won’t judge me if my house isn’t totally spic and span.

4.       Make it festive! I throw a few dollar store decorations up on the wall, then pack them away in my “party supplies” box to be used another year.

5.       Relax and have fun! I save the games, activities, and entertainment for birthday parties. At little celebrations, we just hang out and let the little ones play…And it is SO much fun!

Time to run - I have some pumpkin-shaped pizza crusts to make and some tin foil spiders to hang from the ceiling before my goopy-nosed munchkin wakes up from her nap.  I’ll be sure to fill you in on how the party goes…

Little Pumpkins

I honestly think there are few things on earth that can compare with the joy of a trip to the pumpkin patch. Tiny rubber-booted feet marching through the mud, the cold, crisp feeling of autumn in the air, brown fields speckled with plump orange pumpkins…The very thought of it makes me smile. We spent yesterday afternoon at the “punk-kwin” patch with our own little munchkin. And sitting on a hay bale, my arms wrapped around my muddy-booted toddler, I tried to just breathe in the perfection of that moment. The complications of life temporarily stowed away in some distant place beyond the realm of the hayride, I cuddled my little pumpkin and soaked it all in. These are the moments we will remember one day, when our children are grown, when the busyness has subsided. These are the moments we’ll hold on to forever. With our little pumpkins. So simple and sweet. The season for pumpkins will end before we know it, and another will begin. Our little ones are changing so quickly, far too quickly for this joyful mommy. The season of muddy-booted, hay bale cuddles will pass before we know it. I know there will be other seasons, each with its own kind of beauty. But for this moment I choose to stop and breathe in the air, cuddling my little pumpkin extra tight and appreciating with all my heart the perfection of this season.

Thanksgiving Time Capsule

This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. And one thing is absolutely certain – no matter how challenging life may be or how difficult the trials you are facing, there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for when you are blessed to be a mommy or a daddy. This weekend I’ll be hugging my little one extra tight, and remembering all of the things I have to be grateful for.

As our family grows and our little ones get older, I want them to think of Thanksgiving as something more than pumpkin pie and turkey (or tofurkey in our happily vegetarian household!).  I want Thanksgiving to be a time in which we truly reflect on all that we have to be grateful for. So this year, I’m instituting a new tradition in our home – the Thanksgiving Time Capsule!

I’ve already purchased our family time capsule – a little box shaped like a treasure chest, found in our local craft store. One day down the road, I’ll have our children paint and decorate the outside of the treasure chest. But for now we’ll just focus on the inside. My goal is that each member of our family will create something special to tell of what we’re thankful for this year, to be tucked away in the treasure chest until next Thanksgiving. Then each and every year, we’ll repeat the tradition, reading through past years’ contributions and no doubt smiling at the memories they bring to mind.

No matter what the age or stage of your child, they can participate in and have fun with your family’s Thanksgiving time capsule…

·         Older children can write a list of all of the things they are thankful for.

·         Younger children can draw a picture of things they are thankful for – just be sure you write on the back of the picture, so that you remember what it represents in years to come.

·         Even the tiniest babies tell us what they’re thankful for – it’s just up to us to observe and interpret. Write a little list of the things your baby loves, decorating it if you’d like with a little tracing or print of a tiny hand or foot.

The lovely thing about this tradition is that it can be as simple or as elaborate as you’d like it to be. Some different twists on the time capsule tradition include…

·         Purchase a simple little notebook. At Thanksgiving dinner, ask each family member what they are thankful for and write their response in the notebook.

·        Create a video time capsule, asking each person to share what they are thankful for on video.

·       Create a Thanksgiving scrapbook. Have each person write or draw something that they are thankful for on small pieces of paper. Arrange them on a single scrapbook page, adding pictures of your Thanksgiving as a family, or little reminders of things you are thankful for – souvenirs from a family vacation, pictures of loved ones, etc.  Add a new page (or pages) to your scrapbook each year.

·        Or create another tradition to share as a family. Have fun, and Happy Thanksgiving!