A Princess For A Day Part 2

This yummy picture is from the fabulous Blue Cupcake blog.

E turned 4 last week. Wow- that was a fast 4 years! I have spent most waking moments thinking about her well being before my own. Trying to make sure she gets a well balanced and happy childhood. Part of a happy childhood means birthday parties and this year I decided to throw E a Princess Party. I researched for months on the web, going from Blog to Blog and found so much inspiration along the way.. so here are a few photos and there blogs.. I hope they inspire you too. It may take me a day or so to find all my favourites for you... hope you have a good day!

A Princess for A Day

I have coveted these birthday party banners on Etsy for some time now.. so I took a stab at it myself.. I like it- but would make improvements next time around.

miss independent

E will be starting school in a few weeks time. So today was 'schoolbus safety day'. We drove over to the local highschool and filed into a musty class room to watch the 'Winnie the Pooh' version of bus safety and then we had an actual bus ride on a real yellow bus.
Many parents brought cameras and most were holding there childs hand- asking at every turn if the child was 'ok' but not me. I know already that I won't be trying to convince E that the bus is safe, that it's not scary and that school will be so much fun. She already knows. She's been waiting to go to school now for 2 years. When the other children were asking questions and repeating all the new bus rules, E was yawning and asking pointedly if this bus would take her to school NOW?
So I'm going to try and make the most out of the next couple weeks with E. I'm not going to be able to spend the day with her so easily anymore and I'll miss her silly giggles and funny questions. So to anyone with a wee one at home- give them a big hug next time they come up to you- because they go out into the big world so fast and it will be harder to find them for hugs.

Canada Agriculture Museum

For anyone with kids living in Canada's capital I highly recommend the Canada Agriculture Museum Day Camps. Kids not only do crafts and play with friends but they learn how to milk cows, make ice cream, care for rabbits and meet all the farm animals. They go on wagon rides and learn about sheep's wool and turning seeds into plants. E has gone to a number of summer camps and this one was the first one she really wanted to tell us all about each day when she came home. I'm already putting a note on the calendar for next years sign up!

Colour Craft

One of the kids favourite crafts of the moment:

The Colour Lesson. When making ice add different colours of food colouring to the different compartments.

We took the ice cubes out at bath time and watched them melt and were able to see how different colours were forming. It's a good way to show how secondary colours are made and lots of fun too!

Summer lovin'...

In my part of the world the normal blazing heat of July was replaced by rain, rain and more rain. We never worried about watering the plants or the lawn yellowing. We didn't need to turn our a/c on and instead we worried about flooding.

And then, last week, the sun came out. What a change in the world when the sun comes out. We went outside and met our neighbours, tired the kids out at the park and they fell asleep early in the evening. We stopped needing comforters at night and rolled the windows down in the car. It's summer! It's finally here!

So to top it all off today we spent the whole day with family by the pool. We played, BBQ'd, joked and laughed. It was a splendid summer day and one we hope to repeat before the inevitable return to school. So forget the crafts and activities and out the door we'll go. I'll post my kids crafty stuff just as soon as we come inside.

As you can see we are ready for halloween. It feels a little like halloween is right around the corner too. School will be starting back in no time and the leaves will turn. I want to try and make the most of these last couple weeks of summer and we sure are going to cram as much fun in as possible. On top of birthdays and summer camps, family gatherings and the usual chaos, here are a couple craft ideas I'm hoping we can do in the following weeks.

-freeze our favourite bugs and creatures in ice and see how long that ice takes to melt at bathtime or in the pool.

-fill a serving tray with found nature objects and use this as our table center piece.

-create shapes from old finger painting pictures and frame.

I'll be updating soon with pictures of these crafts and more. Have yourselves a great weekend!

Check back soon to see how I'm progressing with my craft list:)

A beginning

My heroes need to have their costumes mended. J has pulled the seems in Batman and E has managed to do the same to Supergirl. It's an ongoing process. Last week was the mending of stuffed animals and the one before that was the mending of pants.

Although small these little heroes of mine are mighty and have re-arranged my life in such a way that I am more mom than 'me'. So today I embark on a new adventure, I will write a blog with my interests and thoughts and perhaps I'll start seeing 'me' a little more often. I hope to get to know you too along the way.