potty training

J is 22 months old. Is it bad that I haven't even considered potty training till about 5 minutes ago? With E I pushed too hard and probably started too young and I'm not interested in making that mistake again.. so I've been putting it off. That is until 5 minutes ago. That's when I discovered the strangest potty training thing I've ever seen. How fun is this! Target please come to Canada I need this.

rainy day fun

I wish I could find the blog that gave me this idea and the templates I used.. but I haven't been able to track them down. I'd also like to give credit to these wonderful blogs for such great ideas!

I combined two awesome ideas for our art project. We made some fun paintings and then when they were dry, we cut the paintings into these shapes, mounted them on card stock and framed them.

The great thing about this painting is that you only use things from around the house! E filled a baking tray with shaving cream (preferably unscented) and then dropped many colours of food colouring on top. She made swirls with a Popsicle stick and once she liked her design, we pressed a piece of card stock over the mixture. I found that some of the shaving cream stuck to the card stock so I had to scrap it off, but the dye absorbs easily into the paper and the overall picture wasn't affected. I should mention the dye absorbs easily into EVERYTHING so be careful to use gloves, aprons and a plastic tablecloth. Once the painting was dry, we cut out animal shapes from the paintings, glued them to fresh sheets of white card stock and framed them in dollar store frames!

This is a great way to condense and preserve your child's art work for years to come. I'm already thinking about what I can do with all the preschool art work E brought home last year:)

a little muffin obsession

When you use the word cupcake it sounds decadent, a desert or fancy treat for birthday parties etc. But when you use the word muffin.. it seems to make anything you add to it ok. Like Chocolate Muffins or Coffee Cake Muffins.. yes.. Coffee Cake.. are you salivating too? I made these babies after dinner tonight and hope some will survive to see the sun come up.

the details are these:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk

Mix flour, salt & baking powder together then set aside. Mix butter, egg, granulated sugar then add milk and vanilla. Once combined add wet mixture to dry mixture. Blend until smooth.

Spice mixture:

Combine 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 2 tbsps of flour and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a small bowl. Once well mixed drop a spoonful over the 1/2 full muffin tins. Pour remaining batter to muffin tins and cover with remaining spice mix.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Makes 12 muffins.

Well it's been a while since we chatted and I've missed you. I've been looking forward to this and I have enough to write a few posts tonight!

I have been crafting again. I found these pumpkins at MarthaStewart.com and just had to try them myself. Martha even sells the glitter at Michaels to make it easy for me. They are turning out well and I'll photograph them when they are all complete although I think I will still like Martha's better.

It would seem I'm no Martha

I would love to make some beautiful poms for E's ceiling but I think I'm going to need a little more practice. Stay tuned..

short and sweet

A friend is very ill and the next couple days in hospital are touch and go. That makes me very sad and reminds me just how short and sweet our time here really is. It seems like yesterday we were standing in her kitchen talking about how good apple juice is.. and now we are all just waiting and hoping. It gets me to thinking how fast time flies. It seems like yesterday that we were bringing E home from the hospital and 2 weeks ago she started school.

There is nothing that I can do for my friend right now other than send positive vibes with every fiber of my being!! But I came across something that might help you hold onto your wee one for a little longer.

A company called fontcapture has the most amazing FREE software and tutorial on how to capture your child's handwriting and turn it into a font on your computer. This is wonderful stuff! Now go give your loved ones a hug.

after the orchard

Fall is just too lovely not to be excited about it. The bugs are gone, the air is fresh, the days are warm and the nights are cool. The orchards are open and the smell of wood stoves fills my neighbourhood. I was trying to hold off on the apple orchard till October. Hoping for some great fall colours to gaze at on our drive.. but the weather was just perfect today and here's a little look at the fun we had picking apples, playing in hay bails and running through the corn maze.

halloween fun!

Doesn't this cake look great? It's the Hershey's Brownie Cemetery Cake. That's right.. the Halloween spirit has got me. Already I have made sure that the kids have each got several costumes to choose from and they are doing test runs in each of those costumes everyday. I am hoping one costume makes it to Halloween.

To add even more Halloween fun, us moms are going to throw a little Halloween party for the kiddies and that means I've got my mouse out ready to surf! When I found this website I was so excited I just had to get blogging to tell you about it! Hershey's Chocolate (bless them) have a spooky little website that is packed full of Halloween ideas and fun. (turn up the sound so you get the full effect on the intro) They seem to have it all from Interactive Colouring books, Pumpkin stencils, decorating downloads, recipes and party planning. There are many ideas here I need to file away for use in the next couple years!

fall fun

When I was little we spent some lovely autumn afternoons at a local apple orchard and I was taught the difference between MacIntosh, Spartan, Lobo, Cortland etc... years later I have no idea what the difference is between most of those.. but I remember I loved to pick them, loved the wagon rides and the apple cider doughnut machine.. I could watch it roll little doughnuts for hours.

Once the doughnuts are ready they are put in a paper bag with a mix of cinnamon and sugar and you get to shake up your own hot doughnuts. Sometimes I was even given the special job of Doughnut shaker! Yum!

Now that E & J are old enough I'm hoping to share this orchard with them this year. If you live in Eastern Ontario and want to see some beautiful countryside and fall foliage take a trip out to Mountain Orchards and get some apples or doughnuts.. or both:)

I found this Cider Pound Cake Recipe on there website and I'm itching to try it.

pumpkins

I had planned to post about our local apple orchards before I ever got into Pumpkins.. but I came across a nifty Halloween craft at GoodHousekeeping that I wanted to share with you. Pumpkins decorated with ribbon. No messy carving! I have to try this!

loving family recipes

I've been loving moms banana chocolate chip muffins for longer than I care to disclose.. and now I thought it was time to share them with you:)

3 very ripe bananas (to make one cup mashed)

6 tbsp melted shortening or vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg well beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Turn oven to 350 degrees. Mash bananas. Add shortening, sugar & salt. Beat till well mixed. Add egg and vanilla and beat again. Sift a little flour, baking soda and baking powder over mixture. Stir in remaining flour. Add chocolate chips with a few strokes of the spatula (until moistened) Drop spoonfuls into buttered muffin tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

about cloth diapers

When E was born I considered cloth and bought what was available at Sears.. I used them a few times a week for the first 6 months, but I found they leaked often and eventually I gave up completely. My experience with J was even worse.. he was so colicky that I didn't have time to shop and socialize the way I could with E. I might be crazy but now even though J is 21 months old, I'm ordering some Fuzzibunz cloth diapers for him. At this point I don't think I'll go completely disposable free but I'd like to use them as much as possible until he's using the potty all the time.

So why would I even bother to get into cloth at this stage in the game you ask? Well... I'm hoping the wet feeling he'll get with cloth will be extra incentive to potty train and they are better for the environment, cut down on diaper rash and it's better on my wallet. Besides.. have you seen cloth diapers lately? There have been many advancements in just a few years time and these diapers are just as easy to use as disposables and a whole lot cuter! You just do one or two extra loads of laundry per week. I can handle that.

For anyone out there looking for more info, check out BellyLaughs.ca or look around your town for your local baby shop and see what they carry. Even Costco is now offering a cloth diaper package. If you want to make things really easy- try a cloth diaper service, they will drop off a weeks worth of clean cloth diapers and pick up last weeks dirty ones while they're at it!

school has begun

The Dabbawalla Neoprene backpacks and lunch bags are being touted as this years "it" thing for kids. They are said to be durable, washable and light weight. But enough of the practicalities- how cute is this?
You can find these online at Lavish & Lime in Canada and at PolkaDotPatchBoutique in the US.

looking forward..

Now that the kids are heading back to school it's hard to pretend that autumn isn't upon us. So I was very excited to come accross the most wonderful blog! Skip to My Lou has a fabulous collection of Holiday printables that makes me very happy. I hope it makes you happy too!

party ideas...

Several posts ago I mentioned that I would be sharing with you some of the great products and ideas I came upon when researching for my daughters 4th birthday party. Weeks later.. I'm finally getting back to the task and want to share a wonderful Esty shop that makes the cutest birthday stuff out there. The Polka Dot Tot Spot has these wonderful birthday shirts and matching birthday banners that are reusable for years to come. How cool is that!

Throwing a Princess Party

If you've read my blog.. E's Princess party included a cardboard castle, an Etsy style birthday banner, cupcakes and what I haven't mentioned yet.... a real live Princess! It was wonderful to see 9 girls completely entertained for an hour and a half by someone- other than me, so I loved the experience. I would recommend Princess Parties and Pirates too to anyone with a four year old in Ottawa.
Our Princess arrived with her own music, balloon animals, face painting, magic tricks, craft activity and a picture with the princess - printed out on site! She was wonderful and all the kids & moms seemed to really enjoy her. I'll be looking them up when J turns 3 and I'm sure Batman will rock his world!

kid activity craft # 2

Ever hold onto something because you just know it will come in handy someday? Well for me it was when our play structure arrived in one large box- I knew we could do something awesome with this. So when E's princess party called out for a castle.. we had just the stuff.

This is a great activity to get the kids involved with. E & J added stickers, markers and even some of E's nail polish to decorate this castle and we added throw pillows inside for comfort.