A Vivacious Valentines

Here is a few of the valentines activities we did this year to celebrate the holiday:

1. Red Velvet Waffles. We used a box cake mix, which worked well. Just note that you need to grease the waffle maker really well.

2. Paper heart garland.

3. Tissue paper hearts

4. Valentines cookies.  This is a really easy activity for young kids.

5.Valentines for our friends, bouncy balls and gum balls.

6. Pink valentine smoothie love

7. Our valentines collection.

Hope you all had a nice valentines.

 

God Bless,

The So’s.

Perfect Penguin Party

Our not so baby girl turned 3!!! And her party of choice was everything penguin. This post shows a combination of the family party and the friend party that we had. I decided to break them into two parties this year, as the number keeps growing. Hope you like the photos!

 

 

THE FOOD

Penguin Crackers – perfect for the theme, and super easy to serve

 

Penguin Cookies (oreos) and Ice cube pops (marshmallows)

 

Gone Fishin’  Jello

 

Igloo Cake

 

Ice cream cone cupackes

THE GAMES

 

Penguin Bowling

 

 

Musical Ice Burgs

 

Find the penguin (in a box of snow)

 

Balloon fun

 

Penguin Art Gallery

Fishing Hole (sorry for the blurry picture, there is also a magnet fishing rod you can’t really see here)

 

THE LOOT BAGS

 

fish crackers

 

Melting snow pops (marshmallows)

 

 

Penguin Poop! hahahaha, still cracking up over this. (It’s actually gum balls).

 

Penguin Colouring books and Penguin masks

 

Penguin Finger Puppets

 

THE GUESTS

 

Izzy had a great time at her party, and is very thankful to have her friends come. Hope the penguins had a good time 🙂 Now it’s time for my nap!

 

 

God Bless,

The So’s

 

December 14-25 Tis the Season

So we have been super busy this past week, what else is new!?! We have kept up with most of our crafting but haven’t really had time to post them. Here is what we have been up to (not in order.

December 14 –  We had lots of help this week with our crafts. Here is our paper Christmas trees, using strips of left over scrap booking paper.

December 15 – Decorating Christmas cookies, lots of mess but always lots of fun. We actually did this activity twice! Thanks to the cousins for helping out!

December 16 – Baking a cake, from a box (tsk tsk).  Actually mommy did all of this activity. I think some one had a lot of stimulation this week and took some down time to recover.

December 17 – Paper plate angels with LOTS of glitter glue!

December 17 – Popsicle stick reindeer. They look even better on the tree 🙂

December 18 – Hot chocolate date with an absolute refusal to smile, one of those days.

December 19 – Another tree ornament, made with card board and string. Just note, this craft is not really ideal for toddlers. Izzy didn’t have enough motor skills (or attention span) to weave the string around the cardboard.

December 20 – Paper Christmas Wreaths. Love how these came out! super easy.They are hung on the door in the front hall way.

December 21 – Ice skating day!

December 22 – String Christmas trees. We used a ton of glue for this project, probably won’t do it again.

December 23 – Family games night. We have to pick games that are toddler friendly, so we picked Jenga and a jumping frog game. Yes, my daughter is not wearing clothes. She spends most of the day like this when at home. Mostly because I would have to use duct tape to keep the clothes on! Why fight it.

December 24 – Family movie night! Madacascar 3. Good movie! Thanks Nance for the recommendation. Some body only made it through the first 30 minutes of the movie though, zzzz…….

December 25 was a great day spent with our little family and opening presents. It was a great day to reflect on the blessings our family has and how thankful we are for the time together. Hope you can enjoy the season with your family! Thanks for reading about our crafts this month! Next month Izzy and I will start blogging about our alphabet adventures as we attempt to make our way through the alphabet with as much fun as possible.

God Bless,

The So’s

December 12-13

December 12- Marble painting! But I had no marbles (no comment necessary) so we used golf balls instead. We put paper in a plastic tub and some paint, then added the golf balls and rolled them through the paint. We do this craft often, seems to go over very well, and clean up is easy 🙂 I think I actually prefer the golf balls instead of marbles because it leaves a neat pattern.

December 13 – Today’s craft was hand print reindeer.  The hardest part was getting Izzy to sit still long enough while I cut out her traced hand. Note to self, next time have this step prepared ahead of time or else suffer the consequence of pom pom insanity – Don’t ask. We cut out a hand and glued eyes and a nose. I ended up using a hot glue gun for the pipe cleaner antlers, which add a neat 3D touch.

So now that I am officially caught up on all the crafts, we have family visiting this week from Chicago. We most likely will fall behind as a week with the cousins is always enjoyably packed with the most amount of fun possible! Perhaps I can convince them to join in the crafting fun, hint hint to you know who!

Hope you get to spend some time with your out of town family this month! I love it when they come.

 

God Bless,

The So’s

December 6-11

This past weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to visit Jonathan’s grandpa in New Jersey.  The ten hour drive was well worth the trip, and “Grandpa Pineapple” seemed happy to see us! It is amazing the amount of joy that a small child can bring to others. We enjoyed our trip to see him and feel very blessed to have Izzy meet her Great Grandpa Pineapple!

So now that we are back home safe and sound it’s time to play catch up with our crafting! Here we go…

December 6 –  This craft was used a dollar store cardboard frame. I would have preferred a wooden one, but we made do. Izzy did all the painting with water colours. We gifted it to Great Grandpa Pineapple, and it was well received.  It’s neat to watch Izzy take pride in what she accomplished and to watch her give her creations to some one else.

December 7 – This craft did not turn out as intended. We bought some canvases from the dollar store and used tape to outline a snow flake, then painted over the tape. When the tape was removed I was expecting a white snow flake, but of course the paint ran underneath the tape. So we rescued the paintings by using more paint to outline the snow flake. Theses are now hung in our bathroom, and I get a kick out of Izzy when she sits on the toilet and gasps “wow, snowflake”.

December  8 – This is Christmas Tree Blocks. We bought a stick of wood (something call a 2×2 I think?) I didn’t pay attention to the size, lol. I don’t do lumber. I had my dad cut it into equal size blocks. Izzy and I added paint and voila! A block tree that she likes to push down and re build.

December 9 -Popsicle stick Christmas trees. The pom poms look so cute. We hung this ornament on our tree.

December 10 – Today was not a craft, we did a winter activity. Since we have yet to see any valuable amount of snow, we decided to make sure our winter gear was in working order. We put on every piece of winter clothing possible and had a parade throughout the house, sung to jingle bells of course.

All decked out.

December 11 – Here is our marshmallow snow man. This craft was great at keeping Izzy’s attention, mainly because she got a nice snack during the process!

Yes, more marshmallows ended up in the mouth than on the paper! That’s half the fun.

Hope you like our crafts! More to follow soon. Hope you are making the most out of the month! This time of year comes and goes so fast, it can be hard to keep up. We are looking forward to having some family visit next week, but I have a feeling time will move even faster then!

God Bless,

The So’s

December 4-5

December 4 – Meet our new friend, Frosty Fridge! This activity was super easy and gave us a chance to review the anatomy of a snowman.

 

December 5 – Today’s craft was a trip down memory lane. Do you remember making paper chains in elementary school? I do! We also had some great friends come over and help us which made it even better 🙂

December 1-3

So already, as you can see, I am behind on my updates. Heh heh, I figured that was going to happen.

December 1st – Time to put up the tree.  Special shout out to the redheaded angle on top 🙂

December 2nd – Put up the outdoor lights, granted this was actually done on December 1st – that happens when you have a husband that doesn’t sit still well. Thankfully we did it early as it rained on December 2nd.

Yes, I apologize for the blurry photo, but as you can see I am not allowed outside by myself for even two seconds to take a picture. I always have company.

December 3 – Today was decorating Santa hats. Izzy has now perfected the “ho ho ho”. Not that I am biased, but I think she does it better than the big guy. Thanks to uncle Sean and Auntie Lisa for the glitter glue!

Funny side note, Izzy calls cotton balls marshmallows, thanks to Granpda, who thinks it’s funny when she tries to eat them. After checking in on her while washing the glitter off her hands I noticed the sink was clogged. I asked “Izzy, did you put something down there?” to which she replied “Yep, a marshmallow” with a proud look. *big mom sigh*.

Bet you can’t guess which one Mommy did.

 

 

Very excited for December 4th’s craft, it is not to be missed!

 

God Bless,

The So’s.

The count down is on…

Who doesn’t love the month of December?!? With all the anticipation for the big event and the celebrations leading up to it, even my inner child is jumping for joy – or maybe that’s the sugar talking. Regardless, December brings with it many traditions that I remember as a kid, and can now pass onto my own child, like the infamous advent calendar.

As a kid, I was so excited to get chocolate everyday, and open the little windows to see which chocolate I got, and even more excited when I missed the day before and got to have TWO, mmmm chocolate – the breakfast of champions!  Now that I’m a parent I can see a bit of a down side to providing even MORE chocolate/candy/sugar to my overly active two year old. I figure why not leave that for the grandparents to dish out, since that seems to be in their job description.

This year we are introducing a Crafting Advent Calendar, and even though it may not have chocolate inside, I think it will still provide a nice tradition to share in our family.  So, here is a sneek peek at our advent calender, and I will do my best to show you updates of each day’s craft or activity (like that’s even remotely possible as a busy mom), I will do my best.

Our Crafting advent Calendar! Each day has a picture or item for that day’s craft.

Hope you have a fun month too!

God Bless,

The So’s.

It’s About Time

So it’s been a while since I have been blogging. Life seems to get busy by the minute around here. The purpose of this blog was to remember fond moment in our family, and I haven’t been diligently doing that. So here’s a recap of where we were since the summer.

August was a bit of a blur, Jon started teaching at the beginning of the month since he is now in a balanced calendar year. It was a struggle to get adjusted  not having him around all the time again, but we managed. Izzy seemed to miss him most in the mornings. We were still able to pack a lot of fun in the rest of the summer, like visits to the zoo, science centre and of course the cottage.  But the summer went by quick, and fall went by even faster!

September was pretty amazing. We were blessed with the opportunity to watch two different friends get married, and both weddings were spectacular in their own way. I can barely attempt to address the gourmet food or the fabulous dancing at these weddings (yes even I danced!). The month ended with our BIG trip. We had planned a trip just for Isabelle. DISNEY WORLD!!!

Disney was beyond awesome, a must do vacation for any age! We had a great time, and Izzy had an even better time. She seemed to take pleasure in the whole week we were there. I think we decided that we should start saving to come back again before we even left for home.

After our big return from the big vacation, it was go time. Of course we all ended up with colds, and had to re adjust to the busy life style here. The two weeks later it was time for Izzy’s second tubes surgery. She did a great job, and bounced back remarkably well, as most kids do. But of course I couldn’t help but be concerned and filled with worry. Shortly after her new tubes, we ended up with yet another ear infection! This time was a bit different though as a weird and funky smell came from her ears. Back to the ENT we go! But after a round of ear drops she has recovered this time, and we just wait until the next one I suppose. Izzy is much better at handling this sort of thing than I am! Ah, motherhood.

Anyways, November seemed to drag, a rather uneventful month, as if we were just plugging along. But now, yyyyyes, it is December, a month of total excitement and celebrations. We kicked thing off with the Tree of course, and also managed to get in a bake exchange and the start of our crafting advent calendar, and it’s only December 3rd. Still lots of time left to celebrate this month! Hopefully we will find time to remember these moments and cherish them for time to come.

Hope you and your family can find some time to have great memories to be remembered this month!

God Bless,

The So’s

Mushy Montreal Moments

This post is rather late, however better late than never I suppose, or so the saying goes.

 

Labour day weekend was spent with just Jon and myself and a weekend away. Izzy was super excited to have some extended time at Grandma’s house, and we were just happy to get a good nights sleep! A friend of mine from university was getting married that weekend in Montreal so we decided to make a nice trip of it. The drive was long, 6 hours, but well worth it!

 

The weekend was spent eating at new restaurants (without a toddler!) and seeing new sights, even trying out a fantastic science centre that we had never been to before.  On top of a jam packed vacation we were honoured by attending a very small and intimate wedding, maybe 30 guests in total. It was one of the most elegant weddings I have ever been to! The food was oh so good and so delicate and  so fancy, felt like I was on an episode of top chef! I even embraced the evening by wearing a pair a high heels (that I borrowed).  The evening felt very sophisticated and a great way to end some much needed adult time only.
Monday morning we raced back home to Grandma’s as fast as our little tires could go. It was great to be away, but boy did we miss our little girl. Maybe next time we will take her with us to visit that beautiful city.

 

God Bless,

The So’s