T'was the Month of Christmas...

And all through the house, all the creatures were stirring, even our ELF! Saturday morning when our boys woke up they found 'Chippy' our 'Elf on The Shelf' perched in our tree. They were so excited when the noticed him sitting in there. But not nearly as excited as I was ;) There's nothing better then when they're not listening to remind them that Chippy's watching and he will fly back to the North Pole and tell Santa just what they're up to!

So far Chippy's been pretty kind to us. He's been in our tree, in a bowl of marshmallows, perched in various places in our living room, and this morning we woke up to find him back in the tree. This time with a roll of toilet paper! Monkey was a littttle thrown off as to why there was toilet paper all over the Christmas tree. And than the thought it was pretttty funny! Bear was sure that I had done it, then he saw Chippy and was a tad annoyed that he had done that to our tree lol. Do you have a little North Pole visitor come by your place?

Feeding the Birds

This weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. While the weekend was full of food, family, and friends,  we managed to fit in some crafting! It's just recently that bear has decided that sitting down and making something isn't so bad after all! Yesterday, which was actually Thanksgiving, we decided that the birds needed to eat too! The boys enjoyed the peanut butter part. I think they maybe ate more then they put on the toilet paper rolls ;)

The one at the top is Monkey's, the one to the right is Bear's. Monkey needed a little bit of help spreading the peanut butter. But all in all it was pretty simple for them.

Now this Mama was thinking! We tell the boys that the birds work for Santa, that they watch the kids and then fly to the North Pole and tell Santa what they're doing! We do have an Elf on the Shelf that comes here in December that does the same thing, but these birds work all year! So with the birds being out in front of the house at their feeders, it will give me a better chance to bribe, if you will, them into better behavior! Look a moms gotta do what a moms gotta do!

As far as Thanksgiving, Monkey doesn't really say much, so when you ask him what he's thankful for he just yells some jibberish. Bear was thankful for dogs and stuffing! He brought a 'Thankful Tree' home from school Friday and he wrote that he was Thankful for flowers, trees, friends, cats, and stuffing! Ummm what about family?! I guess not, eh!

Monkey the Explorer!

As mentioned yesterday I took Monkey on an exploring trip to a local conservation area to check out the waterfalls. I snapped this picture in the parking lot on our way to the falls. I loooovvvveeee this picture! He looks like such a little man here. It makes me wonder what the heck happened to my baby boy?

I'm very happy that I snapped this picture as right after my camera battery died! Mother of the year ;)

There's a lot of stairs to get down to the bottom of the falls, he was a little nervous if he was too close to the rail, but he did great at going up and down all by himself! He loved the waterfall once we got to the bottom, but wasn't brave enough to venture too far from me. We haven't had a lot of rain in the past few weeks so the water is pretty low, meaning all the big rocks are exposed to cross the river. He would have none of that! He stayed feet firmly planted on the bank.

Last Day Of Lunch!

Happy Friday! Here's the last lunch of lunch week here in Mommyland! On the menu for Bear today is waffles and maple syrup, strawberries, celery with cheese, cheese string, and crackers. Today's pizza day at our school. So his first break he gets a piece of pizza with his lunch. I always send money for chocolate milk on pizza day too. Kind of a reward for making it through the school week without giving his teacher a mental breakdown ;) Kidding...maybe lol.

Here's what I did for Monkey today. I decided to take him and a little guy I babysit to a local conservation area to explore the waterfalls, fossils and of course the playground! I had planned on doing a picnic there, but the bugs were pretty bad. So we came back to town, went to the park here for a picnic and a play. I had two of these bear bento boxes that I picked up at Old Navy last year for Bear to use for school. So their lunch consisted of peanut butter wraps, blueberries, grapes, cheese strings and 1/2 a nurtigrain bar each.

Day 4 Fail!

Ahhhhh I totally forgot to take a picture of lunch today! How dare I think that today is a normal day and I don`t need to take a picture of his lunch!

Monkey's Lunch!

Here's monkey's lunch for the day! I've found when food is cute and not just thrown on a plate, they tend to eat more. I purchased the Winnie The Pooh cutter from eBay back in the spring. Everything else is from Ikea and Amazon ;)

Lunch #3

Nothing exciting here today for this award winning lunch packer ;) On the menu for Bear today is an egg salad in a whole wheat tortilla wrap, blueberries and strawberries, carrots with ranch dip, a strawberry nutrigrain bar, triscuts, and then he has some yogurt in the big dipper (what the pasta was in yesterday) but it wouldn't fit in the box, so I'll just slip it in to the front pocket of his lunch bag. While packing my husband's lunch last night, I realized just how much I really like the PlanetBox. Here's why: My husband took 4 things, much like this lay out, sammie, cheese and crackers, yogurt, and cookies. I had to find 4 different plastic containers and their lids, they had to fit the food in, but not be too big, because it all had to fit in his lunch box to go to work. Then I put it in the fridge and it took up so much room! I had to rearrange things to make room for all the containers. Then tonight, when he gets home, he has 4 containers to unpack and empty, then I have to load them all into the dishwasher. Think of how much space I'm losing from those 4 goofy plastic containers! See where I'm going with this! With Bear's lunch, I don't need to worry about lids (granted the dippers, but they don't have to be packed) When he comes home I open the box, dump what ever is left in the garbage, rinse the dippers, and toss in the dishwasher. The PlanetBox itself takes up the same amount of space 2 plates would. When I pack the night before, it fits nicely in the fridge, I can stack it on top of something, or stack stuff on top of it. 

This is something else that I love about the PlanetBox! Keeping this layout in mind makes it so easy to pack a healthy well balanced lunch! But by all means, don't feel like you have to stick with this way of packing! 

It's Lunch Week!

As mentioned yesterday, I won a lunch packing contest! WOOT! So in honor I decided that this week is LUNCH week in mommy land! I even pulled out my real camera instead of just using my phone! Ya, we're going big around here kids!

So for today's lunch I packed some Alphagetti, grapes, a baby bell, vanilla yogurt, and ritz minis with cheese. And what lunch would be complete without a little treat? I threw a small package of smarties into the 'treat' area of his PlanetBox.

This was Monkey's lunch yesterday. We went with a teddy bear theme. We had cheese bear sammies with chocolate chip eyes, next up is teddy grahams with frosting dip (that's a mommyland take on dunkaroos) and then some mini ritz with cheese. Again, what is a lunch without a treat! Sticking with the bear theme, I threw on a few gummi bears.

What's on the menu for tomorrow? You'll just have to come back and see!

Yum! Lunch!

Last week was super exciting for me! Remember Bear's first day of school lunch that I shared here, well I WON a contest because of it! I entered it into Epicure's Superstar Lunchbox contest on their Facebook Page. I got an email from them last Wednesday that I had WON!!! I never, ever win anything, ever!

So today I thought I would share another lunch from a few weeks back. This was sort of a modge podge of what I had kicking around the house. This lunch consists of two english muffin pizzas (I have wax paper separating them so the cheese didn't all stick, diced peaches in the little dipper, a chocolate chip oatmeal muffin, plum tomatoes, rolled ham with food picks spelling yum, and a cheese stick cut into 4.

Now not to forget about Monkey in all this lunch funness, here's one of his lunches from quiet a while ago. It's just a peanut butter sammie with a Winnie the Pooh cutter, pretzels, and cheese spread for dipping.

Bear Turns 5!

September 16, 2007 after 29 hours of labour we welcomed our beautiful 8lb 1oz baby boy into the world. Little did we know how much this child would teach us about ourselves and life. Life with Bear hasn't always been fun and easy, but I wouldn't trade a moment of it for anything. Birthday's are a big deal around here. When Bear was born, Dr's told us he was pretty sick. Luckily, when he was 3 weeks old we found out that they were wrong and he was a completely healthy, happy, baby. The thought of how quickly life could be different is never far for us. We always go all out on birthdays, not only are we celebrating another year older, but we're also celebrating another year that we're all here, together, and healthy!


Bear is BIG into cars right now! I found this cake on Pinterest and knew he had to have it! I emailed the picture to a neighbor of ours who is an amazing cake decorator! She nailed it! He had no idea what to expect for a cake, so he was completely shocked and ecstatic to see the cake!!!

And lastly here's a picture of him trying to blow out his sparkler candle! All in all it was a great day! I still find myself saying to the hubby can you believe we have a 5 year old!? I don't know, 5 just seems HUGE!

Monkey Starts Preschool!

It was a sad day in Mommyland! Our little Monkey started nursery school. He was so excited to go! As long as he can remember (and his whole little life for that matter) he's watched Bear truck off to preschool and then big boy school. Like any little brother he's always been wanting to go right along with Bear. Finally last Tuesday Monkey's day came! He's going to nursery school 2.5 hours a week for the time being. Last week he went right in and hung his backpack up like a big boy and then went in a played. This week, I wasn't so lucky :( As soon as we pulled into the parking lot he grabbed the buckle on his car seat and was saying no, no, no, no. As soon as I undid him he lost it! I had to leave him there screaming! And I mean SCREAMING! I could hear him outside when I was walking to the car! Just call me mother of the year :D Bear was home sick today, so I just keep telling myself that he wanted to stay at home with him, right?

Back to School!

 Well yesterday was a big day in Mommyland! Bear started Sr. Kindergarten! He was pretty excited when he woke up yesterday morning. I wanted to make an extra special lunch for him. I wasn't sure how his day would go, so I wanted to send a little smile for him in his lunch. Our school does a 'Balanced Day'. This means he has 2 nutrition breaks instead of the standard lunch break. So it may look like a lot of food for an almost 5 year old, but believe me, he eats it allll!

So to go along with with his last day of school, I had to make a first day of school sign. It worked out really well, not just for us but another little boy at our bus stop is in Bear's class. His mom was there taking pictures of him, so I offered her our sign. I mean we only have one day with it, might as well get the most of it!

Now don't get me wrong! I was beyond excited to have him go back to school. I do have mixed feelings about him going every day at such a young age. But he likes it and I know he can handle it, so I guess I'm okay with it. But yesterday morning when the boys were still in bed and I was gathering all the last minute stuff and getting things together for breakfast, I started to think about how 5 years ago I was pregnant waiting for the arrival of my sweet baby, and now I'm sending him off to school every day. I would be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear.

If you give a kid a camera...

You might end up with 20 pictures like this one! Bear has got into the habit of grabbing my phone and snapping pictures. Some are pretty good. The boys and I along with a friend of mine and her daughter went camping a few weeks back. There was a little petting farm in the campground. Bear took my phone and was going around snapping pictures of all the animals, except the ones that were too stinky in his opinion. It's cute to see things from their point of view and what they find interesting.

This on the other hand? Now I'm not going to confirm or deny which finger this is. I'm pretty sure it's not the 'bad' finger. This picture was taken inside the trailer. There's a series of fingers, then me changing Monkey's diaper, himself and of course, no photo shoot would be complete without the ever popular window shot!

Give your kids a camera and see what they take pictures of.

Last Week of Summer

Today kicks off the last week of Bear's summer vacation and the last 2 weeks before Monkey starts nursery school. It sort of makes me sad to think that my little baby will be going to nursery school two mornings a week. I'll have the house to myself 2 mornings a week! What ever will I do ;)

This past weekend we were spoiled with some beautiful weather! It's been pretty chilly here this past week, even dipping down to 7*C one night! BUURRR Not ready for that yet! Needless to to say when we hit 30*C this weekend it was very welcomed! Saturday Bear had his last baseball game. After ball we came back home and lounged around the pool all day!

And I mean all day! Here's Monkey eating a little spaghetti. I don't know if he ended up with more in his tummy or on his face. He's at such a cute independent age. It melts my heart to see him doing so much on his own. But at the same time hurts my heart a little. He's my baby, he isn't supposed to be so big.

Oh! And GREAT news! Our cat returned home! And when I say return I mean I found him on someone's front yard getting ready to fight another cat! I think he missed the memo that he's declawed. I don't think he had ate very much if anything at all the time he was out. He's pretty bony and ran right to the food bowl as soon as he came in. Here's hoping he's here to stay now!

Keeping Cool!

July brought some pretty high temps in our area. We had more heat advisory days in July then we had all last summer! We tend to stay in on those days, which can make for some long days for these guys! I had to get creative on different 'projects' for them to do. I decided that I had had enough of being stuck in the house, so I took a bunch of different Tupperware containers, filled then with water and food colouring and left them in the fridge for a few days. I waited for one of the cooler days, I put the boys in their swim suits and we went out to build! They loved these slippery building blocks. Not only were they building with them, but they were colouring on their tummies, legs, arms and of course each other with the coloured ice cubes It was only about 30 minutes before they were too melted or broken apart to play with, but it was the best 30 minutes of out day that day!

Summer 2012 Recap

So here's where our Summer started! June 28 was Bear's last day of Jr. Kindergarten. It's still hard to believe he has his first year of 'big boy' school under his belt! I'm so proud of how well he did his first year! He adjusted so well. And now here it is the end of August and we're heading into his second year! He's going to be going full time this year. Last year he went every other day, this year our school is starting Full Day Kindergarten. So Monday-Friday my biggest little man will be at school! I'm not going to lie, the past 2 months of no lunches, no really morning round ups has been bliss. I'm REALLY not looking forward to packing lunches again ;) 

As soon as he got off the bus that afternoon, we were loaded to go camping! This is one of our favorite family activities. We stayed 4 nights over Canada Day weekend. What long weekend would be complete without fireworks, campfires, and sparklers. It was a weekend full of red, white, and the maple leaf. We had great sites, right at the pool! We went with my parents, my sister and her family and one of my brothers and his family. The boys loved all the time with their cousins.

The middle of July brought a small day trip! I purchased tickets for 'A Day Out With Thomas'. This is something we did with Bear when he was almost 3. Monkey is BIG into Thomas and trains right now, so we knew they would love it. The best part is they had no idea where we were going until we got there! We woke them up bright and early and told them that we were going for a car ride. Monkey doesn't really say much, so he was just kind of along for the ride. When we got there and parked the car, we told them and you would have thought we told them we had won the lotto.

The end of July this Mommy packed her bags and went to Las Vegas! I met up with friend of mine who lives across the country. We took in as many sights as we could for the 4 days we were there. We went up the Eiffel Tower at Paris, watched the water show at Billagio, the volcanos at The Mirage, the pirate show at Treasure Island, plus all the people watching! We also saw some fantastic shows! Two Cirque shows; O and Love and also Donny and Marie! I sure hope my husband ages as well as Donny! WOWSER! If you've never been to Las Vegas it's one of those places that you need to see before you die. The people watching alone is worth it!

I always know summer's coming to an end when we celebrate my birthday. This year was my last 20th birthday. Bear and Monkey surprised me with a delicious chocolate fudge crunch ice cream cake from DQ and somg gift certificates to go shopping for myself!

Our summer has ended with some heart break though, our 7 year old cat ran away last Friday morning and we have yet to find him :( Monkey doesn't really understand, but comes out with us and yells for the cat. Bear gets a little sad at night. We do have the brother here and Bear keeps on telling him 'It's okay, I'll be your brother now' So heartwarming <3

Kelly Kits vs The Dollar Store

So a few weeks back I bought a voucher on Mamabargains for 3 months of Kelly Kits. I had seen them on talk shows before. They're these cute little craft kits that come in the mail monthly. They contain everything for 2 children to create a masterpiece! I thought this would be great for the kiddos. Something that could come in the mail for them to do on a rainy day or a day where I need 10 minutes to myself.
Well my first kit came yesterday. Bear had school, so it was just Monkey and I. When I got the parcel I thought it was sort of thin, I was like hmmm I wonder what it is!!!! When I opened, to say huge disappointment would be an understatement. A Canadian subscription to Kelly Kits is $19.99/month or $199.99/year. I probably got $2 worth of craft items. See picture below.
This made me rethink. What's so hard about going to the dollar store, picking up $20 in craft supplies, which would be a lot of stuff! But take the time to cut it ourselves and bag them up in zipper bags. I plan on doing this in the upcoming weeks. Look for a post on that :)
I'm not usually one to complain about this kind of stuff, but this was just a little ridiculous to me. Usually it would be okay, not doing that again, but look at the picture. Would you pay $19.99 for that? Now to be fair, I will post my remaining two kits.

T'was The Day Before Father's Day..

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a cat!
It was a bit of a quiet afternoon in Mommyland today. Monkey was napping, Bear and his daddy went to lay down in his bed and read some books. After a while, I noticed it was a little quiet in the house, so I went looking and this is what I found! Serious cuteness, right? Bear rarely naps these days, so these moments really are the best.
Happy Father's Day tomorrow to all the Dads out there!

Learning Colours

Every experience is a chance to learn, even if it is just bath time! The boys have become obsessed with coloured baths! This is great for both boys. Bear loves mixing colours Seeing what we get when we mix 2 colours. Monkey loves dropping the little tabs and and watching them fizz around changing the water colour as they get smaller and smaller. Then Bear adds another colour, yet again transforming the water to a totally different colour! Fun, eh? These are extra awesome if you have a little one who maybe a little reluctant for bath time. I picked ours up at Walmart, you can also order from Amazon. Kind of on the cheap side? You can always make your own with a simple ice cube tray and a few drops of food colouring! So next time you hear but mom, I don't want to bath, just ask what colour they would like it to be ;)

Summer Bucket List!

Do you have big summer plans? As I was going through the calendar today going over everything that we have to do. It seemed like our calendar was quickly filling with summer chores more then summer fun. Don't get me wrong, even summer chores are fun! It's summer! Every thing's fun. But it seemed like our calendar was more like a babysitter's schedule then a family's schedule. So I created our family's summer bucket list! Little things that we want to do before the summer ends. With the exception of 'A Day Out with Thomas' everything on our bucket list is less expensive then an evening at the movies would cost for the four of us. I bought our tickets for Thomas a few weeks back, so we know for sure that's a go (the boys don't know that we're going, it's going to be a surprise...I guess it's a good thing neither of them can read yet ;) ) But pretty much anything else on the list can be a spur of the moment outing.

I LOVE scrapbooking! I used my digital scrapbooking software to create a cute bucket list. I'm going to print it off and hang it up so when the oppertunity presents itself, we can pick an outing and go. Also, because I've already created this, it's easy to print off to add to my Summer 2012 scrapbook! Not to mention, if we do everything on our bucket list, it's 9 new scrapbook pages, and 9 new blog posts! 

So, what's on your family's bucket list this summer?

Monkey the Meal Time Greeter!

This morning we had to do some running around. Bear needed some new shoes and shorts, we needed or order a new liner for the pool. Our errands of course ran over lunch time. So we thought we would  take the boys into Tim Horton's to grab something quick to eat, and didn't make me feel guilty like fast food chains do. If you have kids, you know you have a small window from the time you walk into a restaurant to the time kids have food in front of them before they start to loose their minds and make everyone around them pay! So we go in and order, my husband waits for our food, I take the boys to pick a place to sit. Monkey ends up beside the window beside where people walk in. Every single person who walked in was welcomed by this smiling face and a big wave. I always saw him being a coat check attendant, perhaps a bell hop. He's the one that when ever we have company he brings them their coat and shoes when he hears them say they're going to leave. After today though it makes me think, maybe he'll surprise us and be a Walmart greeter! 

Not to be outdone having pictures taken Bear of course had to pose with a super cheesy grin that would make any mother proud ;) 

Welcome to Mommyland!

I'm so excited to start blogging! This is something I've wanted to do for a while now and am finally just getting around to it! Let me start by introducing myself. I'm a stay at home mom to two wonderful boys who I will call monkey and bear. Monkey just turned two and bear will be five in September. I love reading blog's and seeing what here people have to say, so why not share what I have to say? Warning!!! I have a lot to say ;-)
So here's the fam! My husband and I have been together since we were 17, married 6 years this fall. This picture was taken mother's day at the beach. It was monkey's first time and he was a little nervous (as you'll come to learn, that's rare lol). He wasn't wanting to go near the water, wasn't wanting us to hold him while we were in the water. Finally right before we were ready to go home he decided he was going to give it a try and ran in...shoes and all!