Backyard BBQ and Summer Party Ideas!!

This weekend was the kick off to summer time fun!  Weekends full of family and friends.  BBQ's and camp fires. 

Having kids and entertaining is always fun.  We love to have friends over and love spending time with the family.

Whether at the cottage or at home, there are great ways to have fun with your summer time entertaining!!

The decorations, when entertaining in the backyard.

Go simple.  Kids will get into things, it gets hot and you don't need to be fancy, the summer time offer lots of natural beauty.

A basket with some hand held fans for the hot weather is a great idea for guests to use to cool off with.  Halved lemons with cloves on a table will help to keep pesky bees at bay and they look cool.  Colourful buckets make great recycling bins!

Food is given with any backyard entertaining.  You always need to be BBQ'ing.  When cooking for a crowd, make it simple to remember what you have cooked!  Line trays with waxed paper and label them. ie rare, ,medium, hot, mild, chicken, pork. etc.  This way when guests are helping themselves they know what they are getting!

Use food as part of your decoration!  Hollow out a halved watermelon and use that as a punch bowl.  Dice up the melon and freeze to float in your bowl as ice cubes, or just feed the melon to the kids!

You have to have dessert after any good meal.  What would be better than ice cream after some delicious bbq?

Be the dessert hero at your party with some prepared cones dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, coconut or chocolate chips!   It won't just be the kids enjoying this dessert!  Have fun with it!  I think I see a momstown Jr. Chef here!!

Enjoy your summer entertaining.  Our summers are short, so we have to make the best of them!

GAME ON! with Mattel and momstown Barrie mamas

What an amazing time we had gaming with the mamas thanks to our sponsor Mattel and their Game On! Campaign.

It was a super fun night of laughter, and for some of our moms it was a rare night out kid free!!

Mattel sent us a box full of fun games and the moms were excited to get playing as none of the games in our box had ever been played before!

There were lots of laughs with the Mad Gabs as we tried to decipher the random words making up sentences or phrases.  Sometimes it was hard enough reading the words with the laughter never mind trying to guess!

The real fun came with Apples to Apples.  We had a great group of ladies and thought it would be super fun and that much more exciting to have all of us play.

This one really got the girls laughing.  The idea of the game is to match cards with words on them such as Cucumber, My Neighbours, Nuclear War or Prince Charnming to a definition that the Judge gives, for example Frustrating or Lusious.

You then pick the words that you think best describes what the judge has given and the she then chooses what she thinks is the best one.

The cards that came up had us howling.  And the more we played the funnier it got.

We have decided that having that much fun should be done more often... games night month it is!

Thank you Mattel for giving us the chance to try out these amazing games and have a hilarious night of fun!

My time obsessed daughter

My middle daughter has always been a creature of habit, sometimes to the point of making me crazy and causing me concern.

When she was younger it was lining things up.  Whether it was toys, food (even veggies had to be in a line on the table not the plate) Halloween candy, you name it she would line it up.

Her latest obsession is time.  She needs to know what time it is constantly.  She has to have breakfast at a certain time, momstown events have to be at a certain time (usually this is 10:30, and if the time is different she will argue with me!), dinner has to be at a certain time... it's maddening!!

Since she learned her numbers, she has always know that bed time is at 8 - 0 - 0.  This has become a complete obsession, to point that she doesn't ask to stay up late (yes I know a small blessing) because when  she sees the clock says 8-0-0 she will tell me its her bedtime and she has to go right then.

As she learned to associate more things with time, she has become a clock watcher.

I am sure this is part of her learning and her need to have schedules and regiment, but sometimes it makes me crazy!

She just noticed the time is 7-3-0 (she says this as seven three zero and not Seven Thirty)  she is now demanding a snack because 8-0-0 is coming.

It always amazes me the quirky little things that kids do...

Foot Print Butterflies!

For our Mother's Day craft this year we did some very sweet foot print crafts.

All moms, and grandmas!, love the keepsakes we create with our kids hands and feet.  The adorable little prints are something to be cherished forever, our children will never be the size they were again the day the prints were made.

This year we made some very cute butterflies out of our kids feet!  The colour foot prints made for super adorable butterflies no matter what size the kids feet were!

This was a great craft to do outdoors as it got a little messy, especially with some of the older kids!!




We painted up the kids feet in a pattern of colours and had them put their prints on paper to make a butterfly!

These were so cute and a great gift for sure!

A special day with my momstown Barrie mamas!

Today was our annual Pre-Mother's Day Breakfast for the momstown mamas!

Every year I prepare dozens of pancakes for the moms and tots so we can gather together on the Friday before Mother's Day to celebrate what we do best... being a mom!

We had a great group of moms and tots out and they all enjoyed their pancakes, chocolate chips ones seemed to be a fave for the little guys!

It's nice to sit back and chat with the other moms while the kids play.  That is what is so awesome about momstown, always having someone to talk to about what we spend every waking and sleeping moment thinking about.. being a mom.

This year our breakfast fell on my birthday.  I'm not one to toot my own horn and not one to be the centre of attention, I get a little shy sometimes.  But my mamas made sure that my day was special and perfect and they didn't let my birthday go by unnoticed

While sitting enjoying a coffee after our pancakes and chatting with the other moms, I heard the start of the grand old Happy Birthday Song.

Around the corner comes one of my members and close friend with a cake, lit with candles and a little one carrying flowers.

The kindness and thoughtfulness of these ladies to take what was meant to be their special day and do something for me, brought me to tears.

I love my friends and I love the momstown mamas, all of them.  To know that they care about me is a huge reminder on why I do what I do and how special all the ladies are.  My life wouldn't be the same without them.

Thank you ladies for my special birthday surprise.

Messy fun with the Barrie Babies!

Little ones love to get messy... most of them anyway!

A great way to learn is through the senses.  Sensory play is so much fun and when it comes to touch, the kids just love to get their hands in there!

We had a few of our wee ones join us for a sensory event to enjoy and explore the sense of touch.

We used some vanillas pudding as paint and let the kids finger paint.  This was so cute.  Some of them couldn't wait to get their hands in there and some were a little hesitant.

Watching the babies squish and squash the pudding in their little hands was fun.  They smeared it around and some of them got so excited they were slapping their hands on the table... covering mom in pudding as well.

Being a baby is all about exploring and learning and having fun.  This was a great way for moms and the babies to get involved in some sensory play!  Can't wait for the next one.

Farm Fun with the Barrie Tots!

We made our annual trip to the farm to meet the spring animas and have some fun!
This year we returned to Rounds Ranch in Elmvale and had a blast!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be out at the farm! The sun was shining, it was warm and the kids were in great spirits!

We had an excellent turnout of moms and tots all ready to have fun meeting animals and spending time on the farm.

We started off with some ducky races! The kids had fun pumping the water to make their ducky race down the pipes!  Even the smallest ones were getting in on the action and having a ball.

Once we were all there we headed over to meet the animals.  There were some new baby goats on the farm and the kids were excited to see them.  We were lucky enough to be able to go right in to the pens and meet the animals.  They seemed just as excited to meet us as we were to meet them!

There were also some new baby chicks that the kids were excited to see and some were brave enough to hold them!

After our animal adventure, Farmer Ann took the kids on a crazy cart ride!  The kids had fun in the barrels going for a ride around the farm!  Some of our moms got in on the ride too!!!

With a quick break for lunch to refuel, the kids were ready to play some more!!!  Pedal carts, a play ground, bouncy fun and zip lines, our afternoon was filled with fun!!!
Thanks to Rounds Ranch for letting us come and have a fantastic day at the Farm!