Who says a giraffe can't dance?

Tales for Tots has quickly become a momstown favorite here in Barrie. Sponsored by Scholastic Canada, we have a fantastic book each month that fits nicely with our educational themes.

This month our book was Giraffe's Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. The book was gorgeous with beautiful pictures so bright and fun that told the story to perfection.

The children loved the rhyming story about a shy Giraffe that feels he can't dance.

The kids joined in dancing as we read of animals at a Jungle party and their dancing antics. They were also sad for poor Gerald who couldn't dance.

As the story went on we learned that anyone can do anything if they find what's right for them.

The kids were so happy at the end of the story to see that yes, indeed, Giraffe's CAN dance!

As usual, and part of the fun with Tales for Tots, one of our lucky tots got to take the book home!

Thanks again Scholastic Canada!!

Racing and Building and Having Fun, Oh My!!!

Family play day events are always a huge hit with the momstown mamas. These events are a great time to get together with all the other momstown mamas and tots and have dad join them.

When you add in a fabulous sponsor like Little Tikes, you are guaranteed a huge turnout, lots of fun, lots of excitement and awesome prizes!!!

momstown Barrie was given the amazing opportunity to test drive some fabulous products from Little Tikes. Their adorable Pillow Racers and neat Tike Sticks were certainly a hit with the kids and the moms and made for a fun filled morning.

The kids absolutely loved racing around on the Dinsoaur, Turtle and Lady Bug. The older ones were cruising and racing and enjoying the 360 degree wheels that allowed them to shimmy sideways and all around.

They younger ones enjoyed the cushy ride, the easy to push racer and the big handle to hold onto... and our itty bitty ones even took a spin in hopes of having one for when they are a wee bit older!!

The moms loved the adorable Pillow Racers. They were easy to use for the younger babes, close to the ground, easy to manuevre, soft and durable. The fact that you are able to throw the covers in the wash when they get dirty just made them all the more appealing!

The older tots had a great time getting down with their friends, or their moms, to build some neat creations!!

The club house and the rocketship were a huge hit with the Tike Sticks and the Dog House and the pretty Pink Play House was just as popular!!

Building the Tike Stick creations was fun and entertaining for not only the older kids but the little ones. The big easy to handle pieces made this toy a great option for moms with younger siblings that like to get in on the action, no small parts to worry about getting lost or being choked on!

The other great detail that people loved about the Tike Sticks was that each kit is colour coordinated. No need to worry about several sets being mixed up and not being sure what piece goes with what set!!!

The Club House was a great hit. This was built and torn down and rebuilt several times during the morning! The kids loved that they could build it and then sit in, even moms had fun!!!

At the end of the morning, the excitement grew as the moms and dads learned that all of the great toys they had been playing with would be raffled off. The lucky winners were so pleased with their new toys.

Even the littlest ones, too small to enjoy the toys today were excited to have something to grow into!!

Thank you so much to Little Tikes for allowing momstown Barrie to test drive their Pillow Racers and Tike Sticks!

Happy Mama's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful, amazing and loving mamas out there! While we are moms everyday of the year, society at some point decided that a day was need to recognize and celebrate us. I think this was a pretty darn good decision! I think there are days that spouses and children and people that are not yet moms forget how much we do and how much we sacrifice as moms. Yes, this was a decision and choice we made, and one we would not change, but it is huge, it is demanding and it is hard work at times. We have let our bodies be taken over by tiny growing transforming beings for 9 months turning our once smooth bellies into mountains that never quite return to normal and are left with a road map of brightly colour marks. After 9 months of discomfort and nausea we bare the pain of child birth to bring into this world our most loved treasure. While the joy of giving birth is fantastic, the pain is not. But we do this to be moms. Some of us many times over. We wouldn't change this for the world.

As a mom we also give up many things most will take for granted hot meals, hot showers, sleep, the ability to use the washroom alone, clean shirts to go out in, sports cars for minivans, perky boobs for saggy ones and so much more. However, with all that we give up, all that we endure, all that we suffer through, we would not change this for the world. Why? Becuase the rewards far surpass the negatives. We hold our tiny babies for the first time and are instantly filled with love as tiny eyes meet ours and are filled with returned love. Tiny fngers hold our own as we feed them and sing them to sleep. Snuggles in the early morning with our sweet babies breathing in our faces. Baby giggles, and toothless smiles. Wobbly first steps, and sweet first words. As moms we get to experience so many wonderful things that more than make up for the things we sacrifice. As moms we know there is no better job in the world, no title more prestigous than "mommy" and no life that would can ever compare. Hug your moms, hug your kids and enjoy your mothers day!

Pop Bottle Planters

The sun is out, the birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming! What better time than now to start thinking about planting some flowers! Our momstown tots had a fantastic time making Pop Bottle Planters! Not only are they a great way to recycle but a great way to plant a seed!

We started off with some empty, clean 2L soda pop bottles. The kids went to town decorating the bottles! They filled their bottles with colourful stickers of flowers and bugs. Once the bottles were decorated and a nice bow tied on the neck of the bottle, we got down to business filling them with dirt that was so kindly donated by Kell's Garden City in Innisfil.

This was a messy but fun part of the activity as the kids worked hard and careful to get all the dirt inside the bottles. The kids had 2 choices of what they could plant, the could do sunflower seeds or beans. All the little girls wanted the sunflowers!!! The boys wanted beans. Go figure!

So with the seeds buried deep in the soil, the kids took their planters home with promises to keep them watered and in the sun. Stay tuned to see how our plants grow!!!

A day at the ranch

Today we made our annual Spring trip to Rounds Ranch. It was a perfect day, the sun was shining despite the threat of ran and the air was jsut a touch cool with the Spring breeze.

Rounds ranch is a great place for us to go with all the momstown kiddies. In the Spring, they have many newborn animals for us to see and learn about, as well as lots of other fun things to do around the farm.

We started our morning off with a trip on the funny barrel train. The kids really enjoyed the bumpy ride around the farm in their funny barrels. Farmer Anne had a great time watching the kiddies as she drove the tractor around and around. From here we were off to learn about the animals! There were lots of baby animals to see. New cows, or should I say calves, some baby goats, which we learned are called kids and lots chickens!!!

Farmer Anne took us into the barn where they keep the incubators for the chicks. She tought the kids about the life cycle of the chicken and showed them the eggs that had just a few more days before hatching!

The kids really enjoyed being able to go right into the pens with the animals and pet them and feed them. The baby goats were so excited and kept leaping into the air! There were a few chickens roaming the farming and one our tots thought it was a hoot to chase the chicken around!!! After some time visiting the animals we stopped for a quick snack and then it was off to explore all the other fun stuff Rounds Ranch has to offer!

The kids raced ducks, plastic ones!, then headed to the playground! Some were distracted by the peddle cars even though they were too small to ride them!

It sure was a perfect day!!! We look forward to heading back in the fall for some Halloween fun at the ranch!

Another Big Cook Success

The Big Cook is always a popular mama event. This latest round was no different!! This one was espeically great because it brought together new momstown

members and old, making friends and having fun! Here is one members take on the evening! So the big cook, what can I tell you, oh yeah awesomeness. This wonderful group of ladies pick out recipes from an amazing cook book and voila, start cooking. That’s not exactly it...hahahaha. So Chrissy a long time member of Momstown Barrie decided to host the big cook at her house. I was so excited to do another one since it had been since May of last year that I got the privilege to have fun with my old crew of Momstown members and share some yummy treats.

As we planned out what we were making Chrissy decided it would be cheaper to buy everything all together and just split the cost, it made much more sense to me as pork is much cheaper than chicken...etc.. Now when she made a decision to do all the shopping herself, I thought, is this girl NUTS? That’s like the biggest shopping bill ever, I couldn’t believe it. So this very determined mama went out on her own, priced everything to the cheapest value and went nuts. I just asked myself, could I do that? No way, this girl was awesome.
So we get to her house to start prepping but all of us realized, wow, this much to chop, cook, prep, we couldn’t believe it. So off we went. So as I’m standing in front of the stove cooking up what seemed to be a whole cow in ground beef and realizing our host did twice as much, I just couldn’t believe it. Watching poor Laura and Jenn prepping those onions on the Magic Bullet that thank the lord I decided to bring, brought us all to tears (almost 50 lbs...yikes). We were almost done prepping until, wait, yes we didn’t cut up the chicken into cubes. So looking back I would never have cut up raw chicken in that amount ever, our hands had the distinct skin on it that wasn’t exactly ours, it took us forever to get it off but we did it. Way to go us.

So Chrissy didn’t have a wine bottle opener so what did we use, a meat thermometer, yes and it worked. Not without a little bit or a lot of hard work. So it’s at the end of the night and we were putting our last meal in our bags to bring home. Yes it’s almost midnight and our children were going to be up in a few hours, YIKES. All I have to say as I have never laughed so hard, had such a wonderful time, hung out with some amazing women and got to take many many meals home to freeze for my family. So even if it went so long and we worked so hard, it was worth every minute of it. So thanks Momstown for introducing this wonderful cook book called “The Big Cook”. We working moms, stay at home moms or anyone in between should never live without it. Thanks Chrissy for hosting and working your buns off, thanks Laura, Jenn, Nicole, Nicole, Colleen, Lisa and Karrie for all your help. This was a great night and I can’t wait for the next one. Check out the awesomeness website and check back on the momstown website for the next fun adventure. I can’t wait. http://www.thebigcook.com/

we know how to spoil moms!

momstown is all about moms. Everything we do, we do for our moms. We are moms and we know what moms want and need. All moms may be unique, but there are so many things that we have in common. Being a mom is a tough job, but the most rewarding job we could ever have. momstown knows how to reward you and in just a few days, moms all over Canada will be settling in for another one of our famous Fan Parties! On Thursday May 3rd at 9pm, you can join us online for our Facebook Fan Page Party! This is a great time to chat with other moms, enjoy some "me" time and hopefully win some awesome prizes!!!

Be sure to rsvp today and join in on the fun!! Not a fan yet? What are you waiting for!!! Join today!

Our momstown mamas have taken time to share some insights on being a mom, just in time to celebrate Mother's Day! Head on our over to our momstown moments blog and read stories shared by our mommy bloggers on being a MOM!!!