Happy New Year from the moms and tots of Barrie!!!!

It sure has been a whirlwind of a year, hard to believe it is coming to an end in just hours!

As usual, our momstown mamas had to party in true momstown style with a party for the kids... a Happy Noon Years party!

The kids were firecrackers full of energy!  This would prove to be such a fun filled morning!

They played and danced and giggled and screamed... and this was all before the fun started!

First we got down to making our noise makers, not that they needed any help making noise!

We took some round card stock and had the kids decorate it.  When they were done we glued the pieces together with a Popsicle stick in the middle for the handle. 

Some string and buttons were added and VOILA!   A hand held paddle for making noise!

Next we got on to making our hats!  What party isn't complete without at fun hat! 

These hats were decorated with stickers, colouring and of course fluorescent pipe cleaner wiggles!  So fun!

The kids were more than excited to get to do the countdown that we had been talking about all morning.  So after a buffet of treats and some juice, we gathered the kids and got ready to count down.

Just before noon, we started our countdown....  10, 9, 8, the noise makers were already in full force, 7, 6, 5, 4... don't forget to hug your friends, 3, 2, 1  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Hope you all enjoy your celebrations as much as we did!  Happy New Year momstown mamas!

Finding Christmas with Robert Munsch

This post is a little late... Christmas was busy and my little man had pneumonia, but sometimes late is better than never!

Christmas was an exciting and busy day for everyone I am sure.  But around here it was extra special as I got to spend the morning having pancakes with my momstown mamas and kiddies at my home to wish them a Merry Christmas.

The kids and the mamas enjoyed our breakfast, pancakes with Nutella and bananas ( a new favorite our Junior Chef sponsored by Nutella) and hot cocoa with whip cream!

After a delicious breakfast and some excited play time, the kids were ready to talk about Christmas and settle in for a fantastic new story from Robert Munsch called Finding Christmas.

The story is about a little girl who loves to snoop and find her Christmas presents long before Christmas.  Something I am sure we all did as a kid, I know I did!

This year is a little different for her though, she can't seem to find them at all.  Maybe there will be no Christmas this year!!!   Will she find the presents??

The kids loved the story and so did the moms!  As usual, with our Tales for Tots, one of our little ones got to take the book home thanks to Scholastic!

A fun month of Christmas Crafts!

December has been full of fun with momstown and Christmas Crafts!!!  This is always my most favorite time of year to do crafts!

Watching the momstown kids and the moms get so excited about crafts is wonderful.  I love seeing their creativity and watching them have fun.

Plus, crafts make great gifts for loved ones, especially this time of year!!

We made things out of glitter and glue, and things out paint.  We made things that were messy and fun.

We made crafts to hang and gifts to give.  All of it was fun!

Fun times at our Annual Christmas Party!

Our momstown Annual Christmas party is always a great time. Seeing everyone and their families out together is just so heart warming,

The kids get all dressed up, they are glowing with the excitement of Christmas and the anticipation of their visit with Santa!

I'm going to leave our fantastic party to pictures, they speak a thousand words!!!

I also want to give a big thank you to our photobooth photographer Little Me Visual Studios and our fabulous Face Painter, Colville Creative Events.

Merry Christmas!!

Thomas TrackMaster Blue Mountain Bridge Drop

We recently had the luck of being chosen to give the Thomas TrackMaster Blue Mountain Bridge Drop a test drive at home.

The day it arrived we had some friends over and they were excited to join my little ones in having fun with Thomas.

After checking out the pictures on the box and being excited, we got to opening it up and taking out all the parts.  The kids were super excited and commanded me to hurry up so they could play!!

I personally have never assembled a railroad track so I got the instructions out to be sure I did it right!!  I got to work putting the pieces together, this is where the boys lost interest and the girls stayed to help!!!

One it was all together the kids had a blast racing Thomas around the track and down the hills through the tunnels!

The kids thought it was great that they could put their other Thomas trains on the track as well and make the fun that much bigger!

This would definitely make a great gift for any kid either for the holidays or for birthday or just because!  Thomas lovers will have hours of fun!!!

All aboard the Santa Express!!

This past weekend we took our annual trip on the Santa Express!

Every year our momstown mamas look forward to this field trip.  While it's not a long trip, it's just so much fun! 

The South Simcoe Steam Train runs the Santa Express every year on weekends for the month of December.   It's a great chance to spend time with family and friends. We take a short trip, spend time with our families and just enjoy the spirit of the holidays and take in the excitement of the kids.

Every year, I prepare for this trip months in advance as our group is usually so big that we have to get tickets on day one of sales or our group can't be together, tickets sell fast here!  So on November 1st I start my calling to the ever busy reservation line to book our tickets... this year we had 61 traveller... and that didn't include babies!!!

It's not easy to coordinate a train trip of this size but it's so worth the effort as the kids have so much fun!

The train is run solely by volunteers including the elves and Santa himself! 


We all gathered out in the cold, and it was cold, to wait for our turn to board the train.  As the train rolls into the station the kids get super excited.

Boarding is not easy with so many people and kids and so much excitement and anticipation, but after some shuffling and organization, we are all set to go!!

As the train departs from the station, Santa comes in and starts his journey down the train car where he takes the time to sit with each and every child to talk to them and hear what they want for Christmas.

The kids and the parents get so excited to have Santa visit them.  Some kids are happier than others of course!

Santa is a great listener and has such a great personality that even the most timid and normally scared child will crawl up on his knee for a chat.

While the train ride itself is quite simple, a half hour ride out and half hour ride back, the visit with Santa makes the ride all worth the while.

Nutella Sponsored Jr. Chef!

Once again we got to enjoy some delicious Nutella at an event... this time we got busy in the kitchen with our Jr. Chefs!

The kids were so excited to get use Nutella, and so were the moms!  Who doesn't love Nutella?

We had a variety of recipes to choose from but went for the ones we knew the kids would just love... ok and the ones I knew I would love too!

We chose to make Nutella Banana Pancake sandwiches and Nutella Parfaits!

The kids helped me mix of the pancake batter so that I could get those cooking for our sandwiches.

While I cooked the pancakes they got down to making parfaits with the help of the moms.

First they put some yummy vanilla yogurt in their cups, then a nice big scoop of Nutella, more yogurt and some fresh berries.  YUM!!

Of course being kids, they stirred up their parfaits to make a chocolaty mess of goodness! 

As soon as all the pancakes were done we got down to sandwich assembly!

A great big smear of Nutella, some fresh banana slices, and another pancake.  MMMMM!!!  These were so good!  The kids loved them, and so did us moms!

You knew just by looking at the kids and their sweet little Nutella covered faces and fingers that they had a great time in the kitchen!

This was definitely one of the more delicious Jr. Chefs we have done in a long time!  Thank you Nutella!

Pictures With Santa

Every year moms and dads stalk the malls looking for Santa.  Getting their child's photo taken with Santa is always a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

We have all done it, lined up for what seems like hours with other crazy parents and their crying or overly excited child, waiting to see the big guy. 

There he is, sitting on his big chair, all jolly and and full of holiday spirit waiting for the next child to tell him their wishes for Christmas.  I always wonder what he is thinking.  Is he thinking oh gees not that screaming kid, or great another crying baby for me to scare, or i hope this kid doesn't pee on me again.... He has to sit there for a long time and see a lot of kids... what would you be thinking?


But not all the kids are happy to be seeing Santa... like my son.  My Son screamed "NO, scary!" before we even got in a line! So being child number 3 I didn't force him.  The first two I forced to sit on his knee crying or not. Yep, I was that mom!









I know my son is not alone here.  I know there are tons of kids who want nothing to do with the big fat strange man and his big white beard and furry red suit who Ho, Ho Ho's at random. Until of course it's time to get the gifts.  But really, what are we telling our kids!  At Halloween we send them out to strangers houses to beg for candy and at Christmas we send them to sit on a strange mans lap and disclose their secrets!  Strange and all for our pleasure as a parent. 

Yet we do it... every darn year.  I have pictures from every year since my oldest had her first visit with Santa. (that would be 15 Christmases now!!)  Most are full of smiles.  The tears and scared faces came from the little ones.  Last year I couldn't even get my son to sit on Santa's knee. 

This year I was able to get all 3 to sit with Santa.  Albeit the only way my son would even go near him was in the arms of Megan, my oldest.... and she was none too thrilled to have to sit on Santa's knee but she did it for me,and for her little brother and sister and was full of smiles.  Can you see Santa by the way... he's there, you just have to look!

These are my kids with Santa... can you find him?

So many of our momstown mamas were happy to share their pics with me.  Almost all of them have happy smiling kids,  What makes a mom more happy than to have a smiling picture of their child on Santa's knee to display for the world at Christmas Time.

Thank you to everyone that shared their pictures with me!  I loved seeing all the kids reactions to Santa.