Creative Fun for Father's Day

As with all holidays at momstown we love to celebrate with crafty fun!

On Friday we headed to a great place in Barrie, Creative Cafe. The mamas and their kiddies had a great time painting pieces for dad... or themselves!!!



Kids love to be creative, they love to get messy and they love to have fun. Painting pottery was a great way to do that!



The kids and the moms picked out pieces that they wanted to paint for dad and got down to the messy fun! They had loads to choose from, picture frames, mugs, cars, a tank... you name it!

It was so nice to see some of the moms with new babies out making mugs for dad. With the babies too young to paint their own pieces it was sweet to see their tiny foot prints on the mugs that mommy painted.





The older kiddies were able to put their hand prints proudly on their pieces with the help of Creative Cafe owner, Lynn.



The kids had fun, moms were proud of their kids artwork and in a few days the pieces they painted will be ready to pick up and give to dad on Father's Day.



Hope dad loves them as much as we do!!!

Lightening, and thunder and rain, oh my!

They had been calling for the storm for a while. Again today it looked like it would pass us by.

The evening came and it was still sunny and hot and humid. We were outside trying to find the little hole that keeps taking the air out of our kiddies pool when my hubby and I noticed that it was suddenly dark, very dark.

It was like in a matter of minutes the sky had gone black, the wind had picked up to near tornado like strength, and the air felt heavy. And then the big fat drops started.



The sky opened up and the rain came down. In Buckets. The thunder and lightening made their grand appearance as well.

We all watched from the patio doors. I love storms personally. The strange, eerie calmness in the air one moment while the next moment pure havoc plays out from the skies.

The storm was short but fierce...flooding the front yard but hopefully our basement!



I am glad that my kids also like the storms. I know some kids are petrified. The loudness, the dark, the not knowing what is happening. It can certainly be a scary time for little ones!

I guess this storm is just another sign that summer is here, summer sure does have the best storms!!

Inspirational Moms!!!

This past weekend was the annual momstown Spring Conference.

All the lovely momstown ladies gathered at the momstown Headquarters for a weekend of learning and bonding. As always it was a truly empowering weekend full of learning and fun!

The Cole notes version of momstowns' history; 4 years ago 2 fabulous women started momstown in their town of Burlington, it quickly grew with more chapters opening after just one year. Within months of that licensing of the chapters began, the momstown movement was in full forward motion and the momstown fever was catching across Ontario!!!! Soon the fever spread all the way to Alberta and this month Winnipeg will be catching the fever too! Last year the HQ run chapters were licensed out and now all chapters are owned by strong, smart, motivated women, moms to be exact.

So back to the weekend... in short it was fabulous. I was a tad late to day one but arrived just in time to get my picture taken... not my favorite thing to do, but it was fun with all the ladies laughing and enjoying themselves.


The energy was high and the ladies were so pumped to head out to the tweetup planned for that evening. Going to a tweetup was a first for me and I was super excited for the evening ahead. I was not disappointed and it was an awesome evening full of incredible women, all mom entrepreneurs, who shared the energy with us and kept our night full of fun. Truly amazing women, and I was so glad to meet them all!

After some laughs, a salut to "drinking the kool-aid", we made our way back to headquarters for our traditional sleepover, it was the perfect way to end the day and prepare for the next.

Day two was truly motivational. We were pumped up with plans for the future and shared some inspiring tear worthy moments. You know you are surrounded by wonderful women when they cheer your success and tear up at your triumphs.


Some great speakers shared their wisdom and taught us some very valuable lessons that are not just business worthy, but life worthy.

The most important things I learned this weekend:
- Believe in yourself
- Believe in what you do
- Being happy IS success

Moms are the most powerful people in the world, don't underestimate us!

Bubbles,bubbles and more bubbles!!!

The weather was perfect on Friday for the momstown mamas and their kiddies to head to The Gables for a morning of bubble fun!

We met in the parking lot and headed in to the forest to take the path to the beautiful clearing that over looks the lake. It was a long walk, the kids ran, the dogs explores and the moms chatted.

We were met in the clearing by swarms of mosquitos... not our plan! SO back out we headed to enjoy our morning of bubbles in the grassy clearing by the parking lot.

The walk out is a little harder...all up hill! But it was fun, the kids ran again and the mams struggled to push the heavy strollers, but it gave us all a good workout for a Friday morning!!!

Once we got settled, the kids enjoyed their bubbles! There was lots of tiny bubbles flying around, magic bubbles. Why were they called magic bubbles? Well we found out the hard way!!! These magic touchable bubbles are super sticky!!!

They were sticking to arms and legs and clothes, and we baby heads!! We parked the magic bubbles and moved on to more conventional bubbles!

The kids had a ball chasing and blowing bubbles! The weather was perfect, it was warm and sunny with a light breeze, the perfect summer day!!!!

Fiesta!!!!!

Summer is here! What better way for the mamas and kiddies of momstown Barrie to celebrate a gorgeous sunny, hot day than with a visit to Mexico!

We gathered at Lisa's house for a trip to Mexico complete with a sombrero and maracas, and little moustaches!!



The kids were so excited to get to make their very own homemade tortillas! Thanks to Perdita from Epicure, the kids prepped and pressed their own Tortilla shells!



The kiddies used their muscle power to flatten their dough and then the grown ups fried them up!



When they were all ready the kids put together their tacos. The excitement on their little faces as the got to enjoy what their own little hands made was priceless! They loaded up their tacos and dug in!



After their lunch the kids headed outdoors to play in the sunshine! A bouncy castle and banana popsicles added to their fun!

It was truly a perfect preview to the summer! Bring on the sunshine, warm weather and fun! momstown mamas are ready!

OOBLECK!

Kids love to learn and they love to try new things and the love to get messy! One of our newest momstown events is our Kids Science Lab! Previously we made volcanoes, which were a huge hit with the kids! This month we made OOBLECK! The mysterious goop that isn't quite sure if it's a liquid or a solid! It's messy, it's slimy... it's FUN! We got the momstown mamas to mix up the coloured water (just a few drops of food colouring to plain old water!) and good old cornstarch. Moms had to get messy here as it's really hard to mix, turning into a solid as you get to the right consistency!! Once it was all mixed up we could dig in! Grabbing hand fulls of the hard mixture only to find out easily it turns to slimy goo!!! The kids dug right in! Some of the kids loved getting their hands dirty.... some weren't so sure about the gooey mess! But the sure moms had fun!!! The trick to keeping it solid it to keep it moving! The constant movement of your hands can keep the oobleck in a perfect ball! But as soon as you stop moving, it oozes through your fingers!!! Even our little scientist got in on the goopy fun!

The Perfect Long Weekend!

Ahhhh Long Weekends! The first one of the season is always a crap shoot for how the weather the will be. Some years it's warm and beautiful and others it's cold and rainy and miserable.

This year we got super lucky with a gorgeous, warm and sun filled Victoria Day long weekend. They kept calling for rain but it held off until Monday evening! What better way for Mother Nature to make up for the crappy start we had to Spring.

Long weekends are always a favorite for everyone. Extra time with loved ones, that extra day at the beach or the cottage, time for BBQ's, friends, picnics and all those good things, but when the weather is perfect, there is nothing you can do but smile.



This weekend was the perfect example around here.
Friday started off cool and windy as the momstown mamas headed to the park for some butterfly art.



The kids played at the playground and then created beautiful butterflies by using coffee filters and bingo dabbers!



For my family, the afternoon and early evening was then spent shopping for plants for our garden and prepping for a weekend of cleaning while fitting in some play time with friends.

The true test of a fabulous and perfect long weekend is the fun that was had and the memories that were made. A day of backyard play, fun in the sprinkler, a BBQ with friends and finally fireworks, certainly made this May long weekend one huge success with my family.



Hopefully this is a preview to what the rest of the summer season holds in store for us!