Hockey in the Rain!

momstown Barrie was the proud Children's Area sponsor for the 1st Boston Pizza Street Hockey Classic for Cancer Research.

The weather looked grim right from the start of the morning and sure enough, just as registration for the players was in full force the skies opened up and the rain poured down.

The wet weather didn't dampen the spirits of the players though. They suited up in their team t-shirts, strapped on their gear, grabbed their sticks and played happily in the rain!

The round robin tournament was played through the day by men and women all in support of cancer research.

The weather cleared up for a good part of the afternoon and everyone that came out was having a good time.


momstown had a fishing pond for the kiddies to stop at and do some fishing for creatures. The rain held off long enough for a bunch of kiddies to enjoy some fishing and lollipops with us.

The day ended with another down pour, a performance by Please and Thanks and an after party in Boston Pizza.

Rain and all, it was a great day for a great cause! Looking forward to next year!

Our Birthday Bash was a Blast!!!

What a perfect day for a party!! The threat of rain caused a bit of a panic for me, but Mother Nature came through and the raid held off!

We had an amazing turnout for our momstwn Barrie 3rd Birthday Bash and everyon had a blast! It was great to see so many familiar faces and to meet so many new people!

I am so glad that local photographer, Jennifer Hall, from Digital Portraits and Imaging by Jennifer Hall, was on hand to document the memories from the day.

The kids enjoyed starting the party off with a round of Kindermusik. Our wonderful sponsor The Melody in Me did a Kindermusik demo for all the excited children and they had a blast!


The big draw as usual with the little kids is the bouncy castle. A giant bouncy castle courtesy of Pizza Pizza took centre stage and was the source of giggles and shrieks of delight.

Another popular spot was face painting with Pickles the Clown. Her amazing and magical face paintings were a hit with all the kids. Adorable little faces were transformed into beautiful butterflies, kitties, tigers, and more. It is always amazing to see just how magical Pickles face paintings are!



We were pleased and thankful to have local artist Please and Thanks perform his children's Hip Hop for the kids. His unique musical stylings for the kids had them laughing, dancing and grooving along. The parents even got into the fun!


After all the fun that was being had, a break for lunch courtesy of Pizza Pizza and Boston Pizza Barrie was much needed. The hungry masses lined up to fill their bellies so they could move on to more fun!!

With full bellies, the kids had a blast taking part in the Monkeynastics demo. There were songs and games and fun equipment for the kids to try!


I broke in on the fun to announce the winners of our awesme prizes, all donated by our fabulous sponsors. Congrats to all the winners and a HUGE thank you to all of our prize sponsors. Maple Leaf Foods, Presidents Choice, Little Tikes, Hasbro, Smashbox Canada, Greenworks, Clorox, Life Choice Foods, Independent Mary Kay Represntative and Regal Consultant Debby Goldrick, Bayside Family Chiropractic, Monkeynastix and of course, US! momstown Barrie gave away a free 1 year membership.

To end our party we all enjoyed some delicious cake thta was kindly donated by one of our members. The cake was perfect and everyone loved it.

It was an awesome day. It was a day of pride for me, to see so many people come out to support momstown and to celebrate our success in Barrie.

Stay tuned for more pics and a video of our amazing Birthday Bash!

Thank you to ALL of you!

Party Count Down - What makes a party rock?

The excitement is building for our 3rd birthday party!! momstown is celebrating 4 years of bringing moms together, creating a network of friendship, fun, learning and memories. Here is Barrie we have been a part of this great motion for 3 strong years.

Moms have been connecting and making friends, sharing memories and helping to build strength in momstown since August of 2008, I have been a part of this since the very beginning. Sometimes I can hardly believe that 3 years have passed already!

The planning for this party has been going on for MONTHS. And I literally mean months, 4 and half long months of planning to make sure that this birthday is fantastic for everyone!

So what makes a great birthday party? This is something that I am sure we all think about when we plan our kids' birthdays. Every year the same thoughts, what can I do to make this party rock? So here are some thoughts on prepping for a rockin' party!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

LOCATION - You need to decide what location is best for your party. momstown Barrie is hosting our birthday bash at Centennial Beach this year. Perfect for all the fun that is going to be taking place!

GUESTS - You can't have a party without guests! So we informed the masses and invited the greatest people we know in Barrie - MOMS! and their families of course! The more the merrier! (of course if you are planning a party in your home, you need to consider the size of your guest list!)

ACTIVITIES - What are you going to do at your party so your guest have a blast? Keep in mind the age group of your guests! With all the kiddies momstown will have in attendance we have planned for a load of fun including a bouncy castle from Pizza Pizza, Kindermusik by The Melody in Me, Monkeynastics, Please and Thanks Children's Hip Hop and Face Painting with Pickles the Clown!


FOOD - All that fun will certainly build up an appetite! You gotta have food! We will have pizza from Pizza Pizza and Boston Pizza Barrie as well as Cake and Cupcakes by Kreations by Kat, YUM!

GAMES - Everyone loves a good game... fun, friendly competition all to win a great prize! While our game is simple, fill in a ballot and hope to win, our prizes are AWESOME! Prize sponsors include Little Tikes, Presidents Choice, Green Works, Clorox, Smash Box Cosmetics, Maple Leaf Foods, Life Choice Foods, Precious Peekaboo Boutique, Bayside Family Chiropractic,Hasbro, Mark Kay (Courtesy of Independent Beauty Consultant Debby Goldrick) and more!!!!

LOOT BAGS - You have to have something for your guests to take away after the amazing party to remind them of all the fun they had and so they can show others what they missed! Ours are jam packed with goodies but there are only 100 so you better get there early!

Can't forget to mention our local sponsors! Service First Mortgages, Bayside Family Chiropractic, Debby Goldrick Independent Beauty Consultant with Mary Kay and Representative with Regal, Boston Pizza Barrie, Wendy's, Portraits and Digital Imaging by Jennifer Hall.

So you ready for a great party now? We are!!!! momstown Barrie Birthday Bash takes place August 20th from 10am - 1pm at Centennial Beach near the pavilion. See you there!

A camping she will go....

Overnight Summer Camp seems to be a right of passage for all kids growing up. Packing your bags, being dropped off in the wilderness to sleep in cabins with other kids your age and spend your days having fun. The only connection to your parents were written letters that were sent in the mail (GASP!) and not by email and special parent visitation days.

In our family, this has not been the case. Our family has a cottage and we spend summers roughing it out there. We pack our bags, drive North and live the "cottage life", lounging on the dock, boat rides, all day swimming, BBQ's, camp fires, fishing etc, etc. It's beautiful, right on the lake, surrounded by the forest and nothing else. It also comes with a full bathroom (no outhouse for us!), dishwasher, washer and dryer and air conditioner. Oh, yeah, can't forget the satellite TV and Internet. The only thing "rough" about it, the Internet is dial-up. But it's just perfect for me!!!

As a kid my sister and I didn't do summer camp either. When I was younger I did attend a day camp while my parents were at work, a glorified daycare I guess! It was at a recreation centre of sorts in Toronto called St. Alban's Boys and Girls Club. From memory I believe we did the normal day camp type stuff day trips, swimming, crafts etc. Like I said, glorified day care!

My kids have never attended summer camp. Not even day camp.

Today my oldest embarks on her first adventure at overnight summer camp... baton camp of course for anyone that knows my daughter. She is beyond excited. 6 days in the wild (if you can call Camp Muskoka the wild) with friends, doing what they love. There will be camp fires and swimming and other "campy" stuff I am sure and it will be loads of fun for her. The catch... no electronics at camp. No computer, no cell phone, no ipod. What is a teenager to do?

So as we check the bags for the final time (bug spray, check. towels, check. toothbrush, check.) and prepare to head North and meet up with all her friends, I can't help but think.. God bless the camp leaders when all those teenage girls get bored!!!

The more we get together...

The happier we'll be!!!

Another fantastic day at the park for Story in The Park courtesy of Scholastic Canada.

This month momstown has a music theme going on and it's been lots of fun!

Today's books were You Are My Sunshine and The More We Get Together both by Carolyn Jayne Church. These books were adorable and such classic songs all us mamas sing with our kids!!

The kids enjoyed listening to the song-stories, read by my oldest daughter. To top off all the fun, we all sang out loud The More We Get Together, it was so cute as many of the kids knew the signs to the song from taking Baby Sign classes!

After reading and singing we held our raffle to see who would take these great books home! Little Miss Sophie was our winner! And proud she was!!!

The wind this week has not ruined our fun! We managed to read books, do crafts, and play, play, play!!! Hopefully summer will return with some warmer and less windy weather next week for more momstown fun!

Tambourines in the park!

The weather has been windy and cool this week, but it didn't stop us from having some musical fun this week!

A sunny but windy morning at the park made for a perfect morning of crafts!

This month is all about music, so we made our own music makers, paper plate tambourines!

The kids decorated their plates and added their names in some big sparkly letter sticker.

Once they were all decorated we filled them with some dried split peas and sealed them all up with tape or staples, glue would have taken too long to dry and the kids just wanted to play with them!

Once they were all done the kids got down to shakin' things up in the park with their Paper Plate Tambourines!


A super simple craft that made for lots of fun!

Happy Birthday momstown!!

It's August and that means Birthday Time!

momstown turns 4 this month, wow!!! Four years of fun, friendship and memories!

Here in Barrie we are celebrating our 3rd Birthday, 3 years full of FUN!

We don't need gifts though, we get those all the time by getting to meet so many great moms, enjoying great events and having fun!

This year the gifts are all for you!!! momstown is spoiling everyone this month with awesome contests (including a birthday cake recipe contest!) with amazing prizes from our incredible sponsors! Be sure to enter them all, you won't want to miss the great prizes we have! Did I mention there are over $10,000 in prizes! WOO HOO!

Of course birthdays need parties! We have another fabulous Facebook Fan Party coming up on August 18th at 8pm. Be sure to join us for your chance to WIN!

And we can't forget all the amazing birthday bashes coming up all across Canada! Be sure to check the momstown moments blog to find out when the party is coming to a town near you!

To mark our birthday this month, momstown has put together an incredible video showing the fun we have all around town and across 18 strong chapters! Check it out and see if you can find yourself!!I hope that you will take some time to help up celebrate!! Join us for our Birthday Bash in Barrie on August 21st from 10am - 1pm at Centennial Beach.

Until them, take a moment and leave us our comments telling us why you love momstown!