Tales for Tots: Story time for preschoolers in Red Deer

momstown Central Alberta's monthly Story time and craft program this month featured the book FINDING CHRISTMAS by Robert Munsch

To go along with this charming story about a little girl who ALWAYS finds her presents, and ends up learning that her family IS the present, the kids of momstown Central Alberta also made their own present boxes!

momstown.ca's book review had this to say about Finding Christmas Story by Robert Munsch.

we're thrilled to read the brand-new Robert Munsch book 'Finding Christmas'. It's a great read for families and little ones who are getting excited for the holidays!
Julie (based on Robert Munsch's own daughter Julie) always finds the presents her parents hides before Christmas. But THIS year, she can't find them anywhere! Follow Julie's adventure as she 'finds Christmas' in a whole new place!

Our craft for this months program was making our own Christmas present boxes!!
We had a template for a simple box printed on card stock, and the kids decorated their boxes!

 Then the kids cut out the template and started gluing the sides together, with a bit of help from mom!

 One of the finished boxes! Gorgeous don't you think?

Then it was story time, and the wonderful new Christmas Story Finding Christmas by Robert Munsch

And our winner of the book! One member each month gets to take a copy of our book of the month home to their family!

momstown Family Christmas Party

Santa Claus arrived early in Red Deer! 

He made a special stop even with his busy schedule to surprise the children of momstown Central Alberta!

We had more than our very special visit from Santa! We had crafts for the kids, pin the carrot on the snowman and pin the nose on Rudolph, a snowman bean bag toss and of course random running around with excitement!

After our wonderful visit with Santa Claus, we all enjoyed our potluck dinner!!

Then it was time for our Christmas movie Prep & Landing on a very BIG screen!!

Then it was almost time to say goodnight, but first we had some door prizes to give away and some presents for all the children in attendance! Thanks to Brats Hats, Javita Coffee and Brandi's Tupperware for the awesome prizes!!

We are not done with our Christmas and Holiday Themed events yet! We have our Art & Play event this Thursday, a crafternoon on the 16th, our tales for tots program where we have the wonderful book by Robert Munsch to give away, and to cap it all off, we have our Happy Noon Year Celebration on the 30th! Make sure you join in on the fun!

O is for Ornament Preschool Craft

I love having a Christmas Tree decorated with ornaments that my kids have made themselves! 

So this month for momstown Central Alberta's Alphabet Play program we made 

Ornaments with the letter O!

Our ornaments were made to look like Stain glass, are super cute and could be used for any design and crafts could be made All year!!

Supplies Needed

the letter O in card stock, made to look like a Christmas Ball Ornament

Tissue Paper

Self Laminating Paper

First Step is to have your preschooler to decorate their 'O' and make it their own!

Then placing the O ( the template/outline) on the non sticky side of self laminating paper, your child will place pieces of tissue papers, creating their masterpiece. 

The tissue paper can be cut or torn, both giving different affects. 

Great way for kids to practice their scissor skills!

One the tissue paper is placed 'perfectly', remove the paper from the sticky side of the laminating paper, and stick down. 

Push out any air bubbles.

Cut the laminating paper about the O, and you have a perfect Christmas tree Craft!

As with every months event, this program has a literacy component, and we read two Christmas themed stories to get all of our moms and their kids in the Christmas crafting mood!

How to Host a Cookie Exchange

Want to have your holiday baking completed in one afternoon?
Can't believe that is possible? It is! Host a cookie Exchange! Better yet join one with momstown!

momstown Central Alberta hosted our annual cookie exchange this past weekend, and I am hooked! Not only is it a great excuse to get together with friends and eat cookies, you get to take home dozens of DIFFERENT types of cookies that you didn't bake!!

Here are our momstown Central Alberta rules for our cookie exchange
1) Bake 1 dozen cookies for every participant
2) Bake an additional dozen cookies to 'sample' the evening of the exchange
3) Host the exchange, and include beverages, laughs and great conversation

The momstown Central Alberta cookie exchange had some great cookies!
We had everything from Ginger snaps, peanut butter balls, poppy cock to Bacon Cookies!!!

So see, you can have all your Christmas baking done in an afternoon, and it is not all one type!
I love this, I think we should start a muffin exchange, soup exchange... all year long!!

Junior Chef Sponsored by Nutella

Wow what a great event momstown Central Alberta held this past week! 

We had our Junior Chef event sponsored by Nutella!

We started our event by making our own Chef Hats!

Super easy and very fun craft! All you need is card stock, plastic bags, glue, tape or staples and markers or crayons. 

First you cut the card stock to fit your child's head, my kids have big heads, so I used more that 1 piece.  Have your child decorate the cardstok. 

When this was finished, we had Nutella Stickers to add! 

Attach both sides of the card stock to make a circle the size of your child's head. 

Then take a white plastic bag, cutting off the top if it is too big, and attach the bag to the inside of the card stock with either tape, glue or even staples, and voila! 

You have a chef ready to bake!

For our event we baked two fabulous recipes.

We started with Nutella Breakfast Bars

While the breakfast slices were cooking, we started our second creation...  

Fruit 'n' Nutella Yogurt Parfaits.

The kids loved both of their creations.... we had no left overs!!

At the end everyone was delighted to take home their goodies from Nutella! 

Our members loved that they recipe cards were included, especially when they saw how much the kids loved what they created.

A Morning with Santa and Mrs. Claus

momstown Central Alberta had a wonderful morning hanging out with Santa and Mrs. Claus, all the while collecting donations for the Red Deer Food Bank and the Red Deer Christmas Bureau. Parkland mall was the location as this was in conjunction with their STUFF A BUS campaign!

This event was created to help teach kids the real meaning of the Season, giving.
We collected carts full of new unwrapped toys and lots of food for the food bank.
As well as over $100 in cash donations!!

Thanks so much to June from Candy Faces and Megan from Wee Piggies and Paws for helping spread the holiday Cheer. Thanks to Santa and Mrs. Claus who took the morning off from their regular duties to hang out with the kids from momstown Central Alberta! The children loved having the extra time to just chat with you and ask all their questions!!

Thanks again to Parkland mall for hosting this great event!

Crafty Mamas in Red Deer: Homemade Advent Calendar

The crafty Mamas of momstown Central Alberta got their craft on making their own Advent Calendars!

Such a fun project!
What you need
a 24 cup mini muffin tin
scrapbook paper
card stock
magnets
glue
embellishments - stamps stickers, accents, brads, really anything you can find!

1. Cut squares in your card stock to cover the muffin holes.
2. Make your squares pretty with scrapbook papers, stamps stickers and any embellishments you want

3. add small magnets to the back of your embellished squared so the papers stay in place

4. Fill your calendar! You can use small toys, messages, or my favourite CHOCOLATE!!

Such a fun project that can be re-done every year!