Junior Chefs March 2012

We held our first Junior Chefs program event, and we made Cinnama-Saurus Rex cookies from our Scholastic Book of the month
HOW DO DINOSAURS EAT COOKIES?

The kids, with the help of their moms, mixed and poured, mixed some more. Then got messy rolling the cookies into balls before they were placed in the oven to bake.

That might have been the longest 11 minutes of the day for many of the kids, waiting for the cookies to bake and cool!! While we were waiting the house smelled amazing, as the aroma of cinnamon filled the air.

As an extra Sugary Treat Donna brought a cake to share with everyone as well, so there was lots of sugar to go around, and the kids loved their cookies THEY baked!!

Purple Day 2012

I am wearing Purple Today, so are my girls.

Haven't hear about Purple Day? It is a day in support of the many kids and adults who have Epilepsy around the world.

Five and a Half years ago, my world was rocked when I arrived at my day home to find an ambulance and the day home provider telling me everything is OK.... I was so confused! They led me to my daughter who was lying on the floor with oxygen tubes and being looked after by paramedics.

The day was my oldest daughter's third birthday. I had decorated our house the night before, had everything ready for a family BBQ at our house. The cake was baked, presents wrapped... and now I was in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital! My daughter had collapsed, and because they were celebrating her birthday with cake with blue icing, it looked like her lips were blue and they thought she had stopped breathing...

That wasn't what happened. She had her first grand mal seizure. It was a hot day, so I was told it was probably just the heat, everything was fine, just keep her out of the sun for a few days. So I took a few days off work, and we had a mini vacation, went to the Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller, and then decided to visit Calaway Park and go on some rides... the worst thing I could have done! After a fun day on the rides, we were visiting my sister in Calgary, when she had another seizure, a bigger one. Again an ambulance ride and the whole time I was praying, please not Epilepsy!!

The only thing I knew about Epilepsy was a kid I was in girl guides with who was mentally challenged, and that is what I saw as the future for my bright little girl. Now thanks to education, and support from her pediatrician, family and friends, all the scariness has passed. There are some days I do not event think about summer 5 years ago... Epilepsy is no longer so scary.

Art & Play: My Senses

We wrapped up our monthly Theme on our senses with our flagship program event of Art & Play!

We made a few crafts including Lorax trees

And we had to play with shamrocks in honor of St. Patrick's Day


The kids love to explore the sensory basket! They love to find the treasures buried, finding things that match and of course feeling all the different textures
Our Art & Play event also has lots of free play for the kids to run around, play with the bucket of toys, and we always end with some parachute time, which is of course the kids favorite way to end their morning!

Tales for Tots March 2012

It was our monthly Tales for Tots program held at Chapters Indigo in Red Deer, where we gave away our sponsored Scholastic Book "How do Dinoasaurs Eat Cookies"

To go along with our monthly theme of our five senses we also had craft time where we made tambourines! It was not a quiet place after we finished making these!

Chapters also had a selection of books to read to the kids all about their senses
Our member Heather was AGAIN the lucky winner of our scholastic book of the month! maybe she doesn't get to enter next month!! ha ha

momstown Music March 2012

We held our first momstown Music program event, and the kids got Musical!!
As the grinch says "oh the noise noise noise!" ha ha

The kids loved making as much noise as they could with the instruments! I think also because they were allowed to!

We played the instruments to the beat of the songs, the kids tried as many of the instruments as they could find ( and were shared)


And even the littlest got "into the groove"!
See you next month for our momstown music program!

momstown Monet March 2012

We held our first momstown Monet Program, and we focused on our monthly theme of our five senses! We decided to create our portraits based on our 5 senses!

We used sand paper for our hands.


Bells for our ears, smelly cotton balls for our noses, and we had to sample our mouths as well to make sure that it really does taste good.

In the end, they were masterpieces, and we learned some too.

Check out the calendar for our next momstown Monet program!

First Hair Cut

How old was your child when they got their first hair cut?

My girls have a lot of hair. It is the one thing everyone comments on. Everyone!
So I finally too our 2 year old to have her hair cut, for the first time. I didn't mean to take over 2 years to cut her hair, and I am not a mom who didn't want to cut it, but the longer it took, the less I wanted to take her... odd, makes me thing of celebrities that refused to cut their kids hair... was I turning into one of them?

The crying that started occurring every time it was time to brushing her hair had gotten to be too much, and I was afraid that it would become a huge deal every day, so off we went to get her hair cut.

A reoccurring theme for this blog is my middle child's temper tantrums, which have become less and less as she gets older, but at our first Tales for Tots, my daughter found a little boy to fight over every toy with. It was almost comical, that the 2 of them fight over everything the other touched. Well we arrived at the hair salon met our stylist and she says "can you believe our kids fought so much"? And I had to laugh, of course it was that kids mom who was cutting her hair!

It went amazingly well, she sat like an Angel, and her hair is super cute in her little BOB cut... I am not sure now why it took me so long to get it done....

momstown moms learns to Chair Tease Dance!

Some of the momstown moms ventured out and
learned how to Chair Tease Dance!

We had a private Class from Natalie of Chair Tease Dance Studio.

We had a lot of laughs, a pretty good workout, and a few of us had a little bit of liquid courage before we started!!

To me that is the perfect combination for a very fun moms night out!

Next Month we are trying ZUMBA!

Check our calendar for all the details! Not a member? Here is how you can become one and join us in the fun.

Share Your Breakfast- recap

momstown Central Alberta partnered with Kellogg's for National Breakfast Day, getting the word out about how many kids in Canada go hungry eveery day becasue of poverty.

We did this by visiting 2 preschool programs and sharing our breakfast!

Did you know that one in 10 Canadian children live in poverty and are at risk of going to school on an empty stomach? Go to www.kelloggs.ca/SYB for more information

For every participating Kellogg's^* breakfast food purchased, a donation will be made to Canada's two largest breakfast charities, up to a maximum of $25,000 each.

When you pick up a Share Your Breakfast box of a Kellogg's breakfast food, you'll find a PIN code inside. Redeem your PIN code to choose from bananas, Eggo^* waffles and other free^† breakfast items that will complement your Kellogg's^* product, helping your family have great breakfasts and better day.

Little Scientists: Volcanoes

Despite the blizzard that arrived this morning, momstown Central Alberta held our first Little Scientist Program, and it was a hit!

For our first ever experiment, we built volcanoes and even made them erupt! The look on the kids faces when their creation erupted was priceless, don't you agree?



Here are two of the masterpieces closer up.



The kids loved their erupting volcanoes so much that we did it twice, and the reaction was the same EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.



Here is momstown Guelph doing the same experiment, and where we got our "recipe" from.
It really is a fun and quick experiment, that kids love.

Afraid of a mess? We used dollar store pie plates to contain our eruptions, and the table remained clean, even with the red food colouring we used for our lava.

We cannot wait for our next installment of our Little Scientist Program, look for it on our Calendar. This is just one of the many programs available to our members, for $45 for year. Events included!

Share Your Breakfast

momstown wants to help Kellogg's give back to the Central Alberta community. We will be distributing breakfast kits at momstown programs this week, and we'd love your support!

In Canada, 1 in 10 children live in poverty, and are at risk of starting their day on an empty stomach. On March 8th, National Breakfast Day, Kellogg's will be distributing mini-packs of Rice Krispies cereal nationwide, to raise awareness and reach out to children in the community.

Kellogg's will also be donating to Breakfast Clubs of Canada and Breakfast for Learning. You can help by purchasing Kellogg's cereals - every box equals a donation!

Go to www.kelloggs.ca/SYB for more information