Going to the Lacombe Corn Maze at the Kraay Family Farm!

We love our Autumn Trips to the Kraay Family Farm home of the Lacombe Corn Maze! It isn't Fall unless we make at least one trip!

So many pumpkins... how do we choose?

We love the jumping pillow, the animals, the slides and play houses and of course the corn maze!!

While the big kids explored the large maze, I took the little ones to the toddler maze!

We loved how they have integrated early literacy and an outdoor activity with the story of Jack and the Corn Stalk! As we weaved our way through the maze we looked for the next pages of the story to read aloud!
The girls loved it!!

We plan on going back at least once more time before the end of the season!!

Fall Apple Scensory Bin for Toddlers

Today we had our first Toddler Time in Red Deer!

We met and had a great time with our Fall Themed Sensory Bin!

Luckily everything was edible!

We had crab apples from our member Heather's tree!

Cinnamon sticks to smell (and taste apparently)

Oatmeal to make a mess of!

It smells like a Fall dessert in here!!

Art and Play: Wet Wet Wet in Red Deer

momstown Central Alberta's Big event each month ids our Art & Play program. This month our theme was WET WET WET! Perfect for Central Alberta in May!

The first craft on our agenda was coffee filter umbrella sun catchers!


What you need

• Coffee filters
• markers
• Spray bottle
• Construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• plastic container to spray into ( helps contain the wet wet wet from this craft!)

The How To:

1. Fold coffee filters in half.
2. color the coffee filter with the markers all over, the more colors the better!

3. Spray coffee filter with spray bottle of water until fully saturated.

4. Let dry. (We let ours dry over-night and did the second half of the craft the next day.)

5. Cut out umbrella handles from the construction paper.
6. Glue the two sides of the umbrella/coffee filter together.
7. And glue the umbrella handle to the umbrella!
8. Attach to your window and let the sun shine in!

Tales for Tots: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt in Red Deer!

momstown Central Alberta's monthly story time and craft program featured the book WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT by Michael Rosen.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is about a family going on a hunt for a bear. On each page the family have to overcome different obstacles they come across in order to continue their hunt. 

To go along with the hunting and exploring theme of the story our craft this month was toilet paper roll binoculars. The kids colored & decorated construction paper to wrap around the toilet paper roll tubes with the help of the Chapters Staff. 

To engage our imaginations, after the binoculars were complete, we went on our own bear hunt around the store, pointing out all the bears we could find.

One member each month gets to take a copy of our book of the month, sponsored by Scholastic, home to their family! 

This month’s book was LUCKY DUCKLINGS by Eva Moore. 

It is the story of a mama duck and her ducklings out for a walk that get rescued by the towns firemen when the ducklings fall into a storm drain.

Junior Chef: Deceptively Delicious!

Have a picky eater in your house? Struggle to get your kids to eat their fruits and vegetables? Why not disguise them with these yummy recipes from the cookbook Deceptively Delicious. 

momstown Central Alberta's Junior Chef event created these wholesome treats full of pureed fruits and veggies. And no one complained about the cauliflower.

We suggest trying these at home!

Banana Bread with Cauliflower

Ingredients:

Nonstick cooking spray

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

2 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups banana puree

1/2 cup cauliflower puree

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or 2 mini pans, with cooking spray.

2. In a bowl or a zipper-lock bag, mix the flours with the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar and oil with a wooden spoon until well combined. Mix in the egg whites, banana and cauliflower purees, and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and mix just until combined.

4. Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes for the large loaf, 25 to 30 minutes for the mini loaves. Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn the bread out of the pan to cool before serving.

Applesauce Muffins

Topping:
 2/3 cup old-fashioned oats or instant oats

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp butter, melted

Batter:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour

1 cup old-fashioned oats or instant oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup squash or carrot puree (we used carrot)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup oil

1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or use muffin baking cups.

2. To make the topping stir together the oats, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in butter. Set aside.

3. To make batter, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and stir. In a second bowl, mix the applesauce with the milk, vegetable puree, sugar, oil, and egg with a wooden spoon. Add the flour mixture, slowly stirring until moistened. The batter should be lumpy. Do not over mix.

4. Divide batter evenly between muffin cups and sprinkle with streusle topping. Bake until topping is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean. About 18-20 minutes. Turn the muffins out onto a rack and allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container (if they last that long).

These make great snacks for lunches, after school snacks and for moms and dads too. 

While we waiting for our masterpieces to bake, we had some park play time!

Earth Day Walk in Red Deer

momstownCentral Alberta celebrated Earth Day with a nature walk at KerryWood NatureCentre. 

The weather was beautiful and sunny, a perfect day to enjoy Mother Nature. 

Earth Day is a great chance for kids of all ages to learn about how they can care for the earth. Moms and Dads were encouraged to pack a plastic bag and pick up litter on our walk; it was so nice to see that after our very long winter we found no litter at all. 

We didn’t spy any wildlife but we did see lots of signs of animals and animal activity.

Art & Play – Little Explorers in Red Deer!

It’s that time again...time to get crafty! This month the members of momstown Central Alberta became Little Explorers. 
 

First we created toilet paper roll binoculars so we could see what we were exploring.

Supplies

Empty toilet paper rolls

A hole puncher

A stapler and staples

A piece of yarn long enough to fit around your kid's neck

Instructions

Take two toilet paper rolls

Staple together

Then punch a hole in the top/outer side of each roll

Have your child string a piece of yarn through the holes to make a rope for hanging

Have child color and decorate how they please

 Next we made backpacks and filled them with all kinds of things we would need to take exploring.

Supplies

Construction paper

Scissors

Glue

Printed exploring supplies pictures (or site word cards)

Instructions

1.     Cut about 2" from the long side of your construction paper - this will be the backpack. Cut the two corners off the top of your paper. Use the leftover paper to cut 2 strips for the backpack straps about 1" X 7"

2.     Fold your paper into an envelope. The flap to open the backpack will be the top of the paper with the cut corners. Glue or staple the sides of the backpack to make a pouch

3.     Turn your backpack over. Fold tabs on the ends of each strap and glue in place

4.     Cut out your safari supplies and place them in your backpack!

These are super easy crafts you can do at home to be your own Little Explorers

momstown Monet: Let’s Celebrate Earth Day in Red Deer

With Earth Day being next week we thought we would celebrate by tapping into our artistic sides and creating our own earth painting. 

We took a small canvas and traced around a large bowl to create a perfect circle for our earth. 

We then used blue and green paint to paint on the canvas to design our earth.

Baby Basics in Red Deer! Hand Casts with Wee Piggies & Paws

Have you tried to capture the hand print of you baby with one of those cast kits?

I have and it was a MESS and comical!!

We were very lucky to have Megan from WeePiggies and Paws Red Deer join our special Baby Basics event.  First we powdered the tiny hands (or feet) so they didn’t stick to the clay. 

Then they were guided by Megan into the clay to make the imprint. It will take up to 2 weeks for the clay to cure and the finishing touches will be added on. 

momstown Central Alberta extends a big thank-you to Megan for coming out and making hand and foot imprints with us. 

The ornaments were free, and Wee Piggies and Paws collected a $5.00 donation per ornament to go to the Ronald McDonald House.

Alphabet Play in Red Deer. D is for Dog

momstown Central Alberta joined Chapters for our monthly program Alphabet Play, where we read a story and do a craft for a different letter of the alphabet. 

This month was the letter D. 

The Chapter’s staff read Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell.
 

After the story we created our own dog. 

We had 4 cut out pieces; a head, a body and 2 legs. 

The kids could then color and design each piece, once finished it was assembled into our very own dog.

Four Fun St. Patrick's Day Crafts

momstown Central Alberta hosted a fun CRAFT event in honor of St. Patrick's Day!

For the occasion the moms and kids could choose to do one or all four of the crafts, all with the St. Patrick's Day theme.

So of course there were all about shamrocks, pots of gold and lots of GREEN!!

We had Green Pepper Stamping
Super easy, all you need is Paper, Green Pepper cut in half and Green paint!

We had lucky hand print clovers.

A Faux Tie Dye Shamrock - use a green bingo dauber and coffee filters.
Cut the coffee filter like a shamrock, (hearts are easiest) fold like you would cutting out a snowflake, and create your design!

And last but not least a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We used construction paper to create our pot, tissue paper for our rainbow and 'fancy' gold wrapping paper to cut out our gold coins!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Books for Babies in Red Deer: My First Hockey Book

It is never too early to instill the love of reading in your children!
That is why I love our momstown Central Alberta's Books for Babies monthly book club!!

Every month we meet at Chapters Red Deer for story time, a craft and a giveaway!

Every month thanks to Scholastic we have a book to give away to one lucky Family.
The only requirement is that you have to be at our event to win!

This month our Book for Baby was called My First Hockey Book by Ian Crysler!

The babies loved the bright pictures, and the moms thought this was a great story to share with the dads!!

Join us next month at Chapters and you might win a book for your baby!

Now Hiring: Event Co-ordinator for momstown Central Alberta

Are you looking for a way to channel your creative energy? Are you a positive, out-going person inspired by parenting, early education and community? Are you looking for a fun, part-time supplemental income? 

momstown.ca is the leading event and media company that connects and supports real Canadian moms. This is a great opportunity for you to earn some spending money while still having the opportunity to both work from home and bring your child to work! This is the perfect role for a SAHM. This position is about passion, creativity, convenience and fun.

Job Description – Event Co-ordinator:

momstown Central Alberta  is currently seeking a creative, self-motivated, and energetic individual for a part-time position as an Event Co-ordinator. In this exciting role you will co-ordinate & execute fun and educational events for mothers and young children age 0-6.

Responsibilities: 

• Create and customize events from designated momstown curriculum 
• Personally attend & execute a minimum of 1 event per week, buy & prepare supplies (to be re-imbursed) 
• Act as a membership ambassador and liaise with members 
• Be an active member (or become one if not already) and attend events on a regular basis
• Support momstown Central Alberta through Social Media (comment & like Facebook posts, re-tweet posts on Twitter, comment & share blogs) 
• Provide event photos for post event promotion 
• Contribute blog posts of event recap
• Be available for planning committees and regularly brainstorm with chapter owner 
• Check Message Board daily for moderation and add content to encourage discussion 
• Check calendar for comments on events 
• Help with promotion & execution of major events that are member based (seasonal events + HQ national campaigns)

Qualifications:

• Outgoing, dynamic leader who is creative, organized, highly self-motivated
• Strong communication & interpersonal skills
• Vested interest in children and parenting 
• Comfortable leading Circle/Storytime and craft activities for children 
• Have a valid driver’s license & reliable vehicle 
• Be internet savvy and have home computer and internet
• Have smart  phone/camera to take photos of events

Pay Structure:

• Independent Contract work – 6 month rolling contract
• Paid monthly, per event rate

This position will involve planning events for families with children of all ages. As momstown Central Alberta is growing, there is a distinct possibility this position will evolve into three: 1) Infant, 2) Toddler, and 3) Preschooler Programing Co-ordinator.

momstown.ca is an on-line network for neighbourhood moms wanting to connect for support, conversation and just plain fun! With a lively Message Board and a busy Calendar, momstown Central Alberta is a great way to get involved with your community while having a blast with your kids. They say it takes a village to raise a child, we say it takes a town!

If this sounds like the right opportunity for you, please submit your resume and cover letter to info.central-alberta@momstown.ca 

Rainbow Waffles for St. Patrick's Day

Looking for a Fun St. Patrick's Day Breakfast? 

How about looking for the pot of gold at the end of the Waffle Rainbow? 

momstown Central Alberta's Junior Chef event created these colourful waffles! 

Don't they look fun?

How did we do it?

We started by mixing together our Waffle mix - from scratch!

Here is the recipe we used from www.allrecipe.com

2 cups of Flour

1tsp salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups warm milk

1/3 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar; set aside. Preheat waffle iron to desired temperature.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the milk, butter and vanilla. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture; beat until blended.
3. Ladle the batter into a preheated waffle iron. Cook the waffles until golden and crisp. Serve immediately.

How do you make the rainbow? We divided the batter into 5 bowls and used food coloring to color each a different color. We used red green blue yellow and purple. These were then transferred to squeeze bottles. 

Now the fun part! using the squeeze bottles, in a circular motion, layer the colors in the waffle iron and close the lid to wait for the color magic!

When the waffles are cooked, you can see your creation!

Happy Leprechaun hunting!!

Mama Book Club: The False Prince

Scholastic Canada was the sponsor of this months Mama Book Club for momstown Central Alberta! We met in Red Deer to discuss the first book in the Ascendancy Trilogy, 

The False Prince by Jennifer Neilsen.

Everyone really enjoyed the book, appreciated how easy of a read it was, since we are all very busy moms. We loved the character development and the  use of 'head games' between the characters throughout the novel. We never knew what to expect from any of the characters!

Many of us agreed that we might not have chosen this book to read, and having a book club helps us to branch out from what we are usually reading.

What else is great about the Mama book club? It is of course all about meeting to discuss the book of the month, but also discussing what books we have read and loved recently and those that we are usually drawn to. We love to give our recommendations to our fellow momstown members of some of our favourite recent reads.

Of course it is also a great excuse for an evening get together with a glass a wine!!

We enjoyed the book so much that for our next book club we are reading the next installment of the Ascendancy Trilogy The Runaway King.

Story time in Red Deer

momstown Central Alberta held our Storytime and Craft event at Chapters with our Scholastic Canada book of the month The Very Hungry Bear by Nick Bland.

Chapters was ready for us, with a stuffed animal show acting out the story while another read it aloud!

How fun is that?

The the kids got to work on their BEAR crafts!!

Here is our lucky winner of this months book to take home to their family!

Join us at Chapters each month and you could win too!

Polar Bear Crafts in Red Deer

momstown Central Alberta has a preschool craft program called momstown Monet, and this month our theme was all about Polar Animals! So we got crafty with Polar Bears!  Fuzzy polar bears out of toilet paper rolls, and polar bear hand prints!

First we made hand print polar bears. A little extra is needed to make these guys, 3 extra thumb prints for your polar bears ears and chin. See here.

 Then all you need is a black marker to draw on the face and add claws!

Then we started on our Fuzzy Polar Bears.
How do you make this fuzzy guy?
you need
toilet paper roll
paper - white and small piece of pink
googly eyes
pom pom
cotton balls
white glue

On you paper draw a circle for the head, 2 small circles for ears and 2 paws connected to wrap
partially around the toilet paper roll, and a heart for the feet glued to the bottom
then spread apart a few cotton balls and glue to the roll. Glue all pieces together and start playing!