Boo Bash sponsored by Fisher-Price!

momstown Edmonton had a spook-tacular day at our Boo Bash sponsored by Fisher-Price! The kids tested out some fantastic new toys and a few lucky little ones chose a toy to bring home at the end of the party! 

CST Consultants Theresa & Erin twisted balloons for our little goblins and ghouls! Four brave momstown dads also took part in a fierce pumpkin carving competition! Congratulations to Jerry who won a 1 year momstown membership for his wife Zuzka! 

Toadstool Music provided a fantastic music station where the kids had a chance to make some noise! They discovered all sorts of instruments and kept the party rocking with their music! Check out Sherwood Park music studio run by one of our very own momstown mama's!

 Family Fitness World kept the kids moving with a yoga demonstration to the music of Michael Jackson's Thriller! Family Fitness World is a location sponsor for momstown's programming! They offer birthday parties, yoga classes, intellidance and after-school programs for kids!

Thank you to all of our fabulous event sponsors!

Indoor Trick or Treating in Edmonton!

Looking to avoid the cold this Halloween? Here's a listing of times and locations for indoor trick or treating!

Kingsway Mall
Trick or Treat at participating retailers!
Time: 5pm-7pm

Southgate Centre
Have Halloween Photos done and Trick or Treat at participating retailers!
Time: Photo's 12pm-3pm & Photo's and Trick or Treating 4pm-8pm

Millwoods Town Centre
Spook-tacular Crafts, Activities and Treat Stations throughout the centre!
Time: 6pm-8pm

Londonderry Mall
Trick or Treating at participating retailers & free activities and crafts!
Time: 5pm-8pm

Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre
Candy, Bouncy houses, pumpkin decorating, snow cones, face painting balloons and more!
Time: 4:30pm-8:30pm

West Edmonton Mall
World's Largest Indoor Trick or Treat Festival! Pick up a candy bag at Centre Stage and follow a candy map to find all the treat in West Edmonton Mall! 
Time: 5pm-8pm

Capilano Mall
Pick up a treat bag from a retailer then trick or treat through the mall at the stores!
Time: 2pm-5pm

Adventures in Potty Training - Day 1

Today is the day.  After much procrastination, we are starting to potty train my 2 year old. My oldest is so excited to teach her and while I am excited to stop changing diapers the overriding emotion here is fear. I keep reminding myself that I have a fully trained 5 year old at home, it wasn't that hard...was it? 

The truth is, I didn't train my oldest. I was a full-time working mom when she was in this stage and my day-home provider trained her. Of course I had her on the weekends and evenings but I seemed to mess up any progress she made during the week and set them back for Monday morning. I also had a fantastic day-home provider who washed, dried and folded soiled clothing before I picked her up. I had to deal with far less potty-training messes that the average mom and yet I still look back and cringe at this period of my oldest daughters life. 

Potty-training was a bit of a nightmare to be honest. My daughter used to pee on the floor when I put her in time out so that she wouldn't have to stay a full two minutes.  It was frustrating to see her have impressive control like this, then have an accident a few hours later because she forgot! Don't get me started on the poo-covered room I found more than once after nap! I remember a ton of tears (mine) and it seemed like other kids figured it out overnight where mine seemed to take a full 6 months to master her new skill. I realize that all of the issues we had probably had more to do with me that her. I was a first time mom with high expectations and to little patience.

So today, we set out on this (hopefully painless) journey, I'm hoping that I learned something the first time around and I'm not going in quite as blind as I did 3 years ago! I have to admit my heart is broken a little that my baby is grown up enough for this stage but we'll take it one hour at a time and pray that she catches on quick!

Frozen Boo-nana Ghosts

I was working diligently online (ie. perusing pinterest for hours and answering a total of 2 emails) when I stumbled upon these cute looking Banana Ghosts from Skinny Taste! I realized that they were made with white chocolate which sounds delicious but I was hoping they would be a breakfast treat! (We love breakfast popsicles around here!) I decided to try out the same instructions with plain yogurt instead. It froze nicely and had the same effect, they would be perfect for a Halloween breakfast or potluck! My girls loved them! Next time I'd follow the instructions to wipe off the excess, we also didn't cut them in half lengthwise which worked just fine for us!

What you need:

-Bananas
-Chocolate chips
-Yogurt (plain, vanilla or Greek)
-Popsicle Sticks

Insert the popsicle stick in the banana and dip in yogurt, remove excess yogurt and lay on a cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment to skip the mess). Place chocolate chips for eyes and freeze for a minimum of 20 minutes. 

Enjoy!

momstown's Little Scientists Discover Fall!

We continued our fall festival with momstown by inviting our Little Scientists to Family Fitness World for a “fall exploration and discovery day.” Science is all about exploration and discoveries. Providing the opportunity for momstown’s Little Scientists to explore encourages questioning and creativity! We had two centers open for discovery: one with leaves and twigs, and one with pumpkins.

For the leaf center, each child was asked to bring a small bag of leaves and twigs to share and explore. We provided contact paper for the children to make “leaf collages,” and magnifying glasses for up-close discoveries. Some of the children sorted leaves, some smelled leaves, and one even tasted the leaves! The best discovery we made at the leaf center was finding a couple of ladybugs that were hiding in our leaves. The children were so intrigued watching them crawl around on the table!

At the pumpkin center, we had cut open a couple of pumpkins and scraped out some of the seeds. We encouraged the children to feel and smell the pumpkin seeds and to scoop out more with their hands or with a spoon. Magnifying glasses were used to check out the seeds up close. Tasting happened yet again. Several of the children made the discovery that pumpkin seeds are slippery. It was so much fun seeing the children as they made their discoveries! We can’t wait to head back to Family Fitness World next month!

Interested in what momstown has to offer? Check us out and sign up for our free trial!

momstown's Nutella Buddies Brunch

Nutella knows how important breakfast is to every child – they sponsored our Buddies Brunch with free samples and giveaways. Each of the kids brought their little buddy from a home, a stuffed animal or teddy bear to join in on the fun!

We know how much those Teddy Bears love honey so we made bracelets from Honeycombs and read "Where's my Teddy?" by Jez Alborough! Next everyone stood up and we went on a bear hunt! The kids pretended to climb through tall grass, go through sticky mud and swim through a wide river to find the bears cave! 

After the kids finished their bear hunt we enjoyed a potluck lunch! The kids snacked on a ton of treats while the mama's visited! They were very happy to go home with gifts courtesy of Nutella!

This event was held at The Toy Hutch - the fantastic new inflatable play park in West Edmonton! Both the mama's and the kids are thrilled with this brand new location! They specialize in birthday party rentals but also have drop in days Wednesday-Friday. Check out pictures of this amazing facility below!

How to Make a Halloween Door Hanger!

Some of our mama's love the idea of crafts but find the prep time and mess not worth it - enter momstown.ca's Crafty Mama's event!! We plan the craft and our mama's get to take home a cute home accessory or decoration that they may not have attempted on their own. I am the first to admit I get intimidated by all of the amazing looking crafts I see on Pinterest! I've learned that making the instructions simple and doing a bit of prep work helps even the most hesitant crafter have fun!

This month we made Halloween Door Hangers! They were so simple to make. Follow the instructions below or adapt with whatever materials you find at the craft or dollar store. 

Supplies:

• Cork Board (We found 12in x 12in sheets two for a dollar at the dollar store, we cut them in four and they served as the base of our Halloween faces)
• Glitter Foam Paper (Dollarama again, $2.00 for 10 sheets. I would definitely recommend the ones with an adhesive backing)
• Glue
• Ribbon
• Stapler
• Pipecleaners
• Scissors

Cut the cork board into four squares, you could also use thick foam boards if you can't find cork at the dollar store. We used the Glittery Foam paper as the faces (white and black are hard to come in the packages so we bought single sheets at a crafting store). We cut out the plain black and white to use as eyes, mouths and noses. We didn't use a template, instead we drew the shapes on the back of the foam and cut them out. Cut 4 pipecleaners in half and staple to the back as legs for the spider. We lined them up face down after we decorated the faces and stapled the ribbon to the back.

Crafty Mama's is a monthly event included in a $45/year membership with momstown.ca! Check out the personalizable wine glasses we made last month! To join us next month, click here register for a free 1 month trial membership !

How to Make Apple Print Placemats!

Fall has definitely hit Alberta, and to celebrate momstown is having a fall festival all month long! We started off our fall festival with momstown’s flagship event Art & Play at The Toy Hutch by making apple print place mats with the kids. It was neat to see some of the different ways kids made them! 


If you want to make them with your kids, here are the instructions.

1. Cut out a tree branch shape from brown construction paper and glue it to a piece of whitepaper.
2. Make leaves by fingerprinting with green paint.
3. Cut an apple in half (make sure to cut it lengthwise and not widthwise!). Dip it in red paint and print it on the paper.
4. Cut a piece of contact paper to double the size of the paper. When the paint is dry, place it on one end of the contact paper. Then fold contact paper over and seal.
5. Enjoy your place mat!

While we waited for the paint to dry, we sang some fall songs, played with the parachute, and got to bounce around in the fabulous indoor inflatable playground at The Toy Hutch! The kids really enjoyed singing the song “Scarecrow, Scarecrow.” We had a room full of dancing scarecrows!

Scarecrow, Scarecrow

Scarecrow, scarecrow turn around,
Scarecrow, scarecrow touch the ground.
Stand up tall and blink your eyes,
Raise your arms up to the sky.
Clap your hands and tap your knees
Turn around and stomp your feet.
Scarecrow, scarecrow touch your toes,
Scarecrow, scarecrow tap your nose.
Swing your arms so very slow,
Now real fast to scare the crows!
Touch your head; jump up and down,
Now sit down without a sound!

Art & Play is one of momstown's Pillar Programs! We have over 30 events every month for you get out of the house with the kids and connect with other moms! To join in on the fun register for a free 1 month trial at http://edmonton.momstown.ca/user/register

Alphabet Play! Glittery Green G's

momstown continued our look at the alphabet this month by having fun with the letter “g.” We joined up with Woodcroft Community League’s play group for our alphabet play. The kids made “Glittery, Green G’s” using paint and glitter. They all had fun painting their g’s, but I think the best part was when they got to sprinkle glitter on them! We had some great looking g’s when we were finished (and some sparkly hands!).

After our alphabet craft, read the book "G is for Goat" and brainstormed “g” animals and acted like them. We had goats, goldfish, giraffes, gorillas, and even grasshoppers! The kids sure had a lot of fun!

Art & Play is one of momstown's Pillar Programs! We have over 30 events every month for you get out of the house with the kids and connect with other moms! To join in on the fun register for a free 1 month trial at http://edmonton.momstown.ca/user/register