Our Little Scientists Discovered the Pond

This month for Little Scientists, we decided to head to John Janzen Nature Center for an exploration day.  Before exploring the pond, we read the story “In the Small, Small Pond” by Denise Fleming to get an idea of what things we might find. 

After reading, we headed over to the pond where our scientists searched for four different things and then drew them on their scavenger hunt sheets. We saw so many neat things—dragonflies, caterpillars, insects, flowers, and even a snail! Our little scientists were all so interested in the pond.

After we were done exploring, we headed inside for a surprise—an animal encounter of the slithering kind!  Most of the children were so excited to see and be able to touch a snake. After they all got to meet the snake, we headed over to the Tegler Discovery Zone for some playtime. It was a perfect end to a fantastic morning! 

Want to find out more about momstown's great children's programming?  

Sign up for a free trial or send us an email! 

My First Step to Being a Healthy Happier Mommy

When my daughter was born I started talking about losing the baby weight (who was I kidding 90% of the extra weight had nothing to do with my pregnancy).  Regardless, I was focused on my health and wanting to make a change. I was adamant that I never wanted my daughter to hear me talk about my weight. I did not want her to see me struggle with my body image, self-esteem or pant size. 

Fast-forward 5 years. Still struggling. That's 1825 days of being unhappy with myself. Countless diets, programs, shakes, pills and bootcamps and I'm in the exact same place.

Recently at my daughters immunization appointment the community health nurse pointed out that my healthy and active five year old is landing in the overweight category on the BMI chart for children. BMI chart for children? I didn't know there was such a thing. The nurse talked about obesity and children while my daughter listened intently. I felt angry and confused when I left the appointment. My daughter looks completely 'normal' to me, she isn't visibly bigger than any other kids her age. I would never have guessed she was falling in the overweight category.



Source: babydustdiaries.com

Sarah, a registered dietitian at Simply Yours Nutrition weighed in on the reasoning behind the BMI charting for children who are so young. She explained that more than anything else, it's an indicator for obesity in adulthood. She said something that really hit home for me.  As parents, we are modeling relationships with food for our children. They learn to eat by watching us. Crap.

So feeding my kids fruits and veggies while I inhale McDonalds doesn't cut it? [Insert mommy guilt here]. I've always said that if I just fed myself as consciously as I feed by kids, I'd have no problems with my weight. I've decided that maybe that's not even good enough.

I'm not concerned with being skinny, fitting into a certain size or weighing a certain amount. My sole goal is to be healthy, to be a good role model for my kids as they grow up. I'm starting the Team in Training half marathon training program in November to help raise money for a fantastic cause and get healthy at the same time!

momstown Edmonton has organized a team of twelve amazing mamas who are raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and training for the BMO Vancouver Marathon on May 5th, 2013! Our goal is to raise $40,000 before the marathon in May! Click here to make a donation - every little bit helps!



Today's Parent Subscription Bonus!!

 

We are often asked - what makes momstown different from a mom's group? Usually I would list our 6 Program Pillars which define our event curriculum. Our focus on the whole child, the complete family and early education. I would mention the fact that our $45 membership grants you access to 20 or more free family events every month. But now, for the months of August and September we have another amazing benefit to add to the the list...

 

 

There’s never been a better time to join momstown Edmonton South ! When you purchase or renew a full year momstown membership in August or September, you received a BONUS 1 year subscription to Today’s Parent!

 

For a limited time, included in your membership to momstown is a one year (12 issues) subscription to Today’s Parent! This includes all new memberships as well as existing membership renewals, and applies only to full year momstown memberships ($45). This special offer is available from August 1st, 2012 to September 30, 2012 inclusive.


 

Already receive Today’s Parent? Then your subscription will be extended one additional year!

Click here for full details and mark your calendars to renew or sign up soon!

Thank You For Celebrating With Us!

On Saturday August 18th hundreds of Edmonton families joined us at Rundle Park to celebrate momstown.ca's 5th year connecting and supporting local moms!

Thank you to the sponsors who made this day possible!

     

Mama's lining up for the Today's Parent Swag Bags!

The Fisher-Price Playzone was full all day with kids checking out the fun new toys! Some lucky kids even got to take them home at the end of the day!

Champions Gymnastics brought their little gymnasts to do a demonstration for us! They did a fantastic job!

Walters Music Studio shared their love of music with a Music for Young Children Demo!

Simply For Life provided a healthy spin on ice cream with fruit filled cones & light whipped cream! They have fantastic ideas for helping busy families get the nutrition they need!

Two little cuties enjoying the pudding supplied by ConAgra Foods!

We love to pamper our mama's! Electric Cherry NailZ painted nails for our busy mama's!

The kids made their own binoculars and examined specimens with our fantastic Science & Discovery sponsor Tiny Labs - Scientists in Training!

Delicious cupcakes provided by Crave!

Thank you!

This day wouldn't have been possible without the help of our many volunteers!

Street Cars & Swim Trunks

Edmonton has a fantastic piece of history that runs every May-October, and every summer momstown likes to take advantage of it. This year was no different. We boarded the historic Street Car by Whyte Ave and headed down to the Legislature Grounds for a dip in the wading pools.  It was a beautiful day for it, and we even had Dads and older siblings join us. The kids loved the Street Car, and loved splashing in the wading pools even more! 

Art and Play: In the Pond

momstown has gone to the pond for August, so for Art and Play, our little artists made beautiful lily pads. They were fairly easy to make, and with a little help from the mamas, even our littler ones’ lily pads turned out great.

First, we painted the paper plates green and cut a triangle notch on the side. Then, our artists decorated a coffee filter with bingo daubers (regular markers would work too!). We sprayed the filters with water and let the colours spread. Once the filters were dry, the filters were folded and the kids dipped the filters in sparkly paint and glued them to the plate. The result? A beautiful lily pad! Now we just need some frogs to sit on them! 

Since we were at a splash park, our little artists cleaned up by playing while the mamas cleaned up using our Huggies Simply Clean wipes. Love that we can clean up anywhere! 

Want to join in on the fun we're having?? Sign up for a free trial! And don't forget about our awesome 5th Birthday Celebration August 18th at Rundle Park!!

Gender Reveal Party...Boy or Girl??

So we've been keeping a secret.  We found out the sex of our baby at 20 weeks.  We really wanted to be able to process our news before we told the world.  We also wanted host a fun gender reveal party that I've seen all over pinterest.  



We invited our friends and family over this weekend for a  Pamper Party (which is a get together for Dad to celebrate and everyone brings diapers).  They all came with diapers in tow and were met with this sign on our door. 


Everyone was surprised and excited to find out the sex of our baby!  We had them guess what they thought we were having, the final consensus from our guests was baby boy. 

Idea from Hostess with the Mostess  Blog

The house was decorated with all pink and blue and we had a table set up with punch in each colour as well as a place to make baby name suggestions.  Reading these suggestions at the end of the night was quite entertaining, apparently our future child's name will either be hockey or Star Wars related : ) 

Once everyone arrived and had a few snacks we cut the beautiful cake that was made by one of our own members Tastie Treats by Terrie to reveal what the sex of our baby is!! 

What do you think??

Pink?

Or

Blue?

?

?

?

It's 

a

BOY!!

Fitness & Adventure: Our Olympic Playdate!

We decided to celebrate the Olympic Games by hosting our very own games at the park! The kids were so excited to compete in some of the events they've been watching on tv all week!

Discus

Use frisbees and show the kids how the athletes throw them! With all that spinning we did have frisbees flying all over the place so have the other kids stand back!

Beach Volleyball

Use a pool volleyball net to create a kid sized volleyball court at the park!

Shotput

The kids loved throwing water balloons high in the air and watching them burst

Hurdles

We had kids under 6 and under so we kept our hurdles low. Use pool noodles for the kids to jump over!

What's a momstown event without a potluck? Our mama's brought along some Olympic themed snacks! Try out the letter shaped pancakes or the Olympic torches made from popcorn & ice cream cones! Check out more Olympic snack ideas here!

After the kids were all tired out we presented them each with a gold medal! Check out instructions here for making your own Olympic torch using rown construction paper and tissue paper!