My top 5 Family Movies

We spent the majority of Sunday watching movies. We had a very busy week, so lazying around on the couch, losing ourselves in the imaginary wonders of Wizardry and e-woks seemed like a great way to spend our day.
Since our kids range from the ages of 3-9 it's hard to always pin point an appropriate movie that everyone enjoys. Here are a few that solved that problem and remain family favorites!

Harry Potter

What's not to love about these movies? We love imagination and learning about a new world and way of life. It's full of magic, some laughs and just the right amount of scares. Mike and I can always sit down to watch these with the kids over and over again. Maybe it's the accents, the historic castles or Rob Pattinson's cameo.
We enjoy movie collections because the stories continue on and my kids enjoy seeing their favorite characters grow. Luckily for us, we have a choice of 8 amazing installments of witchcraft and wizardry to enjoy. My 4 year old is obsessed with the movies, and my 3 year old regularly recites many of Harry's spells.

Toy Story

Another Amazing movie collection that we never grow tired of. My kids love all the bright colors, music and familiar toys in these series. My girls loved seeing Barbie and Ken come to life together in the 3rd installment.
Not to mention the few adult jokes that amuse me every time. This collection has definitely developed a kid-cult following and I know will be one of our family favorites for years to come.

  Monsters Inc.

This movie brings real monsters to life, throws in some hilarious comedy and invites us into another world of imagination. It brings to life the familiar "Monster in the closest" scenario and adds some humor to it. My son loves monsters and everything about them, and enjoys watching this movie over and over again!

   Enchanted

We love movies with singing and dancing and Enchanted has all of that. Plus the classic fairytale storyline, with a touch of the 21st Century. How do you not fall in love with Giselle's super sweet character and taste in fashion? It's a happy movie that always makes me think of Springtime, warm weather and flowers.

  The Muppets

One of the best things I love about being a parent is introducing my kids to movies and tv shows Mike and I  loved as a kid. We both grew up watching The Muppets and made them a household name within our family. Every Muppet movie is a hit, but the 2011 film is one of our favorites. I love the wholesome, 50's era theme Disney created. It's a great plot, answering everyone's questions about the characters whereabouts since their Muppet Show days. It's silly, humorous and fun!
Again, we fell in love with the music and dancing and even I find myself humming "Am I muppet?" now and again.

Of course, there are many more awesome movies. I could have easily made a top 50 list! I'd love to hear some of your family favorites and maybe add some new flicks to our list!

Friday Fun Snack - Snow Ice Cream

 Remember when I talked about "embracing Winter"? Today, we did just that!



 Here's our recipe for Snow Ice Cream !!

1 huge bowl of snow (clean snow of course)
1 cup of Sugar
1 tbsp Vanilla
1-2 cups Milk (depends on your desired consistency)

Mix it up !

Happy Weekend !!

Travelling with Kids

This time of year, my Facebook Newsfeed is littered with pictures of People going on trips! Friends and family posing beside Mickey Mouse, laying on the beach, in front of a ski slope and packed up at the airport ready to hop a plane somewhere!

I'm very jealous.

We travel frequently with the kids and usually take a mid-winter trip. However, we stay within our budget, which means staying within a few hours drive of our house.  This year we're forcing ourselves to stay put so that we can save our money for one of those big trips everyone is going on this time of year!

Traveling with kids is always a challenge, whether you're just driving a short distance, or hopping a plane for a foreign destination.

Here are a few tips I think are worth sharing.

1. Hotels
When booking a hotel, check for family rates or if breakfast is included in the price. I rarely stay at a hotel that doesn't offer a complimentary breakfast. We're a cereal and toast type of a family who love buffet style meals.
If you're traveling with a baby, check ahead to make sure they have proper baby sleeping essentials available so you don't have to lug along yours.

2. Sticking Together
My biggest fear on trips is that I'll lose a kid. In a new place, we always designate a meeting point in case anyone gets separated and make sure the kids repeat the plan back to us to make sure they understand. It's a good idea to have them wear bright colored shirts, or similar colors so you can spot them in a crowd.

3. Snacks
We always pack a cooler of snacks whether it's for a long drive, or if we're headed to an Amusement Park. Park food can be abnormally expensive and not very healthy. If my kids want to survive a full day of fun, they need fruit and water, not french fries and Pepsi.

4. Entertainment
Whether you're waiting at the airport, on a plane or driving a long distance, your brain could use a break from entertaining. Pack some books, games or a gaming device. A few minutes of silence can be golden.

                                       
                                                      

5. Get Along Bag
I always have a small bag of essentials with me like it's my 3rd leg. It can be a long walk back to the van and a huge waste of family time just for a new pair of underwear.

6. Easy Pack-Up
When you're packing to come home, do your best to make the unpacking as smooth as possible. Put all the dirty clothes together in a bag so they're ready for the wash and pack everyone's clothes separately so clean clothes are easier to put back in drawers. I've been guilty of just tossing everything in the suitcase and telling myself I'll worry about it when I get home. I've discovered that when I get home is NOT when I want to worry about organizing clothes, garbage and laundry.

Happy Traveling !!

Valentine's Day

For me, Valentine's Day has changed it's meaning entirely since I had kids. Once upon a time, I spent all my time and money on presents, surprises and romantic gestures for just 1 adult.

Imagine.

Now, Valentine's Day means buying and helping Madison and Jessee fill out Valentines for both their classes and planning a Valentine's party for Lily and Noah, and the kids I babysit. Oh, if I remember, Mike gets a gift and card too!
The kids love Valentine's Day. They enjoy making up all their Valentines for their classes, decorating bags, and dressing festive for the big day. Not to mention the thought of any type of "party" ! I love any reason to celebrate something, so I tend to go all out for such holidays too!

Of course, we should celebrate LOVE everyday, but Valentine's Day is a fun way for everyone to maybe go a little overboard on the love (which isn't a bad idea) and just have fun with it.

Making Valentines!

I'm planning a party today for the kids I babysit. We're decorating cookies, putting on Valentine tattoos and making heart hats from paper plates. You can find the tutorial here.

Happy Valentine's Day !!

Celebrate the Olympics with your kids!

We are loving the Olympics this year! My kids are always tuning in to watch the events, cheer for their country, and watch some amazing athletes show off their talents.

Another way to beat the winter blues is use these 2 weeks to celebrate and enjoy this fantastic world event with some great kid ideas!

Visit nobiggie where fellow mom-blogger Kami shares some great kids snacks to celebrate the Olympics

 

 

 

Here's a great Olympics craft from mommypoppins.com

Homemade medals made from cookies courtesy of saveoneverything.com

Go Canada !!

Guest Post - Being a Stay-At-Home Mother

Alena is a busy mother of 2. She went from working full time to being a stay at home mother to her kids. She's here to share her experience, her ups and downs and why she loves being a Stay-At-Home mom!

13 Months ago I became a stay at home mom. I went from working full time outside of the home (at a job that I LOVED) to being a stay at home mom to my 2 kids (at the time my son Xander was 6 years old and in grade 1, my daughter Cameron was 4 years old and home with me). When I first got the news that I was losing my job due to a store closure (I worked retail, I’m good at it and I enjoy it very much) I was scared! Home alone, all day every day, with my kids… I was sure I would go stir crazy and wishing to be back to work in 2 months tops. I mean, I love being busy, I love having a huge to do list to check off every day. I loved working retail and the interactions with people. I loved the break from my kids; I felt it made me appreciate what time I had with them more. I would have sworn that being a working mom made me a better mom (and in some ways I was right); I just couldn’t imagine being home.  So after my last day of work last January I became a stay at home mom. What happened next surprised me. After years of hearing how hard it is to be a stay at home mom, how you never get a break and it’s your whole life, I was not expecting the best, but what I found out is that for ME being a stay at home mom is easy, and I love every second of it.

    

Xander lost his 1st tooth,
and Alena was able to be the first to see!

Alena welcomed Cami home
with her 1st report card!

However, 4 months in to being a stay at home mom (who provided child care in my home), I made the mistake of saying this to my friends and family in a general Facebook status. It did not go over well, the black lash I received from this status update both surprised and hurt me. I was up all night unable to sleep, so at 1am (when I have normally been asleep for a couple hours) I got up and got it off my mind the best way I know how. I wrote it down and sent it to my 4 best friends. This is what I wrote:

Okay Ladies I have been in bed for the better part of an hour unable to come anywhere near sleeping. This thing is bothering me so instead of losing several more hours of sleep, which I will do because that’s how I work, I am getting it out of my system. I don't feel that I expressed myself well earlier because I got very emotional. I am not a writer and I don't say things the way I mean to most of the time. I am sarcastic. I speak my mind and stand up for what I believe in, I am not afraid of confrontation. I cry when I am frustrated and talk over myself and things come out wrong, that’s what happened tonight. Hopefully I can express myself the way I want to now and get some friggin sleep tonight, so bear with me it’s going to be long winded.

First of all I am a good mom, being at home now does not make me a better mom. If I could CAP, bold italic and underline the words ME and I in the following paragraphs I would (however I am tech dumb and I only know how to do that in word). This is how I feel being at home makes it easier for me to be a mom.

When I was a working mom I spent a measly 39 of my kids approximate 91 awake hours with them a week. A very large chunk of these 39 hours were spent going through the motions of getting ready to go to work/school/ babysitters for the day, cooking a fast supper eating, showering the kids, doing school reading and getting the kids ready for bed. This left about 10-20 minutes of quality time with them 5 out of 7 days a week. I was cranky all the time and tired too, this meant that although I so looked forward to my family time on my days off and had the best intentions, my kids are just that, kids. As much as I wanted perfect days off my kids wanted to fight with each other and whine and cry and not spend time doing the things I wanted to do. This normally ended up in my being cranky due in part to my disappointment that things weren't going the way I wanted them to (mature right), but that’s me I'm not perfect either. I would ask "what did you do at school today Xander" and he would answer "I don't know" because school was over 4 hours ago and this was the first chance I got to ask him. I was lucky if I got to go to 1 swim lesson out of every 20 which means Dave told me how they were doing and they gave me their swim reports 6 hours after they got them. I missed countless birthday parties. Xander begged to have friends over and I wasn't here so he didn't. My phone rang every night and often when I was putting them to bed about something work related. I missed bed times.

In many ways being a working mom made me a better mom, more often than not it gave me better patience because I knew I only had some much time to enjoy with them (you know when I wasn’t cranky), it gave me socialization which helped keep me sane and it made me appreciate the little time I had with them.

Staying at home makes it easier for me to be a mom because now I spend a whopping 85.5 of my kids approximate 91 awake hours with 1 or more of my kids! That’s a difference of 46.5 hours a week and I am thankful for every one of those. Now those 46.5 extra hours a week aren't all on the floor playing one on one time with my Kids. I still have a house to clean, meals to cook and other kids in my home to watch and spend time with. BUT and for me this is a very big BUT, those hours are spend under the same roof as them, most often in the same room as them. I get to sit down in the middle of the day and read stories just because one of them says "mommy will you read this book to me?" and I don't feel the need to answer "later hunny mommy has to get stuff done for tomorrow first" because I had no other time to get ready for tomorrow. I can't tell you how good it felt to be the first person Xander showed his missing tooth to and how happy it made him that I was the one he got to hand his report card to when he got off the bus (and not hours later after we picked him up from the sitters) I get to be the person to greet him at the door every day after school and say "how was your day today" and then listen to something totally awesome that happened. I get to cook meals for them that take more than 10 minutes to make. I don't have to rush, which means they don't have to rush. I get to see them interact with the kids I babysit and see how awesome they are instead of someone telling me. I put my kids to bed every night uninterrupted. I have been to all but 2 swim lessons since January and was there when they got their medals. I've been to 9 birthday parties with them in the past month and a half.

My kids are still not perfect, they are kids, they still fight and whine and still don't always want to do the things that I want to do, but it’s okay because we can do it tomorrow instead. They still make me wanna tear my hair out and make me yell to be heard more often than I would like. They still do dumb kid things like leave the bathroom sink running and complain for an hour that they can't find one of their toys that is on the table in front of them. They spill drinks and start crying right away instead of cleaning it up. But staying home makes being a mom easier for me.

I'm still tired and I still get cranky but I love and appreciate every second that I have to spend with them, because in reality in 6 months from now, I'm going back to work and I have to go back to seeing my kids 39 hours a week while other people get their other 52 hours.So skip to 11 months later (now), I didn’t  meet my go back to work dead line in 6 months, or the next one after that, or the one I set after that (I have a new one now, I hope I fail at that one too). My kids are still kids (both in school now), I still take children into my home, I still love being a stay at home mom and I still find it easy! I consider myself lucky every single day that I am home and have tried my hardest to make the most of my time here (and I think I have), because like before I know it won’t last forever, I will be a working mom again at some point.

Alena and her family

Easy Kids Crafts

My kids love to do crafts. Especially Lily, she's a craft junkie. I enjoy them myself, it's the prep and cleanup that I don't enjoy. Paper cut outs, glue, googly eyes everywhere... I came across some pretty easy and fun crafts to add to our agenda.

Check them out!

Paperbags make great crafts. They're cheap and easy to work with and make great puppets!

http://paperbagsshot.blogspot.ca/2013/08/paper-bags-crafts.html

We always have empty egg cartons, Lily has made one of these caterpillars with her Grandmother and loved it!

We're big Monsters Inc fans, so this will be fun to make!

http://www.frogsandsnailsandpuppydogtail.com/2013/08/paper-plate-monsters-craft.html

Happy Crafting !!

Surviving Winter

I'll be the first person to admit I dislike Winter. I despise the cold. Physically my body doesn't ever stay warm so I endure 5 months of uncomfortable temperatures. I hate bundling up my kids in snow pants, looking for matching gloves, lacing up snow boots and having to start my van 20 minutes before we want to get in it. And you know what? My kids aren't big fans of the cold either.
Unfortunately I can't just hibernate under my electric blanket, I have to go outside to get places and keep my kids entertained all winter.

Here are some things we do to survive until flip flop season:

1. Family Swims
My kids love to swim! The pool is always suffocatingly hot (which is perfect for me). If I'm not swimming, I  bring a book and relax on the bench while my kids splash around me.
My community offers 2 free swims every weekend, so there's no excuse for anyone to miss out!

2. Winter Getaway
Every Winter we plan a family get-away. It gives us something to look forward to, gets us out of the house and have some fun together. We never go very far, but try to go somewhere new or that we haven't been to in a while. We stay at a hotel, swim in the pool, eat out at restaurants (all of our favorites!) I love planning trips, and the organizing alone will keep me busy for a week.

Nova Scotia has some great Winter Vacation Ideas to check out.
We've gone to Halifax and toured museums, visited PEI for the Jackfrost Fest and last year traveled to Moncton to have fun at Crystal Palace.

3.The Theatre
Plan an afternoon or evening and take in a family movie! We don't do it often, with a family of 6 it's a small fortune to see a movie, so it's a treat for all of us. We all love theater popcorn!

4.Family Day
Plan a day of activities for you and the kids. You don't even have to leave your house if you don't want! Set-up an afternoon of board games and puzzles. Bake some cookies, or cook supper together and curl up together with a good movie to end the day.
You can read about our recent Family Day here.


Since I can't keep my kids inside all Winter, I've forced myself to embrace Winter and took in a few Wintery activities.
We started skating this year. I'm glad we did, as it was Lily and Noah's first time, and why deprive your children of milestones just because you're freezing your a-- off?

Why not take in a sleigh ride? What kid doesn't love that. Invite some friends or neighbors and get together afterwards for a pizza party!

We have yet to ski. But how much fun would it be to load up the van and head to the hill for the day? Another milestone for my kids!

I'd love to hear some of your ideas for surviving winter!

Friday Fun Snack - Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

We made these during our snow day and they were beyond delicious! I ate 5 in a row, no lie. I'm also a sucker for cookie dough, I literally ate half the bowl.
Luckily I doubled the batch knowing that would happen, and now I have some dough left to throw in the freezer for a rainy day.


What you need

1 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Butter or Margarine
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Egg
2 cups Oats
1 1/2 cup Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 package Chocolate Chips


How you make them

Mix it up
Place on cookie sheet
Bake @350 for 10 minutes (or until edges start to brown)



My cousin shared a recipe for with me that called for Jello vanilla pudding mix. Unfortunately since I was snowed in, I didn't have any so I improvised with the above recipe. She swears by this recipe, so I would recommend to give it a go as well!

1 cup butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 small package Jell-O instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups flour
3 cups oatmeal, old-fashioned or quick
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degree - bake 10 minutes (or until edges start to brown)

Accent Walls cont'd

 Remember my post on accent walls ? I took the spare time I had this weekend to do something about the bare wall in the girls room. I would've loved to throw on a fresh coat of paint, but I hate painting and I wasn't mentally prepared for the chaos that accompanies it. I did cover up a few holes in the walls, and I've accepted that at least 1 wall will have to be painted. Just not today.
I still loved the idea of framed baby pictures and searched around for some stick on wall art that I could incorporate with it.

This was my end result.

I love pictures. I love black and white. I love matted prints.
I used Wall Pops stick and peel wall art. I've used them in the past and loved them. They come in lots of neat designs and funky colors and easily peel off without peeling any paint.
These particular stripes were on sale at my local hardware store so I scooped them up! Who doesn't love a sale!

My aunt took this shot of Lily
and it fully describes her entire personality.

Jessee circa 2008 getting ready for our wedding.
I've always loved this picture of her.

Friday Fun Snack - Chocolate Chip Muffins

Muffins are awesome, my kids love them. I made regular and bite-sized (which are perfect for lunches and freezing)
I'll admit, I downsized my super-mom abilities today and used packaged muffin mix and added the chocolate chips (hold your screams).

 However, I did throw in some rolled oats, peeled apple and some honey. You can't judge me now!

What you need
1 Package Muffin Mix
1 Package Rainbow Chocolate Chips
1 egg
1 cup rolled oats
1 grated apple (peeled)
2 tbsp honey


How we made it
Mix everything
Peel and core an apple and grate into the mixture
Pour into muffin pans
Bake @ 350 until cooked

Accent Walls

Now that the girl's bedroom makeover has finally started. (You can check out their new floors here) Jessee and Lily decided to take down their old posters and stickers and make a few new changes to spruce up their walls. To be honest, all the walls could use some TLC. I'm still contemplating whether or not I want to fill in all the holes and repaint.

So much work.

For now I've been looking up ideas for the large square wall behind their bed. It makes for a perfect accent wall. I'm a big fan of easy and frugal projects so I'm thinking of using some leftover paint and painting like I did in Noah's room or finding a stick-on mural.

These are some accent walls that caught my attention and some cute ideas I'd like to incorporate into their bedroom.

You know I've got a thing for chalkboard paint!

Love this!

I love everything in this room. Bookshelves, baby pictures and paper flowers.

Love the personalized bulletin boards.

Family Days

Mike was off this weekend and we had a free Sunday afternoon to spend altogether. Since we're a large group, we like to plan frugal activities. Lunch and an extended playtime at McDonalds followed by a free swim at our local Wellness Center sounded like the perfect afternoon. We topped the night off by supper in front of the tv together watching some Twilight and We Bought A Zoo.

Well done Matt Damon.

We spend a lot of time altogether as a family, but mainly it's running from a lesson to a birthday party, rushing through breakfast on our way out the door to school or a quick snuggle at bedtime. With Mike working shiftwork, and busy schedules our life includes a very limited amount of family time with all 6 of us.

It wasn't overly exciting activities. We stayed in our community and we had already visited these places before, but it was fun to get out of the house, do something active and be together. It had been a while since we had been to McDonalds or the Wellness Center so this was a treat for them. It's so fun to see my kids run around excitedly and just constantly be happy.

We laughed, made jokes and did tricks in the pool. It gave Mike and I the opportunity to take time to enjoy all the kids, together or one on one. It also gave the kids the chance to play together in a neutral setting, which I feel is important sometimes. There were no territories and no toys that belonged to another sibling. They only focused on being silly, having fun and just enjoying each others company.
Of course there were fist fights, dramatic tears, a bladder mishap and an unlimited amount of ear splitting whining. It wouldn't be a proper Talbot-Melanson-MacLean outing without any of those.

At the end of the day all the kids thanked us for the fun day. No matter how exhausted I was after such a busy day, making my kids smile was well worth it.

I think it's necessary for every family to have these kind of days. With life as busy as it is, it's so important to set aside that time to be together.
Happy Monday!

The floor that almost wasn't

We have 1 room in the house that is carpeted. It has served as a bedroom for all of us at one point, and now permanently houses the girls. Carpet is nice and soft on your feet and keeps the room warm. But when it houses children, and animals, it never stays very clean and I was never one to take the time to fully vacuum or steam clean it to keep it as preserved as I would've liked. I steam cleaned it once, and for some reason it had a hard time drying properly. It smelled and still looked dirty.
So one day last July, I had enough of the stinky, dingy carpet and pulled up a corner to check what was underneath. After the second layer of disco themed carpet there was some nicely shaded plywood. I thought if I ripped the carpet up, we could live with just plywood for the summer while it was warm and then plan for a floor redo in the fall. We had some left over flooring from our last flooring project and Mike and my father had installed flooring before, I was sure it would be no problem to do it again. It seemed like a really easy project.
However, as I ripped up more carpet I realized there was a thick spongy underlay glued to the plywood.

Awesome.

Days later, after hours of back-breaking scraping, spraying and sanding I was left with this.

Yuck.

Not all of the underlay would come off the floor so little pieces of it would constantly stick to your socks and feet as you walked over it. I found myself vacuuming and sweeping daily. We threw down some rugs and mats for the girls to walk on, but it only helped a bit. Not to mention how ugly it looked. With busy schedules, budgets and zero knowledge on floor installation, the girls room stayed like this..for 6 months.

Ugh.

Then we finally bought some flooring !! Luckily we have some amazing relatives who work for beer who offered to install the flooring for us.

This room has never looked so good. I'm still on a happy house high!

One house project down.

The Beginning of a New Year

I took a large break from blogging over the Holidays. I took the much needed time to worry about nothing else other than family and Christmas. I'm feeling a little "out of shape" and it might take me a few posts to get back into the swing of things.

Of course our Christmas was fantastic. Our kids were spoiled, sugared and packed with Christmas cheer.

We were fortunate to spend the holidays with many of our family and friends, attend festive gatherings, and enjoy some of our regular family traditions. We watched almost every Christmas movie we could and drank all the hot chocolate we could handle.

Now that Christmas is over, the corner of my living room looks a lot darker and I probably gained a few pounds, or not. For me, Christmas food living isn't much different than most days. Eat a box of Pot Of Gold in one night? That's just a regular Saturday for me. I love that it's acceptable at Christmas time, my closet sweet tooth can actually show it's face and no one will judge me.

I'm always sad to see the holidays pass. I'm never in a hurry to take our Christmas tree down and I usually leave up half of my decorations until Spring. Without the holiday cheer to accompany Winter, it's basically just cold.

Real cold.

I made no New Years resolutions. I always decide on unrealistic changes and I never keep them. Join the gym? I'll never go. Give up sweets? What for? Be a nice person. Can I get any nicer?
My husband thinks I should cut down on my cleaning obsession or my frequent need to have things organized and straight. Why would anyone want to change that? Who wants a messy house! I'm saving him alot of extra housework and the embarrassment of a messy house when people drop by to visit. Who wants to be known as the man who's wife and kids are slobs? Think of his reputation! If you think about it, I'm clearly doing him a huge favor.

My plan is to begin this new year with a happy heart, and I'll go from there.

Bring on 2014!