water playdate fun!

 Recently, I've just gone back to working outside of the home. This is my first time back since I've had Simon (he's two now). I was so lucky to have so much time off with my kids. On one of my days off this week, I hosted a little playdate for Claire and Simon, with four of their friends. We have been having such lovely, hot weather lately (30 C = 86 F) that I decided to have a water playdate.

The kids had a lot of fun. The first activity was a tin foil river. I just put a long sheet of tin foil on the lawn. Then, I folded up the sides of it. I put a rock at the top and bottom of the river to keep the tin foil from blowing away. Then I put the hose at the top of the river, turned the water on, and the kids floated bottle caps down it. Again and again.

The next activity lasted the longest. For a while now I've been saving my dish soap bottles. (I asked my neighbours to save their bottles for me too.) I used a few Gatorade, and salad dressing bottles too.) The night before the playdate I filled all of the bottles with water. Then I added a few drops (2 or 3) of food colouring to each bottle. For the playdate, I brought all of the bottles outside, with a couple of mixing bowls and spoons, and the kids had a great time pouring, mixing, and stirring the water. They played with the coloured water for more than 30 minutes. Kids occupied for half an hour screams success to me!

 The last activity was a winner too. I picked up a couple of bags of toys from the Dollar Store, a bag each of zoo and farm animals. I filled two 9x13 pans with water and put them in the freezer. I spread the animals out in each pan once they were in the freezer. THAT'S IT! The next morning, the toys were nicely frozen in the ice. Just run the pans under water to loosen the ice. The kids sprayed water on the ice blocks to release the toys. It was pretty exciting for them.

 We finished off the playdate with peanut butter and jam sandwiches and chocolate vanilla pudding popsicles. Simon loved them! So does Claire actually, as she continues to eat all of the leftovers. It was so nice to plan this little playdate. It was the easiest one so far, since everything was ready to go the night before. Have you hosted any playdates this summer? I think an ice cream themed one is up next....

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello

Simple Things Sunday

I just love this picture of Derek and Simon all snuggled up together. Simon had just finished eating some blueberry dessert, which you can clearly see all over his face. His knees are all scraped up because he runs so fast outside he doesn't always watch where he's going. It just captures the 'right now' moment for him.

And Claire is so hard to capture now. She runs the other way when she sees the camera, or she makes the most ridiculous faces! I was happy to capture this picture of her having fun on the swing. The kids are loving our summer weather.

Linking up with: Simple Things Sunday

whipped shortbread cookies

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes. Ever. 

If you have been looking for the perfect, melt in your mouth, shortbread recipe, this is it! These are so quick to make. I dump everything in my Kitchenaid and then walk away for 10 minutes while it does all of the hard work. You can put this dough in a cookie press, but I find it easiest to put the dough in a piping bag and use one of my large icing tips to pipe the cookies onto the cookie sheets. These cookies are delicious on their own, but I think that everything tastes better with icing. I use my favorite buttercream recipe to add a dollop of icing on each cookie.

Whipped Shortbread

1 cup of butter, softened

1 ½ cups flour

½ cup icing sugar

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip for at least 10 minutes. Pipe onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes.

Who wants to go bake cookies now?

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello

handprint beavers

It's nearly Canada Day, and I couldn't let it pass without doing a craft with the kiddos. This was a fun craft, and the kids loved  doing it. It has been a while since we last painted, so they had fun making a HUGE mess painting. Did you know that the beaver is the national animal of Canada?

Claire used some maple leaf cookie cutters to stamp leaves on the white paper. We let those dry over night. This morning, Simon and Claire painted their hands brown and stamped them on the paper. While we still had the brown paint out, I added little feet and little ears to the beaver. Then when it was all dry I drew the hands, nose, mouth (big teeth are key) and the details on the tail.

Whenever I do painting projects with the kids I always get them to do what I have in mind first ( in this case brown handprints). Then I let them paint whatever they want (including themselves!) If I waited until they were nearly done painting, there would be a lot less cooperation with me.

We're making cookies this weekend to take to the teddy bear picnic on Canada Day. The kids are so exited. Who else has big plans for Canada Day?


Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff & Today's Creative Blog &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello

chocolate dipped chips

Don't know what to bring to the next barbecue you're attending? These chips are sure to get people talking. The best part is that they are so easy (& cheap) to make!

Buy a bag, or two, of your favorite ruffled potato chip. The kind that I bought were just $1.19 per bag. Then, I went to the Bulk Barn and bought a bag of milk chocolate wafers. Now, I bought WAY too many, because I always like to air to the side of caution. I'd rather have leftover chocolate, rather than not have enough. I probably used about $1.50 worth of chocolate. 

Have your ingredients? Now you're ready to get started. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler. You could also melt it in a microwave safe bowl. (Be sure to use short intervals if this is how you're doing it.) Line your counter with sheets of parchment paper. Once the chocolate has been completely melted, dip chips in chocolate to the half way point of the chip. Let dry on the parchment paper. This is the best way for the biggest chips. I didn't want to let all of those small chips to go to waste, but it was such a pain to dip those ones. I found it easier to lay out all of the small chips on the parchment paper, and then use a pastry brush to paint the chocolate on one side of the small chips. (I just painted one side of the small chips.) Once the chips are dry load them up into bowls to take to your get together- just don't expect them to last very long! (I recommend that you make these the same day that you'll be eating them. They're still good the next day, but they don't have the same crunch as they will the first day.)

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello

fun pirate playdate

I decided to have two of our neighbours over for a little pirate playdate with Claire and Simon last week. I had found these plastic gold coins at Walmart (for $1) that I thought would be perfect for a treasure hunt. I drew a treasure map for the kids, and I was all excited to take them on a walk/treasure hunt.Sadly, the day of the playdate it was raining so hard that we couldn't go outside on our hunt. 

Oh well, the kids had fun playing inside, and they loved this lunch that I made. I used the sword toothpicks to skewer blueberries and small grapes. These were a big hit.

 I made cannon ball peanut butter and jam sandwiches. 

And the biggest hit were definitely the pirate jello sail boats. The night before the playdate, I made (ha, mixed together blue jello powder and water) and poured it onto a plate (with high edges). Then, I cut several oranges in half. (When you're cutting the oranges, make sure that you cut through where the stem was on the orange. If you cut the orange the other way, jello will leak out where the stem was. I hope that makes sense.) Scoop out all of the insides of the orange. I served mine to Simon for breakfast the next morning. I set the jello halves in a muffin tin, and then I filled them up with jello. Refrigerate until set (overnight). The next morning I cut the orange halves in half to make the boats. I printed the pirate sails from the Makes and Takes website. I cut a small slit near the top and bottom of the sails, slide a toothpick in, and then put the sail on the jello wedges. Then, I loaded up my jello boats onto the sea of jello and served them to the kids.

Lastly, we got out the pool noodles that I cut in half, and had marble races. The kids had a lot of fun sending the marbles down the tracks. It was a fun playdate- hopefully the next time the weather will cooperate a little bit more!

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello

puppy dog sandwich

I want to say hi to all of my new facebook followers. WHAT! You don't follow me on facebook yet? You can do that here.

Remember the puppy Valentines that I made? Of course you do, my loyal readers. Well, that's what inspired this sandwich. We go through so much bread in this house, so it's not uncommon for us to have a few packages of it open at the same time. When I made this sandwich for the kids, we happened to have a grain bread and a white bread open at the same time. It could just as easily be made from all one kind of bread. 

I was making sandwiches for Claire and Simon. So I cut two hearts out of each kind of bread. I sliced the grain bread hearts in half to make the ears. I added mini marshmallows with chocolate chips to make the eyes. Mini chocolate chips, and a red smartie finished off the puppy face. That's it. It came together in the time I would have used just to cut the crusts off of the bread. Have you been making fun lunches for your kids?

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello