Styrofoam Structures {A Building Station}

11 / 22 / 126 / 26 / 13

After a very successful trip to Urban Source this morning, we had everything we needed to set up a little activity that’s been on my mind for a long while now… A building station!

This project is perfect for when you have some packaging styrofoam sitting around in your garage, but you can also find styrofoam {and floral foam} pieces at places like Urban Source, as well as at craft stores and dollar stores. (Perhaps knowing that the pieces can be used again and again will help you feel less guilty about purchasing styrofoam in the first place? I know…. It’s a stretch, but I’m trying.)

In addition to putting out our styrofoam pieces, we put out all kinds of wooden dowels, popsicle sticks, sucker sticks, and matchsticks, as well as some golf tees, pipe cleaners, rivets, and feathers. With Halloween not far behind us, we also put out a couple of pumpkin carving knives and a regular children’s knife too.

Of course, when you’re constructing, safety’s got to come first – so goggles were also included. ☺

Instead of giving instructions, I simply asked Gracen, “Do you want to build something?” After an enthusiastic “YES!”, she got to work.

I was pretty amazed with how quickly she figured out that the sticks could be used to attach two styrofoam pieces to each other. She worked away on her masterpiece, concentrating first on the top portion, and later on the sides.

The only tricky part was the whole cutting thing… While I do let her cut things when we cook together, she hasn’t quite mastered the sawing method yet. Instead, she opts for pushing her knife straight through the objects, which may work well with bananas, but doesn’t work so well with styrofoam.

With cutting being a little too challenging, she moved onto enhancing her styrofoam disc instead of deconstructing it. I found it very interesting that she began using the rivets as enclosures for other materials.

After a good long hour of constructing, Grae decided it was time to tip her structure over on its side to do some more ‘work’ there.

Here’s what her structures looked like after nearly and hour and 20 minutes of play. Pretty cool, right?

At this point, she asked me what her project was called, and I explained that it could be called a structure. Her response? “Stuc-ture? Dis is a house.” Okay then, goose.

Grae’s beloved building station has since been tidied and the building has been put on hold, but only with the promise that it’ll stay out on her toy box for more play tomorrow, which is just fine with me. More than fine, actually…

There are so many great posts about styrofoam structures that I don’t remember where the inspiration behind this activity originally came from, but check out this post, this post, this post, and this post for more great styrofoam ideas.

♥

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A Local Favourite: Urban Source

11 / 22 / 121 / 23 / 13

One thing I adore about the city of Vancouver is the endless locally-owned specialty shops that line the streets of many neighbourhoods. One of our favourites, located just down Main Street near Heritage Hall, is Urban Source.

(via)

Urban Source specializes in alternative art materials and sells all kinds of leftovers, misprints, over stock, cut offs, and discards from local industries as unique art supplies. So whether you’re in the market for wooden doweling, ceramic tiles, cardboard cutouts, old-school slides, or leather scraps, Urban Source has probably got you covered. Besides the always changing stock, I love the giant selection and knowing that by purchasing ‘alternative’ craft materials we’re saving them from heading straight to the landfill. My little miss, on the other hand, loves the fact that she gets a {flat rate} brown paper bag that can be filled to the brim with materials of her choosing.

Today we popped in and after very patiently waiting for me to browse the selection of new items, Gracen retrieved a brown paper bag and began filling it with treasures of all sorts. With a tiny bit of help from Mama {who had specific projects in mind}, the bag was brimming with crafting goodies in no time.

In the end, this is what we came home with in Gracen’s $6 bag… Everything from gift wrap to acetate sheets to brown boxes to medicine bottles and puzzle pieces…

I see a whole lot of craftiness in our future.

♥

Urban Source is located at 3126 Main Street {Vancouver, BC} and is open daily from 10:30 to 5:30, with the exception of Sundays when they open at 11:00.

Toddler Food: What Miss G Eats {24}

11 / 21 / 1211 / 21 / 12

Another week, another Toddler Food post… But before we get on with the photos, here’s a question I received last week:

What is Miss G’s eating schedule? How many meals does she eat per day? And how much milk does she drink? Do you limit it?

Alright, this one is actually pretty simple. Gracen eats 3 full meals a day, plus morning and afternoon snacks. As far as a schedule goes, she eats breakfast a little while after she wakes up, which normally ends up being around 7:30 a.m. Then, a couple of hours later, around 9:30 or 10:00, she has a small snack… Usually something like fruit slices, raw veggies, or nuts. By the time noon rolls around, she’s ready for lunch. We eat, clean up, do our regular nap time routine, and then she goes to sleep. She normally sleeps from about 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., and when she wakes up, she’s ready for her afternoon snack. Later on in the evening, normally just before 6:00, we have dinner, and that’s her last meal for the day.

As far as milk is concerned, yes, we absolutely limit her intake. She loves good, healthy foods, but that’s not to say that she wouldn’t fill up on milk if it was limitless. She has milk 3 times a day – with breakfast, after her nap, and with dinner. For each serving she gets a small cup, about half full, and other than that, she drinks water.

Alright… I hope that answers that! Now onto what Miss G’s been eating lately…

Breakfast // Wholewheat lemon poppy seed pancakes with stewed raspberries.

Breakfast // Organic multigrain o’s with sliced almonds and frozen blueberries (a Gracen favourite).

Breakfast // Wholewheat banana blueberry muffin. Kiwi slices.

Breakfast // Avocado omega seed toast. Granny smith apples with all-natural peanut butter.

Breakfast // Wholewheat flax oat pancakes (she asked for FIVE and ate every last bite). Kiwi slices.

Breakfast // Banana blueberry baked oatmeal with organic milk.

Breakfast // Plain organic yogurt with sliced almonds and pomegranate seeds.

Lunch // Mexican couscous with black beans, veggies, and fresh avocado. Shredded chicken breast.

Lunch // Homemade chicken veggie soup. Broiled parmesan multigrain toast.

Lunch // Cheese ravioli with basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta. Roasted carrots with fresh dill.

Lunch // Southwest turkey chili with organic sour cream. Cilantro lime couscous salad with red peppers and avocado.Lunch // Chicken wild rice soup.

Dinner // Roasted garlic broccoli. Cheese-filled veggie tortellini with chicken tomato basil sauce.

Dinner // Spinach ricotta veggie lasagna.

Dinner // Chicken, tofu, and veggie stir-fry with fresh asian noodles.

Dinner // Roasted herbed chicken. Potato crisps. Roasted butternut squash and carrots. Stir-fried garlic asian melon.

Dinner // Butter chicken on brown rice, black barley, and daikon radish seeds. Garlic naan. Steamed broccoli.

Dinner // Roasted herbed chicken. Brown rice medley. Snap peas. Steamed beets.

Dessert // Frozen banana bites.

♥

My Baby’s Not a Baby Anymore

11 / 20 / 1211 / 21 / 12

We had plans to attend a morning story time today, but when we woke up to no rain, I knew we had to make the most of it and get outside. Grae agreed without hesitation and immediately suggested going to the beach. In particular, the beach with the “biiiiiiig ladder and biiiiiig slide”.

It’s still kind of crazy to me that my baby girl can do all of the things she can now…

*sigh*

♥

Baking Soda Clay Ornaments

11 / 20 / 1211 / 5 / 13

My personal rule? All things Christmas wait until December 1st. Well, besides crafting or purchasing the odd little gift here and thereI guess…

This year though, I’ve broken my own rule. I’m not sure how it happened, but we were looking for a fun afternoon activity and somehow I ended up whipping up a batch of baking soda clay without giving any thought to the fact that it’s still November. Oops… It’s okay, though. We started the tradition of making special handcrafted ornaments together as a family last year, and I already have {more than a} few new types in mind for this year, so we’ll just call this our practice round…

I’ve always been a fan of salt dough ornaments. The dough is easy and inexpensive to make, it’s really easy to work with, and you can shape and mould it almost any way you like. The only downside to salt dough, however, is that it loses some of its appeal when it dries out. Last year we made several different salt dough ornaments, and though they are special because they are handmade, they did crack / puff up / brown a little bit during the drying process. So when I started seeing baking soda clay pop up all over Pinterest just after Christmas last year, I knew we’d have to baking soda clay ornaments a shot during our next round.

The dough itself is very easy to make. It involves just three ingredients (baking soda, cornstarch, and water) and a little heat, and before you know it, it’s done. I followed this recipe almost exactly, but added about a tablespoon more cornstarch. The result is this amazingly soft, smooth, bright white dough that feels silky in your hands.

UPDATE: The recipe link we used for this project no longer exists… Here is a similar baking soda clay recipe.

Once the dough was made and was cooling, I collected a few things from around the house to use to create shapes. Cookie cutters were the obvious first choice, but mason jar lids, the rims of glasses, and butter knives all work well for the job too.

Next, I gathered some materials to make impressions in the dough. After a visit raiding Gracen’s stamp collection and nature shelf, this is what I had.

I also got out a rolling pin, some kitchen scissors (for freehand shapes), some straw pieces (for creating holes to tie twine through), and some extra corn starch to prevent the dough from sticking to everything.

We got started by giving Gracen a chunk of the dough to just play with and explore at first, but of course she requested a cookie cutter and stamp and was right down to business. That’s just her style.

Now anywhere you read about baking soda dough, the instructions will clearly advise to leave the dough sit until completely cool, but we were too impatient for that. As a result, our dough was still a tad bit warm and sticky, which made it a little bit tricky to work with. My advice? Wait until it’s completely cool. Lesson learned.

What we found worked really well, even with our warm sticky dough, was using the bottom of a flat dish or glass to flatten the dough, rather than using the rolling pin. The rolling pin was just too sticky for our dough, but the dish bottoms worked perfectly.

As far as making the impressions went, we found that lightly dusting the stamp or object with cornstarch first, then pressing it into the dough and removing it slowly turned out great results.

The same technique worked best with the cookie cutters too – dust cookie cutter with cornstarch, then push the dough out of the cookie cutter gently and slowly.

When we’d used up every last bit of dough, I popped the ornaments onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and put it into a just-warm oven to dry out. We left them in there for several hours, flipping them every now and again, and before going to bed, I turned off the heat and left them sit in oven overnight.

The next day, we got out our paintbrushes and acrylic paints, and painted away.

These are some of my very favourite ornaments that Grae made. She pressed the dough, cut the shapes, and decorated them all by herself.

This little reindeer family was made by making 3 small balls, flattening them down with the bottom of a cornstarched bowl, and then pressing our thumbs into the middles. I cheated a little bit and used a Sharpie for the antlers and names, because well, we all know how they would have turned out had I used paint…

This heart ornament also started as a flattened ball, and then I used a cookie cutter to push just part of the way through to the dough to make the heart shape.

Once our paint was dry, we added some string to hang them from. Ribbon or jute would be pretty, but I have a thing for baker’s twine currently, so we went with that. Here are some of our finished ornaments…

Aren’t they pretty?

And because our yearly ornament making tradition is bound to leave us with heaps of special, handcrafted tree decorations one day, we added the year onto each.

♥

Though we didn’t do it this time around, giving the ornaments a light coat of Mod Podge or spray-on sealant make protect them and help them last longer.

Images by Bethany Family Portrait Winner

11 / 19 / 1211 / 19 / 12

I am beyond excited to announce the winner of our Images by Bethany giveaway! We had a wonderful experience with Bethany and couldn’t be happier with the way our photos turned out, and I know that the winner will feel the same way. So without further ado….

Drum roll please….

Congratulations, Caro! I’ll be sending you an email shortly with all of the details. To everyone else, thank you so much for entering! I truly wish I could give each of you the gift of a photo shoot with Bethany because I sincerely think she is that good. But because I can’t, please stay tuned to my Facebook page as I know a few other lovely Vancouver bloggers who will be offering you a chance to win this exact same prize in the coming weeks.

If you haven’t yet liked Mama.Papa.Bubba.’s Facebook page, you should!

And you can do so here. ☺

♥

A First: Family Movie Afternoon

11 / 18 / 1211 / 22 / 12

One of my favourite memories is the many family movie nights that filled the weekends of my childhood. They often involved treats (um, hello blue fish, shoestring licorice, and pink popcorn!), floor beds, and cheesy feel good movies, which landed them firmly in the extra special category as far as family activities were concerned.

Since having Grae, the idea of starting a little family movie tradition of our own has always been something I’ve looked forward to. While Grae doesn’t have a whole lot of experience watching television and is still a little young for movies, our dreary Vancouver weather brought about a spontaneous first family movie afternoon today. (Okay, it was more like a first movie 30 minutes…but who’s counting, right?)

With a couch-turned-bed, heaps of pillows and blankets, a ridiculous amount of stove popped popcorn, we settled in to the original Toy Story (which was the Pixar movie I found with the lowest age rating on www.commonsensemedia.com). It was Grae’s first ever movie, my first ever Pixar film, and our very first attempt at a movie afternoon as a family of 3. It lasted for as long as it took Grae to fill her belly with popcorn, but I’d say it was a perfect beginning to a tradition in the making.

♥

Babe.

11 / 18 / 1211 / 18 / 12

Gracen’s been really into names lately, and she’s constantly asking, “Her name is?” or “His name is?” about people and characters she doesn’t know. Here’s a little conversation that took place tonight during dinner…

Gracen: Mama’s name is Jennifer?

Mama: Yes, it is. What is Papa’s name?

Gracen: Babe. (pause) Papa’s name is Babe.

Love her.

♥

Simple Play: Pillow Pass

11 / 17 / 1211 / 18 / 12

This is the SIMPLEST little game ever, but Miss G loves it. And we’re talking loves it so much that she squeals and shrieks the entire time we play and shouts “More pillow pass, Mama!” whenever she thinks the game is going to end.

Basically, all we do is toss a pillow back and forth. Seriously, that’s it. A pillow is easier to catch than a ball, it’s as soft as can be (even when you get whacked in the head repeatedly), and apparently throwing a pillow around is hilarious.

♥

What Happens When Papa’s Home…

11 / 17 / 1211 / 17 / 12

Oh my word – this just kills me.

♥

A {Kiwi Crate} Window Garden {& a Giveaway!}

11 / 17 / 121 / 23 / 13

A couple of weeks ago, Gracen and I attended an awesome Halloween-themed story time at Pottery Barn Kids. (Who knew, right? It happens every Tuesday at 11 a.m. for those of you who are in Vancouver.) Afterwards, the kids got their Book Club passports stamped and were each {very generously} gifted a Kiwi Crate to take home.

I’ve seen Kiwi Crates on a few of the blogs I read and I’ve always thought they were very neat, so I’m not sure who was more excited about the gift…Gracen or I. (If you’ve never heard of them before, they’re basically little boxes that arrive to your door each month and are filled with all of the materials/instructions/inspiration needed for hands-on projects. Some are science activities, some are arts and crafts, and some are geared towards imaginative play.)

This afternoon we took out our crate, opened it up, and found all of the materials needed to put together a window garden. Needless to say, my little gardening enthusiast was thrilled.

Included was a clearly laid out instruction card complete with diagrams, and a sweet little observation booklet for Miss G to draw in.

We carefully set up the garden, referring back to the instruction card after each step. Gracen, Miss ‘Let’s Do a Project!’, loved it and took her work very seriously.

With the exception of really making sure the suction cups were stuck to the window and printing the words “mint” and “basil”, Grae was able to do everything on her own, which was lovely.

We now have a sweet little garden set up right in our living room and I can’t wait to help Grae water it each day and watch as our fresh herbs grow. ☺

Because we enjoyed our Kiwi Crate so much, and I sincerely think they are a great way for parents and children to try new things together, I contacted Kiwi Crate and asked if they’d like to share the love with one of our readers. And guess what? They do! One Mama.Papa.Bubba. reader will receive a complimentary crate of their own, and will have the option of selecting a regular crate or one of the new holiday-themed crates.

The contest is open until Monday, November 26th and there are multiple ways to win (be sure to leave a separate comment for each).

To enter to win a complimentary Kiwi Crate:

Leave a comment below telling me something you love to do with your kid(s).

For additional chances to win:

–> ‘Like’ Mama.Papa.Bubba. on Facebook, then come back and leave a second separate comment saying you did so (or that you had previously).

–> ‘Like’ Kiwi Crate on Facebook, then come back and leave an additional separate comment saying you did so (or that you had previously).

–> Sign up for Kiwi Crate’s fun-filled newsletter, then come back and leave an additional separate comment saying you did so.

–> Follow @jkossowanon Twitter, then come back and leave a separate comment saying you did so.

–> Tweet about the giveaway and leave an additional separate comment saying you did so.

Don’t forget to leave your email address! The winner will be announced on November 27th and contacted via email. Good luck!!

♥

Kiwi crate did not ask me to write this post, nor did they compensate me to do so, but in the interest of full disclosure, I did sign up to be a part of their affiliate program. This means that when Kiwi Crate products are purchased through the links i’ve provided, I get a small kickback from the company.

MORE of Our Family Photo Session

11 / 17 / 1211 / 17 / 12

Today Gracen and I headed downtown to pick up our photo order from Bethany. (Which, by the way, Gracen was so excited about. All morning she said, “Befany’s a niiiice yady. Grae Grae yike Befany. Befany take Gracen’s picture! We go see Befany now?”)

I don’t know if it’s because these are our first ever family photos, or because I {obviously} think Miss G is the cutest child ever, or because Bethany is AH-MAZING at what she does (okay, so it’s probably a combo of all three), but I’m just over the moon with how our photos turned out. Here are some more of my favourites because I just can’t help myself.

♥

If you haven’t already entered to win a photo session of your own, and you live in the Greater Vancouver area (or will be visiting the area sometime between January and April of 2013), visit this post immediately for details.

Wholewheat Raspberry Scones

11 / 16 / 1211 / 18 / 12

A few months ago, I bought a cookbook for kids put out by the Mayo Clinic. Gracen loves flipping through the recipes and selecting new “projects” for us to try, and without fail, if I ask her what she thinks we should have for dinner, she’ll respond with, “Just a minute, Mama. Grae Grae checks recipes!” She’s had the book open to a recipe for chocolate raspberry scones for a couple of days now, so today we finally got around to whipping up our version of the recipe.

We went all out and used butter (I always replace butter and margarine with grapeseed or olive oil), but I justified it with the fact that it was organic butter and it was a pretty small amount. I just didn’t know if scones would have the proper texture without it. Though they aren’t very sweet {at all}, I’m happy to say that they are moist, tender, and perfect when paired with jam.

Here are our ingredients… Whole wheat flour, plain organic yogurt, baking soda, baking powder, organic butter, honey, frozen raspberries, vanilla, and a lemon.

We started by combining the dry ingredients.

Then we added the butter and cut it into the flour mixture with a fork because I could not for the life of me find my pastry cutter (perhaps I owned one in Kuwait, but not in Canada? Hmmm…)

Next, we added the frozen raspberries and lemon zest into the dry mixture and gently stirred them in.

Then, in a separate bowl, we mixed the yogurt, honey, lemon juice, and vanilla together.

Grae then poured the wet mixture into the dry mixture and gently stirred it until just combined.

Afterwards, we plopped in onto a piece of parchment paper, kneaded the dough a few times, and shaped it into a circle about an inch thick.

Our dough was pretty sticky at this point, and probably could have used a little extra flour, but we just went with it and cut it up into triangles.

Then we carefully moved the scones onto a parchment-lined sheet, and popped them in the oven to bake.

Voila! A delicious homemade snack or breakfast.

Wholewheat Raspberry Scones

2 cups of wholewheat flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/3 cup of organic butter

1/2 cup of frozen raspberries
zest of 1 lemon

1 cup of plain organic yogurt
2 tablespoons of honey (more if you prefer a sweet scone)
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla
juice of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients well. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut in the butter. Add the raspberries and lemon zest and stir gently.

In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients together.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just barely combined. Spill dough out onto a countertop and knead it a few times. Shape it into a circle that is approximately an inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut the circle into triangles, as you would a pizza.

Gently place the wedges onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 12 – 14 minutes.

Allow to cool and serve.

Enjoy!

On Manners

11 / 16 / 1211 / 16 / 12

Gracen, holding out a fancy book that ties shut with a ribbon…

Mama ties dis? Pleeeeease?

Dat’s manners. Peoples yike manners. Grae Grae LOVES doing manners.

♥

A Leaf Maze {in the dark}

11 / 15 / 1211 / 15 / 12

Okay, so we didn’t actually mean to do it in the dark, but then again, we didn’t plan on making a leaf maze in the first place. We had actually headed outside so that Gracen could play and I could rake up and compost our mounds of leaves and tidy up the yard, but meh – making a leave maze just seemed like more fun.

We headed outside around 4 p.m., and with it getting dark here just before 5 o’clock, we really didn’t have much for daylight left by the time we’d constructed our maze. (You’ll have to excuse the terrible photos… I really have no idea how to take decent pictures sans flash and tripod in the dark.)

I’ve seen this idea on Happy Hooligans and other blogs around the net, and I knew Grae would love it. With a rake, our hands, and some gardening gloves, we created a very simple maze in no time.