Backyard Truck Garden

7 / 30 / 19

It feels like we’ve had a slow start this year, but summer seems to be here in the Okanagan and Sam’s been enjoying his little backyard truck garden again!

Here’s what inspired us creating a truck garden… This hilly corner of our yard filled with dirt, rocks, and loads of debris discarded by our big old tree. Now if we knew that this home was our forever home, we’d probably do something different, but without wanting to invest a whole lot of time, energy, or money, a truck garden turned out to be a fantastic solution.

Of course every yard is going to be different, but I do think the truck garden concept could be adapted to many different spaces, hilled or flat.

Another fun part of this project? Other than the little orange pilons and some paint, we only used things we already had on hand to put it together.

First up were these road bricks… They started out as regular old bricks left in the yard by the previous home owners, so I painted them grey with a sample of outdoor paint I picked up and then added some little yellow dashes freehand using some acrylic craft paint from the art cupboard. More than a year later, these have held up super well. What I love about them is that they can be moved and configured how ever Sam likes, and they give him an opportunity to do some heavy lifting.

The other little upcycle / repurpose project we did was turning some wood and flooring scraps into these road planks.

I had previously seen this idea on my friend Chelsey’s site, Buggy and Buddy, and when I found a bunch of wood scraps left in one of the sheds, I knew it would be perfect.

I just painted the boards a charcoal-y black colour using an outdoor paint we already had, then freehanded the white dashes using a small paintbrush, some acrylic craft paint, and an old metre stick as a guide. And voila – wooden roads and ramps!!

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Then we added all of the fun stuff… Our kids’ garden tool set for raking up branches, creating dirt mounds, etc., a big bin of DIY blocks Brad and his dad made using some 2×4 and 2×8 scraps that were also left in our yard, and Sam’s collection of Green Toys and Wonder Wheels trucks. All of these have been gifted to him over the years and they’ve seen endless hours of play. They’re big, sturdy, and made from recycled plastic. These are the ones he has currently:

I also created a little picnic space at the top of the truck garden using our kids’ picnic table from Ikea and a little black and white striped umbrella, but I didn’t find that it got used a whole lot last summer, so I skipped it this summer and kept those items on our patio below instead.

It was a cute little set up though!

Possibly the biggest hit of the space? This little sit-on excavator we got during a campaign I did with Canadian Tire. Sam just LOVES it and could spend ages scooping up loose dirt and moving it to a different space or filling a bucket.

I can’t tell you how much play this little space has seen!

Here’s a look at the whole thing… It’s certainly not the prettiest thing, but it’s such a great spot for playing in the dirt, getting filthy, and enjoying trucks.

One final addition that’s also been a favourite? These PVC pipe ramps! While this wasn’t something I felt comfortable taking on myself, I took advantage of my brother being in town and he helped me pick up the largest piece of PVC pipe Home Depot carried and then cut it in half vertically. We sanded the edges and created these ramps that smaller cars can ZOOM down!

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Morning Routine Flip Chart

7 / 25 / 197 / 25 / 19

My summer wish? Slower mornings that are still productive enough to get out of the house and have some fun before nap time rolls around at noon. Plus, with Brad home for the summer, a couple of hours to work each morning too… Hah! Too much to ask maybe, but we’re giving it a go and so far this morning routine flip chart has been super helpful!

Here’s the thing – while I usually work on all things blog / writing gig related from about 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. during the school year, I find that during the summer, I’m just more tired and less motivated at night… I don’t know if it’s because we spend a good amount of time hosting guests and travelling during the summers, but when we’re at home and without houseguests, I honestly just want to go for a walk, tidy the house, prep things for the next day, and then chill on the patio or watch a show with B at night. And since he’s off work for almost all of July and August, I figure that a couple of hours each day where Brad’s the go-to parent is a reasonable request, right? Not going to lie – he wasn’t super on board with the plan because a) he loves nothing more than sleeping in and would happily stay in bed until 10 or 11 everyday of the summer and b) because having to get up AND feed the kids breakfast and get them ready for the day is just something he’s not used to doing. But since making our morning routine flip charts, the kids are able to be more focused and independent, which I think has been helpful for everyone.

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Here’s what we used to make the charts:

our morning routine flip chart printable
a legal sized file folder
a pair of scissors
a ruler
a glue stick
pencil crayons
adhesive magnetic tapeor adhesive magnetic squares

{This brilliant file folder idea came from this chore chart I saw on Pinterest back in the day, so I can’t at all take credit for that aspect of the project.}

Bahahaha – can we just stop for a moment and appreciate the hilariousness that is taking blog photos with a toddler?!? Gotta get in where you can, right?? Oh, Sam!

Alright, back to it. With all of our materials gathered, Sam and I got to work putting together his morning routine flip chart. First job? Colouring in his ‘job pictures’. As he coloured, we talked about each picture and what they meant and I helped him out here and there when he asked me to. (Don’t mind the pencil grasp… We’ll be working on that soon… He’s not shown a ton of interest in pencil / paper activities just yet, so I want to be very gentle with my guidance so as to keep his interest up when it does arise.)

Done! {You’ll notice that there’s an extra empty box on the printable… This can be used if you want to swap one of the jobs out for something that better suits your little one’s morning routine – just drawing a little picture, write in the name of the job along the bottom, and you’re good to go!}

Next up, I cut the job cards out just outside the dotted lines. While I did that, Sam worked on cutting up some of the scraps using his spring scissors. {Because cutting scraps into the teeniest paper shards is still scissor practice after all, right? HAH!!}

Next, I opened up the file folder and set the job cards out in the order I thought made most sense for how our mornings go, but obviously these can be put in any order that works best for your fam! Because the file folders I bought had some text on the inside, I opted to use them inside out, so you’ll notice that I’ve placed them on what is actually the back of the file folder here. Once I had them placed and spaced how I wanted, I glued the job cards down using a glue stick.

At this point Miss G joined us to make a morning routine flip chart of her own… She doesn’t ‘need’ one like Sam does and is very used to getting ready for school in the mornings either on her own or using her morning routine jaror morning routine chart, but I find that a) having a visual does help her stay focused and on track and b) switching up the visuals every now and then helps to keep things fresh and interesting.

With all of the job cards glued down, I used a ruler to draw straight lines down from in between the job cards to mark where I’d need to cut to create flaps.

Then I trimmed the bottom of the file folder off {making sure to leave enough space to add a magnet above each job} and cut along the lines I had previously drawn to make the flaps.

Next up, I measured out one inch chunks of magnetic tape, ensuring I had 14 magnets total.

Then I adhered one magnetic strip above each job.

In order to get the placement bang on, I stuck a second magnetic strip {magnetic side down, sticker side up} on each of the adhered magnetic strips, then removed the sticker backing one at a time, and closed the flaps, pressing the magnets down firmly to ensure a good stick. (Does that make sense?)

Then I added “Sam’s morning routine” to the top of the chart…

And trimmed off the excess file folder at the top.

This is what it looked like once done and hung on the side of our island in the kitchen and I’m happy to report that it’s been a total hit. His morning routine flip chart has totally let him take charge of getting ready for the day and even though he does need help with a few of the tasks, he’s able to be the one driving the process, which I think is really empowering.

He just checks in with his chart to see what’s up next…

Goes and does it…

And then returns to close the flap!

Ready to make your own morning routine flip chart?

Find the printable here: Morning Routine Flip Chart Printable

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Vegan Compost Cookies

7 / 2 / 19

Oh my goodness… Can we please just soak in the delicious ridiculousness that is these vegan compost cookies?! And while I’d love to say that they’re healthful, there’s really not much that’s healthful about them… They’re CRAZY delicious though! Filled with oats, pretzels, graham cracker crust, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, potato chips, and coffee grounds (everything you’d find in a compost?), they’re a crispy and chewy and salty and sweet all at once. I usually make them once a year {okay, maybe twice a year when Brad was at his last school}, but this year when we were brainstorming teacher gifts, Miss G decided that she’d like to do big jars of homemade compost cookies and I was totally on board. We paired the jars with a bag of locally roasted coffee beans and our completed ‘Thank you for being my teacher’ printable and that was that.

Since we now eat vegan at home, I also took the opportunity to recipe test a veganized version of the recipe we usually use, and I’m so happy to report that it turned out amazingly well! I also took a chance and swapped out some of the sugar for coconut sugar, so while these still have a ton of sugar in them, at least some of it is a little less refined.

Okay, just look at this…

And that’s not all… There were still potato chips to be added!

Now a quick word on the potato chips… While we usually buy a locally made kettle-chip style of chips to snack on {Hardbite}, these cookies are much better with a classic, cheap potato chip. You know the ones that are a little too greasy and a little too salty? Yup, oddly enough, those are the ones you want. The other ones are so thick that they’re almost too crunchy whereas these thinner ones add just the perfect amount of crunch!

Dough done! (I always double this recipe when making it.)

Okay, now here’s the one unfortunate thing about this recipe… The dough has to be refrigerated before baking the cookies off. Ugh – not the best news for a get-in-and-out-of-the-kitchen-as-quickly-as-possible person like me, but trust me on this one. I’ve made them plenty of times and skipped this step and they’re still delicious. BUT – if you want them to have that crispy outer coating and super thick, chewy inside, you need to refrigerate. I just roll the dough into big balls, pop them into a baking dish, and pop them into the fridge. Come back in an hour and they’ll be good to go.

The last thing… The butterscotch chips. Every type of butterscotch / caramel chip I could find in our little town contained milk products, so those were a no go for us, obviously. I did see that there are some available online for purchase, but I just opted to try making my own using this recipe. It didn’t turn out perfectly (I was left with some extra butter/oil floating around and the butterscotch was soft at room temperature), but I just kept the pan in the freezer, broke off some little chunks and pressed them into the flattened dough balls as I took them out of the refrigerator to bake and it worked out just fine!

Here’s what they look like straight out of the oven…

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Also, I can’t recommend getting one of these silicone baking liners enough… They work just like parchment paper does and are waste-free!

Here they are completely cooled and ready to be packaged…

We picked up some big glass jars with good seals at a local shop {these are very similar}, filled them up to the top with cookies, added a little homemade tag using baker’s twine, and that was it! Big jars of vegan compost cookies ready for gifting.

Here’s our recipe…

Vegan Compost Cookies (based on this recipe by table for two)

1 tablespoon of ground chia seeds
3 tablespoons of warm water

1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs (double check the ingredients to ensure your graham crackers don’t have honey or milk products in them)
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of vegan butter
2 teaspoons of pure maple syrup

1 1/3 cups of bread flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1 cup of vegan butter
1 cup of coconut sugar
2/3 cup of packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon of agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla

graham cracker crust
3/4 cup of mini vegan chocolate chips
1/2 cup of vegan butterscotch chips*
1/3 cup of old-fashioned oats
3 teaspoons of ground coffee beans

2 cups of plain potato chips, crushed
1 cup of mini pretzels

Prepare your ‘chia egg’ by combining the ground chia seeds and warm water in a small bowl. Set it aside to thicken.

Prepare your graham cracker crust by working the vegan butter and maple syrup into the graham cracker crumbs with your fingers in a medium-sized bowl. Set this aside until needed too.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt until everything is evenly distributed.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the vegan butter, coconut sugar, brown sugar, and agave syrup on medium-high for two minutes. Scrape down the sides, add in the chia egg and vanilla, and mix for another few minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.

On low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients until just about combined – little flour pockets here and there are fine.

Still on low speed, pour in the graham cracker crust, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips (if using them), old-fashioned oats, and ground coffee beans. Allow it to mix for about 30 seconds and then add in the potato chips and pretzels and mix just enough to distribute them throughout the dough.

Using a medium sized cookie scoop, portion the dough out into generously sized cookie dough balls, place them in a container, and pop them into the fridge to chill for one hour (this step is important – I highly recommend not skipping it).

Preheat the oven to 365 degrees and prepare a baking sheet by lining it with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

After an hour, retrieve just enough dough balls to cover your baking sheet and gently flatten them down. If you’re using the homemade butterscotch ‘chips’ like we did, break off a few little chips and gently press them into the dough near the centre of the cookie.

Bake for 13 – 14 minutes in a fully preheated oven. When removed, the cookies will still be very soft to the touch and will look darker than most due to the coconut sugar. Allow them to cool for at least ten minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. The goal is for the outsides to be golden and crispy and the insides to be soft and chewy.

Once completely cooled, pop the cookies into jars for gifting or into a container at room temperature to enjoy / store for up to a week.

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Chocolate Covered Frozen Banana Pops

6 / 19 / 196 / 24 / 19

Okay, I’m probably aging myself here, but do you remember being able to get frozen bananas dipped in chocolate at Dairy Queen growing up? The ones that came on a stick and were absolutely delicious? Because I do! I don’t know if it’s sad or awesome that I’d choose a frozen banana over everything else one can get when at a fast food chain full of frozen treats, but I loved them. And apparently I still think they’re awesome because chocolate covered frozen banana pops happen every summer in this house. We most often sprinkle them with chopped nuts (peanuts + chocolate + banana = actual heaven), but this time around we went for the naturally coloured candy sprinkles I bought ages ago for a birthday party {they’re not at all healthful, for the record – just naturally coloured}. Put a few candy sprinkles on anything and the kids will think it’s amazing, but the best part of these frozen banana pops for me? Not having to melt actual chocolate. In fact, there’s no actual chocolate involved.

Magic Mystery Painting

6 / 14 / 196 / 18 / 19

With Sam not feeling well earlier today, we decided to spend our afternoon close to home and out of the sun. I love setting little play invitations out for the kids to discover after school, but since I hadn’t gotten a chance to set something up during nap time, I quickly pulled together a classic while Grae and Sam devoured their afternoon snacks… Magic mystery painting! {An absolute childhood classic if you’re old like me – hah!}

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Now I have to preface this all with the fact that I wasn’t planning on sharing any of this here, so didn’t pull out my big camera like I should have… hence the cell phone photos. Not ideal, but meh.

Here’s what you’ll need:

a white pastel
watercolour paper*
watercolour paints**
paintbrushes (I love these and these)

* Other thick, absorbent papers will work too, but watercolour paper can soak up a ton of paint without sogging up and ripping and it dries flat.

** Any type will do, but we love our Sax liquid watercolours and I think they’re PERFECT for this project… They make it super easy for little ones to get a brush full of paint (just dip and go) and they’re super washable. We used just a few drops of liquid watercolours diluted in small cups of water.

Okay, so here’s how easy this is… First, use the white pastel to draw simple pictures, lines, and designs all over your watercolour paper. Two things to keep in mind… 1) Solid, thick pastel lines make for the best end result, so be sure to use lots of pressure when drawing and 2) your kiddos don’t care what your drawings look like whatsoever, so don’t let the fact that “you can’t draw” stop you from doing this… Just really go for it!

Here’s how I set it out for Grae and Sam… My white pastel drawings on a giant page of watercolour paper, plus little jars of Sax liquid watercolours diluted in water right on top. Oh, and paintbrushes too, of course!

I had already told Grae and Sam that this activity involved something magical / mysterious, so they wasted no time getting to painting once I told them it was ready to go.

And they were totally wowed. (Even though Miss G’s done this loads of times… The resist part is fun, but it’s uncovering the hidden drawings that makes this activity so fun and engaging.)

Part way through they decided that they’d try to paint the entire surface so as not to miss a single drawing or design, which I thought was very clever!

When they were mostly done, I encouraged them to go in and add more paint – a) because the paper can handle it and b) because it allowed them to explore colour mixing.

Isn’t their piece beautiful?! Plus, when you have kiddos with a 5-year age gap, the very best thing is finding activities they both enjoy and can do alongside one another.

When they were done with the first one, Miss G asked if she could create a second one full of things Sam loves… And I mean, how can you say no to that, right? So while she worked on her version, Sam whipped her up a snack of toast, carrot, ice cream, and pancake.

Then it was back to work!

Here’s the one G made… Isn’t it the sweetest? Complete with all of the things Sam loves – fire engines, food, and Blippi, plus his name and his age.

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Fruity Green Popsicles

5 / 8 / 195 / 11 / 19

Today, with Sam still recovering from his latest bout of croup and Miss G home from school to catch up on some rest she can hopefully avoid getting sick, I decided it was time to make our first batch of popsicles of the year. I wanted them to be super healthy, full of vitamins, but still delicious, and so these fruity GREEN popsicles came about!

Now there’s no hiding this – all these fruity green popsicles really are is a green smoothie in frozen form {though if your kids are like my kids, it won’t matter one bit because anything in popsicle form is exciting and loved}. Truthfully, you don’t need a recipe at all because you really just can’t go wrong here… Just whip up a regular green smoothie, pour it into some popsicle moulds, and freeze! If the smoothie tastes good, the popsicles should too!

That being said, I know that there are lots of people who really like having a recipe to guide them, so if that’s you, here’s exactly what we included in our fruity green popsicles… Frozen mango, clementines, lacinato kale, pineapple juice, coconut water {which is optional}, hemp hearts, and chia seeds. Super healthful, right?

The best part? The kids did almost everything on their own! First up, they washed the kale and removed the cores.

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Then they put the kale and fruit into our Vitamix…

And added our juice and coconut water.

Looks delish, doesn’t it?

Then Sam did the honours and blended everything up.

Now I will say that if you don’t have a high-powered blender, you may want to skip the chia seeds and hemp hearts – unless your kiddos don’t mind a little texture.

Our Vitamix {which was worth every penny of its purchase price} blends them up like nothing, so add them to your heart’s delight if you have a similar blender.

Next up, we poured the fruity green mixture into our popsicle moulds. We have quite the random assortment and used all shapes and sizes and got 17 popsicles out of this recipe.

Here they are when done. They look good, right??

Here’s the recipe…

Fruity Green Popsicles

2 cups of mango, fresh or frozen
2 clementines (or other small oranges)
5 lacinato kale leaves, washed with the cores removed
1 tablespoon of chia seeds
1 tablespoon of hemp hearts

1 cup of pure pineapple juice*
1 cup of coconut water*

* for sweeter popsicles, omit the coconut water and use 2 cups of pure pineapple juice

Add everything to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into popsicle moulds and freeze for at least 5 hours or overnight.

Enjoy!

Quality Items to Put in Your Child’s Easter Basket

4 / 15 / 194 / 15 / 19

Oh how I love spoiling my kiddos on special occasions like Easter! My goal is always to fill their baskets with quality items that they’ll actually USE, even if it means spending a little more or purchasing less. Their baskets vary year-to-year of course, but usually include three types of things… Books to read, supplies to create with, and open-ended toys to play with. I also love using holidays like Easter to add to their most loved collections (things like their LEGO, animal figurine, musical instrument, and Maileg mice collections).

You’ll find all of my recommendations in the ‘Easter Basket Goodies’ section of my amazon shop, but in case it’s easier in list form, here are some of my favourite quality items to put in your child’s easter basket…

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Books for Little Kids

Pat the Bunny

Bunny Roo, I Love You

Richard Scarry’s Bunnies

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Runaway Bunny

Richard Scarry’s I Am a Bunny

Planting a Rainbow

Books for Older Kiddos

Outside Your Window

Over and Under the Pond

A Seed is Sleepy

A Nest is Noisy

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt

A Butterfly is Patient

Things to Use Outside

Hape’s adjustable bamboo telescope

rainbow umbrella

bamboo & metal gardening tools for kids

lemon umbrella

Melissa & Doug Magnifying Glass

Pustefix bubble solution with wand (seriously the BEST bubble solution)

egg-shaped sidewalk chalk

Green Toys Gardening Kit

Creative Supplies

Do A Dot Art! Ultra Bright Shimmer washable markers (like bingo dabbers, but washable!)

Set of 23 thin rainbow coloured washi tapes

MT pastel washi tape set

Lyra Colour-Giants Skin Tone coloured pencils (the quality and colour range of these is lovely)

Play-Doh Spring Eggs Easter pack

Crayola Silly Putty Eggs

Melissa & Dough Farm Puffy Sticker Play Set

Crayola egg-shaped crayons

Usborne Easter sticker book

Elmer’s translucent colour glue

Only pastel markers

Toys

Green Toys’ mini race car in pink

Ezri Wooden Vegetables

Wood Eats! slicing veggies play set

Jellycat Stuffed Bunny

Pastel PLUS PLUS building toy set

Janod fruits & veggie basket

Grimm’s Pastel Wooden Doll set

Grimm’s Pastel Rainbow Forest Set

Grimm’s pastel tree slices building blocks

Grimm’s large pastel stacking tower

Grimm’s blue & green wooden wobbling stacker

Plan Toys pastel car

Musical Instruments

Shumee Organic Wooden Egg Shakers

HABA musical eggs

PHEVOS porcelain bird water whistles

Homi Baby organic wood baby rattle

MVPower kid’s xylophone

TSLIKANDO natural wooden shaker eggs

Lightwish metal hand bells for kids

Collectables

Maileg Ballerina Mouse

Baby Maileg Mouse in Carrycot

Little Sister Maileg Mouse

Baby Brother Maileg Mouse

Racer Dad Maileg Mouse

Wooden Holztiger Goose

Wooden Holztiger Chick

Wooden Holztiger Hen

Wooden Holztiger Pig

Wooden Holztiger Bunny

Wooden Holztiger Calf

Wooden Holztiger Rooster

Wooden Holztiger Rabbit Eating a Carrot

Wooden Holztiger Duck

Wooden Holztiger Sheep

Schleich Chick figure

Schleich Drake figure

Schleich Lamb figure

Schleich sheep figure

Schleich hen figure

Schleich black and white calf

Schleich brown and white calf figure

Schleich goose

Schleich mama pig figure

Schleich farm world figure set

Schleich farm animal set

Mini Brown & White Bunny Finger Puppet

Folkmais mini jack rabbit finger puppet

Folkmanis mini duckling finger puppet

Folkmanis mini monarch butterfly finger puppet

Folkmanis mini chick finger puppet

Folkmanis mini lop tarred bunny finger puppet

LEGO BrickHeadz easter bunny

LEGO easter egg hunt building kit

LEGO easter chick

Alright, there you have it… My recommendations for quality items to put in your child’s Easter basket. Ooh – and don’t forget a couple of sweet treats of course!

For creative plastic egg fillers, pop over to my CBC Parents post, 10 Awesome Non-Candy Easter Egg Fillers Your Kids Will Actually Use.

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Icy Blizzard Car Rescue

3 / 7 / 194 / 15 / 19

YOU GUYS… It’s March 6th and currently? It’s snowing. SNOWING!! I can’t even. And so, when you don’t have the power to change the weather, you may as well enjoy it, right? Except for that it’s cold and miserable…. So we brought the blizzard inside. {Just enough to fill a small bin – my kind of blizzard. Hah!} Mixed Sam’s very favourite thing (vehicles, obviously) and created an icy blizzard car rescue that he absolutely loved.

Here’s how I did it…

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First of all, I picked out a few Hot Wheels / Matchbox vehicles from Sam’s collection and placed them into a small bin with just a couple of centimetres of water and two drops of aqua liquid watercolours (one of my very favourite art supplies – they’re super vibrant and super washable). Then I popped the bin into the freezer, arranged the vehicles as I wanted them, and let it all freeze over night.

When it was time to play, I sprinkled some snow on top in order to add to the whole blizzard feel, but if you don’t have snow you could certainly skip this step.

Next up, I set out a few ‘tools’ to assist in the rescue…

toy tow truck and snow plow for added imaginary play possibilities
some jars of warm water coloured with liquid food colouring (you could use liquid watercolours to ensure washability) paired with our bulk pipettes and our Learning Resources zig-zag dropper to help melt the ice
a little wooden hammer for breaking / chipping away at the ice
some coloured salt (just regular table salt and a couple of drops of liquid food colouring shaken in a reusable bag until uniform in colour), also for melting ice

Here’s the finished play invitation!

NOW… I just purchased this FLISAT table from Ikea {even though we really didn’t need it} and although I’m already so, so in love with it, you certainly do not need a fancy sensory table to set this, or any other sensory play invitation, up. A smaller bin inside a larger bin would work perfectly, as would a blizzard bin with a tray of tools next to it.

When I told Sam that the vehicles were stuck in an icy blizzard and needed to be rescued, he was thrilled.

I briefly ran through the tools with him and he was off!

I feel like ice rescue activities like this one {and this frozen ocean animal rescue and this frozen ocean mermaid excavation} are great for helping kiddos develop grit, patience, and perseverance because they take a good amount of time and effort.

While Sam immediately went for the warm water and salt, he soon moved onto trying the wooden hammer.

What I didn’t anticipate is that he would create his own warm salt water mixture in hopes of that being the winning solution… Clever little nugget!

It took some time {and maybe a tiny bit of assistance from Sister – she just can’t help herself!}, but he eventually got a truck loose.

Of course Miss Chloe was right in on the action as she always is.

One thing I should mention is that the combination of cold and salt can sometimes bother little ones’ hands. Miss G’s never minded – even after ages of play – but after dunking his hands in water and then into the salt, Sam told me that his hands felt ‘hot’. A couple of things you can do to if your little one seems to have sensitive hands: a) let them play with gloves on or b) have a bowl of clean, warm water and a small towel nearby.

Of course as time passes, the vehicles become easier to rescue…

And then it gets REALLY exciting!

This will definitely be done again in our house.

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Strawberry Ice Cream Chia Pudding Parfaits

2 / 13 / 19

Please tell me I’m not the only one who loves whipping up on-theme food for my kiddos on holidays and special occasions. I know, it’s a little bit nerdy and over the top, but I love it so much. Last Valentine’s Day I made the kids these strawberry ice cream chia pudding parfaits and oh my word… You should have seen their little eyes light up when I set breakfast down in front of them!

Besides the fact that they’re both nutritious and super delicious, the thing I love about these ice cream chia pudding parfaits is that they’re a lot easier to make than they look. In fact, you can do most of the prep work the night before so they come together super quickly come morning.

First up, you’ll want to cut a bunch of strawberry hearts… Just cut the green leafy part of the strawberry off to create a ‘v’ shape at the top, then slice! You’ll want fairly thin hearts to place along the inside of the mason jars, so keep that in mind while slicing. If prepping these the night before, just pop them into an air-tight bag or container in the fridge. And while you’re at it, wash and dry a few blueberries and add them in there too.

Next up, your chia pudding. I have a couple of posts about chia pudding (our tropical version | our chocolate version), but if you haven’t tried it, you really must. It’s so unique and delicious and my kids just love it! To make it, pour 1 cup of coconut milk into a jar along with 3 tablespoons of chia seeds, 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup, and a little splash of good vanilla. Shake it up like mad and then place it in the fridge overnight to thicken. If you can, give it a couple of extra shakes before going to bed for the night to help prevent clumping. If not, no worries – it’ll be fine either way.

Alright… Now for the part that has to be made in the morning… The strawberry ice cream! Or nice cream as it’s often called.

Chuck 3 frozen bananas, along with 5 big frozen strawberries and a splash of good vanilla, into a food processor. I find this works best if the frozen fruit has had just 5 minutes at room temperature, but you can do it straight from the freezer too. Basically, you just need to blend it like CRAZY. It’ll take a little while and will most likely require you stopping the food processor to scrape down the sides a few times, but keep going {past the chunky stage, past the mealy stage} until your bananas and strawberries are the consistency of soft serve. Mmmm… so good!

Now it’s time to assemble! Line a mason jar with your strawberry hearts simply by pressing them against the glass surface…

Then gently fill the jar about halfway full of chia pudding…

And generously top with strawberry ice cream.

Finish off the strawberry ice cream chia pudding parfaits with a strawberry heart and a few blueberries on top and breakfast (or snack) is served!

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Whole Wheat Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes

2 / 5 / 192 / 5 / 19

Ages ago {aka back in 2012} Miss G and began making these whole wheat lemon poppy seed pancakes and they’ve been a favourite ever since. Grae absolutely LOVES them, as do I – and that’s saying a lot because I’m not much of a breakfast food person if I’m being honest. BUT – give me something something lemony and not too sweet and I’ll happily eat it any time of the day.

Spa Bath for Kids

1 / 31 / 192 / 5 / 19

You know those times when your kiddo needs a little something extra special just for them? Like time alone that doesn’t feel like forced time alone? Well this spa bath for kids has become one of our go-tos in those situations and is exactly that… Time alone that feels special {maybe even a little bit luxurious} and not at all forced. It’s the perfect really chill, relaxing way to end the day and such a good mood booster for us too.

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The set-up is really simple and can really be anything you want it to be depending on what your child loves and what you have in the house.

I always fill the tub up with a good amount of water and set out a towel, a washcloth, and a little ‘welcome to the spa’ of some sort. {Nothing fancy, obviously… This one is a piece of scrap paper from the junk drawer written with blue pen, but I often just write ‘welcome to the spa’ right on the tub with washable marker like I do for all of the little things I put out next.}

Alright – the little spa goodies… These are put in plastic containers (ancient apple sauce container collection for the win!) and I label each one by using a washable marker directly on the ledge of our bathtub. You can play around with different types of markers {washable obviously!} to see which ones work best on your surface, but regular old washable Crayola markers tend to be my go-to as they go on alright and wipe right off without any effort at all.

What you include is totally up to you, but I always go with the same 5 labels… ‘wash’, ‘scrub’, ‘soak’, ‘sip’, and ‘snack’.

‘Wash’ is almost one of two things… A couple of pumps of Moon Baby (or go to wash for both kids) or castile soap from our foaming soap dispenser (just put castile soap and some water in a foam dispenser that we always have on hand). BUT – how fun would it be to put out a chunk of our awesome DIY squishy soap?!

‘Scrub’ is almost always a big squeeze of the maple brown sugar scrub from Back to Earth that I love, but we’ve also done our homemade lemon vanilla sugar scrub and our funfetti sugar scrub when we’ve had them, and both are super fun and delicious smelling too.

‘Soak’ is usually a locally made bath bomb or some of our beloved coconut oat milk bath that Miss G can just pop into the tub when she’s ready.

‘Sip’ is usually fruit water (plain water with frozen fruit instead of ice cubes) with a paper straw to make it fancy…

And ‘snack’ is usually some type of cut up fresh fruit.

And that’s basically it!

When everything is ready I usually put on a calming Spotify playlist, dim the lights, and invite my little guest to enjoy some time at the spa.

She enjoys some time on her own and when she comes out afterwards… You can just tell – she feels sooooo good. Also, Mr. Sam had his very first taste of the spa bath the other night, soaked it right up, and then asked for another one midday the next day – hah!

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Muddy Monster Truck Derby Sensory Bin

1 / 22 / 191 / 22 / 19

Okay, so before you see this awesome muddy monster truck derby sensory bin and think it’s all fun and games over here all day every day, here’s what you need to know… This morning Sam came along for the school run in undies, a t-shirt, and a sweater. In minus four degree {celsius} weather. No pants. No socks. No boots. And no jacket. Let alone a toque or mittens. Thank goodness we do the whole car blanket thing and he at least had that once in, but you guys – this morning was a doooozy. We got home, I moped a bit, he continued to shout and whine and throw things, and I made a cup of coffee and gulped the whole thing back in bed with the door closed. Then we hugged it out, agreed to start our morning over, cleaned up, and put this sensory bin full of mud and monster trucks together.

Thank fricken goodness sensory play and calm music have the power to turn a day around.

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Here’s what we used to put this taste-safe, scented, amazing-feeling sensory bin together…

one of our go-to Sterilite sensory bins (any shallow bin will work)
cornstarch from our play cupboard (when it comes to cooking with it, I always use an organic version)
cocoa powder
a couple of small toy monster trucks

and later on, these Green Toys cars too.

If you haven’t guessed yet, our ‘mud’ for our monster truck derby sensory play is CHOCOLATE oobleck!!

We didn’t even bother mixing this up in a separate bowl! Sam just dumped the cornstarch and cocoa powder straight into our bin…

Then whisked it up…

And mixed with a wooden spoon as I gradually added water.

You can play with the amounts of each ingredient to create thicker or thinner oobleck, but here’s our recipe…

CHOCOLATEY OOBLECK

2 cups of cornstarch
1/2 cup of cocoa
2 cups of water

Whisk the cornstarch and cocoa together well. Add the water and stir with a wooden spoon {or better yet – your hands!} until the oobleck has a uniform in texture.

I gave the chocolate oobleck one last mix before Sam very enthusiastically popped his monster trucks in.

{It goes without saying that Chloe was in on the fun in approximately 2 minutes flat. Seriously – this kitty of ours loves sensory play just as much as Grae and Sam do!}

It obviously depends on the size of your bin, but our layer of oobleck was thin enough to leave very visible monster truck tracks and Sam noticed right away.

He also realized how insanely neat oobleck is to touch and hold and squish.

As for the mess? With activities like this one, I just remind him to keep his hands in or over the bin. The truth is that the oobleck mud dries up on surfaces and is a cinch to wipe up, but I still don’t want it all over the kitchen obviously.

Part way through his play Sam asked for something for the monster trucks to drive over, so that’s when I offered him a few little Green Toys cars. We lined them up just like you’d see at a monster truck show and after getting a thorough drizzling of mud, the monster trucks began driving and jumping over them.

Although this addition was initiated by Sam, starting simple and adding things in here and there during play is one of my go-to methods for extending play activities.

Also his request? ‘A tool and a bucket’, plus later on, a ramp which I chopped from an almond milk carton. This was during a full one-hour play session and though I have a feeling that it would have lasted significantly longer, we had to put it on pause for nap time. With the promise that he could continue later on in the afternoon, of course.

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How We Potty Trained our 3 Year Old

1 / 19 / 19

Welp, we’re officially through 10 full days of potty training and I have to say – it’s been much easier than I expected it to b {yay!} At this point Sam’s back to wearing bottoms at home, we do the school run and things like grocery shopping without any worry (I’ve even forgotten to bring along the diaper bag and a change of clothes several times – eep!), he’s happy to use a regular toilet both at home and while out, and we’ve only had 3 accidents throughout the entire process (2 of which have been this weekend while we’ve had family staying with us and I’ve had my hands full with other things / he’s been off running around with his cousins). That being said, number twos still definitely cause some anxiousness, but I think we’ve discovered what makes them easiest for him. We’ve been snacking on a few prunes each day to keep things…*ahem*…’soft’, and some privacy seems to allow things to happen, so we’re going with it.

I’ve had soooo many people over on Instagram ask me to share exactly how we’ve done it, but before I do, know that I am absolutely not an expert or medical professional for that matter. I’ve never even read a single potty training book in my entire life! I did successfully help Miss G to use a toilet at a very young age and I have helped several families I nannied for potty train their kiddos – but that’s the extent of it. Also, every kiddo is truly different. What worked for Miss G {and had her completely out of daytime diapers by 13.5 months old – check out how little she is in her underwear} absolutely would not have worked for Sam. Our method is simply based on what I felt would be best for Sam, and it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all sort of situation.

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With that said, here’s what we did do:

– We started talking about using potty, we put potties out in the bathrooms, and we started ‘sportscasting’ our own potty processes (sounds soooo silly, but never underestimate the power of modelling!) months in advance just to get the conversation going and ‘normalize’ the process.

– We waited until Sam was 3 and we felt he was truly ready. He was at the point where he would be going in his diaper and proudly announcing, “I’M PEEING!!” and was also completely open to the process. In fact, when I thought he might be ready back in October and put the feelers out, he became super anxious and resistant and I immediately knew it wasn’t our time just yet.

– We decided on a day and got prepared the day before. We didn’t need anything we didn’t already have in order to start the process, so this was as simple as letting him know that the following day would be the day and chatting about it in a really fun and positive {but genuine} way. “Tomorrow morning we’re going to start using the potty. I’m so excited for you!”

– On the big day, we put potties out in the main rooms of both floors of our house and got a big bucket of water with our favourite cleaner in it out and ready to go. When we were all set up, we took off his diaper and started with sitting on the potty right away, which earned us our very first ’success’. On that day (and for the next few days), we kept the house warm and Sam naked from the waist down, we stayed super close to home, and I just reminded him that when he had to go, the potty was there and I was ready to help.

– When he went, we danced, cheered, and highfived in celebration, then we’d dump the potty into the toilet and he would say goodbye and flush. (We really only had one accident in those early days, but when he did, we didn’t make a big fuss about it – we simply said, “Oops! We waited too long – next time we’ll get to the potty sooner”, and then cleaned it up and moved on. All things potty were kept light and positive).

– On day 2, things were going so well that I gave Sam the choice as to whether he’d like to do the school run in a diaper or in underwear, and he chose underwear!! In this case, I asked Sam to sit on the potty ‘just to try’ before helping him put his undies on and we brought the potty along with us in the car too. I let him know that we could stop any time he needed to go and I made sure to keep our trips as brief as possible (30 minutes max). By day 4, I felt like he was ready, so we began doing longer outings like music class and grocery shopping (again going before leaving and taking the potty along with us in the car). And on day 7, Sam went from being naked from the waist down to wearing underwear at home… I wanted to give him a good long run with being naked a) because it makes getting onto the potty and using it successfully so much easier (one less step!) and b) because I feel like wearing underwear must sort of feel like wearing a diaper, which of course has the potential to lead to accidents. Overall, I think the most important thing through the first week was keeping the process really positive and taking small steps forward when I felt like he was ready.

Now… Here’s what we didn’t do (but obviously no judgement to anyone who has done these things or feels like they’re the way to go – I know they’re often common practice):

– We didn’t get rid of diapers during sleep… At nap times and bedtimes, Sam tries going on the potty and then we put on a “sleep diaper” before he goes down. They’re the same diapers we’ve always used but they’re now specifically called ‘SLEEP diapers’ and they come off as soon as he’s done sleeping. I chose to only tackle awake times a) because our kids tend to sleep hard and for long periods of time and b) because we worked so dang hard to help him learn how to be a good sleeper and his sleep is still very easily thrown off, so I’m just not willing to mess with it at this point.

– We didn’t do tangible rewards of any kind… No Smarties for each potty use, no sticker chart, no toy once fully trained. Truthfully, rewards in general just aren’t my jam. One of my biggest passions as an educator has always been fostering intrinsic motivation, so extrinsic motivators (like candy and stickers) just don’t vibe with that personal passion. If you’re interested, Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes is a fantastic read.

– We didn’t aim to fill Sam with extra liquids in order to increase his ‘opportunities to learn’. I know this is SO common and many people go as far as to give their kiddos ’treat drinks’ (like juice and chocolate milk) in order to increase their consumption, but something about that just doesn’t really sit right with me… I feel like if I was learning something new and feeling slightly anxious / overwhelmed / whatever about it, the last thing I’d want is someone to artificially pile on and give me more to manage. Of course, that’s just my personal feeling.

– Lastly, we didn’t use timers. I know many people set their timers and sit their kiddos on the potty every 15 minutes for the first day, maybe every 20 minutes on the second, etc., but I knew Sam was ready and really wanted the process to be more child-led – more focused on him listening to his body instead of me telling him when to go. Instead, every now and then (and not a ton), I reminded him that the potty was out and ready when he needed it.

And that’s that. While I anticipated that it would go fairly well, it’s been so much easier than I even anticipated and for that I’m thankful.

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Decorate a Window Snowman Activity

1 / 10 / 191 / 10 / 19

I took it down a couple of weeks ago already, but Sam loved his little decorate a window Christmas tree SO much that when it began absolutely dumping snow yesterday, I decided to quickly put up a new window activity for him to enjoy. This decorate a window snowman activity has already been such a hit and the best part is that it can be decorated, taken apart, and redecorated over and over again.

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WINDOW CHRISTMAS TREE 🎄 When Miss G was little, I always used to put together some sort of toddler-friendly Christmas tree for her to decorate and redecorate all on her own. 👱🏻‍♀️ One year I did a felt one, another year I did a sticky tree made of contact paper… and they were always a hit. This year, I decided to switch things up for Sam and went with a cellophane tree taped up onto the window with painter’s tape. Beside it I set out a little spray bottle he’s able to mange with one hand, plus a star, trunk, and some little ornaments I quickly cut out of craft foam. 🌟 I had to show him how the foam parts stuck onto the tree (a small spray of water is all they need!) and then off he went decorating his tree! 🌲 (Stay tuned – I’ll share more on Stories later today.)

A post shared by Jen | Mama.Papa.Bubba. (@mamapapabubba) on Dec 14, 2018 at 11:31am PST

First up, a little peek at the Christmas tree version… This was SO simple to put together and I’ve already stored the foam circles and star away for next year, so it’ll be extra easy to set-up again then. You can read the IG post details here.

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If you’re new to these foam window cling sort of activities, they’re really easy. We’ve been doing them since Miss G was teeny tiny, and though we first started out using coloured acetate sheets, we quickly switched over to craft foam as it’s super inexpensive and easy to find. I love these types of activities for many reasons, but a big one is that the required materials are so minimal. You really only need craft foam (this can be purchased at craft and dollar stores), scissors, and a small spray bottle that’s manageable for your little one’s hands (we like this style and they’re also readily available at dollar stores). This particular window snowman activity also uses some patterned white and clear cellophane (found at the dollar store also) and sticky tape, but if you’re brave enough to try it, you could skip the cellophane and use a black permanent marker on the window to make a snowman outline instead. I’ve heard that it comes off without an issue with a cotton pad and rubbing alcohol and I have tested out small spots with success myself, but try it at your own risk (and definitely do a test spot first!)

I stuck with the safe bet this time around and used cellophane to create our snowman… To do this I just folded a length of cellophane in half vertically, then used bowls as a guide when drawing a half snowman shape using permanent marker. I do find that cutting patterned cellophane is much easier with really sharp scissors, so be sure to use your best pair when cutting out your snow person.

Next, place it up on the window at your child’s height. It’ll stick up there all on it’s own, but I added some little tape rolls just to be sure it stayed put while Sam was playing.

Next up, cut several snowman ‘accessories’ out of your craft foam. I just did this step on the fly, but you can draw on the foam sheets with pencil first if it’s easier. What you include is up to you… I did a couple of different hats, a few carrots, a couple of twigs, then a bunch of buttons and pebbles.

Now I’m not nearly good enough with photography to capture both the cellophane snowman on the sunny window and the foam pieces set out on the table in the dark corner, but this was the basic set-up…

I love putting little play invitations like this one out for the kids to discover and use on their own time. Sam was immediately intrigued by the table full of foam goodies, but when he saw the snowman on the window? He was thrilled.

Having done a similar activity before, he immediately got to work decorating his snow person.

If you’ve never tried this type of activity before, the process is really neat. All the foam pieces need in order to stick onto the window is a spritz of water! So it’s just spray-and-stick for each piece.

Using a spray bottle is great for developing those little hand muscles and motor skills too, so win-win!

“Dis snowman same tall as ME!!”

It’s hard to see, but isn’t his snowman sweet? The twigs coming out of the bottom of its face are in fact arms and the green circles on the sides are his “funny ears”. Also, Sam told me that it doesn’t have a a name when he’s wearing the black hat, but when its wearing this red and white one, the snowman’s name is Santa.

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Test Tube Snow Globe Ornaments

11 / 30 / 1812 / 1 / 18

After making the most adorable little Christmas truck ornaments {inspired by Little Blue Truck’s Christmas} with Sam earlier this week, today Miss G and I made her book-inspired ornament of the year… Test tube snow globe ornaments inspired by the pages of Ada Twist, Scientist! I wasn’t sure how they were going to turn out, but now that they’re done, I think they’re so beautiful and fun!

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If you’ve not read Ada Twist, Scientist, you must… Along with the other books in the collection (Rosie Revere, Engineer and Iggy Peck, Architect), it’s one of our absolute favourites. Ada is endlessly curious and while her experiments and quests to figure out how things work often wreak havoc in her family’s day-to-day life, she learns the value of thinking her way through things and always remaining curious.

The pages of the book are filled with bottles of Ada’s colourful concoctions and experiments, which is exactly what inspired Miss G’s little test tube snow globe ornaments.

There’s a lot of wiggle room as far as which materials you use for these test tube snow globe ornaments, but here’s what we used to make ours:

– little glass craft jars with screw on lids (I REALLY wanted ones with rounded bottoms like these ones with cork tops, but alas… small town living doesn’t always allow for these things. We ended up finding these very similar flat-bottomed glass craft jars at our local Dollarama and they worked just fine. In fact, they’re probably better for the fact that they stand on their own while making them, but they’re just not quite as test tube like.)

– Gorilla Contact Adhesive (I wouldn’t use something like this with Sam, but Miss G is 8 now and this glue worked really well)

– mini bottle brush trees (we found ours at Michael’s in the Tiny Treasures section)

– water

– liquid food colouring

– different types of confetti and slime add-ins

– water

– embroidery thread

– washi tape (which we ended up adding into the mix at the last minute)

Here’s a closer look at the little confetti bits and slime add-ins I put out for Miss G to use. These were all things that came in one of those big slime making add-in kits you can order online.

Here’s how Grae made her test tube snow globes…

First up, she tested the bottle brush trees in the glass craft jars to make sure they fit well.

Most of them fit perfectly and the ones that didn’t simply got a little trim.

Then it was time to adhere the trees in the bottoms of the test tubes. To do this, we simply followed the instructions on the Gorilla Contact Adhesive packaging and put a little glue on the base of the tree, a little glue in the bottom of the test tube, let both sit for two minutes, and then carefully put the tree down into the test tube and pushed it down firmly. {In true Miss G fashion, the two minutes of waiting just HAD to be filled with reading.}

Now while the glue we used does say that it’s ‘immediate contact’, it also says that the glue isn’t fully cured for 24 hours, so we probably should have waited before adding water, but we didn’t. We gave the trees 10 or 15 minutes to set, then went ahead with the project like the impatient people we are – hah! One thing to note is that the trees / test tubes that we used a thin layer of adhesive on definitely formed a more immediate bond, while the ones with more adhesive were still wiggly when we moved on to the next step

Next up, the water.

Aren’t they pretty just like this?

Then Grae worked on tinting the water with liquid food colouring. Because a full drop was too much for the amount of water in our little test tubes, she used a food pick to add the teeniest bit of colouring at a time until the colour was just right.

With the water the perfect shade, she added in all of the confetti, bits, and bobs her little heart desired.

Here are her finished test tube snow globes… Aren’t they gorgeous?

At this point you could secure the test tube lids with glue, but we skipped that part and just ensured that they were screwed on as tightly as possible.

Now while I thought we’d tie our baker’s twine / embroidery thread around the test tubes and create our little hanging loop that way, it just didn’t work out how we thought it would… Instead, we opted to tape a little loop of thread to either side of the lid and then secure everything with several rounds of decorative washi tape, which I think looks really cute too.

Here they are all done and ready for the tree!

This post is part of the awesome 10 Days of #KidMadeChristmas Ornaments series we’ve participated in in years past… If you’re looking for some fantastic ornament ideas to try at home with your kids, pop over and check out the master list of kid-made ornaments – there are SO many lovely ones this year!

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