Baba’s House

12 / 31 / 121 / 8 / 13

We’ve had such a lovely time at my Baba and Opa’s house the last couple of days… Besides being a wonderful host, amazing cook, and very talented painter (giving us wall after wall of art to gaze at), she’s so, so great with Grae. I swear she still has all of the patience, motivation, and creativity she did when my brother and I used to stay with her as kids, if not more. She’s read books, played memory, fashioned doll clothes from scarves, crafted mini snow ladies from styrofoam and toothpicks, and served all of Grae’s drinks in fancy teacups and glass goblets since arriving a couple of days ago. She’s also given Grae full permission to roam and the four levels of their giant house as she pleases and swears “There’s nothing she can break. And if she does break something, then great. It’s one less thing I have to clean.”

Gracen absolutely adores her, and so do we.

Love you, Baba!

♥

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iPhoneography // St. Paul in a Day

12 / 30 / 121 / 6 / 13

Whew. It was a whirlwind, but GREAT day today. This morning, we packed up the vehicle and made the trip up to St. Paul, the teeny tiny town that my mom, dad, brother, and I were all born in. The roads were good, our little traveller was patient as ever, and the town was virtually unchanged. In fact, the street lamps were still lined with the exact shooting star decorations that hung every holiday season of my childhood {which I kind of love}.

First, we stopped off at my Gido’s place (my dad’s dad and Gracen’s ‘big Gido’) for a visit… It had been quite a while since we last saw him, and we had a lovely visit. He was absolutely amazed by all of the things Miss G can now do and together, they sang possibly the most heartwarming rendition of Rudloph the Red-Nosed Reindeer I’ve ever heard.

Afterwards, we popped by my Grandma and Grandpa’s house (my mom’s parents) to see both them and my Auntie Lou. By this time, we had long passed Grae’s nap time and the crazy overtired energy had kicked in, but it was wonderful to visit anyways. Grandma and Grandpa had put together a big spread of food, Auntie Lou spoiled G with a bag full of clothes and activities (just like she did for me when I was little), and we chatted until it was time to hit the road back to Edmonton again.

Lucky for us, Gracen was sound asleep before we even turned out onto the highway and we enjoyed a big portion of our ride amidst a gorgeous sunset.

♥

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iPhoneography // Edmonton Bound

12 / 29 / 121 / 6 / 13

We are so, so lucky to have good weather and an awesome little traveller. Today we’re back on the road and headed to Edmonton to visit my Baba and Opa, as well as sneak in a quick trip to St. Paul to visit my other grandparents. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

♥

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Morning Play Dough

12 / 28 / 121 / 6 / 13

Gracen is absolutely loving hanging out with her cousins. We woke up this morning, had some breakfast, and pulled out our play dough gingerbread people supplies for the kids to play with. In addition to the original supplies, this time we added some miniature baking pans, tiny rolling pins, and more cookie cutters to the mix.

All of the kids really enjoyed creating their play dough masterpieces and the activity provided a great start to our day.

♥

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iPhoneography // Cochrane Bound

12 / 27 / 121 / 6 / 13

packed up and ready to go // on the road

potty pitstop // Cochrane with cousins

♥

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iPhoneography // Boxing Day {2012}

12 / 26 / 121 / 6 / 13

puppy love // Bella’s twin

dress-up day // Christmas {round 2} at Grandma Sue’s

♥

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Christmas Day {2012}

12 / 25 / 121 / 6 / 13

Our Christmas was lovely this year. We awoke to our usual morning call – “Mama, Mama! All done! All done! Grae Grae had a nice sleeeeep”, had a little family snuggle in bed, and made our way into the living room so that Miss G could open the little gifts in her stocking. It was filled to the brim with bath fizzies, miniature kitchen utensils, wooden stamps, a couple of little clothing items, an owl puppet, and some of her very favourite nuts and treats. Grae opened the tiny packages carefully, admiring each before moving on… She was thrilled with all of her new goodies.

With her stocking opened, we took a little present break and made a big Christmas breakfast together.

Brad and Gracen’s jobs? Playing with our freshly made gingerbread play dough and entertaining the crowd.

With breakfast eaten and cleaned up, we gathered back around the tree for our gift exchange. Gracen opened her gifts (plus helped everyone else open their’s) and spent a few minutes investigating each, before thanking the gifter and moving onto a new package.

She was hugely spoiled with new clothes {these little black boots included}, games, puzzles, a doll stroller, and wooden kitchen accessories, as well as this giant dress-up kit filled with all kinds of costumes and accessories.

After a lazy rest of the morning and early afternoon {plus a good nap for Miss G}, we all got dressed and ready for the big Ogasawara family Christmas dinner.

My mom and Rorie were able to come out and join us, which Gracen loved. She toured around the house showing Grandma Sue the gifts she’d opened earlier in the day and then settled in to play with her gingerbread play dough again.

As usual, christmas dinner was absolutely delicious. Gracen’s favourites included the turkey and rosemary smashed potatoes.

Afterwards, us adults visited with full bellies and glasses of wine while Grae snuck in a few last minutes with two of her very favourite new things – a vintage doll from Grandma Sue and a stroller to push her around in from Grandma Charlotte.

It was a good day. And only the start to our special days with family this holiday season…

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

♥

Play Dough Gingerbread People

12 / 24 / 1211 / 24 / 13

After decorating gingerbread houses this morning, this afternoon I whipped up a batch of delicious-smelling and amazingly soft gingerbread play dough for Miss G to play with.

In addition to the play dough, I set out several things create gingerbread people with, including a rolling pin, cookie cutters, buttons, straw pieces, jingle bells, ribbon bits, and toothpicks.

Gracen dove in as she usually does and the play dough gingerbread people began rolling out of the kitchen.

She came up with so many fun ways to decorate them, some more traditional, and some a little more abstract…

The best part is that this dough smells so amazing that you sometimes forget that it’s just play dough and not actual gingerbread baking in the oven. ☺

♥

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A Christmas Eve Tradition

12 / 24 / 1211 / 7 / 13

Christmas Eve was always special for me growing up. We usually spent it at my Grandma and Grandpa Routhier’s house with all of our cousins and did Christmas dinner, mass, and our big gift exchange that very same night. It was the one night of the year when my brother and I got to stay up as late as we wanted and eat all the treats (including pop – gasp!) without having to ask our mom first. I don’t know whether it’s true or not, but we always said that we celebrated on Christmas Eve because we were French.

While Brad’s family does the classic Christmas Day celebration, we’ve held onto a tiny piece of my childhood Christmas Eve tradition with a little gift opening for Miss G on the night of the 24th. Each year, she gets two small gifts to open – one a new pair of Christmas jammies, and the second, a special Christmas book to add to her collection.

Tonight Grae opened candy cane-striped footie jammies (her favourite) and a hardcover copy of A Porcupine in a Pine Tree: A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas under the glow of the Christmas tree. After a warm bubble bath, we read her new book as a family and tucked our little candycane-striped girl into bed for the evening.

♥

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A Gingerbread House for Grae

12 / 24 / 1211 / 24 / 13

Grandma Charlotte and Auntie Judy have had plans for a gingerbread house decorating afternoon in the works for several weeks now. While Auntie Judy took charge of making the gingerbread pieces and assembling the house, Grandma Charlotte collected all kinds of {healthier} decorations so that Miss G could decorate and snack a little along the way too.

With all of the prep work already done, today, we popped over to Auntie Judy’s house {conveniently located just down the farm’s lane way} to let Miss G decorate her first ever gingerbread house.

After Auntie Judy whipped up a quick batch of frosting, Gracen got started with ‘painting’ the icing onto the house using a popsicle stick.

Her decorations included all kinds of dried fruit and nuts, as well as sesame sticks and breadsticks, and while not the most traditional of decorations, Grae didn’t mind one bit.

She completely covered the roof and two sides of the house, then decided that doors and windows were required on the front and back.

Afterwards, with the help of Papa, a fence was added to the backyard.

Tadaaa! The finished product.

♥

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Home for the Holidays

12 / 24 / 121 / 6 / 13

After a fairly uneventful drive home yesterday, we’re back in the Okanagan to kick off our Christmas holidays. Today involved sled rides, icicle pops, and plenty of snow – the perfect winter combination.

Upcoming destinations on our Christmas 2012 adventure include Cochrane, Edmonton, and {the wee little town of} St. Paul. Fingers crossed the nearly 40 hours on the road will go easy on us…

♥

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Felt Board Name Game & My Favourite Fonts

12 / 21 / 123 / 22 / 14

One of Grae’s favourite quiet indoor activities is playing with her felt board. It’s a good thing, because I love making new felt board games for her just as much as she loves playing with them. This is a super simple “game” that takes no time and very little skill to make, and is perfect for munchkins who are interested in letters or ready to begin learning to spell their names.

But before I begin, a few questions I’ve been asked about felt boards recently…

Where can I buy a felt board?

You can buy them at almost any teaching supply store (and even some toy stores that carry educational games), but it is very, VERY simple to create one on your own using a large sheet of felt (purchased at a craft or fabric store), a frame with with glass removed, and some glue. Making your own also means that you get to choose your size, felt colour, and frame colour, plus it’s a really inexpensive project – win! Here is a simple tutorial on how I made Miss G’s.

Dumb question, but do the felt pieces just stick onto the felt board without glue or velcro or anything else?

Yes! The beauty of a felt board is that felt sticks to felt, making felt board games good for hours of interactive fun. No glue, tape, or velcro needed. ☺

What kind of felt do you use for your projects? Is the cheap stuff found at dollar stores okay?

For felt board games, the inexpensive stuff made of recycled bottles is perfect. It costs about 30 cents per sheet, comes in tons of different colours, and can be purchased from dollar stores and craft stores.

Do you cut out every shape freehand or do you have a website where you print out shapes to trace onto the felt for cutting?

To be honest, I cut out many of the shapes freehand just because for me, it’s easier than finding a template online, printing it off, and using it as a cutting guideline. That being said, if I’m creating something more complex, I sometimes draw on the backside of the felt (the slightly shinier side) with chalk (it’s easy to wipe off afterwards) before cutting. For letters, I always print them off using a word processing program first and use them as a guide (as I did for the name game below) because I find them trickier. If you’re not a super drawer/cutter, you can always use Google images, search for your desired shapes, print them off, and use them to make the cutting process easier.

Okay, so here’s how I made Grae’s new name game…

First off, I gathered the materials… Some felt, straight pins, scissors (smaller sharp ones work best for felt), and the letters of her name printed in 300 point Illuminate font. (See some of my other favourite fonts below.)

Next, I quickly cut out around the letters, getting rid of the extra paper.

With the letters prepared, I pinned them onto my felt pieces using a single pin per letter. (Pinning right on the letter as seen in the case of the ‘r’ and the ‘e’ makes life easier… do it that way instead of pinning in the centres of the letters.)

Next, using my small, sharp scissors, I cut the letters out, cutting through both the paper and the felt at once.

The last step involves taking the pins out and removing the paper.

Voila! Easy felt letters. Now it’s time to play.

Depending on the age and interest level of your child, you could add in the letters for their middle and last names, or cut out all of the letters of the alphabet, allowing them to experiment with making other words too.

To see more easy to make at home felt board activities, click here.

Another thing I’ve been asked about a lot lately is about the fonts I use regularly here on Mama.Papa.Bubba., so I’ve put together a little collection of some of my current favourites, including Illuminate, the one I used for this project. All of them are free and Mac-friendly. Simply click on the links below to download them.

My Own Topher // Penna

SPRINGTIME // MARI & DAVID

appleberry // LoveLove

Aria Penci Roman // geeker

Matilde // SIMON SCRIPT

Janda Safe and Sound

Illuminate // Girth Control

arsenale white // HEAVY WEIGHT

MARKUS INK // RETURN TO SENDER

Elsie Tall n Skinny

Lavanderia // ANTELOPE

♥

Sticker Matching Game

12 / 20 / 1212 / 9 / 13

This morning I woke up to this post from Kiwi Crate in my inbox, which turned out to be a perfect afternoon activity for Miss G. The moment I nonchalantly mentioned a ‘sticker matching game’, she was ready to go.

Luckily, this little activity takes very little prep work. Miss G helped me gather some paper, some dot stickers, a Sharpie, and some scissors.

To get started, I folded a green sheet of construction paper in half, and cut out a tree shape freehand.

Next, I used the Sharpie to draw 15 unique shapes onto the dot stickers (the original post uses letters instead of shapes, but I thought this would be a better starting point for Miss G).

Next, I drew matching shapes on the tree. And that was it. The game was ready.

Then I let Miss G go. All I said was “Do you want to try this sticker matching game?” and she started peeling stickers off of the backing. I wasn’t sure what she’d do, but she automatically placed the polka dotted circle sticker on top of the polka dotted circle drawn on the paper. Smart little cookie! ☺

And from there, she powered through the rest of the stickers.

Let me tell you, Miss G adores matching games. Mix in stickers, which she also adores, and this game couldn’t be more perfect for her.

Done!

Of course, the second she finished her tree she tilted her head to the side and said, “Grae Grae does anover sticker matching game, Mama?” And really, how can you say no to that? This time, we went with something a little different… I cut out a quick gingerbread person and used the stickers as body parts and decorations.

She loved this one too and pleaded for another.

This time I decided to try the letter idea.

I wasn’t sure if it would be too much for her, but off she went and carefully started making matches.

It definitely took her a little more time, but she happily worked on it on her own as I tidied the house.

“Mama, Mama! All done!!!”

This was such a fun and simple activity that we’ll definitely be doing it again soon (VERY soon – as in tomorrow – if it’s up to Miss G).

♥

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A First: Snowman Building

12 / 19 / 121 / 6 / 13

Those of you who know Vancouver, know that snow around these parts is a rarity. It barely makes an appearance, and when it does, it’s for a very brief amount of time. Before long, it begins to melt and the city is a slushy rainy mess in no time. This time around, however, we were lucky enough to hang onto much of yesterday’s snow, plus get a fresh batch early this morning. To make the most of it, this Grae and I spent the morning outside playing, walking, and sledding in it, plus we shovelled our walkway and sidewalk, as well as those of the neighbours on either side of us.

This evening, after picking up Papa from work, we decided to stay out and enjoy it just a little longer… This time by making Miss G’s first ever snowmen.

Meet Tess. A mama snowman (snowlady?) who is 2 years old.

Gracen loves her so.

And despite how it may appear, this is a kiss and not a nose nibble.

Tess’ plastic hat just wasn’t working for her. Time to switch it up. This one has Grae’s stamp of approval.

Meet Yess. Mama’s baby boy snowman who is 1 year old.

I’d say she had a great first snowman experience… Now what to tell her when her beloved Tess and Yess begin melting away…

♥

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The First Snow {2012]

12 / 18 / 1212 / 25 / 12

Though not a lot, Miss G has definitely seen snow before. But today, when she woke up and I whisked her off to the window to show her the surprise that had arrived overnight, she said to me, “Mama? What’s dat white stuff?”

With that, we promptly layered on some winter gear on top of our pajamas and headed outside to play in the {barely there} first snow of the year.

“Dis is snow? Santa likes snow.”