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Monday, December 26, 2011

SCIENCE CENTER

We have been members of the Science Centre for 2 years now and well our membership is up for renewal on Feb 2, 2012.  I think it took us a total of 10 minutes to decide that it was once again worth shelling out the big bucks for the membership.  This year we will probably get a gold membership as it is only a little more then a family membership and as of March 1 the C Monster no longer gets in for free. It takes about 4 visits to make up the membership cost and well I am pretty certain we went at least 12 times if not more in the past year.  I am pretty certain if I would bring the C Monster there every day he still would never get bored of it...




Sunday, December 25, 2011

NOEL...

This is not only C Monster's first Christmas in our new house but it's the first Christmas that we spend all together in Toronto as we typically go home to New Brunswick.  Here is our morning in video and pictures...

The C Monster got us up at 7am after a good night sleep....



The C Monster giving Papa his Tardis Cookie Jar.  He selected this all by himself for papa.


The aftermath...


Hot chocolate; pancakes; egg and sausage for breakfast.


Breakfast for the squirrels; they need Christmas presents too.


Thank you everyone...






Saturday, December 24, 2011

*JOYEUX NOEL * MERRY CHRISTMAS * HAPPY HOLIDAYS * HAPPY HANUKKAH * FELIZ NAVIDAD*



Thursday, December 22, 2011

HOLIDAY DECOR

I posted a little while back a picture of our tree here are a few more shots of our holiday decorations...

Our kitchen table all dressed up.  I have to say I love this table cloth I found at Loblaws...

The C Monster's Tree.  We were at Canadian Tire a few weeks back and C wanted this tree I was not going to spend 100$ on a tree for his bedroom.  On the weekend we stopped in at Canadian Tire for something else and the tree was marked down to $29.99; this made for a happy little boy.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

FRIENDS...

I have to say I am blessed to have found some amazing moms in my hood.

I love the fact that on almost any given day I have a group of great friends that I can text and there will pretty much always be someone available for a play-date.  It really helps past the long days that can get very lonely for a SAHM.

On Monday we were at Sallyanne's house ( a close friend) and I took this picture of her daughter that I just had to share as it is way too cute...

The Baby G Monster Rocking her uncles hat.

On Tuesday that same group of friends came over for a Holiday Party.  I really loved hosting a party for them and their children; I do not want to even imagine life as a SAHM without all these wonderful people in it.

This post is dedicated to all our friends HAPPY HOLIDAYS.



WHATS THAT DRIPPING FROM THE LIGHT?

We knew when we moved in that we would have to re-do the caulking in the upstairs bathroom as it looked pretty bad. However we were hoping that it could wait a month or so.  We were wrong!  On Sunday morning Geoff noticed a puddle on the kitchen floor; well it was coming from the recessed light in the ceiling and last time I checked pot lights did not come with a fountain feature.  Since I had just finished taking my shower and the light is pretty much located directly underneath the bathroom it did not take a long time to put 2 and 2 together.  Now I need to re-paint the ceiling in the kitchen too but that is not a rush will get to it in maybe 10 years ;-)



Sunday, December 18, 2011

A GREAT WEEK

Just the other day I was asked by another stay at home mom (much newer to the gig then me; she had a 14 month old) don't you find the days long.  My immediate answer was NO, I wish I had more time.  She then asked me what do you do all day with him?

I decided it would be fun to do a blog post about just that what did we do this week...

MONDAY
Morning play date with friends at our house 
Lunch with Papa
Afternoon trip at Canadian Tire to buy ice skates


TUESDAY
Played with his toys while I unpacked 
Lunch with Papa
Decorated our gingerbread train
Played with trains; the train tracks is still out as I am writing this...




WEDNESDAY
Spent the morning at Roden Parenting Centre, since our playgroup got canceled due to the mom hosting being sick (I hate this cold that is going around plaguing our neighbourhood)
Home for lunch with Papa
Played with his toys for a bit and watched a Christmas movie

THURSDAY
Doctors in the morning C monster got his men. vaccine
Lunch at Papa work with his coworkers.  C Monster just loves going there I think it all the attention he gets.
Afternoon out at the Movies.  We saw Happy Feet 2 in 3D.

FRIDAY
Morning play date with friends at our house
Pizza Pizza Lunch with friends
Afternoon library trip
Bough a Christmas gift for the cat, was C monster idea
Afternoon snack at Lazy Daisy Cafe
Wrapped papa's present
Then home to make supper

AND THE WEEK IS MAGICALLY OVER



Wednesday, December 14, 2011

PLAY TABLE

Now that the C monster has a play room we decided that we should get him a nice play table that he can make puzzles on or play games at.  I wanted something on larger size as the room he has is pretty big and this way he could have friends join him at the table.  Below are a few of my favourite choices...

Rectangular Activity Table from Kapland:





Caspar from Perludi:




However we have decided to retrofit a desk my dad made for me when I was about 16 into a kids table stay tuned for some pictures of the transformation.

CHRISTMAS AT THE WISEMAN

Last Sunday, after realizing we did not have all the pieces of our artificial Christmas tree, Geoff rushed out to Home Depot to pick up a real tree.  This is the first real tree I have bought since I live in Toronto (I have been here over 10 years now).  I forgot how nice they smell and how messy they are; but it's worth it.


I also found my lovely advent calendar that Geoff got me from Etsy a few years back; it's a little late but the C Monster still enjoys his daily chocolate covered almond...




Saturday, December 10, 2011

HERE KID HAVE 1/2 CUP OF SUGAR FOR BREAKFAST

The EWG has recently reviewed 84 popular brands of cereal in the United States and found out that many of them have more than 25% sugar per weight and some reaching 50% of weight being sugar.  I mentioned the United States because sometimes a product sold in Canada does not have the same ingredients as the one sold in the United States. That being said I am pretty certain that this list is still worrisome for Canadians and Fruits Loops are a dessert not breakfast.

Since the C Monster only eats Rice Crispies and Cheerios on a regular basis, I decided to look up the cereals I grew up on...
(Keep in mind a Twinkies has aprox. 42% sugar per weight and 4 chip ahoy cookies have aprox. 32% of sugar per weight.)

Fruit Loops - sugar per weight 41.4%
Honey Combs - sugar per weight 31.3%
Shreddies - sugar per weight 16%
Rice Crispies - sugar per weight 12.1%
Cheerios - sugar per weight 3.6%
Count Chocula - sugar per weight 37%

I have to say I was surprised by Rice Crispies I thought they would have been similar to Cheerios; I guess I need to read labels a bit more carefully.

If you want to do the math yourself it's easy : 
g of sugar in serving  / g of serving x 100 = %







Friday, December 9, 2011

5TH DAY IN NEW HOUSE IN PICTURES

Main - Living Room

Main - Playroom
Main - Breakfast Nook
Main - Kitchen



2nd Floor - Master Bed
2nd Floor - C Monster's Bedroom
2nd Floor - C Monster's Bedroom
2nd Floor - Hall & Guest Bedroom
3rd Floor - Library/Art Studio
3rd Floor - Office
Basement - Laundry Room 
Basement - Entertainment Room













C MONSTER'S NEW BEDROOM

To convince C Monster to select the room we wanted for him we told him he could chose the colour we would painted it.  I went to the hardware store and selected a dozen colours for him to chose from; that way it would not end up black.  He selected a colour called "mac n cheese" and the name says it all. 


I ended up needing a little over a gallon to paint his room; bigger house, bigger rooms = more paint required then I estimated.  We picked up the paint at Paint Depot on Queen Street East, I highly recommend them.  As always we used Sico paints; they have a no VOC latex base paint. However the tinting colour added to the base is not VOC free. I will post pictures of his room after the room has all been set up.

A sneak peek at C Monster's Room... 





A pre-schooler description of sugar

"when I eat it it smells like candy"


Saturday, December 3, 2011

1st Snow...

On wednesday this week Toronto had it's first snow.  The weather has been incredible this fall I think I have only worn my winter coat maybe a dozen times if that; most days I still only put my fall coat on my way out.  The snow did not stay as we saw some days since then with plus 4; a few more of those to go and winter is here on Monday, I think this time to stay as all the above zero days seem to be gone after that.


Since we have all our snow gear in storage so I could not entertain Christophe wish to go rolling around in the snow I convinced him that play-doh would be an acceptable alternative.


Readers out there if you have home made play-doh recipes that you like please share...

Thursday, December 1, 2011

I OWN 2 HOUSES... WELL FOR A WEEK.

The deal closed and the new house is ours.  We have been over twice now to check the house and move a few things.  Geoff is happy that he now has a garage to store his bike each winter.  However the drive there this AM must have been chilly for him.

BIG RED BOX
When we opened our front door yesterday there was a big red box waiting in the entrance for us.  With FATBOY written in an unmissable font on all sides.  It was Geoff's xmas present.  I ordered it on the 29th at midnight and it arrived in the afternoon on the 30th - that is quick service.  That being said it only took Geoff about 30 mins to remember what a Fatboy is.  No big surprise for Geoff this year...  well he was surprised but 3 weeks early.





FRONT HALL RENO
All in all the house looked as we expected minus a few things; the sellers took the hooks in the front hall with them.  They were not our style so it's really not a big deal the only issue is I now have to buy something soon instead of waiting.  I also have to paint the front hall now as the paint got ripped up when they took off the hooks; once again I really disliked the colour they had chosen for the front hall.  So I guess it will all work itself out.  Stay tuned for more picture of our front hall reno.