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It amazes me how quickly stores make the switch from Halloween into full Christmas mode. It is hard not to feel a slight bit of panic November 1st when the Christmas decorations fill the shelves, holiday music fills the air, and you realize Christmas is just around the corner. I hate the crowds, but I love shopping this time of year and seeing all the Christmas themed clothing, toys, decorations, housewares and books.

This year I am hoping to start a new tradition with the kids. One of the ideas I have seen floating around the internet is to wrap a stack of books for them to open in the night’s leading up to Christmas. Books are already part of our bedtime routine so I thought this would be a great way to bring a bit more Christmas magic and excitement into our house. I have seen it done as a 30 day advent calendar, but I think I will shorten it and have enough books wrapped to read for the 12 days before Christmas.

We already have a few Christmas books that I will wrap, but I stopped at Cole’s bookstore yesterday to quickly browse and see if there was anything new that caught my eye. I was immediately drawn to a stack of books titled Santa is Coming to Ottawa by Steve Smallman. I picked it up, disappointed it wasn’t Santa is Coming to Edmonton and then was delighted to discover that exact title hidden beneath the Ottawa edition. As I flipped through the pages and saw the references to neighbourhoods and landmarks in our city, I knew it was a perfect Christmas book to add to our growing collection.

The illustrations in this book are beautiful and I love that they show the familiar landmarks like the High Level Bridge, Art Gallery, Muttart Conservatory and Rexall Place. I am not sure my kids will be quite old enough to recognize and pick them out this year, but I see them getting excited over it in the upcoming years. My three year old has just started asking about where we live and trying to figure the world around us, so I really love the relevancy of this book.

This book is just one of many in the series. Other major Canadian cities that Santa is Coming to include Calgary, Vancouver, Hull, Ottawa, Toronto or just Canada. For my American friends, there is a wide variety of titles that cover states and major cities from across the country. And, because he is a British author, there is a vast range of English and European titles such as London, Belfast, and Scotland.

And if these still don’t work for you? There is simply Santa is Coming to My House.

Visit the Chapters/Indigo/Coles website to find all the Santa is Coming to titles.

Everyday Life, Two Legged Fun

Little Talks

November 4, 2013November 8, 2013 chantelledoll

There is no denying that my son is a big mama’s boy. While I complain about it and pretend to not like it, in the end I feel very blessed to be the center of his little world. On the rare occasion that I do try to get out of the house alone, it usually turns into a heated debate between the two of us over why he doesn’t always need to come everywhere with mommy. His response is “But you’re my MOM. I do just always have to go with you!” It is hard to compete with an argument like that.

He’s stubborn, whiney, and rarely listens – he’s 3. He’s also sweet, smart, funny and incredibly loving. When I am upset over something, he is always quick to say “It’s just okay mommy” and offer up a hug. When we lost our bulldog I was worried about trying to explain death to him, but he ended up understanding and helping my husband and I with it more then we could have imagined. One of my fondest memories is, and will probably always be, of all 4 of us cramming into our walk-in closet with our hound dog the day after we lost Bullini. We were all hurting and Camden’s encouragement to join Nova in her favorite sleeping spot with a picture of Bullini really helped bond us as a family through that tough time.

During the day, one of favourite times with Camden is our conversations in the car. If you asked me what radio station my car was tuned into, I would not be able to tell you. When I was on my own I used to blast my music and had a bad habit of passing the time constantly flipping through the stations to find a good song. Since Camden has been talking, I barely touch the radio dials except to turn the volume way down or off to better hear what my little guy has to say.

“What are those tractors doing mommy?”
“Look at those big cranes!”
“There’s old McDonalds! Can I get a Happy Meal?”
“It’s green now, GOOOO!!!”.

Yes, he’s a bit of a backseat driver but I’ll let him get away with it for now.

At night, I love his requests for “snuggles” and “more talks” after storytime. Daddy doesn’t indulge him with this so bedtime usually takes 3x as long for me, but it is time well spent. We get each others undivided attention to discuss what the best part of the day was and what we’re going to do the next morning. Our conversations also usually turn to important three year old boy topics like super heroes, ninja moves, or bodily functions and always end with a bog hug and kiss as I tuck him in. I know these requests for snuggles aren’t going to last forever, so I am going to do my best to enjoy them while I can.

When I was first pregnant with Camden, I really wanted a boy. I never had a big brother so I love seeing that dynamic between my kids and the amazing big brother that Camden has been from day one. Family always seems to be on his mind and he makes sure to include us in all of his latest obsessions. We went through a phase of being called the duck family and it brought a smile to my face every time he began a sentence with “Mommy duck ….” or “Daddy duck … “. From there we have gone on to be the Angry Bird family, the Superhero family, and the latest – the Ninja Turtle Family. I’m Donatello, “The Brains”, in case you’re wondering, and Camden has deemed himself Michelangelo, “The Wild One”. Daddy is Raphael “The Muscle” and little sister, Keira, gets to be Leonardo “The Leader”.

Camden has always has a fairly calm and laid back personality so I don’t know if I agree with his “Wild One” title, but who am I to question 3 year old logic. As long as he continues to be the kind and compassionate boy I know and have grown to love, he is free to call himself whatever he wants. I will be there to listen, encourage and just enjoy our little talks.

Doll House, Our Forever Home

We’ll be home for Christmas…

November 4, 2013 chantelledoll

In our current home, that is.

I haven’t updated on the progress of our new house in a while because there hasn’t been too much exciting happening for the past couple months. The finisher has just finished installing baseboards, interior doors and closet shelving and the glass panels have been installed in the railing. There is progress being made, but it is a bit slower then we had hoped and it is looking like we will get possession mid January.

I was REALLY hoping to be in before Christmas. We packed up all the Christmas stuff nicely last year to have it ready to move. I had visions of Christmas in the new house and having my little guy write a letter to Santa telling him the new address to bring his toys to. I was planning to buy the kids a play kitchen because we’d now have room for it, but I think it might wait now since it will just be one more big item to move.

Now I am faced with the dilemma as to whether or not it is worth the effort to haul out all the Christmas stuff and then repack it all again to be moved a few weeks after. I am sure we’ll be busy with all kinds of other packing and preparing for the move over Christmas so I really think the best solution will be to keep Christmas pretty low key in our house this year. This will be a challenge for me.

I can’t say that I am not disappointed, but I do know this really isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things. We still have a roof over our heads. We will still have Christmas. And most important we will all be together as a family. Plus this just means I will have plenty of time to prepare for next year and go all out for our first Christmas at the new house.

Celebrations, Gift Ideas

Treat Filled Pumpkin Balloons

October 31, 2013April 11, 2014 chantelledoll

I wanted to bring something special for the kids at playgroup this week and found this cute DIY Pumpkin Patch from one of my favorite party blogs Hostess with the Mostess. After gathering up some orange balloons, green ribbon and small treats, I set to work following the great tutorial on Hostess with the Mostess.

To help get the treats in the balloons, I cut off a chocolate milk bottle and put each balloon on the end. Suckers may not have been the best treat choice because I did end up with a few deflated balloons, but luckily I still had enough pumpkins for all the kids. Other treats I included inside were chocolate foil pumpkins, a piece of candy corn saltwater toffee, a small glowstick and Halloween stickers.

Once filled and inflated, the toughest job was drawing on all the faces in permanent marker. To finish off my pumpkins I used some ribbon and tied on a leaf shaped tag that read “From Camden and Keira”.

We also had to bring a treat to playgroup that day so I made this delicious Pumpkin Fluff Dip I found on the Kraft Canada website. I served it with some sliced apples, cinnamon sugar pita’s and ginger snaps. I am not sure too many of the kids ate it, but us mommy’s sure liked it!

Crafts, Little Hands

Halloween Wall Hanging Kids Craft

October 31, 2013October 13, 2015 chantelledoll

Tuesday morning we celebrated Halloween at playgroup with snacks, costumes and a Halloween themed craft. Leading craft time has been my duty for the last couple months and I have spent a lot of time on pinterest trying to find toddler appropriate crafts. When I saw these Halloween Paper Plate Crafts through Tip Junkie, I knew right away they were what I wanted to make for our Halloween craft. I love the cute, simple shapes and thought they were something nice enough for the mom’s to actually hang in their homes as a Halloween decoration. Continue reading “Halloween Wall Hanging Kids Craft” →

Celebrations, Everyday Life, Two Legged Fun

Our Hectic, Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2013November 1, 2013 chantelledoll

It has been an incredibly busy week for me with Halloween preparation and festivities. We had a Halloween party at playgroup on Tuesday for that I prepared treat-filled pumpkins and a Halloween wall hanging craft for. On Wednesday I carved our pumpkin and we were out and about almost all day on actual Halloween.

Camden was a Ninja Turtle for Halloween. I looked everywhere to buy a costume, but the toddler sized one seemed to be out of stock everywhere I found it in-store or online. Luckily, I had ordered this awesome Michelangelo hoodie from Mamabargains.com earlier in the summer and it ended up being his costume. To complete the look, I found a pair of green pants I safety pinned orange bands to (cut from a dollarstore tea towel!) and I repurposed the shell from a 6-12m sized turtle costume into his ninja shell by pinning it to one of his old mini backpacks and adding on toy nunchuks. The turtle treat bucket and turtle socks were Target find’s.

My original plan for Keira was to make my little Doll into a cabbage patch, but that was quickly abandoned after several tantrums just attempting to try the yarn wig on her. I had some returns to make to Old Navy late last week and just happened to notice their costumes were marked 50% off so I decided it was probably easier to pick up a costume for her. The leopard wasn’t my original plan, but it still turned out pretty cute!

Last year I carved a Spiderman pumpkin to match Camden’s Spiderman costume so it only made sense to make a Ninja Turtle this year. I started with a pumpkin from my mom’s garden and spray painted it green. I then carved out the turtle mask, eyes and mouth. It was a lot of scraping and cutting but the final result was worth it.

And the treats we handed out? Ninja Turtle candy, of course!

Camden’s weekly preschool class fell on Halloween so he got to wear his costume and spend the morning playing Halloween games, trick or treating around the recreation centre and creating a Halloween craft. The morning started off very well when we got to class and Camden discovered one of his little buddies was Raphael – I think the two of them ended up being inseparable for the morning because of their shared love of Ninja Turtles.

While Camden was in class, Keira and I made a quick run to Walmart to get her a treat bucket and then went back to the rec centre to play at the indoor playground. We also stopped for mom to enjoy a treat – a pumpkin spice latte.

After lunch and an unsuccessful attempt at a nap, the kids and I headed out to enjoy the Halloween festivities at one of the local malls – Bonnie Doon Centre. It was a little out of the way for us, but I am so glad I chose this mall over the closer one we went to last year. It was far less crowded and they had trick-or-treating as well as all kinds of kids friendly activities including crafts. bouncy castles, face painting, balloon animals and a petting zoo. We will definitely be going back next year if they offer the same event.

After the mall, we came home to have dinner with daddy (pizza for our little turtle) and then Camden and I headed out trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood. We didn’t go far, but his turtle pail filled up quickly and we now have more then enough candy and chips for the next several months!

And not to be left out of the fun, our hockey hound wore her Edmonton Oiler’s Jersey and Rumbull dressed up as the Rufferee. I know some people find it ridiculous to dress up dogs, but I have always done it and enjoy it. There is also something about a dog in costume that makes them look far less intimidating to the trick-or-treaters coming to our door!

So there you have Halloween 2013 with the Doll’s. It was a busy day, but well worth it to see the smiles on my kids faces. As we were walking home from trick-or-treating, my little guy kissed my hand and told me what a nice mom I was. I am so lucky I get to make these memories with them!

Celebrations, Parties, Recipes, Sweet

Cakes: Machine’s and Monkey’s for Max

October 29, 2013 chantelledoll

This weekend we celebrated my nephew’s 2nd birthday. My sister and her husband just bought their first home so they have been very busy these past weeks moving in and working on home improvement projects. She is also 7 months pregnant so I can only imagine how exhausted she is between chasing a 2 year old and unpacking. Because of all this, and because I enjoy doing it, I offered to bake and decorate the cake for my nephew’s birthday party.

My sister has mentioned Max is into tractors and construction vehicles lately so I knew it would make a good theme for his cake. I started with a 5 pack of small CAT toys I found at Target for $6 and decided to build a chocolately construction zone for them. My cake decorating skills can still use some improving, so I loved that the mud and dirt on this cake didn’t require perfectly smooth icing to look good.

Finishing details included green icing grass and small chocolate rocks. The “dirt” was Oreo cookie crumbs. For the final touches, I printed out some construction style signs with the birthday boy’s name and age to stick into the cake with the “2” candle.

I am not sure the birthday boy ate much of his cake, but he sure did enjoy playing with the tractors and trucks on it so I would call that a success.

The actual cake was from a mix and the icing was just a basic chocolate buttercream. Inside was a delicious Oreo cheesecake filling. I didn’t get a picture to show it in it’s full glory, but trust me it was tasty and definitely worth trying on your next cake. I *may* have even eaten the leftover filling on it’s own by the spoonful.

Oreo Cheesecake Filling

1 Package of cream cheese (8 oz)
1 tub of Cool Whip
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 row of Oreo Cookies, crushed

To make filling, blend room temperature cream cheese. Add in defrosted Cool Whip and vanilla extract, then mix until smooth. Gently fold in crushed Oreo’s.

Max’s First Birthday Monkey Cake

I also had the priviledge of making the cake for Max’s first birthday last year. I went with a monkey theme and ended up doing a large cake for the party guests and a small monkey just for the birthday boy. To get the round cake shape, I baked the cake in my Pampered Chef batter bowl. The cake was also baked from a mix and I used the same chocolate buttercream as the construction cake, with some banana flavored icing for the mouth and ears and melted chocolate for the mouth, hair and eye details.

I do enjoy cake decorating and love that this gives me a chance to both practice my skills and give my nephew something special for his birthday. I am afraid I may have started a trend and will now be asked to make the cakes for all upcoming birthdays, but I think I am okay with that!

Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites: Sample Source

October 25, 2013October 25, 2013 chantelledoll

I love getting packages in the mail and I love getting free things. Sample source is the best of both worlds. All it takes is a quick sign-up online, a brief survey to select your products and then a short wait for your samples to come to you.

My latest package came this week and this time around I got:

a mini Dove Men Care deodorant
a sample bag of Tetley Chai tea
a sample of Ice Breakers Frost mints
a coupon for one free full size package of Catelli Gluten Free Pasta

Once signed up with Sample Source, you will get email notification every couple of months when there is another batch of samples available. You have to be pretty quick to get the better items, but it is worth it because you can get some pretty decent things.

In the past I have received travel size shampoo, conditioner and body wash samples, mouthwash, toothpaste, laundry and dish detergents tabs, Mr Clean Magic Erasers and Gillette razors. My sister has been signed up for a few years now and actually collected a lot of stuff through Sample Source and to use for the guest bathroom baskets at her wedding.

It is a fun surprise to receive in the mail and I love being able to try out new products before I commit to the full sized versions!

Recipes, Sweet

Carrot Cake Cheesecake Cupcakes

October 23, 2013October 23, 2013 chantelledoll

If you are anything like me, you have all kinds of yummy stuff pinned on pinterest that you want to eventually try some day, but haven’t actually gotten around to making many of the recipes. It is probably better that my pin boards continue to grow instead of my waistline, but once in a while there is a recipe I come across that I deem worthy of the extra effort and calories.

When I saw these Carrot Cake Cheesecake Cupcakes from Crazy for Crust, I knew it was one of those recipes. Usually I tend towards all things chocolate, but the carrot and cream cheese combination appealed to me instantly and I knew it was something I had to make. I have been waiting for an excuse to attempt them and this week I finally found my reason.

Tommorow, my good friend Linda from playgroup will be undergoing surgery on her knees to help with the back issues she has been having. She will be missing out on the fun and treats for our Halloween party next week and won’t be back to playgroup for several weeks, so I wanted to do something special for her. I recall a discussion where she told me of her love of cream cheese icing and how she has even gone so far as to eat it by the spoonful directly from the container. Whipping up a batch of icing would have been much simpler, but I figured these carrot cake cheesecake cupcakes would make a pretty tasty vehicle for the cream cheese icing! I was not disappointed.

Carrot Cake Cheesecake Cupcakes

Carrot Cake Layer:

1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup shredded carrots

Preheat oven to 350°. Line muffin pan with liners.
Make the cake batter: In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in carrots.
Distribute evenly between 12 muffin liners. Set aside.

Cheesecake Layer:

1 pack (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

Make the cheesecake batter by mixing together the cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla. Pour evenly on top of cake batter in muffin pan.
Step over snoring bulldog at your feet to get to oven. *Optional
Bake for about 25 minutes, until cheesecake is no longer runny. Cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the frosting: Using a mixer, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar and vanilla and blend.

Store in refrigerator. Yield: 12 cupcakes

I brought enough to share with the other ladies at playgroup, and packaged up a few extras for Linda to take home with her.

The recipe has a few steps, but it is fairly simple and straightforward. I doubled the quantities which meant it required 4 whole bricks of cream cheese between the cheesecake layer and the icing. While I was happy to be able to buy my cream cheese in bulk at Costco, I am now at a loss about what to do with the remainder of my giant bag of Costco carrots. At only $5 for the bag, dealing with 10 lbs of carrots seemed much easier then having to make a stop at a second grocery store with kids in tow.

Please feel free to share your best carrot recipes in the comments below!

Celebrations, Parties

An Elephant Baby Shower

October 22, 2013October 22, 2013 chantelledoll

My adorable curly-haired little nephew Max celebrated his birthday this week. I don’t get the chance to see him as often as I would like, but when I do I always enjoy visiting and seeing how he has grown. They change so fast and it is hard to believe it has been now been over two years already since I hosted the baby shower for my sister in his honour.

Décor
With Max, my sister knew she was having a little boy, so I decided right away on a green, blue and grey color scheme. For the overall theme, I chose elephants because my sister had a stuffed elephant growing up that she was very attached to and I think still sleeps with to this day. The main graphics I used were an “oh boy.” typographic image and a picture of a mom and baby elephant intertwined. These were used on the invite, banner and food toppers.

I created a simple wreath for the front door and strung articles of baby clothing with elephants on them across the front window of my mom’s house. Paper lanterns were put up across the food table with the “It’s a Boy!” banner and a felt elephant mobile I crafted up got hung from the kitchen light at the middle of the table. I also found small paper mache elephants at Michaels so those got put out on the food table.

Food

The shower was help in the mid afternoon so I served a range of finger foods and sweets. Savory items included spinach dip cups, pigs in a blanket, sweet and sour meatballs, bruschetta and garlic toast, stuffed mushrooms, and surprise dip with tortilla chips.

For the sweet items, I made fruit bouquets in green and blue flower pots, baked and decorated elephant shaped sugar cookies and made a mini cupcake display. For the cupcakes, we had chocolate cake with mint frosting and white cake with a banana flavored frosting. To keep with the elephant theme, they were all topped with a small marshmallow peanut.

One other fun sweet item I made was blue candy popcorn. The labels were custom designed by myself and put on small wedding favor boxes, then filled with a basic sugar popcorn recipe. I love the pink colored elephant brand popcorn when I was growing up, so I thought this was a fun twist on it.

Games

I know a lot of people dread the typical baby shower games, so I tried to come up with some fun games that wouldn’t embarrass anyone or require my guests to eat disgusting mush. I decided on two games – Baby Scattegories and a Price is Right style game using baby items. I think the guests all enjoyed it and afterwards the mom-to-be was able to take the Price is Right items and put them to use with her new baby.

Favors

As guests left, they were given small bottles of hand santizer with custom designed labels I ordered from stickeryou. They were quick and easy and I think they turned out pretty cute.

So there you have it. Like any shower or party, I had a lot of fun designing and planning this special day for my little sister. She is expecting again this December and while I won’t be throwing another baby shower for this new niece or nephew, I am just as excited for their arrival.

You can also view my Elephant Baby Shower planning board on pinterest.