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How to Host a TMNT birthday party!

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So my little man turned 4 (well actually not till the 19th but that’s just a small technicality). He’s currently quite confused about how old he really is, either way he wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Party this year and thus I had to get a little bit more acquainted with the four green guys. I was pretty aware of the basics but didn’t know about some of the details. If you’re looking for more information on our birthday parties please visit our Birthday Page!The most ironic thing is that he hasn’t even watched the show, he just knows them from observations.  The first craft we did to get the ball rolling was his turtle shell. Check out our instagram post for details on how to make it. Ollie wore the shell the entire day that we made it, went “ninja-ing” around all day, and then on the actual day of his party, he had zero interested in wearing his shell, go figure. Next we planned an obstacle course and a scavenger hunt (both TMNT related). For the obstacle …

Own your sh*t

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You make a parenting booboo, now what? You know you screwed up, but how do you fix it? Here’s a perfect example of this: 5 weeks after my daughter was born, I ventured out to run some errands with both kids in tow and ended up in the dollar store. My son who was almost 3 at the time wanted every plastic, colourful thing he could get his hands on and after a million no’s he asked me for a police set, I was half asleep and didn’t even look at the package and what it contained. The next thing is, we’re walking down the street and my son is holding a black gun shooting it at strangers. Ok, so I screwed up. Now what? I had said he could get the package. If that wasn’t bad enough, we then also bought him some water guns. We weren’t letting him watch violent television shows so, why not let him be a little kid, let him play cowboys and indians, cops and robbers or whatever other good guy …

The Ins and Outs of Family Finances

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By Julia Davidson Julia is a CPA, CA with a background in corporate finance, accounting and financial restructuring. She is also the co-founder of Murray & Bee, a parent to parent marketplace for used baby and kid gear, which was created because she and her partner wanted to buy high quality baby product at lower prices and encourage sustainable lifestyles. As guest blogger, Julia has agreed to answer your budget related questions. Please email her at julia@murrayandbee.com.  The Ins and Outs of Family Finances When my son hit the three month mark and the adrenaline I was operating under wore off, we started to have some resemblance of a routine and I had a small amount of time to myself again. This was the first time I had a chance to reflect on life as a mom and the changes that had occurred. As much as I loved it, I started to look back somewhat longingly towards my time as a DINK. It was something I never appreciated at the time but as a Double …

Sleepover Party!

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Recently we hosted a very cute “sleepover party” – which was just the theme – the kids certainly did not sleep over! We had an ice cream bar, popcorn bar, pizza making station and pillow case decorating! We also got to watch a movie on our projector, while enjoying our popcorn. The kids loved it and it’s definitely an easy party to recreate in your own home. The popcorn bar was super simple to make. I purchased the red and white bags from the dollar store. The white container with the popcorn and smaller candy bins were purchased from Ikea. The little shakers and the chalkboard labels another great find from the dollar store. Finally, the popcorn sign was a purchase from Michaels, it was on sale and then I used chalkboard paint and voila! No party is complete without a pink lemonade stand. I purchased the glass container from William Sonoma but I’ve also seen them in a smaller version available at Kitchen Stuff Plus. The pizza bar took a little bit of prepping as I had to make …

A Tea Party!

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My little girl turned one last Wednesday and this past Sunday we celebrated her birthday with a little Tea Party. Every detail of the party was a great DIY project. That meant lots of time management on my end to get it done, practice definitely makes perfect with these types of events. The background for the sweet table (minus the fabrics and scrapbook paper) was all made out of dollar store supplies. The burlap banner is a new item I came across recently at the dollar store and have used it for several different craft projects. The dollies come in a pack of 100 and well, you can never have too many of those! The flowers on the bottom bunting another fabulous dollar store find! The boxes that the tiered stands are on and the easel with the canvas board, also purchases from the amazing dollar store.  A great way to add some style to a cake is to add flowers, note though, lots of flowers are not edible and not even safe to put …

Mermaid Birthday Party!

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This past weekend we hosted a mermaid themed birthday party for a little girl and thought we would share some of our ideas with you, in case you want to host your very own mermaid party! If you’re looking for more information on our birthday parties please visit our Birthday Page! We did a craft and some baking. The baking part was really easy, first the kids made cupcakes. They coloured icing blue and then made mermaid tails out of fondant (they also coloured the fondant either purple or green for their tails). The craft was easy but had just a few more steps, see below for detailed instructions. The craft materials were all purchased from the good ol’ dollar store, except the acetate for the window (which was purchased from a craft store). Materials: 2 blue paper plates Markers Star sequins yarn Under the Sea Foam Shapes Wooden Clothespin Sand Fake green plant Aluminum Foil Clear Acetate (or cellophane) Hot Glue Directions: Cut out a hole in one plate and then paint the outside …

Rosette Cakes

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I have been seeing a ton of these Rosette Cakes online lately and wanted to give it a go. I was delighted with how easy they are to make, it’s all about having the right icing tip, it really is. I’ve come to learn that as long as you have the right tools baking is quite simple. I used a Wilton tip #2D or you can use #1M, either one works. I baked a 3 layer cake and used a buttercream icing to mask the cake first. For the pink rosette cake, I did the top first and then worked my way down the sides, some people may suggest starting the other way, I think whatever you’re comfortable with. For the purple rosette cake I actually only used one icing bag and one bowl for mixing. It seemed like a daunting cake to make at first with 3 different colours of icing, but using one bag and one bowl made it super easy. I started by adding a very small amount of icing gel to …

DIY Easter Craft!

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We hosted a bunny hop this past Sunday and it was so much fun! The kids loved the Easter Egg Hunt the best, surprise, surprise! The craft and cookie decorating were definitely enjoyed too. The kids made these adorable little dioramas. For time purposes we painted the boxes blue beforehand and then the kids got to decorate it however they wanted. This is a great little craft to do with various ages and a perfect little hostessing gift if you’re going somewhere for Easter dinner this weekend. Almost all of the materials were purchased from the dollar store. All you need is: Brown Box Blue paint Glue Cotton Balls Small little yellow ducks/sparkly eggs Pipe Cleaners Easter Grass

Popsicle

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I’m sure there could be plenty of puns I could have used for the title, but I’m pretty tired in all honesty and my writing fingers are sleeping at the keys. It would have been really easy if Oliver’s name was Peter instead. I think I had a pretty decent capacity for intelligence until I got pregnant with my first child. Currently, this first child of mine, is really into Popsicles. We got a Popsicle maker as a gift last Christmas and upgraded the model this past summer to a larger one. It comes from a company called Zoku, they make some pretty cool gadgets, worth checking out. The whole popsicle making experience buys you about 20 minutes of entertainment, to me, that makes it a worthwhile endeavor. Even better is that we can sneak in one of those baby squeeze pouches made out of veggies. Oliver will have two Popsicles in a row, without a doubt, think about all those little veggies that are sneaking into his mouth and he doesn’t even know. This …

DIY Taco Seasoning!

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Taco night is always a big hit in our house. My son, particularly enjoys it which makes for a happy mommy, plus I know he’s going to bed with a full tummy. Usually I pick up one of those little seasoning packets and sprinkle it on top of the ground beef for seasoning. But recently I actually read what was inside one of those packets, apart from many different things you can’t pronounce there’s a ton of sodium. So here’s a little DIY taco seasoning mix to save you from small, packets that are filled with crap. 2 tsp of chopped onion 1/4 tsp of chopped garlic 1 tsp of salt 1 tsp of chili powder 1 tsp of cumin 1/4 tsp of oregano 1 tsp of cornstarch 1/2 cup of water Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Cook your ground beef (or any other ground meat you are using). Once the meat is cooked add the seasoning along with 1/2 cup of water. Cook meat until most of water has evaporated.