Winner!!!

My girls have the best luck entering colouring contests!!!
Both CJ & CD entered the Co-op Kids Club Valentine Contest. Each store picks 3 random winners and CJ won THIS:


Her colouring contest picture on a cake. She was pretty surprised and even more so when she found out she could eat the picture on top!! She is taking it to school to share with her class for their Valentine's Party! (We are keeping the Valentine Cupcakes that we purchased from Saucy & the Cheerios.)



I made CJ a surprise Valentine lunch for tomorrow.
Tiny little ham sandwiches, cucumbers, Baby Bel, strawberries, grapes & wafer cookies. Everything that could be was punched with fondant cutters from Michaels (the set of 3 only cost me $2.30 with my 50% off coupon.) The straw has a little
Happy ♥Day
flag on it for her yogurt drink. I found the tiny little heart sandwich picks at $rama in the spring/summer section. They were just starting to unpack things so I was quick to grab a couple of packages.

The breakfast table is set with red napkins, glasses with more flagged straws and I love "ewe" plates. Suppertime we are going to try doing a cheese fondue and chocolate fondue for dessert ~ any hints??!

15¢ Books

We stopped at the public library and took a look at the withdrawn books... we picked up 8 chapter books for CJ and 5 hard cover for CD for a total of $2.oo!!
15 ¢ a book!!



That's my kind of deal!
CJ is going to give other books a try after reading thousands (well maybe not that many) Rainbow Fairy books.

All our libraries have a withdrawn section and downtown even has a whole shop ~ it's worth a stop every now and then!

If you are a scrapbooker it's a good place to pick up some books to alter or use for embellishments!

Valentine Cards

We finished up our Valentine's this weekend.
Whoever came up with this idea is brilliant.
These are just too darn cute not to share!!!

(If you don't want to ruin the surprise on the 14th LOOK AWAY!!)

This is what they look like before they have the added treat in the girls' hands.

Life in Saskatchewan

Local peeps, we were just asked to help out a little guy in 3rd grade with an assignment on our fine province of Saskatchewan. Specifically he'd like to know about life here, interesting facts and places.



SO when you think of life here, what comes to mind??
What would be on your top 10 list??

Play Kitchen

This has been the biggest hit ....
we built CD a play kitchen for Christmas!

She had one of the plastic kitchens but it just wasn't giving her enough workspace to make all her cupcakes and treats (nor store all her ingredients, food, dishes and bake ware.)


We started collecting all the necessary pieces in the summer.
Supply list:

• entertainment stand =free on kijiji

This is what it started out looking like just after Moto-Moto cut out the top & sanded it all down for priming:

• extra cupboard doors = free on kijiji
• blinds = garage sale $1
• landscape photo for view from kitchen window = free recycled from an old frame
• fridge and stove handles and knobs = free from metal recycling depot
• burner = free from old bbq
  
• sink faucet = free (saved from reno)
• "sink" bowl = free from Mommy's cupboard
• pot holders & towels = $4 $rama
• primer = $10 needed something good to cover the old laminated furniture
• pink paint = $10 oops paint from Rona

Grand Total = $25
plus time it took for Moto-Moto to work on it.


We moved it downstairs just after it was primed and told her it was for Mommy's craft storage... both girls didn't question it even when Moto-Moto painted it pink.
Christmas Eve he put all the extras on to make it look like a kitchen.

We had a lot of tips and hints by looking at this one.

She played with it late into the evening on Christmas Day and most every day since!
I'm still on the look out for an old thin wall mounted phone (pink preferably) and maybe on the far left end of it adding a chalk board for her menu or grocery list... or maybe a framed poster of her favourite cupcake recipe!



We wanted to teach them that Christmas is more about making memories than receiving gifts.
This year we also cut down on buying and focused on 4 gifts (that we first saw here):

• something they want
• something they need
• something to wear
  

(The need and wear gift was a two in one.)

• something to read

and
a special ornament

Plus Santa brought them some little treats in their stocking.

Home for the Holidays

Well, we have a new addition to our family...
Ben


A couple of weeks ago we took some supplies to the SPCA to help out the animals at the humane society. The girls were invited to feed the rabbits while we were there since they brought a load of stuff for them. Then we went to say hello to the cats and dogs that we took treats for...... Ben took one look at me and I knew we had to take him home!!


He is A.MAZ.ING!! We are so lucky! He fits into our family so nicely, it's like we've had him forever! CD tries to play dress-up with him, CJ tells him all about her day and has those special talks that every girl has with her dog. He is a sweetie!!


When I saw him and then saw that his name was Ben it made me think of the song Michael Jackson recorded in 1972 (great year by the way) and was his first #1 hit!


Ben, the two of us need look no more
We both found what we were looking for
With my friend to call my own I'll never be alone
And you my friend will see, you've got a friend in me

"Ben, you're always running here and there
You feel you're not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind and don't like what you find
There's something you should know, you've got a place to go

I used to say, "I", And "Me"
Now it's "Us", Now it's "We"

Ben, most people would turn you away
I don't listen to a word they say
They don't see you as I do I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd think again if they had a friend like Ben
Like Ben, like Ben"

Book Shopping

50% off Scholastic Book Warehouse sale:

On NOW!!

Friday, December 10th 8 am – 5 pm

Saturday, December 11th 9 am – 2 pm

Holiday Elfcapades

Our Elves are here!

Today these two cute little 8 inch elves were in the girl's advent calendar.



You can read more about them at

Holiday Elfcapades.

(Our elves spent some time at the salon and got hair styles different from the other elves. They wanted a Christmas makeover.)

They will be with us until Christmas Eve keeping an eye on our family and preparing a report on who is naughty and nice. Every evening they will return to the North Pole (with the use of some magic) and let Santa know all that they have seen or heard. When they come back to our house we've been told that they may have some fun/ mischief or "elfcapades." I've been told to watch out, they may hide around the house, have a cotton snowball fight with some of our other toy friends or have a movie night, peek in gifts or sleep in the freezer because they miss the North Pole.

CD named her Elf ~ Disney

Tonight I already heard CJ whispering to her elf and telling her all about her art projects and the art gala she had the night before.

CJ named her elf friend ~ Giggles.

I am so excited to start this new Christmas tradition with the girls... I wonder what Disney and Giggles will do tonight when they return?

Holiday Season

We started our holiday season a few weeks ago.
We started with our traditional brunch downtown.

CD was treated to lemon cheesecake by the chef followed by a fancy chocolate platter that the chef prepared in the kitchen just for CD!!! Next time she goes back she is to ask for the chef and she'll bring out another special little treat! What a lucky kid.. but wait that's not all the luck she had ...

After brunch, we bundled up for the Santa Claus Parade.

CD entered the colouring contest and I'm pleased to announce that for the third year in a row one of my girls won a prize!!! See, what'd I tell ya, lucky kid!! She won a family pass to ...

The Festival of Trees!!

We enjoyed the afternoon admiring all the trees and gingerbread house villages. We stopped for a snack and treated the people behind us in line to gingerbread cookies. Then we donated a stuffed puppy to the zoo tree for the kids in the hospital at Christmas and toured the gift shop.

What a fantastic day!
I love spending time with these two beautiful ladies and Moto-Moto.

Happy December 1st everyone!

Let it snow, let it snow,
let it snow!!

As soon as the girls got home today they jumped in the backyard to play in ALL the snow we got! I sure would have declared it a "snow day" but those are few and far between around here. I think we've had 2 in the last 20 years!!!

Winter is here!