Birthday Sneak Peak

It's almost here--It's almost here!! The boy-o will be turning one on the 20th of April and I can't believe it's less than 2 weeks away already. I've decided that I need to get my act together a bit more and get going on his party decoration stuff and getting things organized (loot bags, food lists etc.) There's so much to think about when you're doing it all yourself, but the cost savings will be totally worth it! I can't wait to make his Pirate themed cake too!!

In the meantime, I've been working on making the boy-o a "birthday chalkboard" after seeing some of the lovely ones that my friends had put together for their wee ones. They're such a great source of inspiration! I tried downloading some photo editing software to design it and ended up getting frustrated beyond belief, so I just stuck with simple Paint. Although it's much harder to fix errors, it's also much simpler to work with as there's way less of a learning curve. I'll get the chalkboard printed out on an 8X10 paper and framed, and we'll use it as photo prop for our little mini photo shoot.

Here's a sneak peak of the chalkboard:

I think this will make a nice colourful keepsake, and I did it up in the colours of his room and play area (Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green) It wasn't that hard to make once I gave up on the fancy software, and I would encourage you to think about making one to celebrate your little one's birthday milestones. 

Creating Keepsakes: Foot Prints

It's no secret that babies grow too fast--one minute they're tiny and totally helpless, and the next minute they're stealing your glasses and crawling away with them shrieking like a total mad man. (or maybe that's just what happens in my house?) Anyway, the bottom line is that it's really nice to make some keepsakes from when they were tiny and little to help you remember later just how tiny and little they really were. 

One of my favourite ways to do that is by getting an imprint of their hands or feet in Salt Dough. When your little one is really little that can be a bit challenging though as you need to press their hand/foot rather hard into the dough to get a good imprint. If this is likely to be an issue for you--have no fear! Rather than press their hand or foot INTO the dough, you can leave a paint print on the dough instead. 

We decided to make a footprint ornament for each of the grandparents for Christmas, and we did ours with blue acrylic paint and Salt Dough. Here's the instructions for making your own Salt Dough keepsake using Acrylic paint:

Ingredients for Salt Dough:

- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Mix together flour, salt and water until dough forms. Add water slowly to make sure you don't over water dough. If dough is too sticky, add more flour.

2. Roll dough out to desired thickness.

3. Apply paint to bottom of child's foot with paint brush and plant their foot firmly on the salt dough, trying to push down each toe to make sure they leave a print.

4. Wash off baby's foot and trim around foot print to remove extra dough. Poke hole through the ornament to thread with string later.

5. Leave ornament somewhere warm to dry (like on your radiator), flipping occasionally. It took two days for us. (We didn't bake ours as is traditionally done because of the paint--but if you wanted to bake before you applied the footprint cook for approx. 2 hours at 250° F)

6. Once the ornament is dry thread a small string or ribbon through the hole and tie! 

Now, you might be thinking to yourself Christmas just ended, why post about this now?? Because you can make all sorts of things out of Salt Dough besides a Christmas ornament and it makes a really great activity for when you're housebound from snow or rain, especially since it uses materials almost everyone already has at home.

Your Turn: What's your favourite way of 

preserving special memories of your little one?

Christmas Traditions Make the Holidays Bright

The holidays often feel overwhelming, and that can make it difficult to stay positive and enjoy the festive season with our friends and family. Between fighting off the mobs in the malls to buy gifts, booking flights or rental cars, putting up all the decorations and doing your baking, plus maybe hosting a Christmas dinner or party there seems to be little time left to REALLY enjoy the holiday season and Grinch-like tendencies start to set in.

This is my first year celebrating Christmas with my own family unit (hubby and the boy-o) and we've already committed to a few traditions that we hope to continue throughout the years, as well as build new ones as the boy-o gets older. It's up to you what kinds of traditions you want to set with your own family, but even now that I have my own family, the "yearly stuff" that happened each Christmas are some of my fondest memories!

Here's a few of my favourite holiday traditions from when I was a kid:

1. Music Boxes. I don't know how old I was when this tradition got started, but I know that for as long as I can remember it was always something I looked forward to! Every year one of females in the family got a new Christmas themed music box (me, my sister, or my mom) and we would line them all up across the fireplace mantel. Then each night before we went to bed we would each select one to wind up and play. Music boxes began to fade in popularity after a while though, so it became really hard to find them and sadly the acquiring of new ones ended, although they still get displayed each year.

 

 

2. Christmas Pins. Another yearly tradition we had was getting a new Christmas themed pin on our stockings. It was always a lot of fun to try and guess which one was the new one, and as the years went on it became harder and harder to tell since there were so many! We still carry on this tradition today, except that now that my sister and I are grown up we take turns buying the pins too so my mum gets a surprise as well. We've extended this tradition to our partners too, so that since their first Christmas celebrating with my family they've gotten pins on their stockings too.

 

3. Boxing Day Lunch. One of my Dad's best buddies is affectionately referred to as "Uncle" Randy, and since we were quite little we've had the tradition of getting together with him (and before she passed away, with his mom "Grandma" Hadash) for a delicious lunch every boxing day! The lunch is always roughly the same, and it's awesome! He has his own sausage made at the butchers, there's perogies, cheese, crackers, pickles, and all sorts of relishes and canned experiments to test out. This one has been harder to maintain since we've moved away from home, but whenever we are home for Christmas proper (rather than an early/late celebration), we make sure to make a lunch date for Boxing Day!

4. New Year's Day Soup Kitchen. This wasn't a "family" tradition, but it was a yearly activity that some friends and I started when we were in high school. Every year on New Years Day we would volunteer with the Inn of the Good Shepherd (a local soup kitchen) to serve meals to anyone looking for something hot to eat. It made us feel good to know that we were helping people who were less fortunate than we were, and it helped us to develop a better awareness of others. This was an excellent way to end the holiday season, and it helped to set us in the right mind frame for the coming year!


So, now fast forward to my own family and what holiday traditions will we have?

1. Advent Calendar. We have bought a wooden re-useable advent calendar that will be brought out every year. Rather than simply filling it with chocolates however, I plan to make the calendar a little more creative as the boy-o gets older. Some days might just be a chocolate, but other days will contain riddles like a treasure hunt to find the prize, or instructions for activities that require family interaction like making paper snowflakes or building a snow fort. Since I'll be the one putting the item in each day I can make sure the weather is co-operating for snow related activities etc. I think the calendar will be a great way to promote some family bonding and provide us with some silly memories.

2. Rudolf Gift. I really hate the commercialism of the holidays, and I think it's quite silly to spend a small fortune on gifts at Christmas, so rather than go crazy buying everyone big gifts we'll have the Rudolf tradition instead. Everyone will of course have their stocking and a few small things to open, but each year ONE person will receive the "Rudolf" gift. An extra gift that Rudolph has left which will be something beyond what we would normally get for each other. The recipient of the Rudolph gift will change each year so everyone has a turn.


3. Christmas Morning at Home. Travelling at Christmastime can be rough... and my parents and hubby's parents don't even live in the same province! So we've decided that Christmas morning will be spent at our own house. We will wake up Christmas morning at home, and after we've done our own family gifts and what-not then we can take on the task of travelling We think it's important to make sure that we take time to strengthen our own family traditions and celebrations, and thankfully the Grandparents were all supportive of this decision!


4. Mass on Christmas Eve. Tis the Reason for the Season after all! I always liked going to mass Christmas Eve as a kid to the "Family Service" when they had the pageant re-enactment, and I hope to continue that tradition with my own family. I think it's a pretty crucial part of Christmas to keep CHRIST in it, and the boy-o (as well as any future siblings) will grow up understanding why we celebrate Christmas, and why that little baby boy changed the world.

Your Turn!

So what are some of your favourite holiday traditions, either from when you were a kid, or ones that you've started with your own family?