sewing savvy

these were great until liv figured out how fun
they were to flip in the car

we went for a little road trip for the last two weeks of summer this year to visit some very good friends of ours in both Grand Rapids & Geneva (Chicago). they had to have been very good friends, or we would have never even entertained the crazy idea. but all things said & done, it went very well. pinterest-ed an idea i had originally intended for dav's first year of kindergarten, a little napping bed for nap time but expanded it for the others to enjoy on our trip as well. however, there was one big obstacle to this project & that was my sewing savvy. my sewing projects usually end up as disasters. like when i made pj pants with one leg a full foot shorter than the other. or the dress that fell apart while i was wearing it. any sewing success i've  had is totally & completely attributed to my mother who swoops in at the last second to save the day. and she was not available for this project. i let the kids each picked out their own fabric (kai: rock&roll, eva: pink butterflies, livi: peachy owls & dav: superman) & then there was no backing out.
much better than expected. and other than the driving part, so much fun! it was a 46 hour round car trip {with only one of our kids conked out for a 10 minute nap of that entire 46 hours}. i knew i was going to have to be super-de-duper organized if there was any chance of not losing our sanity & i pinterest-ed tons of car trip ideas like road bingo, fishing box snacks, activity bins & lots of new viewing material. i had also
steve had recently taught himself to gut fish using just a youtube video (something he's always wanted to learn) & i thought, if he can do it so can i! and better yet, no innocent fish were hurt in the process. so i sewed my little heart out & voila! we roll them out now for movie nights, saturday mornings, extra beds for the kids when the fam visits, etc. and they roll up into a nice little roll with a handle too. each for transporting & storing. i got the pattern from this lovely link here.

hiding from gma & gpa

perfect for movie nights

they shared until all the nap mats were finished

 
thank you pinterest!

cheers to learning new things!

poison ivy panic

i can be pretty driven. when i get something in my head that i want to accomplish, i can be pretty stubborn, charging recklessly through any obstacle in my way. i got this from my mother. and it is mostly a positive, largely productive thing. but occasionally, we can get ourselves into a little trouble... charging through obstacles with no thought to the consequence, i mean. like building a canoe rack in the middle of a bed of poison ivy & oak. i didn't want to wait to spray it with round up & then wait until the plants die, that would be unnecessarily long & tedious. so my mum, who was equally enthusiastic about building this canoe rack, thought she had read somewhere that the roots weren't poisonous. so our plan was to dig up each plant, to which there were about a hundred, until the roots were exposed & then yank them out by the root with our bare hands & dispose of them in the lake. and our plan went off marvellously. we were covered in dirt & bug bites by the end but we were careful to wash our hands & feet with soap... just in case. and in the end, we had a beautifully creative mother-daughter creation in the end (will post the pics soon!).

i especially loved the canoe rack because canoeing is one of the very special memories my mum & i have together. she trucked through all kind of portaging bush with me as i completed the four long years of duke of edinburgh. she's the one who taught me to really see God in nature & how to be still. and she also taught irreplaceable feeling of building something that's your own with your own two hands. this is a tradition that is really important for me to pass onto my own kids, hence the canoe rack. so this canoe rack was significant to me none-the-less... just to give some context to why it was so irrationally important to me.
anyways, the next day neither of us had any sign of any kind of poison ivy or oak vengeance which i made sure to smugly highlight to my husband steve who had found us in the middle of the poison ivy infestation & begged us to see reason the day before.
little did we know the rash can take a few days to fully reveal it's fury. little did we know that every part of that evil plant is evil. little did we know that we also ripped out poison oak without any precaution.

lookin' fine!

and so i am sitting here in a apple cider vinegar-baking soda-hydrocortizone-calimine lotion paste covering most of my body. the kids call me the snowman. luckily, it is not actually contagious {unless you still have the oil on your clothes or skin}. i think i may have even ingested the poison by biting my nails a day or two after exposure so my throat & inner ear are also itchy, swollen.
needless to say, we have learned our lesson & will do the necessary research next time we decide to make up facts to accommodate our brilliant plans for grand creations. having said all that... i wouldn't change anything about being just like my mum. :)

snow day!

i used to be so concerned about my kids lack of commitment to the great white outdoors.  the bundling everyone up in impossible snowsuits for 10 minutes of mild amusement before everyone has a simultaneously meltdown, was short lived. but this year is different. this year they can't wait to go outside. well, actually the boys LOVE going outside. eva & livi will tolerate it for a short period of time. but i found something that keeps both the boys & the girls interested for a long period of time.
we were cleaning a bunch of clutter out of the cottage this past weekend and upon purging six ladles, seven spatulas, four whisks, a broken toaster oven & a truck load of tarnished pots & other such muddle, i got an idea. instead of donating all our junk, i decided to throw it out into the snow for the kids to play with. they've played with plastic buckets & such before but real pots & pans have a special kind of appeal.  the kids played for 45 minutes without needing any re-directing. and the snow was the perfect packing kinda snow... muffins, pancakes, cookies, mashed bananas & chicken nuggets were just some of the delicacies on the menu. it was magical. here are some pics.

cooking & baking

mashed bananas & meatballs are on the menu
-salad tongs make the best 'balls' :)

a whisk-cicle

cookies

tasting one of eva's pancakes

making soup

a snow 'dinosaur' angel

waiting for the cookies to "bing"

crazy noise

our house is noisy.  loud.  deafening at times.   but it is amazing to me how noise transforms based on how i perceive it.  with so much noise in our house, it has been a necessary key to survival.  when i can hear crying as training or the incessant 'mommy! mommy!' as 'i love you' or the shrieking as learning to communicate my entire experience is transformed.
but for the days when my tolerance is dwindling for the loud crazy noise, i have been trying to help them channel some of that noise.  here is one of my absolute favourite resources at the moment. we have both the mp3 & the dvd.  the dvd is a great way to get out some of their pent up energy... and those dance moves, just adorable! and if the dvd isn't accessible, we can break out into song just about anywhere and "make a crazy, crazy joyful noise... a wacky, silly, funny noise that you enjoy!"

and for quieter nights i love this too. davith usually listens to this cd while falling asleep.  they have amazing testimonials on their website of kids who suffered from night terrors sleeping soundly through the night or kids with behaviour challenges finally being at peace.  it is amazing the profound effect & power of scripture.  i must admit, i turn davith's cd player on a little louder than usual when steve is away so that i can hear this as i fall asleep.  i loved it so much i bought volume II.

a birthday boy & his dinosaurs {celebratory}

davith is three... well, actually he was three on january 13 but we didn't get around to celebrating it until this past week.  he decided he would like a "gween dinosaur party" & so that's what we did!

i am a big fan of tori spelling... well, let me qualify that... i am a big fan of her passion & creativity both in her mothering but also in her desire to celebrate.  that girl knows how to celebrate like i've never seen.  and why not?  there really are so many reasons to make a big thing out of nothing.  why not celebrate a gorgeous sunset by grabbing a hot chocolate & heading out to the backyard to warm by a winter campfire?  so many moment get ignored or pushed aside when they were put there for our enjoyment. celebrating the good & enjoying life to the fullest is a motto i would really love to embrace.  she's often talked about the traditions her parents started that she still carries close to her heart & are a hallmark of every celebration.  very heart warming accounts of the way they extravagantly poured out their creative resources to make every birthday, christmas, easter, you name it occasion, special.  they lavished each occasion with their love & talent.  it wasn't about the $, although i'm sure that helped.  it was about the soul they put into each. the care.  the detail.  the enjoyment of life. this is what i hope to be one day.  a celebratory connoisseur. 

so here's to celebrating life & my little boy whom is so well loved & his love of dinosaurs.  cheers to that!

healthy zucchini carrot cupcakes

three candles for my big boy!

fruit kebobs

scales

polka dots & eyes

we had dinosaur pancakes for dinner {really just pumpkin pancakes that were cut into the shape of a dinosaur by a sandwich cutter i got from dollarama}.  so i thought the pancake garnishes should be dino themed as well {scales, polka dots, toe nails, back plates & spikes & of course green whipping cream}.

dino toe nails {raisins}

back plates & spikes

a dinosaur restaurant

green whipping cream

fossil magnets

sand, paint brushes & dino skulls

tent turned into a cavern

davith loves making caves
with the couch cushions which
worked perfectly with our theme

goodie bags

adopt-a-dino: guests got to take home
their very own dinosaur

pterranadon nest {aka our nursery} complete with dino eggs & books
{really just a pile of blankies & balloons}

a huge thanks to all of the little & big people that made the occasion so special!

is that a parasauralofus saying happy birthday?
yes, yes it is!

candy addicts anonymous

perhaps the scariest part of halloween is the massive intake of sugar nationwide.  the average kid will haul in over 7000 calories of candy & consume 3500 of those on halloween night alone. yikes! a hundred pound kid who consumed that much candy would need to walk for 44 hours or play full court basketball for 14.5 hours to burn that many calories states the birmingham school of public health.  the funny thing is halloween candy is shrinking, while we seem to be eating more of it, one individually wrapped chocolate bar at a time.  studies show that you are likely to eat significantly more of smaller packaged candy when many of those small packages are available than if you were presented with multiple full sized candies. so those small chocolate bars are probably worse than a case of full-sized candy bars.

with alarming obesity rates on the rise, i'm starting early to instill healthful habits in my little ones so they won't be a candy addict like their mom! however, i don't want to sacrifice any of the halloween fun & tradition.  this year our kids were young enough to not notice that the candy magically disappeared at the end of the night {& was placed into our halloween hand-out candy bowl}.  but next year davith might start to have some questions.  so here are some fun alternatives to the 7000 calorie component of halloween:

• save only the most special candy: set a limit and have kids select a number of candy, say as many pieces as their age. donate or trash the rest.
• plan a visit from the halloween witch: tell your kids a tale of the halloween witch {or fairy}.  like her cousin the tooth fairy, she sneaks in on the night of october 31 to spirit away candy -- and leave a special toy or other gift in its place.
• buy then out with cold, hard cash: set a nominal price, say 5 cents each, for halloween candy & buy it back from your kids.
• set up a candy swap shop: play store with them, using halloween candy as currency and healthier treats as merchandise.  kids can use chocolate bars & lollipops to purchase animal crackers, sugar-free gum, fruit leather, playdoh, bouncy balls, etc.
• offset with exercise: for every piece of candy eaten require or encourage 10 - 30 minutes of exercise. example: one mini chocolate = 30 burpies, 30 jumping jacks & 5 laps around the house {dependent on age}
• cook up a post-halloween treat for the neighbours: treats can be chopped up & mixed into cookie batter & toppings.  any candy looks good on a gingerbread house.
• be a part of a healthy solution: hand out apples, pretzels, baked chips, raisins, small tubs of playdoh, balloons, temporary tattoos, bubbles, bouncy balls, stickers, crayons... and the list goes on!
• if all else fails, tell them you ate it all:  i thought this was a funny little note to end on.  the last kids had me in tears! so funny... & terrible at the same time!

put your halloween nutrition knowledge to the test by going to the huffington post.

what NOT to wear while making crabgrass gumbo & rainspout tea {small style}

this little cookbook is one of the sweetest little finds i have found in awhile {it was only $3.50!}.  it's a recipe book for dolls!  it's chronology includes every recipe from assorted hors d'oeuvres to soups & sandwiches, main dish specialities, pastries & desserts not to mention beverages and pre-planned menus for just the right occasion using nothing but the well stocked forest, sand dune or backyard supermarket. soooo cute!  okay, i'll admit i am way more into this little book than any of my kids at the moment but they sure had fun helping me try out a few recipes!

for this week's edition of {small style} i decided to include pictures of our little impromptu park picnic.  as it was impromptu, the kids were not aptly dressed for the mud factor that a few of our recipes included... so it may be a bit difficult to decipher their actual clothing under all the mud.  they were having so much fun, i decided to just embrace the sandy mess & have a little fun too!  needless to say, the van was full of protest on the way home, their hair full of sand & imaginations wildly ignited!  i love it when their clothes are so filthy their not worth saving at the end of the day... it means they had a really fun day!

 {evie}: dress {carter's}, leggings {children's place - best buy ever, they are size 12 months but she's been wearing them since she was 6 months}, slippers {joe}

 {kai}: onsie {petit problem}, shorts {gymboree}, slippers {joe}

 {davith}: t-shirt {joe}, shorts {joe}, sandals {joe}... all from end of year sale, but in next year's size so they are a little big

peanut butter playdoh

when you play with playdoh as much as we do, it can get expensive. i have been able to find playdoh at dollarama and other places for around a dollar but when i saw this recipe i just couldn't resist! i called it cookie-doh just so davith wasn't confused on why he was allowed to eat this playdoh & not the other kind.

peanut butter "cookie-doh"

2 cups peanut butter

6 tbsp honey

nonfat dry milk or milk plus flour

cocoa or carob for chocolate flavour (optional)

edible treats for decoration

combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix, adding enough dry milk or milk plus flour to reach the consistency of bread dough. add cocoa or carob, if desired. shape, decorate & eat!

* davith doesn't just like playing with 'cookie-doh', he loves helping me make it too! add a little food colouring for some variation if you like.

busy box #1: the baker's box

getting dinner ready at the end of the day can be a tall order when combinedwith keeping an eye on three energetic toddlers. at times they are happy to just sit at the kitchen table with a few toys or snack to keep them occupied while i work. at other times, they bring a whole new meaning to "ankle biter". and so i got this terrific idea from one of my favourite books called "the toddler's busy book" by trish kuffner (a fabulous resource for keeping those toddler's occupied & happy - there are also more incredible books in this series that i highly recommend). it's called the baker's box 9just one of the amazing busy boxes trish suggests). i put together a collection of unbreakable kitchen tools in a little box that i keep stashed in a drawer in our

kitchen. i actually bought a little cooking set from ikea and then filled in the rest of the box with random things like empty kinder surprise capsules (as pretend eggs) and other random pieces to inspire their imaginations. davith loves to bring this little box to "help"me cook or bake. i occasionally give him a little container of granola or raisins to stir into his little creations. playdoh also works. davith has recently claimed the top of our garbage & recycling can as his imaginary stove. here are some pictures of the fun they get up to.