Canadian Moms & Moms to be!

[readynwilling]

I am wendy!! i bought some cute cartridges for my Cricut machine, and im using them to make stencils and painting piggy banks for Jadyn and Alyssa and Selena (tammy's girls)

 

[Vickie]

Sara--Springridge has trees for $35. It's not cut down your own but their selection was pretty good and the price was great compared to what we paid last year at a different place!

Wendy--I'm doing the usual baked goods for Christmas gifts (I hope) I have about 1/3 of what I need to get done ready to go. The rest has been put on the back burner because of the stupid cold I've had

 

[BlackBerry25]

I should do some baking for my brother, and my dad, since I have his mom (my grandmas) recipes and they are obviously his fav cookies lol. Might piss off my dads gf, which makes it worth the effort

 

[impatient1]

I'm thinking about doing some baking for gifts as well.

 

[Melissa_M]

You all have no idea how much crocheting/knitting/sewing I've been doing!!!
I'm also doing DVD's of Alia for my parents and N's parents

 

[BlackBerry25]

Found some good ideas that I think I will do:

https://meanmommyacademy.blogspot.com/2010/05/lemon-sugar-hand-scrub.html

https://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/11/homemade-hot-chocolate-marshmallows.html

 

[Melissa_M]

who knew you could make marshmallows!!

 

[Sarahkka]

I don't know if they are handmade, but I just about gave myself an aneurysm putting together photo books from all the pics I took this year.
And I'll be doing some cookies, too, I think.
One year I knit something for everyone. It was quite wonderful, but incredibly time-consuming!
I'd like to do it again, but you really have to plan ahead for that kind of stuff.
In my dream world, I would also be good at canning and have some amazing antipasto or jam or something to give to friends and family. I always love it when I get homemade preserves, and I also think it is a kind of survival skill that I should know! (My inner girl scout is a little worried that I might not be able to sufficiently store the harvest should society crumble and grocery stores cease to exist. )

 

[tasha41]

I think Tori has made marshmallows before successfully!

For gifts.. I'm pretty much done, I wish I had some people to make things for lol. I only have to buy for Andrew & my parents. He's got to shop for me & his parents. I finished Elyse & wrapped it all lol. Of course I've seen some things I'd still like to pick up for her... and I need a couple of stocking stuffers.

 

[readynwilling]

wendy - i've seen these https://familyfun.go.com/recipes/hot-chocolate-cones-687223/

 

[Tiff]

Those are great ideas! I was contemplating making homemade marshmallows before, and apparently you can add flavour to them as well. Like Raspberry marshmallows, etc.

We're part way done for ours, just doing it slowly as we have to get Claire's party stuff as well.

 

[Sarahkka]

Tiff- I'm feeling the birthday-right-at-xmas pinch, too, both with time and $$. We're trying to figure out what to do for a party for Simon. Our house is too small to have many friends over for him. Ideally, I'd like to do tobogganing, but I'm not crazy about having to rent a hall next to a tobogganing hill...... I want him to have a great birthday party, but at the same time, I don't feel like blowing $300 - $500 on a 3-year old's party, and that's what we're looking at for a rental, plus food, etc.

 

[Tiff]

At the rate I'm going, I'm willing to just rent out the McDonalds PlayPlace and let them have at 'er.

Do any of your indoor play areas do kids parties? I know that the one here does, and the price includes admission for up to 12 kids, I think, your own private party room and then pizza and juice. Not too shabby, and I may do that next year.

But yeah, birthday days before Christmas really sucks at times.

 

[BrandiCanucks]

I agree with that statement. I always swore I wouldn't have a December baby for that reason. I guess I was wrong, lol.

We looked into the indoor playground thing for Isaiah, but it was $280 for two hours of semi-private (share with the public) and all the kids got was a balloon. For that price, I would expect at least a hot dog or something. I opted to just throw a party at the house, because although our house is small, we had room for 10 kids. Unfortunately, no one's coming though.

 

[tasha41]

Yeah indoor playground... I looked into it for Elyse's 3rd... it's going to be about $400 to rent it out 100% for 2 hours, all the options they offer are random hours (like 5-7pm during the week) and it doesn't include food... but if you pay the $400 rate they let you bring in outside food..

McDonald's parties are $9.99 per kid here. You get a hostess for an hour and a half, the Happy Meal, a really sugary and not very exciting cake in vanilla or chocolate, and a really lame goodie bag. You also have to share the PlayPlace with any other kids that happen to be there (we don't close it down for parties). TBH I wouldn't recommend them I guess you get more than the average place gives you for $10/kid, but they aren't as good as they used to be!

 

[tasha41]

I REEEALLLYYY don't want to work tonight, or tomorrow, or Sunday... or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... fml. Why does night one of 5 HAVE to be on a FRIDAY and why does it HAVE to be 5-1am?? I feel like a tool complaining about it. I'm glad I have a job and I just got a great pay cheque, but this weekend I'm going to be dead, and I don't see myself having time to get back into the normal swing of things if I'm working next week too.. then Thursday, my 'day off' I am having the Arbonne party so that's really not even a day off..

 

[Tiff]

Ours at Lil' Kritter's Klub is actually pretty decent. $129 gets you all this stuff... not too shabby, and the indoor play place is huuuuge!

 

[Vickie]

we did an indoor play place for Hannah's first birthday as we had family staying here and they were uhh messy I think we paid around $200 for it which was fine with me because I didn't want to do the cleaning We just brought in pizza........

I like having parties at home though, they are stressful the day before but I find the day off they are easier for us (could be partially because we don't have a car of course )

Tasha, sorry that you have to work all weekend

 

[readynwilling]

sorry you have to work so much Tasha!!

Longest drive home from t.o EVER LOL stupid traffic. But J slept the whole way so that was ok.

 

[Melissa_M]

So quiet in here lately!!! I guess it is Friday night

Sorry you have to work so much Tasha

Our house is a pretty good size for an indoor birthday party so I'm not too worried once we start having Joni's parties here. Alia's will most likely always be outside...or maybe eventually at Oma's pool

We had dinner over at SIL's house tonight....it was really good. Alia was fairly well-behaved until the end but it was past her bedtime. I kept telling N we need to get her to bed and he kept saying "mkay" but wouldn't get his ass up to actually leave. So she didn't get to bed till almost 8...hopefully she'll still sleep okay.
I ate wayyy too much including three brownies for dessert So worth it. I only have 5 more weeks of pregnancy pigging out left, after-all!