momstown Milton Tots get Quacking over Lucky Ducklings - Our Scholastic Sponsored Book!

Was that a quack we just heard? Is a duck within our midst?

Our momstown Milton kiddies were quacking with excitement to read Lucky Ducklings by Eva Moore at our Tales for Tots at Indigo sponsored by Scholastic Canada.

Always getting the group off to a crafty start, momstown Milton's mamma, Sam Kassam-Macfie, guided the group through the steps of creating a fascinating duck puppet.



 Once the craft was completed, these happy kids were only too ready to settle down for an interactive and fun story. Each child's puppet was named after one of the ducklings in the story and they were instructed to hold them up every time the ducklings names were mentioned in the book.  Oh, how the children laughed and followed along Sam's enthusiastic rendition of the telling of the comical misadventures of the tale of a Mama Duck taking her baby ducks out for a walk one day.

 
 First, the five little ducklings: Pippin, Bippin, Tippin, Dippin, and Little Joe follow steadfastly behind their Mama Duck. But one by one, much to Mama Duck's dismay, the little ducks get separated and end up in the town's slat drain! Imagine the intrigue and excitement on the children's faces as they listened and watched in suspense to learn how this tale ends: three firemen and a pickup truck rush to the rescue of these wayward but very lucky ducklings.

Once the story time was done, the little ones were only too eager to get up and get active! As a fun activity, the children lined up in a row and reenacted the Mama Duck and little ducklings scene. Laughter filled the air as they flapped their wings and quacked with gusto.


Bringing the Little Ducklings story to life! 

With Mama Duck in front, the ducklings flapped and quacked along

A morning of crafts, reading, fun, and laughter - one that our 'Lil Explorers won't soon forget!

Congrats to our Littlest Lucky Duckling who won the book to take home. 

Thank you Scholastic Canada for inspiring such a fantastic event! 

We would love to have you join us at our amazing momstown Milton events!  
Register here for your 6 week FREE trial. 

Written by Liz Marques Kogan, a momstown Milton member and mother of two children. 

You can check out her site at OrchidaWords. 

momstown Milton Junior Chefs make Spinach Smoothies and Home made Hummus

Not only did our momstown Milton kids have fun in the kitchen at Junior Chef, they happily ate lots of veggies in the process!  Getting kids to eat vegetables doesn't need to be a sneaky mission.  Involving them in making their own meals, and giving lots of variety are key in instilling a love of all foods.

This month's wet, wet, wet theme inspired our choice of menu for Junior Chef for May.  We enjoyed smoothies and a yummy dip, and enjoyed the loud sounds of the blender and food processor hard at work.  

 

 For our smoothies we tried two varieties of green yumminess:  A "Green Monster" and a "Crocodile".  We drink a lot of smoothies and shakes at our house.  We have learned some tricks along the way and now have girls that wake up and ask for these healthy treats for breakfast.  A "spinach shake" just doesn't have the appeal of a "Green Monster"!  

To make our Green Monster, we used:

1c almond milk (you can use any kind of milk)

1 ripe banana

approx 1/2 c of baby spinach

three ice cubes

If your banana isn't sweet and ripe, you can add a little honey.  You can increase the amount of spinach a bit at a time - you don't want to turn them off of green shakes by going "too green" early on.  The Junior Chefs had fun taking turns adding ingredients to the blender.  

It is a good idea to blend the spinach and milk until there are no recognizable pieces of greenery left.  This makes for a great green colour, and most kids won't be thrilled sucking up pieces of spinach through their straw!  Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

The varieties are endless.  Banana is great for sweetness and spinach is great for nutrients, however there are limitless possibilities when making smoothies.  Adding 1/2c of baked sweet potato, or pumpkin (cooked fresh, or canned), berries, 1c of fresh or frozen mango, or unsweetened apple sauce all add sweetness and nutrients to your drink.  The kids got a kick out of drinking the delicious green smoothie!  Some asked for seconds (and thirds)!

After our smoothies, our Junior Chefs moved on to make hummus.  This is a delicious hummus that is healthy, full of protein, and always a hit with kids.  Hummus is a great snack with some veggies, and also great for a spread on a sandwich or wrap.  It is nutritious, easy, and inexpensive to make.  You may never buy hummus again...  

The kids had fun adding the ingredients to the food processor and watching it blend together. 

 

 

 

*Hummus Ingredients:

2 cups cooked chickpeas, liquid reserved and set aside

1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

2 garlic cloves

1/3 Cup tahini

7-8 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 Tbsp reserved chickpea liquid (or water)

 

*recipe courtesy of http://bit.ly/geQPmV

Everyone got their own portion of hummus so they could dip their veggies, fingers and spoons in their yummy creation.  It was a hit!  

 

Junior Chef is such a wonderful momstown program.  Often moms will say that their kids will try things at Junior Chef that they wouldn't try at home.  It is exciting to see kids tasting new tastes, trying new things, and just having fun with food (especially vegetables!!).  Often as moms we underestimate our kids when it comes to them trying new foods, or we are too quick to say "he/she won't eat that".  We need to keep trying foods with our kids, because you never know when they will discover that the thing they have been avoiding for the last month is their new favorite!

Thank you Junior Chefs and mamas for coming out to our program this month!

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

To register for a 6 week FREE trial membership - Click Here

If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca

 

Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two amazing girls.

Alligator Baby by Robert Munsch was a hit with our Milton moms at our Scholastic sponsored books for babes program!

For last month’s Books for Babes Program, our lil' explorers took a trip to the zoo as we read “Alligator Baby” by Robert Munsch sponsored by Scholastic Canada.  The babies were told all about the adventures of a Mom and Dad trying to find their baby amongst a bunch of zoo animals! 

At first the parents came home with an alligator and then a seal and finally a baby gorilla. After the third failed attempt their daughter saved the day by going to the zoo herself and rescuing her baby brother.

As new moms themselves, our moms could definitely relate to the sleep deprived parents and simple mistakes they made. We even shared stories about the silly mistakes that we had made over the past months. I shared my story of dumping out my freshly pumped breast milk down the drain at the wee hours of the morning. We were thankful that Scholastic sent a board book for the little ones so that we didn't have to worry about damaging the book and it made for easy page turning.

After we finished reading the book, we sang a round of songs that kept in theme with the Alligators.
Here was the song lineup: “Alligator Pie” by Dennis Lee, "Going to the Zoo” by Raffi , “5 Little Monkeys swinging in a tree” (teasing mr alligator, you can’t catch me), “The Crocodile” We even had a visit from Ally the Alligator. The babes were memorized.

Congrats to the mamma and baby who were lucky enough to win a copy of "Alligator Baby" to add to their personal library collection. It looks like it will be a book well read!

Looking forward to seeing what adventure we will take next month at our Scholastic Books for Babes Program.  We hope you can join us!

Milton moms had a blast at our momstown Game On Event Sponsored by Mattel!

As we get older we get busier.  Getting the kids ready for school, going to work, taking care of the household, we as moms rarely take time to sit and take time for ourselves. Seeing the Game On! event sponsored by Mattel games posted on the momstown Milton calendar had me excited at the chance to get out and interact with others in a relaxed and fun environment.

 

 

 With games like Mad Gab, Apples to Apples and Blokus we were set up for an enjoyable evening.  It was interesting watching the mamas competitive streaks come out as the night progressed. Do you know what type of player you are? Take a minute to do the Gameology Analysis and find out what category your personality gets labeled as. No surprises here, I am an Activituis.

First stop of the night was the Mad Gab Station. Hits Thick Hurl Snide Doubt - Have you figured out what this says yet? The answer is: "It's the girl's night out" - one of the first cards revealed - how fitting was that! Hearing the moms different ideas of what the Mad Gab sayings were, was hilarious.  We quickly figured out the best strategy was to have one person read the funny looking phrase on the card and have the rest of us listen to piece it together. Our listening skills were sure put to the test for this one.

"My favourite game was Mad Gab....I have a bit of "detective" in me, so I like trying to figure out what the sentence is!"

The next station was Blokus and we quickly learned that this was a true strategy game. You had to take the time to think about what your next move was and consider the consequences it would have several moves ahead - kind of like chess.  It allowed us the chance to just focus on the task at hand and let go of all of the everyday stresses that we tend to carry as moms. It was a nice break for some.

 

"I also really liked Blokus, and I think I will go out and buy this one very soon to have in our board game collection."

Apples to Apples was my personal favorite. This one brought a lot of our quieter mamas out of their shells and gave us all the opportunity to get to know one another better.  Basic explanation of the game is:  All players get 7 cards.  The judge turns over a category card and based on that category players have to pick from their hand which card fits the best. Hearing the explanations on why their card should win had us in stitches.  One of the things we found was that as more players were added, the more fun it became. So whether you play with 4 or 8 you are sure to have a great time!

" I liked Apples to Apples the best. Some of the reasoning got creative!!"

 
Lots of fond memories were created tonight and thanx to Mattel our evening of fun doesn't have to end at just one night. Some of our lucky mamas  got to go home with their very own game with the promise that they will host more games nights in the near future - YEAH!

Don't forget to check out the Mattel Game On facebook page to keep up with the latest and greatest AND be sure to enter our contest giveaway to win a Mattell Game On Prize Pack to add to your game collection! Can't wait to experience another thrilling moms night out filled with laughter and cheers and getting to know more of my fellow momstown members next month when we do it all again.

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

 

To register for a 6 week FREE trial membership - Click Here

 

If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca

 

 

This Blog was written by Angela Hickman - mother of 2, momstown Milton member and blogger - Mommy TimeOut.

 

momstown MIlton Kids learning to use recycled materials for craft projects!

It is amazing what great things you can find in your recycling bin!  Our momstown Milton mamas and kids had a wonderful time exploring and painting using recycled materials for crafts from the Blue Bin at our Recycled Treasures program.

We used plastic bottles, paper tubes, left over Easter grass, Christmas tinsel, corks, and the spongy wrap that protects Asian pears in the supermarket.  All of these different finds made for some fun exploration with paint on a beautiful spring morning!

We spread out some craft paper on the fence and attached it with masking tape, and also had paper out on a play table for kids who preferred painting on a surface.  The little ones had a great time choosing from the variety of tools and bright paint colours.  

Soon we had a beautiful abstract painting and lots of messy kids!  Everyone was proud of their creations, and enjoyed seeing the different shapes that the different objects made on the paper.

 

Some of the little artists discovered that the plastic bottles created a flower on the paper, and then added colourful centres with the corks.  They made some beautiful paintings! 

Our Recycled Treasures morning eventually became a fun playdate, with some kids concentrating on painting while others preferred the sand box, pool, or snack table.  It was a relaxed and fun morning for the kids and moms alike.  It is so wonderful to discover new, easy and inexpensive ways to be creative with children.  

Thanks for coming out, everyone!

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

To register for a 6 week FREE trial membership - Click Here

If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca

 

Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two amazing girls.