Here are ten activities to keep your little people happily engaged when their friends come to play. Remember ladies, there's safety in numbers, so gather the troupes and get out there and party.
Sundae party – assign each guest a sundae topping. Host provides the ice cream and bowls. Let the kids create their own sundaes. Eat and enjoy. Save the extra whipped cream for when daddy gets home. Just kidding. Ew.
Bicycle parade – provide ribbons, paper, and whatever else so the kids can decorate their bikes or scooters. Parade the bejazzled bikes around the neighbourhood.
Play date video session – video tape portions of a play date and then show the video later on with popcorn. Kids LOVE to watch themselves (FYI, so do I! lol!).
Rainy Day Scrapbooking Party – take pictures of each child or have the kids take shots of each other. Print 4-6 pics of each child and have them glue them into a plain scrapbook. Provide stickers and markers, pencil crayons etc. Help them write a sentence or descriptive words under each photo. Let them decorate the cover.
Water wars – if it's a warm day, fill the kiddy pool, provide water shooters, water balloons and plenty of sunscreen. Find a shady spot AWAY from the action and let the wild rumpus begin.
Ikea Ball Room – kids are supervised while you and your friends shop or eat Swedish meatballs.
Night time – drive-in movie. Bring lawn chairs for everyone to sit outside to enjoy the first kid friendly movie. Make the back of the van into a comfy slumber area...blankets, pillows,etc. The kids can snooze (maybe, possibly?) during the second flick.
Put on a show! - Provide dress up clothes and let the kids practice a show of some kind. While they practice, you can visit with friends. Be the audience when the show is ready. Keep heckling to a minimum.
Take the gang on a field trip – plenty of free options: pet store, park, nature walk, library, community drop in programmes...
I would rather poke myself in the eye with a bamboo skewer, than move the party indoors. I plan to hold on to summer as long as possible by embracing the outdoor grill. Figuratively speaking of course. Don't hug your BBQ. That thing is hot! One of the easiest BBQ meals? Kabobs. Simply thread your favourite bites onto skewers in advance. When your guests arrive, toss them onto the grill (the skewers, not your guests) and...ka-bob's your uncle; a simple summer supper!
* If you happen to have an uncle named Bob, you could host a "Kabob's Your Uncle" themed party consisting entirely of KABOBS. Brilliant right? I realize this is a very small demographic. But, even if you don't have an uncle Bob, you can still enjoy these skewer suggestions (Photo source and recipe links at the end of this post).
Long live summer!!
Appetizer Kabobs:
Main Course Kabobs:
Veggie:
Sweet Kabobs:
Links: Greek Salad, Caprese Salad, Steak & Corn, Sammies, Lemon Garlic Chicken, Shrimp, Veggie, Tofu, Candy, Brownie, Decadent Dessert
The Canadian Craft Wine Makers Association website is called winemadesimple.ca for a reason. Making your own wine is easy! Recently the CCWA joined forces with us at the Yummy Mummy Club to run to an amazing contest. Ten lucky “winers” from the Toronto area and another ten from my old (grape) stomping ground Vancouver, will meet, mingle and make wine.
Not only is making your own wine simple, it’s budget savvy too. You can make quality wine for as little as $4.00 a bottle. You can save even more by re-using your bottles. Added bonus – this helps reduce your carbon footprint.
Last week the wine winners each visited a pre-determined U-vint retailer to initiate their batch. You can check here for retailers near you. I visited Macedo Wine Grape Juice Ltd. in Toronto to get my batch started. I gasped. There was wine as far as the eye could see.
You can make wines from a wide array of styles like Australian Shiraz, Italian Pinot Grigio or German Gewurztraminer. I chose the Shiraz.
Getting my batch started took less than fifteen minutes.
I added some warm water to a little yeast and let it sit while I pumped the grape juice into the large glass wine vat. A batch makes thirty bottles of wine by the way. Gee, that’s practically a month’s supply…if I were entertaining often I mean. Ahem.
I added the last bit of juice by hand. The picture may be a little blurry, but I swear we weren’t drinking at the time.
Then, in went the yeast and I shook it around a bit. The vat that is, though I also shook myself around in a sort of “I’m so excited and I just can hide it” kind of way. We added the stabilizers and then my wine guide told me to put a cork in it. I’m fairly certain she meant in the vat, though I was pestering her with a LOT of questions.
Now, the wine has to wait for me for 4-6 weeks. And then, we will be reunited and yes, it will feel so good. So good in fact, we’re going to have a party! All of the Toronto Wine Contest Winners will gather together to bottle and label our batches. We’ll taste each other’s vintages, compare wine stories and simply have a good time. Kind of impossible not to really…did I mention there is wine as far as the eye can see?
Then we’ll do the same thing all over again in Vancouver. I’m so excited to meet my fellow wine making mummies. I’ll be sure to take lots of photos to share with you. And I promise they won’t be blurry. Well, as least the ones taken at the beginning of the night...
Cheers!
This blog is proudly sponsored by the
Canadian Craft Wine Makers Association
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