Best Early Christmas Gift for my Almost Two Year Old

If you have a two year old kid in your life, you know that they absolutely love pretend play.  Actually our son has loved pretend play for a while now and some of his favourite toys are anything that has to do with the kitchen.  Back in the summer we bought him a kitchen from Ikea and he plays with it all the time.  We love it because it is compact.

Via Ikea

As an early Christmas gift he received this amazing pretend play food set by Learning Resources.  

Via Amazon.com

I found it online at Amazon.com but I know it can also be found sometimes at Costco in store.  It kept my son and his friends really busy.  They would take the items out of the baskets and put them back in; then they would make the food; then they would carry the food in the baskets from one end of the room to the other; and finally they would keep busy asking me the names of the items and repeating them after me.  We spent quite some time playing with the toy, so it is now on top of my list of perfect gifts for a two year old.  It is very hard to keep them interested in one toy at that age, but this one succeeded.

Thank you Kyko and family!!!

A Pretty Cool Birthday Party - Artist Kate

Two days ago a good friend of mine shared pictures from her daughter's 7th birthday party.  It was an art themed party and she invited Artist Kate to host a self portrait session.  She picked the  "I LOVE ME - Self-portrait" package and Artist Kate taught her daughter and friends techniques to paint a self-portrait. The girls apparently had so much fun and got to take their art work home!

I would have loved to attend the birthday party myself.

Such a great idea! Click here to see some of the packages Artist Kate offers.

A Hostess Gift Perfect for a Fall Gathering

My perfect evening on a cold fall night usually includes some wine and cheese.  So if I'm hosting there would definitely be not only cheese, but baked warm cheese, preferably Brie.

The most common gift a hostess gets in my circle of friends and family is a bottle of wine.  Some bring the bottle of wine with a dessert and most hostesses end up with way too many desserts!  In my household, it's not a good thing because I'm usually the one who ends up eating those desserts.  So here is an alternative.

Last week I was at Think Kitchen, a nice houseware and kitchenware store in my area and I saw these great Brie baking dishes by Gourmet du Village.

Via Gourmet du Village

Via Gourmet du Village

Via Gourmet du Village

Via Gourmet du Village

Via Gourmet du Village

These make wonderful fall gathering hostess gifts, accompanied or not, with a bottle of wine.  I love Brie, and I love baked Brie especially as a fall/winter appetizer and I would love to receive any of the above dishes. They come in such a nice variety of colour, in different sizes, and are very reasonably priced.

 An option to consider for your next dinner outing at a friend's house!

My Favourite Shoe Storage

About a year ago I found what in my opinion is the best way to store shoes, especially when you don't have a huge walk in closet like in the movies where the shoes can be displayed just like in a store. What I did was purchase plastic shoe/storage boxes and I got rid of the original shoe boxes.  I bought these from Home Depot.

Via Home Depot

Via The Container Store

As I was packing for our upcoming trip and going through my closet, I realized again how much I love these boxes.  They stack up nicely, they fit well (more than one pair of flip flops, for example) and you can see what's in them.  Seeing what's in them is the best part because you can really see what you have when picking which shoes to wear or which shoes to pack.  The boxes can be found at many other retailers, like Canadian Tire, and The Container Store.  Best storage solution ever!

Blogging Oh How I have Missed You!! - Halloween Planning

Halloween is finally on my mind.  Both boys have their Halloween costumes now.  I am not sure they will beat my son's costume of last year (he was the cutest skunk I have ever seen) but I am sure they will be nice. The little one will be a dinosaur and the older one  a monkey.

With the costumes figured out, I would like to give my home some "Halloween curb appeal"!  I don't usually go all out with my outdoor fall themed decorations but this year my intention is to do at least a little.  I enjoy carving pumpkins and usually to the typical scary faces or designs, but I saw this design and I hope I can pull it off.

Via Princess Pinky Girl

My oldest son loves playing "Boo" and pretending he is scaring us, so this design makes me laugh every time I see it.  Yesterday, we went to a pumpkin patch to pick the pumpkins. It was so much fun; beats just picking the pumpkin from the grocery store.

It will be my goal this week to get cracking on the decor. Stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating today!

From Mont St. Sauveur to Bangkok

I have been completely M.I.A....I feel I have been missing in action in so many ways.  My brain is having a hard time keeping up with all that is going on, especially with the continued sleep deprivation (I am hoping we can sleep train this week and I will start sleeping better!).  So here is what has been going on.  My 20 month old was out of day care for three weeks (which kept me very busy) so we took a trip with our good friends and their daughter who is the same age as my son to Mont St. Sauveur.  We rented a log home cottage on Fiddler Lake in Fiddler Lake Resort.  It was beautiful and relaxing.  I just wish the weather was nicer so that we could have enjoyed the outdoor pool and really felt like we were on vacation.

Here are a few pictures of the resort.

Via Fiddler Lake Resort

Via Fiddler Lake Resort

Via Fiddler Lake Resort

Truly a beautiful location to rent in the summer and winter with family or friends.

For the big news, after coming back from Mont St. Sauveur my husband confirmed he is going to Bangkok for a few months for work and that we will be joining him for part of his trip for a few months as well.  Yes, Bangkok, Thailand...with two babies!  So you can imagine the planning going on in my head.  I have to think of purchasing and packing essentials for all.  We travel quite a bit but this is the most adventurous trip we have taken, especially considering the little ones will be with us.  I have made several lists but getting things done has been challenging.  As you can imagine, it is the worst time of year to shop for summer clothing and swimwear.  Even online stores seem to have a limited selection, if any. So my search continues.  In addition to the shopping and packing, I really would like to familiarize myself with the city and the country and the region.  I have never been to Asia.  Tonight I started reading a bit on Frommers (Frommers is a great site for travel itineraries and information - we always consult the suggested day trip itineraries for each of our trips) and today I purchased this guide book on Thailand.

Via Indigo

I still enjoy paper format reading more than electronic.  I can mark relevant pages and take the book with me on the trip. I hope I can be done with the shopping very soon so I can start planning the fun stuff ... what we will be doing and seeing once we make it to Thailand!!!

So all in all please be patient with me, although I have blogging on my mind daily, I may not have the time to write much in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Baptism Celebration - The Results!

The event was beautiful!!  The highlight - My little guy who was so cute and so into the ceremony for a 3 month old.  I couldn't stop watching his gaze and how focused he was on the priest.  Truly priceless!

All the other details I worked on turned out exactly as I wanted them.  I was truly pleased with the results.

I have Irina Shainski of Sweet Song Cake to thank for the amazing cake.  Not only did it look flawless, it was delicious and an absolute hit with all, even the pickiest ones that usually have a say about the cake.  Isn't the sheep adorable?!  I can't bring myself to throw it out!

The favours were also a hit.  Everyone loved the idea of receiving something useful that would remind them of my little man's special day every time they use it.  Here is how the cutting boards turned out. I loved dealing with Rob at Westboro Signs for the engraving of my son's initials and baptism date on the boards.  And I loved how the thank you cards turned out.  Thank you Concertina Press,

Finally, I had fun putting together the simple centerpieces and I am happy with the end result.

Now that the baptism is over, I feel I have so much time on my hands - hmmm - what to plan next?