Fall fun

Today we got out the hotplate which we haven't used in a long time but Sierra just loves it so I think when life settles we will do a lot more with it. It's simple to use and doesn't get too hot. I recommend finding one with a temperature dial and keep it LOW. This obviously needs a lot of supervision and Aayla is not at the point to use it yet, but Sierra used it when she was 3 so it really depends on your child.

Simple turn on the hotplate, place a piece of waxed paper over it, use the crayons directly on the wax paper and watch the heat melt the crayons. It's lots of fun to use. Here Sierra is making her jack o lantern by colouring the background in with the long side of a crayon in various shades of orange. She then drew on her facial features with a black crayon and Voila a wonderful jack o lantern for your window. These looks so great when the light shines through them and what a wonderful way to recycle those old bits of crayons no one wants to use anymore :)


With all the packing to get out of the store and with our last day at the daycare fast approaching on October 30th, you might say we've been busy. I have never been surrounded by so many boxes... we are basically living in a storage unit at the moment but I can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel...all this craziness will be over and a simpler life will emerge :)

Daddy is working on the island for Oct, Nov and Dec so we are happy when he comes home for the weekends. We have been so busy that we haven't had much time to see each other this weekend. We spent all day yesterday working but today despite the rain and odd jobs that needed to be completed, we managed to get some pumpkins finally.

Every year we go to a small farm just 5 minutes away called Rondriso Farms. You can visit their website here. They are a small family farm with a variety of pumpkins, squash, and potatoes for sale, and they don't have all the hype surrounding them like Richmond Country Farms , Hazelmere Pumpkin Patch or Aldor Acres. I have been to all those pumpkin patches in the past with daycare and each is a bit different and fun in their own way. Some of them are very big events to attend!!! For us, we like Rondriso. It's close, it's small, and it has the best pumpkins for the best price when you go to the field and get your own. It was too wet and muddy at the pumpkin patch for us (me) as it poured all morning but at the first glimmer of sunshine we headed over and just got a few pumpkins from their market area. We'll save our carving until Halloween morning but we got some mini pumpkins which we had some fun with tonight.



These are very easy to make. All you need are a few simple supplies.

• Mini pumpkins or this could be a "little" mess alternative for regular pumpkins too

• Sewing pins, super tacky glue sticks or hot glue gun

• Various collage items. We used some left over felt shapes/scraps, sequins, colourful buttons, feathers, Halloween foamies, beads and fake flower pieces.

We used sewing pins which had a small round decorative top and with supervision Sierra did an excellent job. She used the pins carefully all by herself and had a great time adding on all of her collage items to her pumpkins. We opted to give Aayla only the super tacky glue stick, and used the occasional dab of the glue gun for heavy pieces we couldn't stick on with a pin.

Have a great evening everyone. I have another post coming tomorrow hopefully with a fun craft/game for Halloween...right after my camera battery charges :)

A new beginning

No I am not pregnant, my family tree is complete!

Where to start??? It's been a long, rough, crazy, extremely busy, actually way too busy life this past few years. Running our 2 childcare centres, creating and teaching the Early Childhood Education program at a local college, the birth of our 2 girls now almost 3 and 4, caring for our childrens special needs, starting a store, closing a store, selling off the childcare business...I am soooOOoo excited to say that shortly we will begining a journey towards a simpler life.

In July we decided to close the store. This past Saturday was the last day of operation and now we are busy counting inventory and figuring how to get rid of the left over stock... Retail is a crazy business. I've been self employed for most of my life but retail...what was I thinking. It was even more work then the year I spent creating an Early Childhood Education program and teaching it and that was a crazy year! I am happy to say that we came to our senses and realized we wanted, needed, deserved more out of life, and more importantly so do our children.

We though that closing the store would give us enough time to focus on our childcare centre and our family, but after re-evaluating what we want for our family...we decided to sell the childcare centre as well.... mid-life crisis some might say??? But personally, I see it as an eye opening revealtion. I now (well lets say in November) I get to take on the best job in the whole world...I get to be a stay at home mom!!! I get to teach them and to be taught by them, I get to create more for them, with them and together for others. I look forward to all the things I currently hate like cooking and cleaning as there isn't enough time in the day. I feverishly take every spare moment I have right now and head to the thrift store to look for jars so I can attempt to learn to can. ( I managed to squeeze in one batch of blackberry jam and it was yummy so I am off to a good start.) It's amazing how the most mundane tasks yesterday seem like such a joyful journey forthcoming... I can't wait!

Thank you to those who still follow my neglected blog... bare with me another month as we get all our loose ends tied up. I can't wait to get back into blogland. Though I haven't posted on my own, I have spent many hours reading all of yours after a long day of work and a good cup of tea. I have so many ideas I want to post, activities to do, dreams to share, questions to ponder...oh how exciting to see the end...the new beginning...of our simpler life coimng to fruition :) See you soon!