White Chocolate, Strawberry and Oatmeal Cookie Recipe for Canada Day

I found this recipe a few years ago and it has become a summer staple.  This cookie recipe uses just 1/4 cup of butter so they fit a lighter palette which is perfect for warmer weather (and bathing suit season!).  These cookies also happen to be red and white which makes them perfect for a Canada Day celebration!

What You Need:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup regular oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried strawberries (I get them at a bulk foods store)
1/3 cup white chocolate chips

What You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt; stir with a whisk.
3. Place sugar and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat at medium speed until well blended.
4. Add vanilla and egg, beat well.
5. Slowly add flour mixture, beating until blended.
6. Add strawberries and white chocolate chips and mix by hand just until blended.
7. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls two inches apart onto greased baking sheet.
8. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
9. Remove from oven; cool on pan 1 minute before removing to a wire rack or plate.

Happy Father's Day - From My Kids To Their Dad

My kids are too young to actually write a note to their Dad for Father's Day but I write this from their perspective based on what I see in their eyes, their smiles and their joy.  My own two cents may be thrown in as well, as how can I not thank the guy who always seems to get the job of cleaning up various bodily fluids from two children!

• Thank you Dad, for always giving me 'one last kiss' before bed
• Thank you Dad, for being okay with your arm falling asleep as I take a nap on you when I am sick
• Thank you Dad, for putting together my Lego fire station again and again and again
• Thank you Dad, for letting me help with chores outside even though it takes you longer when I do
• Thank you Dad, for sharing your food with me, even if it means I end up eating your whole sandwich and you don't get any at all
• Thank you Dad, for your patience when I insist on doing up my own car seat buckle and it takes me awhile 
• Thank you Dad, for showing me how to do so many new things like using the hose sprayer, drinking from a 'big kid' water bottle, putting my clothes away and so much more
• Thank you Dad, for taking the time to do something special with us, one on one like going for pancakes or trips to Home Depot
• Thank you Dad, for learning to take out ponytails
• Thank you Dad, for taking care of us when we are sick, for doing the laundry at 2 AM so we get our favourite blankets back as soon as possible
• Thank you Dad, for all the hugs and snuggles
• Thank you Dad, for making us feel important and loved
• Thank you Dad, in advance, for the million other things you will do for us

It is a pleasure to watch my husband be a Father to my kids.  I feel very lucky that he not only loves his role as a Father but is an equal contributor to our parenting team.

Happy Father's Day Daddy-O (from the mouth of my two year old daughter)!

Tips For Keeping Your Kids Active And Entertained Over The Summer

With summer quickly approaching and school almost over, you’re probably looking for ways to keep your kids active and entertained this summer. If you’re lucky enough to be able to stay home with your kids over the summer months, make sure to plan a couple activities each week that are different and will keep your children engaged and away from the television. 

• Take a bike ride to a park a fair distance from home, bring and lunch and make a day of it. Pick up a friend or two on the way and create a cycling caravan! 
• You could also walk through the park and bring a book on wildlife so you can learn about the animals and plants you see. 
• The Peel/Halton region also has a multitude of conservation areas where you can go for an easy walk or a challenging hike, take advantage of the nice weather and see what’s in your backyard.

For those of you who are unable to stay home with your kids over the summer, or even for those who can, but are looking for a more structured program to keep your kids active, the Sports Training Academy is a great way to keep kids active over the summer. They offer 5 daily and weekly sport camps for children ages 2-13 including: multi-sport, hockey, golf, junior academy and gymnastics. All of their camps are a wonderful way to teach your kids new sports, keep them active and have fun this summer!

Synthetic Ice Surface

Trampoline/Tumbling Track

The Sports Training Academy prides itself on developing well-rounded athletes. The 25,000 sq ft indoor multi-sport facility comprises of a synthetic ice rink/skating treadmills, driving range/golf simulators/putting green, turfed field, fitness zone and gymnastics studio which allows athletes of all ages and stages to try their hand at a variety of sports. With everything you need under one roof, the Sports Training Academy is a one-stop shop for all of your children’s sport training needs. One child can be in the gymnastics studio learning a new tumbling routine, while another can be on the ice learning a wrist shot, or on the field perfecting their soccer dribbling skills. 

Many of the programs offered at the Sports Training Academy also focus on multi-sport instruction. The after school program, Junior Academy and the Summer/PA/Winter break camps all allow child athletes to test their skills at many sports each day. At the end of the day, it is their goal that a child will go home with a desire to learn more about a new sport, or tell mom and dad how they were finally able to hit a baseball without a tee!

At the Sports Training Academy, all accomplishments are recognized and the positive reinforcement from coaches and trainers steer athletes in the direction of success. The coaches are all trained in their fields (including university or national level athletes) and each department is run by individuals who also have extensive experience competing in each sport, as well as many degrees related to their department. Coaches and teammates work together to develop the best all-round athletes.

Check out their website for more pictures and information on how to register for their programs.

Rain, Rain, Go Away - momstown Oakville Moms And Babies Sing, Rattle & Read!

It was a hot and sunny day for momstown Oakville's May Sing, Rattle & Read program so our moms and kids were thrilled to read a book that went along with our theme for the month of 'wet, wet. wet' helped them think about cooling down.

Our Scholastic Canada book of the month was  Rain, Rain, Go Away by Caroline Jayne Church.   Our Oakville babies loved their time reading and exploring instruments, singing songs, dancing, some visiting with some puppets too!

Congrats to Zoe, the winner of our Scholastic Canada book of the month!

Both Oakville moms and babies love the songs with actions and movement

Thanks again to Little Sprouts Cuts for Kids for hosting us and to all our moms and babies who came out for a fun morning.  Our theme for June is shapes and we've got another great Scholastic Canada book to give away.  Sign up now to join us and get a 12 month subscription to Today's Parent magazine with your one year momstown Oakville membership!

momstown Oakville Little Scientists Explore Shapes

momstown Oakville's theme for the month of June is shapes and so Oakville moms and kids had a really fun time exploring different shapes this morning during our Little Scientists program.  The group started off reading a book about shapes where we had to match the shape in the picture to one on a spinning wheel.

Then we played a shape matching game.  Each person got a board that had been made using six different shapes cut out of sandpaper and glued on.  There were matching shapes cut out of felt, and each child had to pick the felt colour that matched the colour of their board and then match the right shape to the right sandpaper. We talked about the different textures - rough and soft, and the sandpaper helps the felt shape stick to the board.  We traced around the sandpaper shapes with our fingers and talked about how many sides each shape had, and whether they were curvy or straight and where we might find those shapes around our houses or outside.

Next we used mini marshmallows and straws to construct our own shapes. We used the marshmallows as "glue" to glue the straws together.  It was tricky, but good practice for our little fingers.

After we used bags of goo to practice drawing the shapes we had been talking about.  We filled a plastic snack bag with hair gel, food colouring and glitter and zipped it up tight.  We laid the bag flat on the table and either used a shape cookie cutter to press into the goo to make the shape, or used our finger to draw the shape in the goo.  Each of the momstown Oakville Little Scientists got to take a bag home to practice writing numbers, letters, and more shapes.

The kids had a great time and our Oakville moms were impressed - our little ones are a bunch of smart cookies and really know their shapes!  momstown Oakville's Little Scientists program is a monthly program - just one of many included in your yearly membership for just $45 a year.  Click here to see our calendar and join in on the fun!

Yikes. Who's Ready For The Tween and Teen Years?

In the last month, I have participated in events that involved large groups of grade 7 & 8 students.  I know, sounds fun, right?  One group was pretty well behaved, lots of 'please' and 'thank yous', manageable noise levels and appreciation for the experience they were having.  Then there was the other group.  Rude, loud, ungrateful and impatient.  Why the big difference between the two groups?

I'm never going to know the answer to that as I don't know their family background, much about their school or their community but I certainly was left wondering about the differences.  The group that was not well behaved seemed to be cursed with the negative generalities of the millennial generation.  They wanted more no matter what was given to them and didn't have any appreciation for what they were given, they had a very short attention span (they asked if there was a movie they could watch during lunch...which was 20 minutes!) and they had no respect for others around them (we received complaints about their noise levels).

Obviously the alarm bells starting ringing for me since I have yet to go through this with my kids and this left me scared!  My oldest is 4 years old which means I have about another 7 or 8 years before I get to this stage.  My mom often says that she didn't find the teenage years with my siblings and I all that bad.  Must remember to pick her brain immediately to find out how this was accomplished!

Eight years is a long way away and so I have lots of time to teach my kids and to model the behaviour that will get them to be respectful, appreciative, courteous and pleasant.  But I know they are always watching and I know that there are teachable moments relating to this issue every single day.  Sigh.  Parenting is a bit of a tough gig, right?  Ha - as if this is news to anyone reading!  Its hard to picture my two little bundles of sweetness turning into grumpy, gangly tweens and teens but I know it will happen.

Even if your kids are just babies, do you ever find yourself thinking about their tween or teenage years and how you will handle those challenges?  I don't think about it a lot, but will take my recent experience as a reminder to continue to parent in a way that will help my kids be people that both they and my husband and I can be proud of.

Edleun Oakville Learning & Childcare Centre - Infant Spots Now Open!

I recently had the pleasure of touring the Edleun Oakville Learning & Childcare Centre located at 20 Shepherd Road - a great central location that is very close to the Oakville Go Train station.  Edleun took over this childcare centre about a year ago and has made huge changes both aesthetically and with regards to curriculum.

Welcome to Edleun Oakville Learning & Childcare Centre!

Entrance to Edleun Oakville Childcare Centre

I sat with Siji, the Director of the centre, and she told me all about their programs and the facility.  Some top highlights for me were:

• The centre opens at 6:45 am and closes at 6:00 pm
• They have a cook and a commercial kitchen on site.  All food is made from scratch - no canned soups or commercial bakery snacks.  Their summer menu that I saw included great meals such as oven roasted chicken with rice and steamed veggies, sliced fresh plums and banana chunks.  They rotate their menu seasonally, all menus are certified by a Registered Dietician and they are a completely nut free facility. 
• Starting in the preschool classrooms, they follow the 'Frog Street Curriculum'  which is a play based learning program with set activities, themes and games for each day of the school year.  The goal of the curriculum is to teach the children to become active members of society in learning respect, responsibility and friendship all while igniting their potential for academic success in the future.  For an overview of what a day in the classroom might look like, please click here.
• They take children as young as six weeks old up to 12 years (for before and after school care) and have part time options for all age groups (even infants!).  They currently have infant spots available too!
• They are a bilingual centre and learning in two languages starts right in the infant room.

Left:  Infant Sleep Area With Individual Cribs
Right:  Infant Classroom

Left:  Large Hallways with Cubbies for Each Child
Right:  Toddler Classroom

Great outdoor space for each age group

I really encourage you to arrange a tour of this facility if you are looking for childcare.  It is bright, clean, happy and safe.  The passion and love they have for the kids and families that are a part of the centre was very evident in talking to the staff on site.

They are hosting two Open Houses in the next few weeks, please stop by to see all they have to offer!

Saturday, June 15th from 10am to 1pm

Wednesday, June 19th from 6pm to 8pm

Please call the centre at 905-844-4401 and speak with the Director, Siji Puliyodil, if you have any questions or to arrange a specific tour time.  Make sure you mention 'momstown' if you are registering your child and you'll get the $50 registration fee waived!