Essential Oil Rice Bags

Tomorrow is Love Day!

One of my friends posted a picture of these little rice bags that she made for her kids for Valentine's Day...I thought they were so cute that I had to whip up something and share it with you! They were easy to make and used things I had on hand.

It was a huge hit, Lady said, "awe momma, you're the bestest momma ever". Who gets tired of hearing that!?

Supplies needed: fabric (I used some leftover fabric from their baby blankets but a nice flannel or thick cotton would work well), needle & thread, rice, and essential oils.

I cut 2 matching pieces of fabric into a heart (make any shape you want), using small stitches, sew the "wrong" sides together, leaving about 2 cm to pull the fabric through. Pull the fabric through the opening to reveal the finished heart. 

In a bowl or mason jar, mix rice & 5-10 drops of your favourite essential oil (I used 1 cup of rice for each of my bags and 5 drops of oil). With a funnel, pour the rice into the opening of the bag. Sew up the opening of the bag. 

Freeze for a great alternative to an ice pack for ouchies or heat in the microwave for 1-2 minutes for a nice calming warmth for bedtime or sore muscles. 

The essential oil you choose will provide added benefit - promote relaxation with lavender or a calming blend or help with breathing by using eucalyptus or a respiratory blend.  Other great options could include wild orange, peppermint, citrus blend, a balancing blend or a sleep blend. I used Doterra's Serenity for mine because I absolutely love the calming aroma.

This project took me about 10 minutes to make and I hand stitched the hearts. 

My happy children packed them off to bed with them and are sleeping soundly as I write!

~Adel~

Halloween Sparkle Slime

It was raining cats and dogs today...well not really, but I'm pretty sure the sky was falling. We were not going out for any reason, time to pull out the inner creative mamma and find something fun to do.

Lady & Bug & I decided to make little gifts for their preschool classmates for halloween treat bags instead of sending candy along. If you're 4, what could be better than getting a little container of slime?

So we searched Pinterest and I tried out a bunch of recipes that didn't quite work and we ended up adjusting a few to make the right consistency.

So here's the recipe we used, it made it a bit less stringy and more solid, which was exactly what I was looking for (to keep things a little cleaner)!

Slime Recipe

1 cup Warm Water
1 tsp Borax
1/2 cup Liquid School Glue (we used clear)
1/2 cup Warm Water
Glitter
Food Colouring
2 separate containers for mixing (I used measuring cups)

In one container, combine 1 cup warm water and 1 tsp Borax, stir well until borax is dissolved.

In another container combine 1/2 cup of warm water and glue. Add any colour and glitter you want to the glue mixture. We made orange with 2 drops of red food colour and 7 drops of yellow along with 1 tsp of glitter and mixed well.

Pour water/borax container into glue/colour/glitter mixture. Stir until the mixture starts to become thick and gloopy.

Pour the extra water out and squeeze the slime a bit until it becomes dry.

Lady wasn't so interested in helping so Bug and I worked on it together.

Oh and look who decided to join in on the fun...

And after an hour of making slime snakes we finally finished our task.

Voila....little containers of orange halloween sparkle slime.

~Adel~

Goat's Pride Dairy

With our public schools on strike, we've been trying to find ways to keep all of our children entertained and educated (and us moms sane!), so a group of us have been working together to find places that will give us educational tours. 

This time we went to Goat's Pride Dairy in Abbotsford, BC. I'd post their website, but I haven't been able to find one! It's in the northwest part of Abbotsford on Olund Road, nestled in the hills near the fraser river. We drove down tiny farming roads to find this gem.

Nothing is more exciting to me than food & farm related field trips because that's what I love, local people putting their heart and soul into making beautiful things, especially things that taste delicious!

This wasn't just fun for me, it was fun for Lady & Bug and their friends to visit a farm, see how animals live, practice milking a goat, and discover how the things we eat are made (Bug is a huge cheese fan).

This was a real working farm, not a tourist destination, so it wasn't set up for taking beautiful pictures of the process. We peeked through fogged windows as the cheese maker stirred a huge pot, saw the milking area (but it wasn't milking time), made a goat craft, and played with the goats - who were huge fans of all the attention. A lovely little tour for our crew

Best of all, we brought home some goat's milk to sample and some amazing cheese, which I happily munched on with my freshly made Pepper Jelly and a glass of wine!

Fun for all of us!

~Adel~

Campbell's Gold Honey Farm & Meadery

Earlier this spring I made a list of 100+ things to do with kids in my local area and we are slowly working our way through the list. 

Today we tried something new along with a group of friends - we went Campbell's Gold Honey Farm & Meadery in Abbotsford, BC.

What a great experience, so I thought I'd share for others out there who might be curious or just looking for a fun thing to do! 

Judy and Mike from Campbell's Gold, taught us about the different bees in the hive and what each one does. 

They answered the million questions of the mostly preschool aged group and even (mostly) kept the attention of 13 kids under 7 - amazing!

We built hives... 

...Tasted honey...

 

...visited the hives...

...and stuck our fingers in the honeycomb...

                     

...searched for the queen...

(The queen has a green dot! Can you see it?)

...and did our bee dance with the "queen bee".

Lady and Bug had a great time learning about bees and found out that they don't really like honey, but had fun anyway! 

The $8 entrance fee for each person over 3 yrs seemed a bit pricy, but we each got a little honeybear full of their alfalfa honey (about a $4 value), so overall, not so bad. They do tours for groups of 5 or more if you book ahead. We also got information about a free family fun day in August that I think we might try to check out!

They also have many other honey and bee related products including Mead and other honey wine, which Daddy Ladybug and I are going to have to go back and try! 

~Adel~

100+ Things to do with Kids in Abbotsford, BC

I have been looking for a good list of things to do with kids in my home town (Abbotsford, BC, Canada) and so far I haven't found one, so I decided to do some research, ask fellow parents, talk to childcare workers, consult city resources, and scour the internet for ideas.

I figured I'm not the first parent to ask the same question, so I thought I'd share my list! If you live in the area and have some suggestions of things to add I'll do an update every once in a while with new things!

Goodbye Summer

I'M BACK....

Nope, I didn't disappear, I just went to North Korea :) Seriously! Why doesn't anyone believe me when I say that?? It was an amazing time and I learned so much about a culture and people that I knew almost nothing about before I went there. I'll post the link to my travel blog when I get around to posting it!

It's been a month since my last post and the Ladybug family has been vacationing hard. All that camping and travelling left me exhausted and lacking inspiration or motivation to cook or even get off the couch.

The Jetlag has finally subsided and somehow through the haze I managed to add Barista to my job title in the process, so hopefully I can still find time to do all of this!

So here's a little about the Ladybug household's summer...

Camping & hiking at Bridal Falls, BC

Potty Training...still in process...the longest process ever!!!

Learning to ride balance bikes

Crafts with cousins while camping at Lac le Jeune, BC

Forest fire sunset while camping in Oliver, BC

Daddy Ladybug & I went to North Korea

And saw lots of these!

Now we're all home and ready for the chaotic & carefully scheduled life that is the rest of the year!

Goodbye summer, hello September...

~Adel~

Camping Play Canopy

Lady & Bug love to play with cars and figurines and that doesn't change when they're camping.

The rain, the hot sun, and the lack of shade due to damage from the mountain pine beetle in our area make finding a protected place to play in camp grounds difficult. 

Daddy Ladybug came up with an ingenious way to keep the kids contained - safe from the blistering sun and dry in the rain. We've tried it on a few of our camping trips this year and they have stayed entertained and safe from sun & rain for many hours at a time. It was a life saver for us so I thought I'd share!

Supplies needed:

• some kind of shelter - a tent, canopy, tarp, or RV awning
• a table or rug for kids to lay on
• a play mat (if you don't have one you can make something out of cardboard)
• toys - cars, dolls, figurines, etc.

First, set up your shelter over a picnic table or area that will not be flooded and is protected as possible from the sun. Then place a play mat on the table or in the middle of the rugged area. Add toys and kids and voilà, you've got a protected place to let kids play! If you want to see more ideas for camping with kids check out my camping page.

Now grab yourself a nice cold beverage and sit back in your camping chair!

~Adel~

Day Out with Thomas

Day Out With Thomas

Not everything goes as planned in the Ladybug house...

On Saturday we went to the West Coast Railway Heritage Park in Squamish, BC  to have a "Day Out With Thomas".

It should have been a great day of fun with Thomas, riding trains and what can only be the best day of their lives...instead is a disaster!

We managed to leave home on time for our 1 & 1/2 hour journey to visit Thomas in Squamish, but the second we hit the curves on the Sea to Sky Highway, Lady mentioned that her tummy didn't feel good. 

I gave her Gravol, like a good mommy, and we kept going. 

We were almost in Squamish when she said that her tummy hurts again and blah...she pukes everywhere. All over her clothes, her blankie, & her carseat. Me, being a great mommy, forgot the diaper bag with the extra clothes in it, so we cleaned her up the best we could and stripped her down. Thankfully I did have their swimming stuff in the car and her jacket so I could put something on her and we searched the town for some new clothes. 

She now owns more expensive jeans than I do because that was all we could find for pants that fit her! (we later found a walmart...oh well, we shopped local...right??).

Once we got to the rail yard to see Thomas Bug's meltdowns started (man do I ever hate the 2's...can't wait until this stage is over!!!). He couldn't understand that pushing the stroller around (by himself of course..."NO I do it!") is not ok in a really crowded place where he runs over everyone. So meltdown #1. Seriously, the only kid in the place who is having a meltdown while Thomas is coming in, so Lady gets to have pictures...

Eventually we calm Bug down and he gets in one:)

Then we take the train ride and have a snack. It's a pretty disappointing ride (for the adults at least)...

Then we go see what the rest of the site has to offer and Bug has another meltdown in the middle of the train tables area because he can't understand why he can't have all the trains on the table (Seriously, why would you do that to parents...these kids can't share yet!).

Mommy's done...time to have lunch and go home. So much for a fun family day out! Thankfully I'm too busy managing meltdowns and puke that I don't have pictures of the bad times!

Lessons learned...
1. Give gravol to children who get motion sickness before you leave.
2. When they say they have a sore tummy, stop and let them out for a bit.
3. Always bring a change of clothes for each kid.
4. Bug is obsessed with pushing the stroller, so just don't bring it...we don't really need it any more.
5. Don't take them to a public train table where they have to share trains with other kids...just avoid it altogether!
6. Don't go...it's not worth the drive, the time, or the money! If you do go, don't buy tickets, just go see the sights and skip the lame train ride - the train was the only time they checked the tickets!

~Adel~

Ice Cream Bars!

The joy of having little kids is watching them experience things for the first time!

Lady & Bug haven't really had the opportunity to have ice cream bars before, maybe a lick or two of daddy ladybug's last summer, but never their own. The lovely weather we're having right now called for some cold sugary treats...chocolate ice cream bars!

I did not make these, I'll probably try to come up with something eventually, but for now - store bought is perfect.

mmm...ice cream is so delicious!

Things were fine at first...aren't they always?!

Then the window became really exciting...

now I have to wash the windows again.

I love watching them discover new things!

~Adel~

Lil' Bakers

I make Banana Muffins about twice a week, it's a house staple for breakfast & snacks!

This time Lady & Bug seemed very interested in what I was doing and had to get in on the action. They dragged their little chairs over to the counter and asked to stir. I gave them a couple of bowls and my dirty measuring cups & scrapers. The also wanted to use the banana peels - why not, you can't make banana muffins without bananas!

They had a blast. Pretend baking is a daily part of play in the Ladybug house, so this time it seemed a little more realistic. They pretended to bake muffins and lucky for me, there wasn't a huge mess to clean up. I was only left with some dirty hands and dishes that I would have to wash anyway.

A little pretend baking never hurt anyone! Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to handle the mess and let them really help me make muffins.

~Adel~