Wild about Watermelons!
Watermelons are the perfect hot summer day snack. While searching for some facts on watermelons (because I’m geeky that way), I came across this cute song that has been changed to highlight yummy watermelons:
Watermelon Song
~~ to the tune of ‘Are you Sleeping’
Watermelon, watermelon
See how it drips, see how it drips.
Up and down my elbow, up and down my elbow,
Spit out the seeds, (phooey)
Spit out the seeds, (phooey)
~Author unkown – song courtesy of the Virtual Vine.
A while back I was searching for some great summer fruit recipes for my little guy. In my searches I came across the National Watermelon Promotion Board website. Now if you want recipes or anything watermelon related, this is the site to go to!
They were kind enough to send me a CD filled with recipes (and pictures) of all sorts of watermelon yummy-ness: frozen recipes, kids, salads, drinks and even world cup recipes. Here’s a couple that I can’t wait to try out:
Watermelon Snow Cones
This recipe is a creative twist on a traditional summer treat. Watermelons are over 90 per cent water enabling them to freeze in a short period of time. The addition of vanilla yogurt, coconut and sprinkles ensure this treat to be fresh and flavourful on a hot day.
Seedless watermelon
Vanilla yogurt
Sweetened coconut
Sprinkles or jimmies
Ice cream cones or paper sno cone cups
Using an ice cream scoop, make balls of watermelon and place them in the freezer on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet for no more than 1 hour. Remove from freezer and roll in vanilla yogurt and then sweetened coconut, and top with sprinkles or jimmies. Place in an ice cream cone or sno cone cup and enjoy.
And for while your kids are enjoying their Watermelon Snow Cones…
Watermelon Agua Fresca
Agua Fresca, Spanish for fresh, cold waters, is a
combination of watermelon, water, fruit and honey blended together and served ice cold. This is the perfect beverage to enjoy on a backyard patio.
4 cups seedless watermelon, cut into chunks, divided
1 cup cold water, divided
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (or to taste)
1 tbsp honey (or to taste)
ice cubes
Garnish:
Watermelon triangles
Lime wedges
Blend half the watermelon pieces with 1/2 cup (125 mL) of water until smooth. Strain into serving pitcher. Repeat the process with the remaining watermelon and water. Add lime juice and honey to taste. Stir until blended. Pour into ice-filled glasses and garnish with watermelon triangles skewered with lime wedges.
Makes 4 servings.
Enjoy!
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Belly 2 Baby Announcements
You’re now home with your new bundle of joy and you have tons of photos and tons of people asking about your new addition to your family. You’re also exhausted and the thought of replying to each and every person via phone or visits is just too much. So what do you do?
Baby announcements are the way to go. And to save even more time, because let’s 
face it, what parent of a newborn has time, digital baby announcements. That’s right, digital. Our friends over at Belly 2 Baby Announcements recently contacted us about their new online store designing every type of announcement you can imagine.
Considering I love anything online and doesn’t involve me having to go anywhere when it’s over 35C outside, I had to check them out. They have every type of baby related announcement you could imagine: Adoption (how cool!), Ultrasound, Baby Shower, Thank You cards and more. Oh, and super cute designs too! Some of the available designs you can choose from are: Ladybug, Caterpillar, Magazine, Teddy Bear… the list goes on.
So how it works is you enter in all the details, attach a picture, you choose between the 
default wording or enter your own message and voila, it’s done! Nathalie, the designer behind Belly 2 Baby Announcements puts it all together and sends it to you in an email (down-loadable .zip file) that you can then print yourself or send to your local photo lab. All the files are .jpg and are 300dpi, so the quality for printing is fab.
And don’t forget about the other stuff you can order too! Baby Journal (love the first foods page), Door Hangers, Bookmarks, and Pregnancy Journals are just a few of the other great items that are available.
Oh and before I forget, you can get any of their items in either English or French
Belly 2 Baby Announcements has made their extremely popular Pregnancy Journal available for free download for West Coast Mama readers!
Bubbles, Bubbles and more Bubbles!
There’s one thing that kids of all ages love and that’s blowing bubbles! You can buy bubbles and wands at various stores, but making your own is much more fun and costs far less. Plus if your kids a little older, they can help you make it too.
We’ve tested a few different recipes and we’ve shortlisted our top three favourite bubble making recipes. You can also add a bit of tempera paint or food colouring for some extra fun. Try these out for hours of fun!
Basic Bubbles
1/2 cup of Joy dish soap (this brand work the best)
4 1/2 cups of water (you can use tap water if you have soft water, or distilled if you don’t)
3 – 4 tbsp of Glycerin (available at your local pharmacy)
Bubble Recipe #2
6 cups of hot water
1/2 cup of light corn syrup
1 cup of clear Joy dish soap
Super Long Lasting Bubbles
1/4 cup of Joy dish soap
1/2 cup of water
3 tsp of glycerin
Combine the glycerin and water then add the dish soap. Store in a covered jar.
Here’s a list of household items that work great as bubble wands. Just make sure to remove any sharp edges before giving to kids.
- Potato mashers
- Plastic fly swatters (clean)
- Plastic berry baskets
- Empty cardboard frozen juice tubes (without ends)
- Bent pipe cleaner
- Funnel
- Wire coat hanger
- Wire whisk
- Drinking straws bound together
- Cookie cutters
Enjoy! Send us pictures of your bubble making fun!
Sock Monkey Birthday Party
Recently my mr. bean turned one. In typical West Coast Mama fashion, I started planning it MONTHS ahead 
. Since I’m a huge fan of sock monkeys and the first thing mr. bean ever smiled at was the three sock monkey pictures above his change table, a sock monkey theme was the choice.
The great thing about the internet is that there are tons of resources for planning a birthday party. And if you’re planning a sock monkey birthday party there are lots and lots. For inspiration and a source of all things sock monkey, I turned to Etsy.
For those of you not familiar with Etsy, it’s a fabulous website that homes hundreds (perhaps thousands) of stores where crafters can sell their products. You can find pretty much anything under the sun at the Etsy website. I searched for sock monkeys, and boy did I find a huge selection of sock monkey decorations and supplies!
My first step was finding birthday invitation and thank you cards. There are a number of 
Etsy designers that make some great cards. Some send you the electronic file and you can print them yourself, and some will print them and ship them to you. Given that I’m not an overally creative person and if I have to print something, I will mess it up, I decided to go with printed cards. I decided to go with Chickabug Design and purchase a set of invitations, thank you cards, favour tags and stickers.
Now that the invitations were picked and ordered, it was time to think about decorations. Since the birthday boy would be in his highchair for his cake, I thought a highchair banner would be cute. I found a great one by inspiredbyowen.
I also decided that a happy birthday banner was in order. Trying to keep in mind I had a budget (more my husband had a budget in mind), I chose to visit my local craft store and pick up some sock monkey craft paper and some black paper letters (remember, I’m not crafty so stencils or free drawing was out). I cut out a series of large triangles and glued the letters on. Used a knitting sewing needle to poke holes and thread the ribbon through and I had a great happy birthday banner. If that is too crafty for you, you can find quite a few custom banners on Etsy such as OhMyGlueStick.
At this point I need to mention the fabulous Etsy shop that OhMyGlueStick has. She is the ultimate sock monkey party favour designer extraordinaire on Etsy. You name it, she has it. Her sock monkey designs have become so popular she has opened up a separate sock monkey studio Etsy store too! For those with zero crafty creativityness, you can buy everything you need from OMG.
The final decor item I made was a photo banner highlighting the first year of mr. bean’s life. I had originally planned to make an iMovie and have it loop on the TV, but then I didn’t want everyone standing around the television. I picked 10 different pictures and framed them with red and blue craft paper and hung them across the mantle. It was a lot of fun going through all the pictures from his first year and guests really enjoyed taking their time looking at them.
Finally it was time to plan the cake! Now if you think I was already going over the top (and I haven’t mentioned the 45 balloons in coordinating colours we blew up 
), then sit down for this one. I’m not a baker and I wanted to bake my own cake for his birthday. 
Starting the month before I baked 4 different types of cakes (uh hello the extra 10lbs) to decide which to make. I made a chocolate cake for the guests and a vanilla smash cake for the birthday boy. Both were iced in blue icing and had red iced letters on top. The cakes were a hit and everyone left with a sugar high!
No first birthday party is complete without a coordinating t shirt for all the photos! We picked up a customized sock monkey t shirt from our friend at Cuda Creations on Etsy.
With the hours of planning (somewhat excessive if you ask some people), the party was a blast! We had lots of food, lots of games and lots of fun. Birthday boy did not have a meltdown and the party was a success. I also had a lot of fun planning it all. I’m thinking a fire truck theme for his birthday next year…
I would like to thank Jason Beattie Photography for all the great birthday party photos.
Plan Toys: Eco-friendly Toys
When looking for new toys for mr. bean or any of the other little ones in my life, I try to find something that is not only fun, but allows creativity to flourish. When I find a brand that does that AND is eco-friendly, I have hit the jackpot!
Before I continue, I must mention that I am really a big kid in a toy store. I love toy stores! When I look at all the toys, I like to think of myself at the age the toy is appropriate for and imagine the fun I could have with that toy. With a little kitchen set I imagine making mud pies for all my friends. With puzzles I picture myself spending hours putting all the pieces together. I love toys.
Recently I had two birthday kids to buy for. My little guy who turned one a few months ago and my god-daughter, Miss Button. Miss Button was just turning two and the toy possibilities are endless at that age. I wanted to find something that would foster creativity and be something she could play with for years. And battery-free was a must have for my choice.
When searching for just the right gift at the Granville Island Toy Company I came across 
PlanToys. They have a huge selection! PlanToys are the ultimate eco-friendly toy company. They create toys that inspire children’s imagination as well as promoting their physical and intellectual development. What makes these toys so eco-friendly? They manufacture their toys from Rubberwood that is no longer provide latex. No deforestation is involved as every Rubberwood tree is replaced with a sapling. Plus, Rubberwood is an eco-friendly and sustainable wood. Nice eh?
So back to “what to pick, what to pick?”. I thought back to my childhood memories and thought “what did I spend hours playing with as a kid?”. Kitchen stuff. I used everything 
and anything I could find to make food. So I naturally migrated towards the PlanToys food sets. The Granville Island Toy Company has every food set available from PlanToys. They have: cooking utensils, breakfast foods, food & beverages, fruits & veggies, a tea set and a tableware set for serving up all the yummy concoctions.
I must make a confession. I went in with a budget of $30 and I did not stick to it. Not at all. When it came time to pay, I “discretely” suggested to my husband that mr. bean needed a diaper change and could he take care of that. Yes, that type of spending.
I bought the breakfast menu, the fruits & veggies and then the tableware set. Because 
let’s face it, what’s the point of having breakfast food and fruits and veggies if you don’t have something to serve it on? Yes, I can rationalize anything.*
Now that it has been a few months, I must admit my purchase was a big win! Miss Button plays with her PlanToys non-stop. Must restrain myself from purchasing the Green Dollhouse with Furniture for her third birthday…
And for those of you who don’t live in Vancouver or have a local toy store that sells PlanToys, The Granville Island Toy Company ships too.
*disclaimer: I then bought the cooking utensils set later for a different gift giving opportunity
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