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What would Hayden Fox do?

Who knew role models could be so hilarious?

I never saw myself as coaching material. In fact, the sum of my coaching knowledge was gleaned from watching eight seasons of Coach. Actually, if you factor in reruns I probably watched 21 seasons of Coach. Don’t ask me why. It’s one of those television shows I used to watch all the time, but looking back I can’t for the life of me understand why. Like, Full House, Family Matters or Head of the Class. I mean really, how riveting was Arvid Engen and Dennis Blunden’s hijinks? And was I on the edge of my seat when Steven Urkel became Stephan Ürkél?

Where was I? Oh yeah, coaching.

Every year when I would go to sign my boys up for soccer I always stopped on the question at the end of the registration form – “Would you be interested in coaching?”

But I never stopped for long. I’d swallow my guilt, sign the form and hand it in. Then when I handed it in I would be cheerfully asked, “Are you interested in helping out with coaching at all this year? We really need volunteers.”

The guilt that had almost made its way to my stomach would then rocket back up like a plate of bad sushi. But I would force it back down again, smile and say, “I’d love to, but I don’t know if I could commit to every weekend.”

Then before they could say anything else I would hand in my form and get the hell out of there. The guilt would stay with me for a bit then there would be coaches there at the first game and I’d forget about it. “See,” I’d think to myself, “they have enough volunteers. All is well.”

Until all isn’t.

At my four year old son’s first game this year the coach asked if he could talk to all the parents. He explained that the other coach had bailed at the last minute and he really needed a parent to step up and help out. He needed another coach for the whole season and his wife was due in December, so he would be missing a few games. As every parent tried not to make eye contact with him, an internal dialogue started deep in the back of my mind.

Do it.

What?

Do it.

Me?

Who else stupid?

But…

But what?

I don’t have the time.

Why? You’re here anyways. What’s the difference? The kids need you/

Well…

Your son needs you.

Low blow.

I’m going to speak up.

Don’t you dare.

Hear I go.

I’m warning you.

Ready…

Don’t..

 …set…

SHUT UP!

 “I can do it.”

NOOOOOOOOOO!

 Before I knew what happened, there was a jersey and a playbook in my hand and I was out on the floor with eight three and four year olds. The game was kind of a blur and I left thinking “What did I get myself into?”

But as each week progressed I really started to get into it. It’s really fun. The kids are great. I loved playing soccer growing up, and I forgot how much I love the game, how much I remember, and how much I can actually teach the kids. And the kids actually listen – it’s awesome to see them progress, come out of their shell and gain confidence. It’s also a great experience for my son and me. I love when he proudly calls me his coach. In fact, I love it so much that when my older son’s under eight team needed an assistant coach shortly into the season, I happily volunteered.

Game on.

Community sports and arts programs are run by volunteers who are committed to enriching kids’ lives and bringing the community together. And they always need fresh blood. So consider helping out. It’s a lot easier and a lot more fun than I thought it would be. And it’s amazing to see what a difference even one or two hours of your time can make.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think Coach is on cable – I have a good feeling Luther and Dobber are going to get Coach Fox into a hilarious predicament and I need to take notes for next week’s games.

Shelving DIY, cheap and fast–and super cute!

As we work on building our nest–in our new apartment, nestled in an ancient house in an ancient neighbourhood, two houses down from the highway with slanty floors and a crooked bathroom door–we’ve had a lot of tiny DIY projects that are helping to make this place really feel like home. Turns out, they’re quick and easy, and consequently, I want to show them off to everyone. These projects have one thing in common with each other: they take approximately an hour (maybe less, maybe slightly more), but make a huge impact on your living space. So on our home blog, we’ve started titling these projects ‘Better in an Hour’ projects. Today I’ll review with you how to make some cheap, fast shelves that are to-die-for cute. (Or, if you’re into handsome, dashing, or manly shelves…just substitute some cut-up bicycle tire for the ribbon.)

We took the boards home, and I painted them with the same paint we were using that day on the bedroom. I like to use house paint (versus art or craft paint) on household things because it holds up better; if you don’t have any lying around, look at the mistinted paints at your local hardware store. You can get a gallon for around six bucks, and there’s often tons of cool colours because people buy it, take it home, and realize no one should paint a whole room that colour. But since you’re going to use it on accents and furniture, it’s a win-win for you. Painting the boards took 10 minutes—doing two coats.

After Brian finished cursing, swearing, and fighting with the mounting job, I warmed up my glue gun, pulled out some ribbon I had, and began gluing the ribbon around the ugly plywood edge of the shelves. I aligned the edge of the ribbon with the edge of the shelf; because my ribbon is slightly wider than the wood, there’s a bit of a ribbon ‘lip’ on the bottom edge. But this doesn’t matter, because the ribbon is still flush with the top edge of the shelf, so things won’t snag on the ribbon as they’re added or removed from display. Gluing the ribbon took 10 minutes.

Some assembly required

I thought I was free and clear.

On Christmas morning the boys opened all their gifts and there was almost no cumbersome packaging. Save for the one Scooby Doo haunted house that was screwed – yes, screwed – into its box, it was a build-free Christmas. No late night Christmas Eve trying to make a washer fit somewhere it doesn’t want to fit. It was a dream. But like every dream, I have to go ruin it. I have to be stupid.

The boys received their slot car track last year for Christmas. But with renovations and a crazy year (and a lot of excuses), we had yet to set it up. So I decided on December 27^th that I would tackle the track. I looked at the box – it said “easy to assemble”. And it had two loop de loops. I figured I’d be racing with my boys within an hour.

Here’s a loose timeline of what actually happened:

10 minutes – after opening the box and looking over what seemed like too many pieces, all double and triple twist-tied, I rethink my estimate. But still, an hour and a half, tops.

Twists

45 minutes – I decide to make sure all the pieces are there by unpacking the pieces in the order they appear on the supplies list in the manual. Wow. There sure are a lot of twist ties.

Track parts on paper

Track parts on the floor.

One hour, 30 minutes – Just five or six more pieces and everything will be out of the box.

One hour, 45 minutes  - OK, here we go, finally. I need to remove some clips – 96 clips – that are needed to hold the track together. My son helps. He makes a great smiley face out of the little pieces.

A bunch of clips

2 hours –  OK, here we go. Slowly but surely I am getting the hang of it. A few tight squeezes, but I made my way through the first loop de loop and was onto the bridge.

A high bank and the first loop. Feeling good.

2 hours, 45 minutes – The bridge wasn’t so easy. I had my first cracked track on the bridge. The bridge fence pieces were impossible to clip on the track. Stupid bridge fence pieces. Swearing isn’t as satisfying when you’re doing it in your head so your kid won’t hear. But I made it through. Until I realized I went the wrong way turning into the bridge. Went left instead of right. Quick fix.

Reason #5 why I'm not a city planner.

3 hours, 10 minutes – All right, back on track (heh, heh). I realize I forgot to clip both sides of the pieces.

3 hours, 25 minutes – All clipped and ready to go. All I have to do is plug it in and we’re good to go!

3 hours, 45 minutes – The thing about Christmas is that you end up using all the extension cords.

3 hours, 55 minutes – Plugged in and good to go. The boys love it. At first it’s hard to make the turns and loops. But then you get through the first lap. And a second lap.

Totally worth it.

Start your engines.

P.S.

I wanted to call this post “The Full Package “, but thought better of it.

I Spy: Mission Impossible 3's BMW i8

BMW i8 Concept

So if any have you have seen the new Mission Impossible 3 movie, you might be able to guess my new, completely un-practical, object of desire… the BMW i8. Besides the drool worthy exterior aesthetic of the i8, it has been developed with some radical changes from your traditional sports car. Get this it’s a hybrid! It gets 94 mpg (miles per gallon), and on a full electrical charge it can travel 35km on electric power alone. Couple this with the fact that seats four and can achieve 0-100km/h in under 5 seconds, I’d say we’re looking at an insane new sports car that’s actually useable in everyday situations (just don’t look at the price tag).

In the spirit of all things spy, I have also managed to find some very cool “spy-related gear” on our sites:

Light-up Spiderman mask via UsedRegina

Paintball gun (don't tell Mom!) via UsedOttawa

iPhone 4~ Extremely important in MI3 via UsedVictoria

With this gear and some Tom Cruise-like moves, who needs a car? (Me. I need this car. Donations accepted)

Mirror, mirror on the wall = Awesome DIY

turquoise AND a DIY? love.

Brooke over at All Things Thrifty came up with this super gorgeous DIY. Now, I just need to find a new best friend with a jigsaw and I’m set! If you try this, please brag about it in the comment section. Photos too, please!

Baby's First Christmas: A Survival Guide for Parents

Awww…our first Christmas with our six month old son Grayson is over and while it was a bit more stressful than past Christmases with just the two of us, it was well worth it!  I’m sure part of the stress was the fact he’s been teething since December 1st but we still managed to get through it with very little scrapes and bruises.

It definitely was different for other reasons this year, partly because of our own expectations of how his first Christmas should go and partly because we had to work Christmas around his 6-month-old schedule.  From it, I gained some insight on what I would do differently or things I learned and so I thought I’d pass it on to the other first time parents out there who will have a baby before next Christmas.  (Note: if your baby is under 3 months old next Christmas, very little of this will apply to you as he or she will most likely sleep through the entire Christmas! Merry Christmas to you!)

1. Try to go get the picture with Santa done early in December.  If not, you will be standing in line for a long time and most likely lose your small window of opportunity to get a picture of your baby smiling (rather than crying) on Santa’s lap. We learned this the hard way as we waited in line for 45 minutes at the mall only to have our son start rubbing his eyes and whining just before we got to the end of it. And that was it… Window closed! We had to come back the next day and do it all over again and miraculously managed to get a smiling photo (although I believe this was his “I’m so tired I’m starting to go crazy so I smile and laugh for no reason before having a total meltdown” smile.)

Santa told us Grayson wanted an electric drum set for Christmas

2. Don’t wrap too many presents.  It takes your young child about 10-15 minutes to unwrap a gift as well as look over the present. Since most babies under a year need a nap every 1 ½- 2 hours, this only gives you…hold on…let me do the math..okay…enough time to do about 8-10 presents.  And really how many presents does a six month old need?? As we found out, wrapping paper and boxes the toys came in are way more fun to play with (and eat).

Barely touched the piano but spent 10 minutes playing with the box. Go figure!

3. Babies will put everything, I mean EVERYTHING, in their mouths so make sure to grab that wrapping paper quick before it becomes baby’s lunch. We were a bit late and before we could grab a small piece out of his mouth, it was gone!  I thought about checking later to see if it had made its’ way through him but then decided I wanted an appetite for Christmas dinner and just let it be. He was fine.

The moment before it happened...only took a second!

There it goes...those two teeth of his sure came in handy for him!

4. Space out present opening….and give yourself at least the whole day to get through them all. (If your baby is teething, add another day). After we managed to open a few presents at our house, we made our way to the grandparents house for more gift opening. Needless to say, we had to come back on Boxing Day so Grayson could finish opening his presents.

5. Don’t eat too much turkey as the tryptophan combined with the sleep deprivation will knock you out and leave baby to roll or crawl around the house by himself. We were in bed by 7:30am on Christmas day.

6. Take toys out of boxes and put batteries in them before wrapping so baby can play with them right away…they don’t have the attention span at this age (or any age really) to wait for you to read an instruction manual and put the toy together before play time. (and stock up on batteries as I’ve learned that basically every toy you buy needs at least 3-4 double AAs.)

7. If you have the room,  save the boxes the toys came in as well as the manuals so you can reuse them when you sell your toys used online.  This always adds appeal to your item and makes it sell quicker.

8. Calling all Breastfeeding Moms! If you want that glass of wine with Christmas dinner, make sure to remember to pump that morning so you have some food for baby before dinner. Thank God for electric double breast pumps!!!

9. Make sure that camera of yours is charged on Christmas Eve and has adequate memory for the 1000 pictures you plan on taking on Christmas morning. But don’t worry, if you run out of room, those grandparents will always be there to pick up the slack…each with their own camera.

And lastly just try to relax and have fun. Your baby may be all smiles on Christmas Day or all tears but either way his first Christmas will be special for everyone. And remember there are still the next few magical years where your child waits in antipation for Santa to come and put all the presents under the tree… just don’t forget to put out the milk and cookies.

Coupon tip of the week:  Right after Christmas day is the best time to stock up on items for next season.  Most stores sell off their Christmas decoration at 50-70% off.  As well, they do the same for gift baskets so stock up on these for birthday gifts for the rest of the year.  You’ll save a bundle and have tons of new items to enjoy next season.  Also if you want to dress your little one up in a Santa sleeper again next year, now is the time to buy it as they also go on sale drastically after Christmas.Happy New Year!

DIY Borax Snowflake Ornaments

Here’s a great project you can do on your own, with kids, or whomever! It’s no-fuss, little mess, and in 24 hours you can create amazing crystal ornaments for less than $1 each!

Recently I learned how to create crystal ornaments, which are much sturdier, quicker to make, and turn out more consistently than the standard sugar-water-string projects I used to fill the kitchen with growing up. The secret is sodium borate—Borax.

Used mostly as a laundry booster (softens hard water and leaves your clothes cleaner and brighter), it’s actually one of those old school “do it all” products. You can use it as a cleaner, a deodoriser, an insect repellent, and for crafts!

In concocting the perfect recipe for Borax ornaments I realized it really could be tailored to suit any level of crystallization you desire. However, the general rule to follow is this: three tablespoons of Borax to one cup of boiling water.

To make this snowflake ornament, follow these steps.

You will need:

• Pipe cleaners
• Borax
• Glass jars
• String or yarn (remnant pieces)
• Sticks or pencils (to suspend the ornaments from the jar into water)
• Boiling water
• Measuring cup and stir stick
• Food colouring (if desired)

Instructions:
Bend and shape pipe cleaners into desired shape (follow chart for snowflake, using two pipe cleaners)

Tie string or yarn to pipe cleaner at top—this also acts as the ornament hanger

Affix string to stick or pencil, hang ornament in jar (or other heat resistant container) being careful to avoid the shape touching the sides or bottom of jar

In a separate container, mix three tablespoons of Borax to one cup of boiling water. Mix until Borax is dissolved (if you want coloured crystals also add a few drops of food colouring, keeping in mind the colour of the pipe cleaner will show a bit)

Pour mixture into jar, covering pipe cleaner completely

Wait 24 hours.

Remove from jar. Leave on towel until dry (only a few minutes), wipe off excess crystals and display your beautiful handmade ornaments for all to see!

The best part about this craft is watching the crystals form before your eyes!

Top Ten Tech Toys for Christmas 2011

In case you haven’t heard, the gift giving season is upon us! People are singing in the streets, sharing holiday cheer, and the malls are packed. While Santa may be doing his best to bring your family the latest iPhone, tablet, or 3D HDTV this year, what does that leave you to get for the tech toy lover on your list? Well, here’s a top ten list of awesome gifts that for all those deserving people on your “Nice” list. And the best part is, they’re most likely not on any other top ten list you can find! Which means you won’t have to worry about any of these being sold out any time soon!

The USB Mini Fridge

There is little doubt of at least one member of your family being required to sit in front of a computer all day long. One of the worst mishaps to occur at a computer station (regardless of whether you’re on a Mac or a PC), is the warm drink phenomena.The hard truth is that every minute of the day, someone’s drink stops being the refreshing cold beverage they once enjoyed, turning into a lukewarm mess of fizz and syrup. Don’t let this epidemic harm your loved ones. Help keep their drink cold with the USB Mini Fridge!

USB AA Batteries

USBs are more than just awesome bits of memory to carry around your baby pics wherever you may go. They’re also a source of power! Harness this energy in the form of AA batteries to keep your favourite technology going strong. Your TV remotes will love you! And so will mother earth, as not only are they reusable, but energy efficient to boot!

Coffee Cup Power Inverter

There’s a reason why your car has two coffee cup holders in the front. One to hold your coffee, and another to hold your coffee cup shaped power bar! Not only can you keep your laptop and printer powered up in your remote office, but hey, you can recharge those USB AA Batteries too! It also saves you from having to purchase a car charger every time yo change your SmartPhone!

Hidden USB Drives

This is a cool gadget that even 007 would be proud of! Hide your important files, such as tax information and baby photos, in unassuming objects that can be hidden in plain sight. These neat memory drives come in all shapes, from children’s toys to cubic zirconia encrusted jewellery! You name the object, there’s probably a USB embedded version out there. You can even find them in watches for your Bond, James Bond enthusiast.

Sound Blaster Wireless System – For iTunes with Receiver

If you’re like me, you have an expensive iTunes account, but no iCapable technology to play it with other than the desktop computer you download from. There are countless moments where I would love to listen to my play list while I’ve stepped away from the computer, like answering the front door, or taking that recommended 15 minute break from my computer every few hours. With this Sound Blaster, you can listen to your iTunes in any room of your house, by simply hooking up the wireless receiver to any stereo system or power speakers you may have lying around. Every room in your home can now be equipped to belt out your desktop tunes, without having to carry that heavy desktop around with you!

Duracell USB charger

I have one of these babies in my purse, and it’s on my to-do list to pick another one up! Like the USB AA Batteries above, this Duracell-branded box is also a power source — a portable one that can connect to any device that is charged by USB. I use my current one for my SmartPhone while I’m on the go. My phone eats energy like I eat chocolate, and I always need an extra boost by mid-day, when I’m usually running errands in the downtown core. So with this bad-boy, I can plug my phone in to charge, and still play Angry Birds while I wait for my next bus!

Tech Wear

Air guitar at it’s finest! You may have seen commercials for this stuff recently, as it’s a brand new item just in time for gift giving! Clothing that doubles as a musical instrument is too cool to pass up! Everyone in my household is getting one in their stocking this year. I’m not sure if these Tees are dry-cleaning only, but it’s an easy price to pay for the ability to rock on to the impromptu sing-a-longs of Jingle Bells and Silent Night.

Bluetooth Sliding Keyboard Case for iPhone

Quite possibly the one major issue with an iPhone is now addressed with an add-on. One of the most griped about problems with the iPhone is the lack of a stable QWERTY keyboard. And nothing says stable like a physical keyboard that your thumbs can maneuver with ease. Worry no more about your virtual keyboard keeping up with your awesome speed, as this bluetoothed keyboard case won’t even break a sweat.

The Projector/Virtual Keyboard

Hmm… could there really be two keyboards in a row on this list? In this day in age, communication is key, and there are a lot of keys on a QWERTY to get your message out there. This handy device can make a keyboard for you, wherever you may be! Imagine typing out the next War and Peaceon a virtual keyboard, while sitting at a Starbucks. The other patrons will be envious when they see you randomly tapping away right on the table top. A projector keyboard is also not exposed to the same wear-n-tear that you’d find on a regular desktop keyboard, which means your “J” key will never be MIA again! While virtual may be difficult to keep up with on a small iPhone screen with thumb-typing, it’s an awesome device for creating larger boards on the fly.

The Blackberry / Android Enhanced InPulse Watch

We’ve counted down through power supplies, keyboards, musical and spy-wear tech sure to please at least some of the toy lovers on your list. But what the heck is an InPulse Watch, and why is it at #1?? Essentially it’s a SmartWatch for your SmartPhone. For starters, it can sync to any Blackberry and most Android devices. Meaning that you can casually check your emails while in a meeting. Co-workers can’t stand it when their presentations are ignored for email checking or BBMs, but can’t stop you from checking the “time”! It even has call display, so you don’t have to worry about developing tendonitis from repeatedly pulling your phone out of your back pocket to see whose calling. The best part? It can tell time too!So there you have it! Ten very cool, unusual tech toys to give this season. And if you wait until a few months after Christmas, once everything’s been played with, you just may be able to pick up some of these items second-hand for yourself!

Turn off that Oven!: Christmas Baking Minus the Burnt Cookies

Now that Christmas is less than two weeks away (seriously???), there are two words that have been secretly haunting me each day…Christmas…and…baking!!!

Usually each year I use Christmas as an excuse to make some delicious treats to bring to parties and have around the house over the holidays. I go all out and spend hours, making time consuming recipes in order to impress my friends and family.

There was this one year that I decided I would make gingerbread men to give as presents for everyone.  I slaved over these little guys and was so pleased with myself as I slid them in the oven to bake.  Unfortunately my oven can be a bit temperamental so when the oven bell rang, I opened up the door to discover that my gingerbread men all had burnt feet!!! As I had spent so much time on these little guys and had zero time to redo them, I shamefully still gave them as gifts and just decorated the feet to look like they were wearing little black boots…no one ever said anything to me but I’m sure those feet tasted more like real feet than gingerbread!

Nobody wants these for Christmas! RIP Mr. Gingerbread Man

Next were the gourmet rum balls where I had to melt three separate pots of chocolate making sure not to burn them (I burned one right off the bat!) and then form the chocolate balls, dip them once and put them in the fridge for a couple of hours…. then dip them again and put the in the fridge for a couple of hours…then…Sorry, you get the picture.  All this work and I think I only ended up with 24 rum balls which tasted amazing but everyone only got 1 ball in their cookie tin that year!

There is no way I have time to create these holidays treats this year − not with a now semi-mobile, rolling across the floor, six month-old son! Plus, my baby brain would never allow me to actually remember to take the cookies out of the oven (even though I would hear the oven alarm go off!)  I can’t tell you how many dinners I’ve burned since my little guy arrived. I hear the bell and think “Oh, I better go get that” and then something suddenly distracts me and only when I smell smoke, do I remember there’s something in the oven.  I’m sure all you mothers out there can sympathize!

So to avoid the burnt cookies and the post pregnancy hormonal tears sure to follow, I’ve decided to do create all my Christmas treats this year SANS oven. That’s right. All of these recipes can be made without actually baking them − plus, they’re super delicious and take no time at all!
This first recipe is my husband’s absolute favourite Christmas treat…I usually have to make four batches each Christmas…two batches for friends and family and myself and two batches just for him (he has a bit of a sweet tooth!)

No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients
 • ½ cup Cocoa
• ½ cup Milk
• ½ cup Butter
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 cup Coconut
• 3 cups Oatmeal
• ½  tsp Salt

Boil the first 4 ingredients for 5 minutes (do not boil any longer or they will dry out!…I actually did so on this batch while tending to my son. See below for example of what they will look like if you do this).

Look at that molten chocolate goodness!

Stir in coconut, oatmeal vanilla and salt. Immediately drop by teaspoon on wax paper and cool. Makes 3 dozen.

My husband will polish these off within the next day or two!

If your cookies do dry out at least you get to eat the rest in the pan! I sure did! Mmmmm!

This next recipe is new this year!! I going to try it this weekend which will allow my husband time to consume all the chocolate oatmeal cookies first!  But they look fabulous and couldn’t be easier to make.

No Bake Chocolate Snowball Treats

Ingredients

• 6 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 1/2 cups butter, melted
• 1 cup milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup flaked sweetened coconut

Combine the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter in a mixing bowl. Mix until evenly moistened.

Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring after each melting, for 1 to 3 minutes (depending on your microwave). Do not overheat or chocolate will scorch. Stir the melted chocolate into the graham cracker mixture; you may need to use your hands to make sure it is evenly combined.

Shape into 1 inch balls and roll them in the coconut. Store in an airtight container. Voila!

Please let me know what you think of these yummy treats if you decide to make them.  Trust me, you’ll thank me when you do and so will your family and friends who get to bypass having to eat burnt cookies this holiday!

The Birthday Party Comes Home, Snowman Style

Snowman Cake

I’ve never fancied myself a professional party planner. And I never figured I would have to possess the skills of a professional party planner when mapping out my son’s fifth birthday party. When I was a kid it was cake, a few games, a couple of balloons and poof – instant party (this generalization obviously downplays the massive effort of my parents that is lost in hindsight). These days it seems if you haven’t booked the local bouncy castle/bowling alley/movie theatre/gymnastics club a year in advance, you’re screwed.

It’s not that I necessarily feel I’m competing with other parents, but with every party my son goes to the bar is raised, along with his expectations of what a birthday party should be. When I drop him off at a birthday party I’m always subconsciously casing the joint, looking for what I need to keep up with. It’s every parent’s instinct to not disappoint their kids. But it’s getting ridiculous. I’m scared if I book the wrong clown I’ll be giving my kid’s future therapist all the material he’ll need to blame me for my son robbing a liquor store.

So imagine my surprise when, after my wife and I rattled off the usual options of bank account-busting birthday venues, my son told us he wanted a party at home. That’s my boy! He wanted a snowman party, so we got right to work planning activities, cake, decorations and take-aways for the guests. It really is a fun idea that can be done with for less work, skill and money than I thought. And although this was for our son’s birthday, it could also easily be done for a kids’ holiday party.

We planned a couple of snowman-related activities for the kids. Pin the Nose on the Snowman was pretty easy to do – we made our own snowman out of white poster boards and cut some carrot noses out of orange poster board. We also played a Snowman Race game – it was basically the Halloween mummy race game where teams try to be the first to wrap a person in toilet paper, but with an added toque and scarf for that snowman touch.

I make a lovely Frosty

For the craft we had the kids make their own snowmen. We picked up some Styrofoam balls, pieces of felt, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and glitter from the craft store. Before the party we assembled the Styrofoam balls snowmen on paper plates – connecting the balls with a bamboo stake then sticking them to the plate with a hot glue gun – and made little scarves and toques with the felt. The kids loved decorating their own snowmen and having something to take home to their parents.

All dressed up

We also created our own snowman party decorations that doubled as take home gifs for the kids. We bought white Christmas balls and painted snowmen heads on them. The kids took one with them when they left and had a lovely keepsake of the party they could hang on their tree at home.

Double duty - decoration & take home gift

Overall the party was a resounding, albeit exhausting, success. But the effort was worth it. Both for my son and for my wife and I. That’s not to say I’m ruling out a bouncy castle next year (it’s really up to my son, who am I kidding) but I would throw an old-fashioned house party any day. But not a Kid n’ Play-style house party though – that’s the wrong kind of old-fashioned all together.