Happy Family Literacy Day!

Did you know that today marks Family Literacy Day? It's such a special day to take the time to reap all the benefits of reading and bonding with our families.

What do you do to promote literacy around your house?

Aside from our monthly book club events, my husband and I love to take the time each night to sit down with our toddler and read some books before she gets tucked into bed at night. She may still be too young to fully understand the books, but it's great to see her trying to learn and annunciate the words that we're reading aloud; while also exploring the pictures as we flip through the pages. Her mind goes running a million miles a minute whenever we read... It's adorable to see how into it she gets!

If you're looking for some great and fun ideas on how to spend Family Literacy Day, check out the momstown blogs for some great tips.

Happy reading!!!!!

Mom & Tot Morning at Boston Pizza Ajax with Lionel

On Monday morning, members from momstown Whitby-Ajax met up for a special morning at Boston Pizza Ajax.

The children were quite excited this particular morning because they were anticipating a special visit from Lionel the Boston Pizza mascot.

When we arrived, the children kept themselves occupied while awaiting Lionel's arrival by completing a craft.
This months momstown curriculum is based around hats, so we had a fun little Cat in the Hat inspired crafts and coloring sheets for the toddlers to complete.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the Cat in the Hat Hat Craft, but it is very easy to make.

What you need is:
White and Red Construction Paper
Tape
Stapler
Paper Plate
Scissors

Steps:
Take to pieces of the white construction paper. Lie them vertically on the table beside each other. Tape the seams (in the middle) together. Cut strips of the red construction paper, and glue them on to the white paper. Once you've done this. You can proceed to decorate the hat however you'd like (using stickers, glitter, beans, markers, etc). Once done decorating size the hat to the child's head and staple/tape or glue it together. In our case, we only had toddlers at the event so we made Cat in the Hat crowns, but if you wanted to.... Once you have sized your hat and secured it, you could then cut out the top portion of a paper plate leaving the brim. Insert the cylinder into the paper plate and staple the cylinder (crown) to the plate, which will create a fabulous hat!

Once we finished our craft and colouring, our lunch orders were placed and out popped a special visitor...  LIONEL! A lot of the children were very unsure as to what to think of him. Some cried. Most just stared. Lionel was meant to take individual photos with each child, however we opted to just do a group photo instead.

We had a great time this month, and we're looking forward to our Family Day Lunch at Boston Pizza planned for next month. If you didn't have the chance to come out to this event, and would like to participate in the next one - email info.whitby-ajax@momstown.ca to find out how!

Wordless Wednesday

Creative Play Meet 'n Greet

This past Friday, we met up with many momstown Whitby-Ajax Moms and tots at Creative Play for our monthly meet 'n greet. Our monthly meet 'n greets are always a very popular event across the board as it gives Moms a chance to get out and connect with each other, while the little ones burn off some steam. We do often see many familiar faces, but the event is always open to everyone - so we get to meet many new faces too!

Check out some of the great fun we had this month at Creative Play:

If you didn't have the chance to make it out this month, don't worry! Our next Monthly Meet 'n Greet is scheduled for February 11th. If you'd like to attend CLICK HERE or email info.whitby-ajax@momstown.ca to find out how.

Mom & Tot Lunch @ Boston Pizza Ajax

On Monday, January 17th - momstown Whitby-Ajax will be gathering at Boston Pizza Ajax for a morning chock full of fun! This month's momstown curriculum is themed around hats. We've planned a fun Cat in the Hat inspired craft for the children to do. Boston Pizza Ajax has also informed me that they'll be handing out loot bags to each child that attends the event, and has also arranged for special guest Lionel the Boston Pizza mascot to pop by. Lionel will be setting up to take pictures with the children, which can later be emailed to Mom and Dad as a keepsake.

We're planning on using our exclusive momstown member discount, and staying for a super-yummy lunch... which is sure to be a real treat for the kiddos and Mom's alike.

If you would like to attend this event, please email Nicole at info.whitby-ajax@momstown.ca for more information.

Note: This event is open to parents of children of all ages. If you have a baby in a bucket, that's okay! Come out for a coffee, some lunch and good chat with other Moms! We'd love to have you there. (Dads you're welcomed too!)

Happy New Year!

Well... the holidays have now come to an official close for another year, and here we are ready to embark on a whole new year. I hope everyone had great time enjoying Christmas and bringing in the New Year with their family (despite the nasty cold/flu bug that seem to be inundating a lot of households).

Our holiday was great! BUSY, but very relaxing to say the least! I finally have the house all de-Christmased and returning back to some sort of normalcy... Now only to prepare for the new bundle to be arriving in a months time. That being said, I'm so excited to get back into the daily grind!!

If you haven't had a chance to check out momstown Whitby-Ajax, don't be shy. Head on over to the site, test run a 2 week trial and see what all the hype is about. Now is a better time than ever to get connected, gain support and have LOTS of fun! We have a lot of great events planned out for the winter months, and many more ideas in the works soon to be added to the calendar. On top of that we have the 24 hour message board where you can chat at anytime with other like-minded individuals, and we can't also forget the exclusive member discounts.

2010 was a great year for momstown Whitby-Ajax; 2011 is going to be BIGGER and BETTER! I just know it.

Hope to see you all around the neighbourhood soon!