Don't forget to feed Santa's Reindeers! See how to make Reindeer Food.

This past weekend we had our Holiday Party with momstown Winnipeg moms. Santa came to visit and left some Reindeer Food for the kids to leave outside for when he comes on Christmas Eve with his reindeer. He reminded the boys and girls that the reindeer need to be fed too, not just Jolly Old St. Nick! We always leave milk and cookies for him but forget about all the hard work the reindeer do.

Look Santa is in the background!

So after the party we had a few extra bags and my daughter decided to leave some out just in case the reindeer stopped by early.  Luckily it is all natural, because the bunnies ate some of it.

If you want to make some at home for your kids all we put were oats, sugar, and coloured sugar (sugar mixed with red food colouring).  Santa told me he found these cute bags at the Dollar store too! Or you can use ziploc bags.

And don't forget to add this cute poem on there too:

Send us a photo on our facebook page when you're kids are sprinkling the reindeer food out on Christmas Eve!

Decorating Gingerbread Houses

Looking for a great activity to do with your kids this Holiday season? Make a gingerbread house, or two, or three..... or a village! It is a fun playdate that you can do with your kids and their friends that will keep them all engaged and entertained.

We made our houses with graham crackers. It's economical and easy to handle when building the houses. Perfect size for toddlers. There are a variety of recipes for Royal Icing. I ran out of Cream of Tartar but found a great recipe that I was able to do without this ingredient.

If having a Gingerbread Decorating Playdate, ask each parent to bring a topping to be shared. As the host I provided and premade the gingerbread houses the night before to ensure the icing dried and the houses were strong enough for decorating. I placed each house on a disposable Christmas plate so it was easy for each child to bring home.

We set up around the table and placed all the ingredients in the middle to share. Everything from smarties, to candy corns, candy canes, marshmallows, coconut, little itty-bitty gingerbread men, and so much more. The Bulk Barn has a great selection of treats to decorate gingerbread houses.

Can you believe we were all gingerbread house virgins! It was all of our first times decorating a house. Needless to say the moms might have had a bit more fun then the kids!

Here's the Royal Icing recipe I used:

2 large egg whites
2 2/3 cup powdered sugar, divided

Wisk together the egg whites and 1 1/3 cups of the powdered sugar until smooth.

Add the remaining 1 1/3 cups of powdered sugar to the mixture. Beat on high speed until the icing holds stiff peaks. Add more powdered sugar if needed, until stiff peaks form. Place a dampened clean towel over the bowl of royal icing to prevent it from drying out while you work with it. Once you are ready to use it, fill a pastry bag (or ziploc bag with the tip cut off).
*recipe from www.simplyrecipes.com

We had lots of fun and can't wait to do this again next year. I might even attempt to make my own gingerbread houses from scratch! Okay, who am I kidding.... I so won't! Happy Holiday!

More Then A Mom Group!

The concept of momstown is so new to Winnipeg. When people ask me what I do and I explain momstown, they think 'oh so you're a mom's group.' We are so much more then that. Yes, we get together and have playdates, and we are a group of moms. But momstown is a concept that is like no other group out there. 

First, we bring mom's together on-line through our 24/7 message board. This is a huge resource to the moms. They love it. Last month alone I had over 86,000 page views on the momstown Winnipeg site alone! Mom's have said that they check the momstown site several times a day. Pretty much whenever they check facebook, momstown gets checked too. We are essentially our very own, private social media site. 

Secondly, we get mom's out of the house so they can socialize in person. We have a calendar on our site where we have over 30+ events per month. Moms can read up on each event, and if it is of interest to them or their child they sign up. These events are included in their membership fee, so often there is no cost, except for maybe the cost of a latte at a coffee shop meetup or entrance fee to a public facility, like Fort Whyte (a momstown favourite). Moms are encouraged to host playdates or suggest events that suite their needs, desires and schedules.

What is unique to our events is our curriculum. We don't just do playdates. We have a monthly theme where we try to incorporate that theme into many of our events. We are huge supporters of early childhood literacy, and have partnered with Scholastic's Canada to bring our member's a Kid's Book Club. We also have our Alphabet Playgroup where kid's learn a new letter every week.

Thirdly, we help moms save money! We have exclusive discounts to local and national businesses. Discounts at places like Hair Do Zoo or online stores like Tiny TreeHugger or Mabel's Labels to name a few. We also love giveaways. We have monthly contests online and at events.

Fourthly, we work with businesses to promote their brand to a specific targeted group.... moms! We provide the opportunity to directly access the key decision maker in the household. We are capable of not only advertising online, but in person. Where else can you have your product touched, tested and talked about in person by the key decision maker in the household? Our mom's even have the opportunity to do product testing for big companies like Kellogg's and Vim.

Discovery Toys was at our Boo Bash. 

Kids got to play with their toys and moms saw first hand which toys their kids enjoyed.

Last but not least, we give back to the community. This often helps mom's feel like they are contributing to society. As a stay-at-home-mom myself, this was something that I struggled with when I first went on maternity leave. Society often defines us by our career, and suddenly your are JUST a SAHM. Albeit the hardest job one will ever have, but highly under-compensated and under-appreciated. But we work together as a community, finding ways to give back to the community. I have seen how much momstown Winnipeg mom's have embraced this. I know it makes me feel like I'm making a difference in our community. We have collected food for Winnipeg Harvest, collected shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, we are collecting for Koats for Kids with United Way, and we are collecting for two families for the Christmas Cheer Board. Not to mention our partnership with the Canadian Red Cross.

It's a hard concept to explain to moms, which is why we offer a free trial. The best way for mom's to understand our unique mom group is to try it. And actually come out to an event, lurk the message board and ask questions. As one of our members put it, it's the best $45 you'll ever spend!
 

momstown Winnipeg is Growing!

It has been almost 6 months since we've launched momstown here in Winnipeg. We've grown fast, with over 160 active members. Moms have recognized the need for momstown so they can socialize, get out of the house, stay connected on the message board when they are stuck in the house and enjoy all the other fun perks that a membership brings.

So with this growth means our team needs to grow too. I have so many exciting events and programs that I want to launch, but I can't do it alone. So I'm excited to announce that Marla Nystrom-Smith will be coming on as our new Community Manager. She will be in charge of the info.winnipeg@momstown.ca mailbox. She will also be helping me with events, managing the Calendar and Message Board, and various other administrative tasks (i.e. keep me organized!)

Marla, originally from Winnipeg, is mom to two boys -Alexander, 6 and Elliot, 2. With a hubby, 2 boys, and a "boy" dog in the house, she is "outnumbered" (her momstown username). Until joining the momstown team, she was a stay-at-home mom.

I look forward to working with Marla to create even more great opportunities for Winnipeg moms and their children to get together, be it on the momstown Message Board, or at momstown events!

I'm also pleased to announce that Lisa Borgford (Imborgford on the message board) will be volunteering as our new Events and Volunteer Coordinator. Lisa was a member of a MOM group back in Atlanta and has a great knowledge of organized playgroups and events which will be beneficial to our ever growing calendar. We also have so many of you wonderful moms that have been wanting to volunteer so Lisa will be helping to coordinate our new Volunteer Committee! More details to come on this new committee.

 
Please join me in officially welcoming Marla and Lisa to the momstown Winnipeg team!
 
Thank you,
Ester Raftis
momtown Winnipeg
Owner

Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box Collection Celebration

Last week was the National Collection week for the Operation Christmas Child boxes. momstown Winnipeg mom's got together to fill and decorate their boxes. The kids all enjoyed going out to shop for items to fill up their shoe boxes. It taught them all a great lesson of giving.

The enjoyed decorating the boxes just as much. And just like most of our craft events mom usually jumps in to help out. But we loved it and had a blast. And to top it off we had Christmas music playing and some treats to nibble on.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in this great cause! We had a very good response. As a result of our momstown mom's generosity, 18 kids will be blessed with a gift they otherwise would have never received! What a great way to start the Holidays with the true spirit of this Christmas Season!


A special thanks to our member, Penka Thompson, for putting together this great event!

Winnipeg Harvest Food Drive

At our Boo Bash last month, momstown mom's in Winnipeg had a food drive collection. Our moms are very giving and so were ecstatic about the opportunity to give to those in need.

I had the opportunity to go down to Winnipeg Harvest to drop off the food and met a great team of workers and volunteers. I even brought my son with me, as it's never to early to teach him about giving. I am happy to report that we collected 153.2 pounds of food!

Our mom group has lots of plans to continue this through out the year, from food drives, sponsoring families for the Christmas Hampers, Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box Drive, and more to come.

A special thanks to our new Community Manager, Marla for setting up this food drive for us!

Are You A Horse?

November at momstown was the Wild West. I brought out my plaid shirts and did a lot of yee ha's! My daughter is now a pro at galloping like a horse too. At our Kids Book Club at Chapters Polo we read Are You a Horse? by Andy Rash courtesy of our partners Scholastic Canada.

Are You A Horse? is about a cowboy named Roy who got a saddle for his birthday. But he has no horse. So he's on the hunt to find a horse so he can enjoy the ride!  It was a funny book with a great twist at the end.

After we read our book, we had craft time of course! The kids gathered around and made sheriff badges. A simply craft for all age groups.

 And what's a visit to Chapter's without some playtime! Somebody might be getting that penguin for Christmas!!!

Join us in December as we read Porcupine in a Pine Tree written by Helene Becker.