Krispy Canada Day Treats: Kidz in the Kitchen

Jun 30 2010

Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Kidz In The Kitchen

Gooey sticky crunchy sweetness in a muffin-sized glob…

What’s not to like?

Simply melt 1/3 cup of margarine, with 1 bag (about 8 cups) of large marshmallows until it is all melted and then stir in (about 6 cups) Rice Krispies until they are all mixed to the right consistency… you may need to change my portions, a little.

Have your kids grease up their hands and the muffin tray with a block of margarine.

Once, they are all greased up, you can spoon out portions of the krispy mix and cool it off a little for them. Then, hand them the globs to roll around in their hands and press into the muffin tin.

Once you are done, you can sprinkle chocolate chips on top to finish it off with some extra chocolately goodness.

These are the perfect sizes to snack on and are a great shape for little guys to grab!

Enjoy.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for Creative Memories Storybook Creator with Lori Douglas. You have until tomorrow night to get your entries in!

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Children’s Theatre in the Park:The Complete Works of the Brothers Grimm (abridged)

Jun 29 2010

Posted by Elizabeth as Ongoing Events

Kamloops Art Council presents Children’s Summer Theatre in Riverside Park! Through generous funding from Service Canada and the City of Kamloops, the KAC was able to hire four young talented actors: Andrew Crabbe, Kelsey Gilker, Kirsten Sandberg & Julie Shuurman.

Bring the whole family to the park and enjoy free children’s entertainment throughout July and August. The Rivertown Players will also be performing each Thursday at Bizarre Bazaar.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday afternoon at 1pm and 3pm at Riverside Park.

Every Thursday at 1pm at the Old Courthouse

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All-Canadian Super Hero

Jun 29 2010

Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Crafting with Kids

This post was originally posted in 2009, but has been re-introduced for Canada Day 2010.

We are lucky to have a lot of dress-up gear for our kids and our capes are one of our favourite dress-up items. I’ve made quite a few capes in a number of different ways but capes can be pretty much the easiest costume ever, and you can make them, too.

All you need is an old shirt. I’ve used biiiiig shirts, that way there’s lots of neck room and fabric to flow behind you when running. You take the shirt and pick whatever side you want to use – front or back. I used shirts that came with logos… just because they were offered to me. Also, for the latest batch of capes I made, I used the shirt-front, because that’s where the logo was. Here are the steps you can follow to make your own super-easy, for-any-occasion, cape.

Step 1) Lay out the shirt, with the side up that you are going to use as your cape.

Step 2) Cut around the edges (I took the serged edge off as my kids don’t like seams and tags). At the top, I curved the cut into a soft curve, instead of following the sleeves.

Step 3) Cut around the neck so that you have a nice neck-band that is soft to use for the cape’s tie… with no tying required!

Voila!! You’re done in five minutes!

One great way to make this cape into a fantastic Canada Day accessory… get your kids to paint on it! Just add a little paint and create a Maple Leaf onto the main part of the cape. You can find a picture of a maple leaf and cut it out to use as a stencil for your kids, or just get them to go wild with decorating it red and white.

There you have a ready-to-go Super Canadian Super Hero! I’m sorry that I didn’t make it new for you, my paint and craft supplies are all packed up as we are moving.

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Canada Day in and around Kamloops

Jun 28 2010

Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Family Time, What's Going on in Kamloops

It’s almost Canada Day!! July 1st is Thursday, already. I’m not sure about you, but that really crept up quickly. The school year is over and the summer is here! I’m sure that yesterday we were waiting for snow… no? Strange!

A great day to show your National pride, July 1st is a great day to be in Kamloops; there is always some great fun to be had. My favourite place to be is Riverside Park as the City of Kamloops and Kamloops Arts Council and Kamloops Multicultural Society always have some fantastic things going on. There are lots of local artists selling their wares as well as local talent, yummy multicultural food in various tents, great activities for the family and multicultural performances on the main stage. It’s all at Riverside Park and it’s a great (and busy) place to spend your day. If you are interested in spending the day at Riverside, the full schedule of events is available here.

A few things to note…

- Pancake Breakfast is happening from 7 – 10:30am at the tennis courts

- International Food Booths are open 11am to 6:00pm

- Art In The Park is open 9am to 6pm

- Kamloops Idol Semi-Finals are from 5 – 6pm, Finals 6 – 7pm

- Evening Entertainment on the Rotary Bandshell from 7 – 10:30pm

- 8:30 to 9pm is the Judging of the Lanterns at the Heritage House, followed by the Lumiere Parade from Heritage House to the river (at 10pm)

- Then, FIREWORKS! at 10:30pm

Also, the evening entertainment on July 1st marks the kickoff for Music In The Park. Nightly, from 7 – 8:30pm, there are free concerts at the Riverside bandshell. The full schedule is available here.

If you are out late and want to have a special treat for you and your sweetheart (or your night-owl kids) you can check out the Kamloops Heritage Railway, with train tours happening regularly, throughout the summer.

If you are interested in getting out of town, Sun Peaks is also hosting some great events to enjoy. The details are here for July 1st at the Sun Peaks Fire Hall Open House. July 3rd and 4th there will be loads of fun activities going on in the village.

Don’t forget that there is a super giveaway going on, here. And make sure you have signed up for the newsletter (and told your friends about it, too), as the July newsletter will be hitting your inbox on Wednesday!

Have a great week, everyone! Come back tomorrow for some great Canada Day crafts and some good Canada Day treats on Wednesday.

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Getting The Jpeg Generation Into Print: Creative Memories Review

Jun 25 2010

Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting

Let’s face it. It’s the digital age. Our children have been captured more times, in photographs, than we have. I’m pretty sure of that. Not only that but I would even venture to guess that 90% of those photographs will never be printed. Cheaper? Maybe. Nostalgia-inducing… “Here, kids, let’s sit at the computer and look through our adventures from last summer…” Yeah, somewhat… But definitely not as much as a good old album. I currently have years and years of digital photos burned to disc and sitting in a CD case. Classy, right? In an effort to get some of my photos printed up, I made up an online album for my family in 2008. It’s awesome, I love it. My kids love to look through it and remember all the fun adventures that we had. It, however, was sooooo expensive and incredibly time-consuming to put together! I need to get back to it, but haven’t yet gotten the inspiration to sit down and work on it. Until today, that is. I had the chance to take some time and check out the Storybook Creator Program from Creative Memories. Now, here is the solution to the problem! Affordable, great options, quick delivery and threaded binding (not the glue that has ripped on my book that is only two years old)!

Using the software of Storybook Creator plus 3.0 (will be Mac compatible in fall 2010), you can create the most amazing scrapbook pages! I was so impressed by the depth of the program; there is something easy for beginner users and there is sooooo much more complex, as you really get into it! Storybook Creator 3.0 is on sale for 40% off, right now! Regular price is $69.95 and it is available for a limited time only, for $41.97. If this interests you, you can purchase online and download it from here.

Lori showed me a few of the pages that she has created, using the basic package:

She’s got skills because they look fantastic! The neatest thing is that the program is so great that you can do this yourself, as well! I can’t wait to try it out for myself. It looks like such a quick and easy way to get my photos organized and ready to go. Maybe I can get my album for 2009 finished before 2011 comes rolling around. What do you think?

There are not only scrapbook options in making a bound book to print, but you can make posters, postcards (to use for baby announcements, birthday party invitations or Christmas cards), calendars, cards and have single pages printed out, as well!

The calendar is even perforated so that you can tear off the part that is a calendar and you can keep the photo pages for a memento. What a fantastic gift to share your family memories!

Lori hosts free monthly workshops where you are welcome to bring your stuff to work on some pages. The next workshop will be on July 14th, from 7 – 10pm at her home in Westsyde.

Here is a video that has been put together to show you a little bit more about the Digital Photography programs offered by Creative Memories:

Lori is going to be giving away* Storybook Creator Plus (see the first picture) to one lucky reader of KamloopsParents.Com. All you have to do is enter to win! There are a few ways you can get your name in the random draw. As always, you can comment or e-mail me (elizabeth@kamloopsparents.com) to win…

1) You can check out this page and tell me the “tagline” of Creative Memories.

2) You can take a look at the WOW sale, offered by Creative Memories and tell me how long this amazing sale lasts.

3) You can tell me, roughly, how many photos you take in a month, with your camera…

4) and how many you print!

In addition to this awesome sale, and the giveaway, Lori will be offering an additional 10% benefit to anyone who would like to host a get together with her. That means you would earn 25% of the sales at your party! Lori will bring her laptop to your home and hook it up to your TV to show you and your friends the latest products, the latest techniques and demonstrate the digital program.

With all the tips and tricks that are offered, I can’t wait to get started on my own book. Photos from 2009… here I come!!

*The giveaway will be open until 10pm on July 1st. The winner will be announced on the site and contacted by e-mail, shortly after.

**Also, what are you doing on Saturday? Want to watch some stuff get blown up?