Today's Parent Subscription Now Included in Your momstown Mississauga Membership!

There’s never been a better time to join momstown Mississauga! When you purchase or renew a full year momstown membership in 2013, you receive a BONUS subscription to Today’s Parent! 



 

Bonus Today's Parent Magazine

As soon as you found out the great news  that you would be a parent, I bet you started to research everything  there is to know about what you need to get prepared. Well now you can sit back and relax because the two greatest parenting resources out there have joined together to bring you everything you need as a new (or an experienced ) parent in your community.

momstown and  Today’s Parent will now deliver right to your mailbox (and your computer)  all the latest and greatest in parenting advice, craft ideas and inspiration as well as connecting you with all the local events, businesses and services in your neighbourhood. It is a perfect combination of online and in-person support from your local momstown and the great community that you will meet in person - coupled with the helpful tips, ideas, advice and special offers that come with a Today’s Parent magazine subscription.

Included in your membership to momstown Mississauga is now a one year (12 issues) subscription to Today’s Parent! This includes all new memberships as well as existing membership renewals, and applies only to full year momstown memberships ($45). This special offer is available from January 1^st to December 31^st, 2013, inclusive.

Already receive Today’s Parent? Then your subscription will be extended for one additional year!

Click here for full details and mark your calendars to renew or sign up soon!

Share this special offer with your friends and family and find out more about our momstown Mississauga referral program here. 

Bonus Today's Parent Magazine

momstown Music - Preschool Songs for Moms Kids & Babies

momstown Music is a monthly program at momstown Mississauga where we sing songs for preschoolers, do finger plays, recite kids rhymes and play with the parachute, all in an intergenerational setting.

Our moms, tots & babies meet at Specialty Care in Mississauga which is a long term care home. It is a great setting, they have a phenomenal team of recreation staff who work tirelessly to engage and support the residents in their care.

This month was our best program yet! We sang songs that all the residents as well as the kids knew - (ie. old school ), followed by some silly snowman songs since That's Silly is our theme of the month. All this fun was followed by some parachute play.  

The residents, recreation staff and momstown Mamas got the parachute flying, while the kids ran around to the name game & after our balls from the popcorn game.

Parachute Fun

After the singing was all done, we retired to the craft table, to make some snowmen, dressing them up with yarn hair and all kinds of other embellishments. 

Snowman Crafts! 

We meet 20x a month for fun programs, as well as mom's nights out like our bookclub or new member meet & greet. Consider joining us in 2013 and receive the additional benefit of a Today's Parent Magazine Subscription. A full year subscription is included with every annual membership or renewal. You can sign up for your free 4 week trial or purchase your membership here. 

momstown Mississauga's Top 5 Silly Snowman Songs

Here at momstown Mississauga we have a theme for every month of the year! This January we are working on That's Silly!  Since its wintertime we're going to be making lots of snowman crafts -  we needed some snowman songs to compliment our Art & Music programming.   

 Here is our Top 5 Snowman Countdown !

 

1.    I'm a Little Snowman (sing to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little snowman, short and fat.

Here are my buttons, here is my hat.

When the sun comes out, I cannot play.

I just slowly melt away!

To make the song even more fun - add some actions! Pat your tummy for the buttons, Put on your top hat and of course sink down to the floor when you are melting...

2.    The Snowman Song

I am a little snowman.

I am so fat and round.

I started from a snowflake

that fell upon the ground.

I have two buttons for my eyes,

a great big scarf of red,

I have a carrot for a nose,

a hat upon my head.

3.    Chubby Little Snowman  (Poem)

    

A chubby little snowman

Had a carrot nose

Along came a rabbit

And what do you suppose?

That hungry little bunny,

Looking for his lunch,

ATE the snowman's carrot nose...

Nibble, nibble, CRUNCH!

  

4.    The Five Little Snowmen

Five little snowmen sitting on the ground, (stomp feet on floor)

The first one said; 'oh my aren't we round' (make circle with arms)

The second one said; "'there are snowflakes in the air"(point and wiggle fingers)

The third one said; "but we don't care." (shrug shoulders)

The fourth one said; "lets run and run and run. (Run in place)

The fifth one said; "I'm ready for some fun." (Smile Big)

Whew went the wind (blow) and out came the sun (point)

And the five little snowman knew their fun was done. (Hang head sadly)

5. Another Silly Snowman Song

I am a snowman made of snow (stand still)

I stand quite still at 10 below.

With a big long carrot for a nose, (indicate body part)

And worn out shoes to make my toes.

I have two apples for my eyes,

And a woolen coat about this size. (measure)

I have a scarf that's warm and red. (circle arms around neck)

And a funny hat upon my head. (touch hands to head)

The sun is coming out, Oh dear! (make circle overhead w/arms)

The sun is melting me I fear (begin to sink to floor)

Oh my, I was so nice and round,

Now I'm just a puddle on the ground! (curl up on floor)

Here’s a Blog with 11 snowman crafts from our momstown.ca parent site.  Do you like what you see? Sign up for our Free 4 Week Trial Membership and start having some fun with other Mississauga moms and kids!

Happy Noon Years Party!

December 31st momstown Mississauga hosted our First Annual Noon Year's Eve Party! Thank you to The Fun Side for letting us host our party at their family friendly centre.



Silly Party Hats

The kids had a great time on the slides and gigantic climber, running sliding and playing!
We had crafty fun making Silly New Years Party Hats, and then a countdown and Apple juice toast at "noon" to ring in the New Year!



Ringing in the "Noon" Years with Style

We had a great year opening up in 2012, and there are so many exciting things coming up for us during 2013! If you made a resolution to get out of the house, be more active, do more fun things with your kids, or to meet new friends - then joining momstown Mississauga can help you fulfull your New Years Resolutions! We offer a Free Trial Membership so sign up today and start having fun in 2013 with our momstown Family! 

momstown Mississauga Moms and Kids Top Events in December

December was a celebration of the holidays and momstown Mississauga parents, kids and babies partied all month long. From cookie exchanges to our Secret Santa present stealing game at our Holiday Party, momstown Mississauga mamas had lots of reasons to celebrate this month.

momstown is known for Crafts and our kids were busy all month long creating decorations and keepsakes... some to keep and some to give away! You can read about salt dough handprints in our earlier blog, or see how we made snowman ornaments.

We had so many celebrations in fact it was hard to keep up with our blog, so here's a recap with some pictures from December.  Our cookie exchange was a hit and helped us fill our mamas Holiday Dessert Plates with a variety of recipes.

All ready to exchange!

 

We hosted many crafty events, which had our kids creating snowmen, jingle bells and a variety of handprint ornaments. Our mamas will be pulling these out for years to come! 

Our holiday party featured cookie decorating, reindeer crafts, foam picture ornaments, a Secret Santa game for the mommies and lots of free play time at Taima Zone.

Cookie Decorating at Holiday Party
 

Our kiddos decorated cookies right upon arrival to fill them full of sugary treats and allow for lots of time to burn it all off running and playing on the slides and cars at Taima Zone.

Reindeer Crafting

 

The mamas had a fun time stealing presents from each other at our mommy's Secret Santa game. There were some lovely handmade gifts, books, toiletries, scarves and of course yummy chocolates! What a fun idea.  

Secret Santa Game

 

You can join us for a free trial membership by signing up on our website. We offer a variety of things to do all month long and its all included in the yearly membership fee of $45/family. So make a resolution for 2013 to get out of the house, and start having some fun!

 

 

momstown Mississauga Moms and Babies Create Keepsakes

This month our momstown Mississauga Baby Basics program was busy making keepsakes. From handprint ornaments, to salt dough decorations we were busy with the toddlers and their baby siblings creating at our weekly baby chats at the Taima Zone.

All ready for our mamas to decorate!

We made snowman handprints at our Baby Basics this month. We decorated foam ornaments, by stamping the babies handprints on in white paint, and then adding this snowman poem to the back. It was a great keepsake and it was so much fun to see how our moms each had her own style.

Finished Snowman Families

Our babies are now getting the hang of this craft thing! momstown Mississauga moms and their babies meet weekly at the Taima Zone for fun get togethers, listening to speakers, learning from each other and making some fun keepsakes like these ornament crafts. 



Wiping up after the stamping

We meet weekly for these supportive and fun get togethers! Join us in the New Year and connect with other local moms who are in the same stage of life. Our membership fees of $45/year per family cover our costs so you don't have to bring a twoonie to every event. The 20+ events we host each month are all included!

Mississauga moms & babies

The Ultimate Gift: Giving to Others During the Holidays

My best friend is an advocat for organ donation  & a completely selfless person. I have asked her to share one of her blog posts with momstown Mississauga this holiday season, to raise awareness about organ donation and to inspire us all to think of ways we can give meaningfully to other people during the holidays (and anytime of year).

 

In June of 2011, I donated my left kidney to a stranger. Throughout my journey, I kept a blog so I would remember all the thoughts and feelings I had along the way. One of my favourite posts was Christmas and Family (partially below). I think it really helped me explain to my family and friends part of why I was wanting to make the choice to be a living donor. What I didn’t know is that it should be a real turning point for me in the process as it was my first post to really get any kind of attention or comments from strangers. It opened up a world for me that helped me understand the impact of organ donation (living and otherwise) on families, especially during the holidays. It was the start of many stories I would hear along the way that pushed me forward when I wasn’t sure about my choice and in the end, encouraged me to help someone else have a better life.

Living donation isn’t for everyone, but it is easier than some might think. Alternatively, there are other ways you can help people facing critical illness this Christmas. The first, is to register to be an organ donor (beadonor.ca in Ontario) and talk to your family about your wishes should they be faced with that decision. The second, is to look into donating blood. It is easy, takes less than an hour and can mean the difference between life and death for someone. It can also help cancer patients like my Dad have the strength to be home for Christmas via blood transfusion treatment.

 

Wishing everyone in the momstown family a happy and healthy holiday season and 2013!

 ~ Lauren Herschel

 

Christmas and Family

Regardless of whether or not you are religious or what religion you practice, this time of year is about family. It's about spending time with people who are important to you, taking the time to call loved ones who are far away and remembering special people in your life that are no longer with us.

This year is the 15th anniversary of my Dad's last Christmas. In July of 1995, he was diagnosed for the second time with Esophageal Cancer. That time around it was inoperable and terminal. He chose to fight it and did a pretty good job of it well into the fall of that year. But by Christmas, the disease was taking its toll on him. He was becoming a shadow of the man I knew and as a 20 year old, that was pretty hard for me to understand.

Despite how sick he was, there are good things I remember about that Christmas. For one, his illness had slowed all of us down enough that we had time to stop and really get to know each other better. I think I had more conversations with my Dad in those last few months than I had in the five years prior. One of the really good memories I have of that time is the shopping excursion we took late in December to get my Mom one more present. My dad was a creature of habit and every year his gift buying formula for my mom was exact-there was always a fancy Christmas decoration like a wooden antique Santa or some kind of festive table top display. There was also some kind of orange and chocolate sweet (bleck..not my thing). The third part of the formula was that he always got her something nice to wear. No longer able to drive, he needed me to take him to downtown Oakville to a little boutique, where he found a pretty purple silk blouse for her. The snow was falling, the picturesque streets were bustling with people walking past well decorated store fronts. It was something out of a Disney movie and more importantly, it was wonderful to spend that kind of time one on one with my Dad….

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