Pancakes for dinner! Fat Tuesday I love you…Lent, well it’s a different kind of love. Hope your day included some pancakes too.

1. Bring their stuff.

It might seem a little insane when you’re packing sand pails, shovels, Barbie dolls in swim suits, life jackets, inflatables, snorkelling gear, hats, water shoes, and sun block for the beach and stuffing it into a suitcase, but trust me you’ll be glad you did! You will snorkel with non-leaky masks, that fit, and snorkels that have only been in your mouths. You will get to relax as your kids build Barbie’s dream sand castle, swim, and float on an air mattress while others try to borrow an ice bucket or old cups for their kids to play with, have to be right beside them at all times because it’s the ocean and their kids aren’t great swimmers, and have to pay way too much to rent a floating mat, and buy SPF 50 sun block, if they can find it. Trust me. It’s just easier to bring it.

2. Let them eat cake…or donuts.

It’s vacation. Relax a little. Let them have a chocolate donut for breakfast every morning! Our rules at home are healthy first. On vacation it’s a little more relaxed, I just try to make sure that at some point during the day there’s a little fruit and veg in there somewhere. One way we fit in those veggies is by ordering a side of veggies at dinner, along with their chicken and fries, or pizza, or mac and cheese from the kids menu in the dinning room, we fit in some broccoli.

3. Weigh your bags at home.

The thing with cruising for 12 nights, plus a couple days away before we got on the boat, is that you need a lot of clothes. You need warm clothes for the beginning and end of the cruise, you need hot clothes for later, you need tracksuits for the airport, you need formal wear for 3 nights, you need beach clothes, and you need cute little outfits for dinner -well cute is optional, but isn’t that half the fun of being on vacation and you need all this plus 14 pairs of underwear times 4 people. Oh, and don’t forget running shoes, flip-flops, dress shoes, crocs, high heels and your cute gladiator sandals.

Check your airlines weight restrictions and rearrange as necessary on your bathroom floor, rather than the middle of the busy airport. Then remember what you packed where for the return trip.

4. Bring the umbrella stroller.

Even if your four year old walks everywhere at home, bring the umbrella stroller. While you’re trudging through the airport, the aquarium, the line to get through customs and onto the cruise ship you’ll be glad that you brought it. The ships cabins are small, but you can fold up the stroller and shove it under the bed with the suitcases when you don’t need it.

5. Break out the personal electronics!

You may or may not be a big fan of iPods, portable DVDs and other electronic devices for little ones. My husband is a computer programmer, let’s just say we’re believers. We put new games and movies on the iPods, bought good child friendly ear phones and a splitter, and got a couple new cartridges for the LeapPad. Also bring all your chargers and fresh batteries. A three course, hour and half long formal dinner in the dinning room is so much more enjoyable when your kids are entertained with their ear phones in. Kicking it old school, we also got new crayons, paper, colouring books, and chapter books from the library. See a trend here, I’m a slight over packer, but I almost never regret it.

6. Talk to their teachers before you go.

Talk to your kids teachers before you go about being away. I know lots of parents who don’t feel comfortable about their kids missing school. I think that when they are little there are some huge advantages to broadening their minds through the experience of travel. My kids have great teachers, who prepared some work for them to do while we where away. We told them well in advance and really appreciated their support. A little gift from the islands wouldn’t hurt either.

7. Do your research.

The cruise will gladly arrange your trips to the beach and lunch for you and your kids but it will cost you! I totally understand that your first few times it’s worth the money and peace of mind to go on the cruise lines excursions. You will ride in air conditioning, and have the peace of mind of knowing that the boat won’t leave without you and your family if the bus gets a flat tire or something and you’re late. But, it’s pretty easy to go out on your own and sooooo much cheaper. You can find everything you need to know on line before you go about cab prices, best beaches for kids and how far away they are. Most of the ports rely on tourism for a huge chunk of their economy, ensuring that things are safe and easy in port. The cab drivers will approach you, bargain with you, give you a tour of the island, drop you at the beach, and come back and get you at a prearranged time. I promise it will be cheaper than doing it through the cruise line, and that always makes me have a better time!

8. Sign-up for your cruise line’s loyalty club.

It’s free. You might not think you’ll be cruising too often, but then again you might be. I wouldn’t have thought after my first honey moon cruise that I’d be on my 4th cruise at this point. What can I say…it’s a great holiday and a great holiday with kids. This was our first trip as “Platinum” members on Royal Caribbean, and the priority check-in and free bathrobes to use on board were a nice little perk. The kids get the same status as their parents on Royal up to age 18, whether they’re with you or not, which is also nice.

9. Use the child care.

We’ve done two Royal Caribbean cruises with kids, and I have to say that both times our kids loved the kids program. Not all kids programs are created equally so make sure you do your research and find a kid friendly cruise line. Vacations are family time, but I’m a stay at home mom, and my husband comes home early each evening, so we are blessed to spend lots of time with our kids at home. On the cruise our kids loved going to the kids club, so we let them, and enjoyed a little mommy-daddy time which was so nice. Don’t feel bad when your kids would rather go to the kids club than hang out with you, just enjoy it!

10. Tired, hungry kids are no fun

It’s vacation, schedules are more relaxed, you let them stay-up and sleep in, but don’t go crazy or…you’ll pay for it. Bed time at home is 8, on the cruise we’d pick them up from the evening kids program as late as 9, and they’d take a while to settle down and go to sleep after that. At home we’re up at 7, but on the cruise it was as late as 8:30 one morning. I personally won’t keep my kids at the kids club until midnight though. They’re just too little and it would be paid for the next day I’m sure. Same thing with meal times. Hungry kids are no fun, for us that means the second seating for dinner at 8pm is just too late. Also, carry water bottles with water from the ship with you in port, along with some snacks. I always bring a few zip lock bags with us, and grab a couple cookies and apples in the morning on port days. Around 10:30 at the beach, you’ll be glad you brought them. We usually headed back to the ship for a late lunch, so the snack tided everyone over and gave us longer at the beach.

These are my tips. I have to say that cruising for us with two little girls aged 4 and 7 has been a great fit. There is something for everyone, and we all had a great time! When you’re on vacation in the Caribbean, life really is a party!

I wanted to add a little Valentine’s Day fun to our front door for our party. There’s always so many beautiful wreaths around blogland, that I was inspired to add a little Valentine’s touch to my own door. I went to my favourite store -the dollar store, and found these fun woven hearts.

They weren’t quite big enough, so I bought three, and strung them on some white ribbon. Simple but cute. My Christmas urn was frozen, so I just added three glittering red heart pics, also from the dollar store.

Happy almost Valentine’s Day.

We had an amazing time at our Mother Daughter Valentine’s Day Tea Party on the weekend. Yesterday I shared the decor and craft and some of the food here. Today, it’s time for dessert!

I created this fun pink and red dessert table on the dinning room buffet.

This is the first time I went to the trouble of creating a backdrop for the dessert table. It was inexpensive and definitely adds a whole lot of fancy to the occasion.

I used a combination of pink, white and red streamers, and hung them from a ribbon. I love how it turned out. I also made a “Happy Valentine’s Day” banner from the Happy Heart free Valentine’s Day pintables I found at Catch My Party. They are so cute.

The little girls were adorable about the dessert table, plotting their dessert choices while the moms finished up their sandwiches.

For dessert there was some chocolate chip shortbread, since every tea party needs a little shortbread in my opinion. My girls and I also made some simple marshmallow pops, with valentine sprinkles. We anchored them in glasses of smarties -what I call a win-win.

I printed the pretty food labels from the Happy Heart free printable collection.

I also made some individual raspberry trifles -see my recipe here. I love how sweet they look in little juice glasses, with a silver tea spoon.

I also made some simple brownies and topped them with some heart shaped sprinkles -so easy, so yummy!

We also enjoyed these beautiful cupcakes from one of my favourite places -Cupcakes Canada.

They sent us their Valentine’s Day cupcakes. There was a half dozen box of 3 Vanilla (you know that’s my favourite right?) and 3 chocolate.

They looked so pretty with hearts, pink butter cream, silver balls and glitter in their pink bakery box! Did you know there was glitter for cupcakes?

Someone ready to dig into her sweets.

They were a huge hit with the little girls -and the big girls. Imagine ordering these for your child’s class -can you say super Mom!

We also had their special Valentine’s Day dozen. These are a great variety pack that include 2 Chocolate Raspberry, 2 Strawberries and Cream, 2 Double Dutch Chocolate, and 2 Red Velvet -all dressed up for Valentine’s Day. Wouldn’t these be lovely for your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day?

They were so beautiful, fresh and delicious. Have a look at their website for all the details, pricing and menu. Thanks Cupcakes Canada they were delicious!

I wanted to make a little take-home favour for the girls to remember our tea party, so I sewed each little girl a set of sweet felt cookies, and tea bag from felt, see the instructions here. I love how sweet they looked on their plates in these little dollar store take-out boxes. The thank you tag is also from the Happy Hearts free printable collection.

We had a really fun time together, and even the moms didn’t seem to want to leave. That night, after my happy little girls were tucked into bed, I went back downstairs for an extra little treat. A glittering vanilla cupcake and hot cup of tea just for me.

Life is a party and it just doesn’t get better than a Mother Daughter Valentine’s Day tea party!

This post is linked up at Tatertots and Jello, and Whipperberry.

Celebrating Valentine’s day is serious business around here, so this year my girls and I decided to have a mother daughter tea party for some of our friends. We had so much fun planning the menu and the activities.

When our guests first arrived we started out with a fun craft. I pre-cut a chain of paper dolls for each girl out of card stock, inspired by this one, and they used lots of fun pink and red papers and embellishments to decorate them.

My favourite detail was the cute skirts made out of cupcake wrappers.

After the craft it was time for lunch. I set the dinning room table for our lunch and used the buffet for a dessert table.

For the table I used a simple runner and some white orchids and heart shaped candles. I used my pink depression glass tea cups for everyone, and lots of pink serving pieces.

Of course every tea party demands some tea. I found this fun idea at Party Frosting to add hearts to the sugar cubes, with a simple edible food marker. Such a sweet little detail and so easy.

For the little girls I made pink hot chocolate.

I started with white hot chocolate mix (from the bulk barn) and added a little red food colouring. They loved it, especially served from a tea pot just like moms. I made some simple heart shaped marshmallows out of store bought marshmallows and a mini heart shaped cookie cutter (see more instructions here). One tip, this time I prepared them ahead of time, and dusted the cut, sticky parts with a little extra powdered sugar so they won’t stick together on the plate -it worked great.

The main attraction was the food. We had a variety of tea sandwiches to start with.

I made mini-BLT’s with mini Ciabatta buns, bacon, Boston bib lettuce, cocktail tomatoes, s and p, and a little Miracle Whip -what can I say, I love the tangie zip!

I used these sweet heart toothpick embellished with the Happy Heart free pintables drink flags I found at Catch My Party.

I also made egg salad, and served it on mini butter croissants, with a few sprigs of mixed greens.

There was also cucumber and cream cheese fingers. I made some sweet little jam sandwiches into hearts for the kids too.

All the little girls seem to love all the little food -just their size!

On the table there were also some homemade scones -raisin and plain. They were served with the traditional toppings of butter, jam and clotted cream! You know it’s a tea party when there’s clotted cream in the house!

We all had a great time at the tea party, tomorrow I’ll share with you the sweetest Valentine’s Day dessert table that we all enjoyed next.

Life is a party, and if you’re lucky it’s a Valentine’s Day Tea Party!

This post is linked up at Between Naps on the Porch, Tatertots and Jello, and Whipperberry.

Last summer I came upon a little letter collection at a garage sale. They’d been given a not-so-great crackle paint job, but I saw their potential! Nothing a little glitter couldn’t fix -I heart glitter.

I gave them a quick coat of spray paint to cover the still black backs, and the uneven crackle. I was originally going to do the two X’s pink, and the O white. I couldn’t find a great shade of pink glitter at my favourite store (the dollar store). I did contemplate a trip to Michaels, but the closest one -well isn’t close, and I thought the fancy glitter would be expensive. But, then I found a little gradated Martha package at Walmart for 5 something! Perfect!

I glittered one in each colour and made these little cuties the star of my Valentine’s day mantel.

Here they are with my felted sweater heart garland from last week.

So sweet, so glittery. Does it get any better than upcyling with glitter? Life is a party, at least around here where we’re getting ready for our Valentine’s day tea party!

This post is linked up at the French Country Cottage, Home Stories A 2 Z, Whipper Berry, and 52 Mantels.

I made this sweet Valentine’s Day felted heart garland today. I started out with some felted sweaters. You can see how to felt old wool sweaters here. I cut out a bunch of hearts in different sizes, and arranged them in a random pattern.

To make the garland, get out your sewing machine, and start feeding them, leaving different sized gaps between each heart.

It’s really simple to do, you just stitch through the first heart and keep stitching with nothing in the machine for a second or two to create the gap, then feed in your next heart. Repeat until you’re done. Easy peasy.

Arent’ they pretty? I hung mine up on the mantel when they were done.

They would also look really great as a ribbon on a present I think. More on the mantel soon.

May all the hearts in your life be as soft and sweet as these.

This post is linked up at Tatertots and Jello, Whipperberry, French Country Cottage, and Blue Cricket Design.

My sweet little God daughter Tara turned 4 today, and she had the most wonderful, most pink and purple, most princess-y party ever! From the moment we walked in the door it was magical. My friend Heather decorated the entrance with streamers, and the loot table, signs for any little girl of wonderful things to come! It also had the first activity, decorate your own tiara.

There were lots of princess activities to keep everyone busy at the party. There was a castle set up to play dolls at.

There was a playdough kitchen, with princess cookie cutters for some pretend baking.

There was also a game of pin the crown on the princess.

One of my favourite activities, and one of all the kids favourites too, based on the line up at one point, was the cookie decorating. Heather made princess cookies, and the kids decorated them with icing and candies.

Here’s the sweet birthday girl hard at work!

The main attraction was that the living room had been transformed into a princess beauty shop.

I love the garland of pink feather boas, mini lights, roses, and crystals, along with the pink mirrors so the little princesses could admire themselves! There were lots of beautiful princess gowns to wear.

There was also a princess vanity set up with heart sparkle nail polish, and glitter hairspray.

The little princesses were treated to having their make-up done by a great face-painter who did everything from princesses and fairies to royal tigers and kitty cats!

Here’s Maddie with the tiara she made, smiling with the birthday girl.

After all that fun, the kids enjoyed a snack fit for a princess!

Each chair was decorated with ribbon, tulle and a princess brooch -from the dollar store, oh how we love the dollar store especially when we need a little sparkle!

The clock was set to Cinderella time, and Heather decorated with these fun tulle pom-poms.

Each place setting was set with a silver paper doily place mat, cutlery decked out with jewel stickers, a princess wand, a rose, and lollipop ring.

On the menu were individual pink pudding with cookie spoons, pink popcorn, and beautiful cupcakes. There were also chocolate dipped marshmallows with pink and purple sugar sprinkles, and little castle and crown jam and cream cheese sandwiches.

Isn’t the fruit cute on these little pink skewers.

There was also a sweet princess cake, decorated with the a fun “4″ sparkler candle!

We had such a fun time being princesses for a day!

Happy Birthday Tara, the sweetest princess of all!

This post is linked up at Between Naps on the Porch, Whipperberry, and Tatertots and Jello.

We had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year with some old friends, and thought you might like to see some of the shiny details, before all the holiday decorations get packed away until next Christmas.

On the fireplace, I did a grouping of clocks. Some were ones I had, and a couple I found at thrift stores. It was fun to hear the loud ticking of all the clocks combined. In the living room I made a fun Happy New Year banner with my cricut, and hung it with some mirrored garland, and fun twinkle lights.

I had fun at the party store buying silver and black noise makers, hats, glow sticks, and beads. New Year’s eve seems to bring out the kid in all of us. I grouped them all on a nice silver tray on the coffee table, ready for the big count down.

My favourite of the decorations was the dinning room table. I used a silver runner for the base and grouped a collection of mirrored balls and candles. The mirrors made the candle light dance around the room, and it was so pretty.

We had a fun evening of eating, drinking, and laughing together! I set up the drinks in the kitchen, with a centrepiece of three different orchid pieces. A mini potted orchird, in a beautiful pot, some floating candles, with a few orchid blooms, and an arrangement of orchids and roses my sister brought me at Christmas.

We started out with lovely appetizers, and around 11 I put out a dessert buffet in the kitchen. There were lots of Christmas cookies, including these almond biscotti, a family favourite.

Along with the cookies, I made mini pavolas, and individual portions of Christmas pudding, my grandma’s old recipe. We also did mini ice cream cones with candy cane ice cream.

I made fun dessert picks out these great clocks from PS Make It Your Own. I cut them out and backed them with some fun glittery card stock. And, I also made some cute straws for drinks with these free drink flags from Bloom.

We had a great evening ringing in the New Year, and we’re all looking forward to living like life is a party in 2012! Happy New Year!

This post is linked up at Between Naps on the Porch.

I found these cute wooden veneer business cards at Lee Valley Tools.

I thought they would make great Christmas tags. I used a hole punch to make a hole, and embellished them with rubber stamps, markers and glitter.

They look great with some simple brown paper wrapping paper.

Hope you find some something sweet under your tree tomorrow.

Happy Christmas Eve to you, and may you get your wrapping done before midnight!