this moment.

July 19, 2013 by mama lola

as inspired by souleMama; one photo from our week, no words, only an image to sum up our time as a family. one that captures a moment in time and is a visual reminder of where we were at this time in our lives.

this moment comes from this past wednesday when i was told by my endochronologist and neurologist that i am still tumour free! so relieved and happy to share the moment with my sweet dear hubby! those annual appointments really don’t get any easier with time! (photo taken at the hospital with my phone!)

i’d love to see your moment from this week, so share a link in the comments!

THE Pin Party #14!

July 18, 2013 by mama lola

Hey you fabulous, amazing, beautiful bloggers! Welcome to THE 14th week of THE Pin It Party! I have to tell you, week after week you guys amaze me with the awesome posts that you link up. There are SO many blogs out there, I feel like this is our little corner of the blogosphere to share with each other and really shine. So share away! XO

p.s. Are you interested in co-hosting THE Pin It Party? It is a WHOLE lot of fun and a great way to grow your Pinterest following. Send Ellie an email for the details!

Grab button for Creative Geekery

Grab the code for our button here!

1. Follow the host and co-hosts on Pinterest.

2. Send out a tweet about the party! Just click here: Tweet

3. “Like” THE Pin It Party on Facebook by clicking on the button below.

4. Grab the party button above and add it to your blog’s sidebar or link up party list.

5. Post 1-3 links to your blog’s most “pin-able” posts from the last few weeks. (Please, no links to other parties, giveaways or shops please. If you are an ETSY shop owner, come back this weekend and link up at the Weekend Blog Block Party!)

6. Mingle! Reach out to somebody new and pin their stuff. You never know when you will meet your blogging bestie!

7. Have a FABulous day and come back next week for more Pinterest fun. XO

Host: Ellie @ Creative Geekery

Co-Hosts: Kristin @ One Organic Mama

Steph @ A Geek in Glasses

Krystal @ Krystal’s Kitsch & Sunny Soirees

Mama Lola @ Bear & Lion

Mrs AOK: a work in progress @ Mrs AOK

We will each choose our three favorite posts from the party and pin them to this party’s collaborative Pinterest board: THE Pin It Party – The Best of the Best! Woot woot!

rock painting crafts!

July 18, 2013 by mama lola

i love using items from the natural world for our craft projects. it’s a wonderful opportunity to get out for a hike or explore some hidden corner in our backyard, but mostly it’s a great way to connect my boys with their outside environment.

i have always collected rocks and now i watch my kids stuff their pockets or buckets with all sorts of rocks! bear and i have already discussed packing a few small bottles of paint for our summer road trip so that the kids can paint during our vacation. it’ll be a great a way to calm their beans and get them focused on something for a bit.so, i of course had to scour the interweb for some inspiration…. check out these beautiful rocks! i chose examples from a variety of different skill levels, styles and sizes, because i wanted to get your and my creative juices flowing!

realistic animals by lin wellford

decorated pebbles by maria mercedes truijil at designspiration

rock painted critters by emelisa mudle of heart art

painted rocks by red bow studios

doodling on rocks by creative jewish mom

rock magnets by coastal inspired creations

colourful rocks by one perfect day blog

rock eggs by the crafty crow

animal rocks by tightwad

modge podge painted rocks by blooming on bainbridge

painted rocks by inspire bohemia

heart rocks by color me katie

larger painted rocks by funnelcloud the blog

which one is your favourite?
do you think you’ll be painting any rocks soon?

can’t wait to share what we make on the road!

a quick vent or release more like it…

July 17, 2013 by mama lola

it is 10:30pm on tuesday evening. i am sitting alone in my living room. lion is fast asleep upstairs in bed. but, bear and dear hubby are sitting in the waiting area at our local hospital’s emergency department.

you see, this evening around 9pm, bear came downstairs and complained of a painful eye. earlier in the day he said they were dripping and watery, so i didn’t make him wear his glasses. i looked at his eyes when he came downstairs and the one was quite red and looked irritated. he was scared and whimpering about not wanting drops in his eyes!

we gave him advil. we gave him some polysporin eye drops. i put cortisone cream on the eczema that has flared up all over his body. but nothing seemed to help. in fact he seemed to getting worse. dear hubby called our doctor’s on-call service and once your call is registered you have to wait for them to call back. it usually takes about 20-40 minutes.

we waited, but bear was getting more agitated so we gave him benadryl. and like magic, his tension eased, he was able to open his eyes and the pain slowly diminished. we gave him a bowl of ice cream to distract him and started looking at maps online related to our up-coming road trip.

the nurse from the on-call service phoned back and after an extensive discussion recommended that bear be taken to the hospital to be checked out.

wait, WHAT???

it is now about 9:45pm, so we decide to listen to the advice. dear hubby packs up a backpack with a few dinosaur books, water and an apple, then out the door they go. we have no idea how long the wait is at the hospital, or how long this night may turn into!

the timing of this allergic reaction could not be worse. on wednesday mornings dear hubby gets up early and hops on a commuter bus to the big city. the bus leaves at 5:30am. and tomorrow, i have my annual appointment with my brain tumour team where i will receive results from my recent MRI and blood work. the appointment is in the big city and i have been a nervous wreck about it the last few days. and, we are leaving for a 2 week road trip on friday and shoudl be packing!

wait, WHAT???

when it rains it shits, right?

it is now 10:45pm and i am sitting alone in a messy living room with camping gear all over the place. i cannot focus on anything practical. dear hubby has sent me a few texts, but really they are just sitting and waiting at the hospital. i feel so completely confused and helpless. we have no idea what triggered this reaction and even though this particular reaction seems to have been quite slow to erupt who knows what will happen next time. and since we don’t know what caused this reaction how can we possible prevent it from happening another time?!

ok… must stop brain from over thinking and distract myself with packing or something.will update once i receive more info.

***********************************************
july 17th, 2013.
wednesday AM now.

bear seems fine. he still has is rash, and the doctor at the ER wasn’t sure if it was related to the allergic reaction or not. bear’s eyes seem pretty sensitive today and he’s super tired, but he’s not in pain or anything, so i’m relieved.

but, i have my BIG annual appointment with my tumour team today so i am a frazzled mess! wish me luck!!!

lion’s 3rd birthday party!

July 15, 2013 by mama lola

last weekend we celebrated my youngest boy, lion. it was such a wonderful weekend spent with family and friends.

we had dear friends come and spend the night before the party at our house. the kids had an awesome time playing, finding inch worms, climbing fences, playing games, while us adults had an opportunity to catch-up.

this is how it started! BEER!
every time dear hubby or i are drinking beer’s, lion wants to try it. he loves the taste of beer and keeps going after the bottle, it’s funny at first, but then it becomes a little concerning! haha!

we played. did gymnastics. chatted. laughed. watched tv. ate. drank. and laughed some more!

we had such a fun time together!
the kids were delighted to have so much time to play. then the next day was PARTY TIME!!!
i tried to keep things simple food wise; fruit kabobs, crackers, cheese and gravlox salmon, watermelon, and cookies!

the kids LOVED the pinata!

after the games it was time for business.
CAKE!!!
we made lion a layered ice cream cake. it was so yummy and perfect for a hot summer birthday!

and just on cue, as soon as we all sang happy birthday to my littlest guy, i got all choked up with emotions and tears. i looked over at my mom, and saw her looking at me with tears in her eyes. haha! they were tears of joy and pride, but this is what we do in my family; we cry about everything!

HAPPY MONDAY!

summer beach day in kincardine.

July 13, 2013 by mama lola

if you have never been to kincardine, ontario, you should try to make it a destination for a day trip or longer vacation. we try to visit kincardine once a summer, which is a tradition that started way before we ever had kids.

the beaches are amazing. on one side of the main pier it is sandy and soft, the other it is rocky and pebbly. the waves that crash the shores are always cool as the water in lake huron never gets too warm!

the main strip in town has a variety of stores and chip stands, so there’s yummy grub for all! we left home in a hurry that morning, and i forgot to pack the kids’ bathing suits (duh! slaps palm to forehead) sowe had to stop at a box store to buy new bathers for the kids! haha!

the kids love kincardine. it is small and during the busiest of times, it was still pretty calm. there is enough to keep them busy and happy for the day. even dear hubby got to work on his new thing, his strength training. which is lots of jumping without a running start. he’s getting pretty good at it!

we played at the different beaches, ate picnics on the different beaches, found a playground with lots of other kids for the boys to play with, we drove around the town a little so lion could nap and bear could have some quiet. we left just before sunset.

it was a ~~completely~~ nearly perfect day.
you see lion sh#t in his brand new swim trunks at one point! hence the naked bum. it’s all good, these things happen even on the best of days!
haha!

these are my instagram pics.
to follow me there CLICK HERE!

can’t wait to do it all over again next summer!

this moment

July 12, 2013 by mama lola

these photographs were taken on lion’s 3rd birthday, july 8th, 2013. we had had a lovely sushi dinner and then headed to the wading pool downtown. the kids ran and ran, laughing and splashing the entire time! it was such a wonderful way to end our birthday celebrations!

still can not believe he is three…

THE Pin It Party (lucky) #13

July 11, 2013 by mama lola

check out the party i’m co-hosting with ellie @ creative geekery!

*******

Hey you fabulous, amazing, beautiful bloggers! Are you interested in co-hosting THE Pin It Party? It is a WHOLE lot of fun and a great way to grow your Pinterest following. Send Ellie an email for the details! This week you can also enter to win a FREE co-host spot just by following a couple of the party “rules”! You must link up at least one link to the party to qualify for the giveaway. Here you go:

Grab the code for our button here!

1. Follow the host and co-hosts on Pinterest.

2. Send out a tweet about the party! Just click here: Tweet

3. “Like” THE Pin It Party on Facebook by clicking on the button below.

4. Grab the party button above and add it to your blog’s sidebar or link up party list.

6. Mingle! Reach out to somebody new and pin their stuff. You never know when you will meet your blogging bestie!

7. Have a FABulous day and come back next week for more Pinterest fun. XO

Host: Ellie @ Creative Geekery

Co-Hosts: Kristin @ One Organic Mama

Steph @ A Geek in Glasses

Krystal @ Krystal’s Kitsch & Sunny Soirees

Mama Lola @ Bear & Lion

We will each choose our three favorite posts from the party and pin them to this party’s collaborative Pinterest board: THE Pin It Party – The Best of the Best! Woot woot!

10 delicious asian foods!

July 10, 2013 by mama lola

we enjoy asian foods at our house. the kids will devour sushi, udon soup, fried rices and various forms of cooked tofu. stir fries are so easy to throw together; vegetables, herbs and a protein and you’re good to go. some people like to add rice noodles, soba noodles (japanese buckwheat noodles), quinoa or rice as a side.

: : SOURCES: :

1. tofu stir fry from bear & lion

2. hot n’ sweet sesame tofu from OMG! i love to cook

3. smoked stir fry from veggie wedgie

4. vegan veggie stir fry from motivated mama’s

5. vietnamese summer roll s from tartine & apron strings

6. teriyaki shrimp stir-fry from social cafe magazine

7. chimchurri tofu, sauteed kale and quinoa from vegan miam

8. chinese fried rice from katherine martinelli

9. make your won sushi from bear & lion

10. udon noodle soup from cherry bomb kitchen

asian foods are often great for people with all sorts of allergies, or who are vegetarian, like us (well we do enjoy some seafood now and then!) there are so many countries to draw inspiration from and adjust flavours and spices according to your taste.

let me know which one is your fave!

make a paper mache pinata!

July 9, 2013 by mama lola

my lion turned 3 and i decided it would be fun to have a lion head pinata at his birthday party. i did some research on pinterest on how to make the perfect pinata, but decided that we would just do our own thing… i mean, how difficult could a paper mache lion head really be???

well, as with most of our projects things didn’t go as smoothly as i hoped. but, the end result was surprisingly marvellous, dontcha think?

i wanted it to be big, and a regular latex balloon just didn’t seem to be the right size or shape. so we used a clear garbage bag instead; filled it with air and shaped it a little by taping the corners down.

and off it started… lots of news paper ripped into various sized strips. dear hubby was in charge of the messy part, so he made a big ol’ bowl with flour and water mixed together (no recipe required). just make sure you don’t make it too think and depending on the project lumps don’t really matter either. especially in a pinata as the end result is that it is damaged badly, and quickly!

the kids got in on the action too! it was soooooooooo messy, but luckily the paste is super easy to wash up!

where the bag was knotted became the opening and the bottom of the lion’s head. this made it easier in the end for painting as i was able to prop the head up with my easel inside it. a broom or stool leg would work just as well.
for the ears i took a toilet paper roll, cut it half, made a cone shape, stapled it once i had it at the desired size. then the guys attached my paper macheing them on.

before you start painting make sure your paper mache is thoroughly dried first. the paint will adhere better and it will just be much easier.
to paint the lion head i just mixed a few different acrylic paints together; reds, yellows, oranges. the tone was more red than i had hoped. i painted it very haphazardly, intentionally trying to create uneven textures and colours. i used straight black paint for the detailing of the facial features.

the lion’s mane is made of various colours of tissue paper; gold, yellow, orange, violet, burgundy and black to give it depth and vibrancy. the pieces were all randomly cut with pinking sheers to create texture. i glued them on individually, which initially felt daunting, but went much faster than i anticipated. i just used kids white glue.

paper mache, pinata, lion head, birthday activity

i will post pics later this week from the actual party and the kids hitting in, but it was a total hit!

i discovered this amazing paper mache website for tons of info on different paste recipes and more at the ultimate paper mache.

and, here’s papaD getting his lion groove on while wearing the lion head after the kids got the loot! it was totally creepy and weird seeing him dance with that head! but, i’ll save it for halloween, i think! might be fun the! haha!

this was such a fun project! good luck with yours!

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