Decorating your kids' rooms

I have a slight addiction to scouring the web for kids' room decorating ideas. When I was pregnant with Joel I spent hours on end searching for the perfect nursery room decor, and the addiction continued into my planning of his big boy room! His room isn't completely finished, but I chose a vintage transportation theme with trains and airplanes. In my searching, I have come across a few fantastic websites that I'd love to share with you. I'm sure I'll have more to add once I start planning my daughter's big girl room! Pottery Barn Kids This is where I go to window shop for my dream playroom. If only I had the space, and the means to create a space as cool as this for my kids. You can also shop for boy, girl or baby themed rooms, furniture and accessories too. I'm trying to think of a way I can convince my husband that we need to get this dollhouse bookshelf for my daughter. She neeeeeds it, right?

The Land of Nod I stumbled upon this site when I was looking for some vintage inspired transportation items for Joel's room. I picked up these airplane curtain tie backs and they look great!

They have a huge selection of artwork for kids rooms, and some really fun bedding too. I would love to get a clothes tree like this for his room. You can also find quite a selection of knock-knock jokes on this site!

Just My Luck Designs If you are into wall decals, you should check out this shop! I picked up this very cool train decal for Joel's room. It's above his bed, and it just makes his room pop!

Restoration Hardward Baby & Child What's not to love about Restoration Hardware? I bet you didn't know they have a baby & child department! I've been getting their catalog for a while now, and it makes me drool. Monograms! Polkadots! Convertible cribs! Oh my!

Rosenberry Rooms This is the mother of all kids decorating websites! You can find furniture, decor, bedding, accessories and art in any theme you can possibly imagine! Search by colour, or pattern, or sport or animal for whatever you imagine in your kids rooms. You name it, you'll find it here.

Warm Biscuit The most adorable bedding and fabric ever.

In case you were wondering, I decided on a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme for Joel's nursery (since I didn't know what I was having, it seemed pretty gender neutral). This was my inspiration. And here is the room - I took these photos just before my daughter was born in June, after we moved Joel into his big boy room and set the crib up again. I did end up buying the bedding and mobile you see in the photo.

Vicky is mom to a 3.5 year old boy Joel and nine month old girl Mieka. She also blogs at Some kind of Wondermom.

Bob MacQuarrie pool

by Vicky Here's a little tip for new parents wanting to take their babies swimming, or thinking about signing up for swimming lessons for the first time. The Bob MacQuarrie Recreational Complex (previously known as the Orleans Recreation Centre), has a heated kids pool!

The city offers a Preschool Swim on Wednesdays from 2:00-3:00pm from April 6 to June 27th. Check out the schedule for more public swimming times.

Vicky is mom to a 3.5 year old boy Joel and ten month old girl Mieka. She also blogs at Some kind of Wondermom.

It's NOT Delissio, or delivery!

by Jenn Not long ago, it got to a point where when the door bell rang, the boys assumed it was the pizza guy.  Not good.  As well, Paul's weekend lunch was often a frozen pizza.

I started noticing how much they cost and how much it was a waste of money for not great tasting and very unhealthy pizza.  As I was researching Freezer Cooking, I discovered how easy it was to prepare and make your own Freezer Pizza's.  If you have a bread maker and a desire to cut down on your pizza costs, then keep reading!

So, what I do to make Frozen Pizzas is actually pretty simple.  First, I prepare my pizza dough in my bread maker.  Here is the recipe I use:

Bread Maker Pizza Dough Makes 3 12" pizzas

• 1 1/2 cups beer or water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 4 1/4 cups white flour
• 2 teaspoons yeast

Place ingredients in bread maker in order listed.  Set your bread maker to the dough setting and press start.  It takes my machine about 2 hours to make the dough.  If you happen to not be around when it finishes, it isn't really a big deal.  Please don't freak out if your dough rises to the point of lifting the lid of the bread maker open.  :D  All you need to do is pat it back down with floured hands.  It will be fine!

Preheat your oven to 500 F.  Divide dough into 3 equal balls.  Roll out each ball into a 12" circle and place on a pizza stone or pan.  Bake crusts for about 3 minutes.  This will par bake the crust so that it has some form to it.  Place on cooling rack once finished.  Let cool completely.

Now you have two choices.  You can either freeze the crusts and then top and cook them when you are ready to eat them, or, you can top them right away and then freeze.  I do the second option.  It makes getting dinner on the table quicker when we are home from work late.  Which ever option you choose, the next step is the same.  Tightly wrap the pizza in plastic wrap, squeezing out any air, then wrap in tin foil.  Label your pizzas and throw them in your freezer.

When you are ready to enjoy your pizza, take it out of the freezer.  Top your pizza if needed.  Preheat oven to 400 F. Bake for 10-15 minutes until crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly. Put the par baked pizza crust directly on the oven rack unless you're using a pizza stone.

Enjoy!

Jenn is mom to five-year old Jacob and two and a half year old Zachary.