Finally A Ski Day!

Ski resorts here in Ontario were closed during the lockdown. Lockdown was lifted in some cities just last week!

If you are looking to hit the slopes though, make sure you get your tickets in advance! They are running at a lower capacity and selling out tickets fast!

Last season we got a lot of practice! The kids were soo familiar with everything this year and enjoyed every minute!

We started on the magic carpet when we first arrived, then quickly moved on to the lift. 

Mr K was on his own, going up the lift and down the hills over and over on his own! Mr M wanted to go on his own too! He's still too young but he was eager to prove himself!

Mama didn't do so bad either, ha!

We Skied from 10-4! We stopped to grab lunch around 1pm. You could bring food and eat in your car too. They had some food trucks set up but the lines were long.  We just took a little break and drove out to get lunch, it was a nice little break for the kids too. 

It was the perfect weather on Saturday not too cold and barely any wind. It even snowed a bit and it was soo pretty!

We bought all our gear last year, everything still fit the kids which was great. 

The kids jackets and snowpants are from Mountain Warehouse.

My jacket is from Marshalls Canada of course ha! It’s Sketchers jacket. 

Our helmets and kids ski goggles and my ski pants are from Amazon (Click my here to see my Amazon Store) 

Even our ski neckwarmer/ face mask came in handy since you need to wear a mask while standing in any line ups.  

Have you been skiing or snowboarding this season??

Are Ski resorts open where you live?

Family vacation February 2020

 I just realized that I didn't blog our last vacation! The reason? Well we came back just weeks before the pandemic hit in Canada! So it must have slipped my mind!

This vacation was a family wedding vacation! I am soo happy we had all that time with family now looking back. Who would have thought the year ahead would have been this!

Last February we went to Cuba! Pullman Cayo Coco

We were up at 3:30 AM to get to our 6am Flight!

The kids love this part of vacations (moms not so much ha!) waking up and getting in the car when it's dark to travel to the airport!

We got a valet car service, where we went and picked up a driver. He then got in our car and drove us to the front doors of the airport. We got out and he left to park our car! (on the way back home we texted the car service and they met us right outside) Best service especially with kids!

I've learned over the years to travel with backpacks! Check in the big luggage and go on the plane as handsfree as you can! We each had a backpack. In each of our backpacks I put, 1 outfit, 1 bathing suit, snacks of course, phones/ipads. and my makeup ha! Because if for some reason a luggage was delayed, We would all have a little bit to get by!

Once at the destination, it's all fun! No rules! ha! All inclusive vacations are pretty straight forward. 

Eat, Drink,Beach,Eat,Drink,Pool,Eat, Drink, Dance, Eat,Drink, Sleep. Ha!

So lets's just tell the rest of the story in beautiful pictures! One day we will all get to travel and see the world again! As long as we are all healthy and safe, that is always priority!

The kids went swimming with the Dolphins! 

The kids had a blast on the beach 


The mommy’s too

Ohh how we miss the ocean 

My beautiful cousin got married! This was just last year!!!!

Missing this view! 


Fun music nights! 

The sunshine and breeze! 

And coconut drinks by the beach! 

We had a few trips planned for this year that have been cancelled! Disney and Hawaii! Not sure when we will travel again but we can’t wait to travel again when it’s safe! 

Are you planning your next trip!? 

Tostones!

 Here is one of my 2nd favorite breakfasts,  my first is Baleadas!

Check out my REEL right here!

What you need!

Green Plantains!

Oil to fry them up

Salt

Bacon, eggs, avocado, refried to fill your sandwich!

First up. Cut the plantains about 1inch thick. Fry them until lightly golden.

Take them out and squash them! Then fry them again until golden brown. 

I used 2 tostones and filled mine up for a yummy breakfast sandwich! The kids just ate them alone! Perfect salty snack!

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TikTok Recipe for the win!

 Ok we all have learned so much this past year... FROM TIKTOK... Ha! I know you have learned some hacks that you now use on a daily basis! I know I did! HA!

This recipe is my new favorite! SOOOO GOOD!

Everyone is doing this recipe with pasta and I will do that next time. This is my low carb version (nothing against pasta, I LOVE pasta too) 

Spaghetti Squash Feta tomato recipe!

What you need:

Spaghetti squash

Feta cheese

Cherry tomatoes

Garlic

Italian seasonings (I used a blend I have)

Olive oil

1. Preheat oven at 400F

2. Cut the squash in half, drizzle with olive oil. Lay Cut half down and cook for about 40 mins. 

3. In a separate oven dish, add cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, italian seasoning, garlic and olive oil (i know I don't have measurements here, I did a one serving for myself so only had 8 cherry tomatoes a small chunk of feta, 2 small garlic cloves.drizzled olive oil, baked for about 20 mins watch it sizzle! So depending on your serving, add more or less! I don't think you can go wrong here!

4. Use a fork to pull the strands from the spaghetti squash

5. Mix the cooked feta, tomato into a yummy creamy sauce

6. ADD the spaghetti squash and enjoy!!! SOOOOOO GOOD!

ENJOY!!!!

Check out my REEL HERE!

Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram for more cooking fun!  @aka_mama_t 

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Virtual School Update

 Here we are almost 6 months in!

We decided on Virtual learning in September and it has been a great choice for our family. Our school board created a separate school just for Virtual school that is not associated to our physical school they went to last year. Which works out great because our teachers and schedules created are focused on virtual school only. Learning is a bit different, different for each class. We have a SK and a Gr 4. They both adapted to this style of learning right away. They enjoy it and we are happy with their growth and milestones! 

The whole family is home, The husband included and working from home. I have blogged about our tips and tricks (Here and Here )  a few times and share many milestones on Instagram too!

I know many families and situations are different. I can only speak to our own based on our own family dynamic and the age of our kids too. 

Here's a bit of background. 

Years ago I was a fulltime working mama (IT at a Bank) with a long commute to work. My kids were in daycare from 7:30am to 6. Our evenings were short and stressful. Our kids had separation anxiety and we struggled to make it work. This is the reality for soo many, and I remember it all too well. 

Especially one snowstorm in 2017. When driving home from work took 6 hours. My 1 year old was in daycare and sick with a fever, the daycare could not give him meds. I left work at 3pm that day in the snowstorm. I got to my 1 year old's daycare at 6pm (during this time my older son was in the after school program at his school and my 1 year old  was at a home daycare 10mins away). My 5 year old still at school waiting to be picked up also. 

When I picked up Baby M, I drove straight to the pharmacy, ran in with him to buy Tylenol and gave him a dose right there in the store aisle. My 5 year old at school with 1 teacher waiting for us. I was 10mins away but the streets to the school were backed up with traffic and my husband who was also driving home in the storm was trying to get to him also. I was stuck on a street with traffic with no way out. Finally my husband got to my 5year old at 8pm! Baby M and I arrived home at 9pm that night! 

That's when we decided that our family needs a change! The process of making the changes took a few years but we knew we had to make changes. We decided a few years ago to make a BIG move. We sold our home that we just built and customized and moved North. Where I could work part-time from home and not have the kids in daycare.

Fast forward just 1 year and we are hit with a pandemic! All 4 of us home! 

I think about when things will get back to normal and oh my,  I am going to miss this time soooo much! I'm soo grateful to be spending so much time with my kids and honestly feel like I could homeschool them for years to come if they wanted to.

Truth be told, they love virtual school too and cringe when I say next year they will be back in school Ha!

I love that we have been able to really get to know our children. Their strengths and areas they needed a little extra help in. I love that they can learn at their own pace without classroom distractions. I have seen my shy kids really grow and become more social with us and online. They also play online games, create videos and video call friends daily. Some might not agree that these are needed skills, but guess what, these are all life skills that build confidence and emotional intelligence and what better way to learn them than with mom and dad helping them navigate the how to! Things we had to learn and trial and error ourselves, we are teaching our kids without the outside noise. They are getting more confident and both boys are learning to embrace their strengths and differences. I have been in many different scenarios over the years, I have learned that adapting and making the best out of every situation is what will make the outcome that much better. Although we all can’t wait for lockdown to be over so we can go out and about! I am still so grateful for every moment! 

Thanks for reading friends! XO

Mama T

Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t 

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Valentine's Day Pizza!

 We love our Pizza weekends! So this weekend I decided to make some dessert pizza for the family!

I made up my own recipes ha! You can totally play around with ingredients too!

Here is what we did!

Strawberry Heart Pizza! YUM!

Step 1, heat up your CiaoBella Pizza Oven to 600-700F

Step 2 Prep your MimiFoods Caputo 00 dough balls (the best pizza dough you'll ever taste)

Step 3 I shaped the dough as a heart. 

Step 4 Whip together some vanilla pudding and set aside.        Slice strawberries and add some sugar and leave aside.

Step 5 Cook the pizza dough alone for this one (2-3 mins in the pizza oven)

Step 6 Let the cooked pizza cool before spreading the pudding.

Step 7 Spread the pudding mix and add strawberries! 

Step 8 drizzle with chocolate and strawberry sauce! Serve with some hot chocolate! So delicious! (Refrigerate and enjoy this one cold too)

Next UP Caramel Apple Cinnamon Pizza!!! 

Step 1, heat up your CiaoBella Pizza to 600-700F

Step 2 Prep your MimiFoods Caputo 00 dough balls 

Step 3 Prep apples! Thinly slice Granny Smith apples and let them sit in a coriander with some lemon juice and sugar for about 15min. Heat some butter in a pot and add the apples. Add some cinnamon and gently cook the apples. 

Step 4 Sprinkle dough with brown sugar and place cooked apples in any design you like! I covered the whole pizza!

Step 5 Cook pizza in your Ciao Bella Pizza Oven for about 2-3 mins

Step 6 Drizzle with Caramel syrup and enjoy!!! Soooo Good!

Here are some pictures of the other pizzas we made. Spicy pizza is my husbands favorite, Cheese and plain pizza for the kids! I'm really enjoying the Charcoal pizza from MimiFoods. 

Yess there was left overs for days!!! 

Click on Mama T cooks label below and see more recipes from me! 

Affiliate info below. 

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Back to school - virtual school

 2021! Today it's back to school! Mama is on her second coffee!

DH also works from home so one of us always runs out first thing in the morning to grab a coffee. 

We are continuing this new year with all 4 of us home. It's been all 4 of us home since March 2020. We are so grateful to have the options that we do.  The kids really enjoy virtual learning and we have a great schedule that works for our family. 

I wrote this other post in 2020 click here. 

Some tips on what works for us. . 

1. Keep breakfast simple. Cereal and milk, Oatmeal, Fruit and yogurt, Toast with butter or straight up simple waffle. Keeping it simple allows for breakfast to be quick and less clean up for mom and dad. 

2. Sit in a bright space. Lots of lighting is important! We work in our kitchen because it’s the best lighting with all the windows. 

3. Print out each childs schedule and have it visible. Even though everyday is the same, it’s just easy for mama to glance and get reminded, or hold it up to the kids when they ask haha!

4. Use a phone timer or if you have google home we just yell out the timers as we need. Hey google put a timer for back to class at 11:30!

5. Keep the house quiet. No background noise. No TV or Radios on. School day is the school day. (No iPads or video games allowed on break times either)

6. Provide earphones if you they have them or if they can work independently. My kids have them off and on throughout the day. 

7. I make easy lunches too. I usually make lunch on their first nutrition break which is around 11am. That way their second break is playtime where they head outside or to the basement to release some energy. That's usually my time to tidy up a bit. 

8. I work when they work. I work for myself so this I know is much harder for working parents and their scheduled meetings. When DH is on his meetings I usually play referee making sure there's no noise around him haa.

9. Try not to stress it. They are kids and had to adapt soo much in 2020! Give them a break too. I have a sticker reward system and they get stars for all the great things they did. Even as simple as getting to class on time, listening to instruction, sitting through the lesson. All of this deserves praise. 

10. Close the computers at the end of each day! Our teachers give us independent work blocks to finish homework. So by 3pm they are done. We close their laptop and school is over. The evening is their time to do what they want!  (My kids are SK and grade 4, so this may look different depending their age)

Every family has their own challenges, these are some tips that works best for us as we navigated virtual learning in September 2020. The main thing is to be gentle with the process. It does not need to be perfect. It's new for everyone, our kids, parents and teachers, so let’s be kind to everyone including ourselves. 

- Tania 

Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t 

More links here linktr.ee/MamaT

New Kitty in town

Last year around Christmas time we got our first Bengal Cat! Petey! When we picked him up, my kids wanted his sister too! We weren't ready for 2 cats at the time. 

We kept in touch with the breeder and sure enough, Petey's sister had a litter. Our hearts just melted when we saw the pictures of Petey's nephew. The only boy in the litter. 

Meet Gravy! He is the new little addition to our family.  If you follow me on IG you already got your dose of Gravy hhaha!

Petey was not impressed at first. We slowly introduced them.  We keep them seperated most the day, and especially at night.  They can only be together supervised.  Every day they get better and learning to share the house. 

Bengal cats are very social and vocal cats! These 2 bengal cats will definitely keep us entertained.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t and @peteythebengalcat

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