If you missed the mass exodus this past weekend, and you’re now finding youself stuck in the city with your March Break Monsters, praying to God you won’t need to go on a murder spree, don’t you worry, mama – we got you.  

We’ve reached out to one seriously crafty member of the Rebel Mama crew and asked her to put together an entire day’s worth of activities that’ll have you feeling like a bonefide Pinterest Mom. Get ready to do some majorly crafty shit with your littles, compliments of #rebelmama Nikki Goldman Stroh, who owns and operates Seasons Family Centre where she organizes creative-based programs for kiddos (and adults) *TRANSLATION: She can do this stuff with her eyes closed.*

Thank God we have someone like this in our RM squad, because seriously – the most creative thing I’ve done this year is sneak wine into a travel mug to accompany my afternoon walk… (#winning)

Bonus: We’re aware that a week is a long time to fill (especially with little ones running around!) so we’ve linked some things to do in Toronto that’ll keep you all happy and occupied for all. seven. days. (just scroll down a bit and you’ll hit it)

Connect with Nikki on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
Photos by Aleksandra Jassem

MARCH BREAK MONSTERS

By: Nikki Goldman Stroh

What the hell do we do with these kids allllll day long? Well how about we make your life easy (for once) and plan at least one of the days for you? Don’t worry if you’re not super crafty – most of the supplies for these activities can be found around your house or with a quick trip to your local Bulk Barn. Let us begin…

8am – Grandly announce to the kids that today is special Monster Day and there are loads of surprises in store.

9am – Pull a little bit of your hair out while having a silent cry in the bathroom because you’ve already been up for 4 hours and it’s only 9am. Feel free to add Baileys to your coffee.

9:05am – 9:45am: Get ready to leave, try to leave, actually leave.

10am: Arrive at Bulk Barn and try your hardest not to drown in a box of chocolate.

10:05am – Wish you had arrived at Bulk Barn by yourself, and hadn’t read this post in attempt to entertain your children. (Sorry) But let’s try to stay with it.

11am – Leave bulk barn accompanied by children who presumably have some sort of candy in their mouth.

11:30am MAKE CUPCAKES! *using store bought cake mix is totally acceptable but we’ve included a recipe below for the super moms out there who would like to be wholesome and all that* Let your kids help you prepare it all – win win.

12pm – Have your kids watch a show while you clean the kitchen, make lunch and maybe start drinking (it’s definitely evening in Paris, follow suit). Sante!

12:30 – LUNCH TIME

12:40 – After you’re done picking half of it off the floor, start your cupcake decorating. You can extend this slot immensely with overly descriptive words and monster sounds.

1pm – For those of you with children who are still napping, count your lucky stars. For those whose napping days are far behind them, this is the perfect time to watch Monsters Inc. – a movie that will keep even YOU entertained and fits in perfectly with our little themed day.

3pm: Snack Time and the perfect time for a cupcake. Everyone needs a little sugary pick up (mama included) and you still have plenty of time before bedtime for the sugar crash to happen.

3:30pm – Go on a scavenger hunt around your own house searching for all the supplies you’ll need to make Monster Cans (see what we did there, two birds, one stone). Write out or print up a little list and have the kids search for treasures. Hide them extra well to guarantee extra minutes off the clock.

4pm-530pm: CRAFT TIME!
This can literally take hours if you want it to. The more cans you buy, the longer it’ll take. Plus you can then follow up with a Monster dinner party where you pretend to have tea with your new friends. By tea, we mean wine.

6PM DINNER

615pm-715pm – The countdown of all countdowns is ON. Feel free to bust out another Monster movie or read Monster books (with your new Monster friends of course)

“OK GREAT… EXACTLY HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO ALL THIS? “

MONSTER CUPCAKES

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1?2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1?2 cup butter, softened
3?4 cup sugar (if you like your cupcakes very sweet, add a little more.)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375f or 150c; line muffin cups with papers.
2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Mix dry ingredients together
4. Add ½ of dry ingredients followed by ½ of milk and then remainder of dry ingredients, followed by rest of the milk.
5. Stir in vanilla.
6. Divide evenly among pans and bake for 18 minutes, let completely cool before decorating.

BUTTERCREAM ICING

Ingredients

1 cup of vegetable shortening
10 tbsp of water
4 cups of icing sugar
2 tbsp of milk
Various icing gel colours

Directions

1. Beat shortening and water with a electric mixer.
2. Gradually add sugar one cup at a time, until each cup is blended in completely.
3. Gradually add milk.
4. You can change the consistency of the icing by adding more water to make it thinner and easier for spreading.
5. Add 1/8 tsp of any icing gel colour to your icing, if you want the colour to be
darker just add more.

DECORATING

Now comes the fun part. Get your kids to colour the icing, this will take a while as their little hands have to mix the icing colour in, using a spatula. Next have them spread the icing onto the tops of the cupcakes and then let them create their monster masterpieces.

MONSTER CRAFTS 

Supplies

Tin cans
Pipe cleaners
Hardware
Plastic lids
Wool Scrubbers
Pipe Cleaners
Any recycled junk lying around your house – egg cartons, etc.
Magnets (you can buy these at the dollar store)
Hot glue gun
Googly eyes

Instructions

1. Using the hot glue, attach the little magnets onto the back of all the various parts of the monsters.
2. Let the construction begin, the great thing about this is that the monsters can be built over and over again, each time slightly different.

And for all the other days in the longest week in the history of weeks? Here’s a bunch of ideas you can check out in Toronto that will help run down the hours / minutes / seconds until they’re back in school.

March Break Guide via www.toronto.com
March Break Guide via www.blogto.com
March Break at the ROM www.rom.on.ca
March Break Activities via www.toronto4kids.com
Last Minute March Break Ideas via www.globalnews.ca
March Break Programs via www.torontopubliclibrary.com