• family

    Social Media Superstars – Very First Award

    May 5, 2012 - By 

    It`s here. Finally! I have been talking about this for weeks, so today this is me delivering. So what exactly is this? Social Media Superstars is my brand new award to recognize excellence in social media practices. It is exclusively for brands and companies. You may email me or contact me or DM or tweet if you think your brand deserves this award, but this is not a silly pass on the sunshine blogger award. It is serious. Because I am nothing if not serious as evidenced by my vlogs like this one  (I will not choose you because you send…

  • active family travel - family - parenting - Travel

    Addalock Review – Safe on the Go #Travel Lock

    April 30, 2012 - By 

    Addalock Review   Imagine a lock on the go. Addalock is a simple effective little invention you can toss in your suitcase and carry with you anywhere. When I heard about the device I was interested because safety is a huge priority here and because I have a child with special needs who wanders. Now, I am pretty sure that Addalock wasn’t intended necessarily as a special needs tool, but I can see useful applications here. My daughter from a very young age could get out any door and had very little impulse control, so we were hypervigilant, and we…

  • family

    The Ultimate Blog Party 2012

    April 17, 2012 - By 

    For the first year ever I am taking part in Janice and Susan’s Ultimate Blog Party 2012. If you haven’t heard of Janice and Susan, founders and publishers over at Five Minutes For Mom, well I will just assume that you are new to the blogging world. Five Minutes For Mom  is one of those on line destinations where all the cool Moms hang out. This year the dynamic team has gathered over $21,000 in prizes to be given away on line this week. Say What? No, that is not a typo. I couldn’t believe it myself. Anyways, there are numerous…

  • family - Health

    My Worry Box – A PTPA Winner for Children #Giveaway

    April 17, 2012 - By 

    Does your child worry? Chances are good, if they are preschoolers on up, there are times their little minds won’t turn off the busy actions of the day. Or times their thoughts are racing. Sensitive children, gifted children, children with special needs, perfectionists, or simply children who spend a lot of time thinking. All children at one time or another handle worry, or anxiety. That’s just part of life. These days, worry and anxiety seems to be more prevalent among children than ever before. Healthy adults handle worries and anxieties every day. But most healthy adults have a toolkit of…

  • family - Parenting

    Disneynature #Chimpanzee Preview – Earth Day Edutainment with a side of #Adoption

    April 15, 2012 - By 

    The gorgeous latest Disneynature film Chimpanzee hits theatres on April 20th, just in time for Earth Day. But my daughter and I were invited by Disney to attend an exclusive early preview in Waterloo Saturday. I knew enough to expect brilliant cinematography as in all the Disneynature series. These incredible voyages and educational glimpses into life in a particular habitat are remarkable always. Chimpanzee, narrated by Tim Allen, is every bit as spectacular as Planet Earth in its film sequences, close ups and fast speed transition scenes.   I didn’t expect the adoption theme that caught me off guard. Now adoption…

  • family

    Clearasil PerfectaWash: Review and a Quiz

    April 1, 2012 - By 

    How do you know if your sweet little girl or boy is ready for the talk about skin care and the importance of a skin care regimen? Let’s pretend this is a quiz. Like in Cosmopolitan magazine. But, not smutty, a clean kind of quiz. ‘Cause this is a family blog y’all (channeling Kerry here from @HouseTalkN) Answer true or false to all of these questions. M’Kay? Is it the teens?  1. Does your son or daughter struggle to get out of bed every morning? 2. Do they proclaim each and every day The Best Day Ever! rapidly followed by…

  • family

    #DisneyOnIce and Me

    February 24, 2012 - By 

    This is not a review. I want to be upfront about that. This has become our February family tradition – every year – we race off to see this amazing Disney On Ice show at the John Labatt Centre. This is a post about love and traditions and the ways in which we celebrate being parents and childhood. And the bittersweet way that kids grow so strong so fast and leave us shaking our heads, holding our hearts in our hands. From the time my oldest daughter was two, we would every December, walk over repeatedly to the London Public…

  • family

    If it’s Thursday..A Valentine’s Cooking With Kids #Bloghop

    February 9, 2012 - By 

    Well, I know you are all dying to know what we cooked or baked together this week, so without any further introduction here it is.  Oh don’t get all healthy on me. It’s Valentine’s so we decided to make treats and give them out to the volunteers and friends that we see at SARI therapeutic horseback riding program every week. We only ate a *cough* couple hundred  ourselves on the way to and from the horses. It is a long ride you know. Anyways, nothing much kids love more than cooking and making candy. This one is easy peasy. I…

  • family - Parenting

    Schools of Thought On OverCrowding and Education #ldnont

    January 11, 2012 - By 

    Schoolhouse image from creative commons, copyright Caitlyn Willows There’s a school of thought out there that goes something like this: well, you make do with what you’ve got. And that should be good enough, right? Wrong. I don’t buy it. This is not a picture of our school, but it is a symbol of what that phrase stands for to me. If we all made do with what we’ve got there would never be any progress and our kids would all still be sitting in one room schoolhouses with no heating and doing math on tiny handheld slates. Guess what?…