Summer is here and the living is easy. Or soon to be easy, right? With a bit of planning, you can have a great family vacation this summer that the kids will remember for years to come. And right now you can easily save 20 % on RV Camping in Ontario at Carefree RV Resorts. The summer months are super short. Right now, as I am booking my kid’s day camps and overnight camp too I am extremely aware of how fast the time will fly. Even with the extra week off school this year, summer vacations in Ontario are…
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Okay now don’t pay attention to my hideous bangs that were not behaving in this picture. At the time I really didn’t care. This picture was taken on our last day together at Mom 2.0 summit in Arizona. These ladies are simply fabulous and if you don’t follow them yet, you must. Merry Spooner Kuchle (whose name I finally figured out how to pronounce correctly) has an infectious personality and was my roommate on this, my second ever Mom 2.0 conference experience. She blogs at Merry About Town and lives in Calgary. Debbie Kee Balino is Babystylista. She rocks. She…
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This month dozens of the blog-o-sphere’s best travel bloggers are sharing what travel is to them. I have had some amazing travel opportunities, both for business and pleasure this year. Colombia was an epic adventure and a great learning experience with World Vision Canada. The cruise we took together as a family was amazing and such a great chance to restore. The trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was a wonderful active mother daughter trip that we loved. And the Tremblant Quebec trip where we all learned to ski was epic and busy and challenging, and a trip were hope to…
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There are many things I love about London, Ontario. Most of them start and end with children. We moved here when I got a job offer at the London Free Press and then we adopted our children and we became a family. And when we became a family here I started exploring all of the brilliant programs and services and places for families and children in this city and that, I think, is when I fell in love with my city. This weekend I was on a plane returning home from a conference and a business traveller behind me asked…
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It was almost four years ago now when we travelled to Florida for my oldest daughter’s tenth birthday. We wanted, or needed, a vacation at end of the school year, which is always challenging when you have children with special needs. But this time we planned something different. Ten felt like a huge occasion and we wanted to celebrate it while inspiring our daughters to learn. So we took a full day and spent it exploring Kennedy Space Center. We dined with an astronaut and both of my kids were curious and peppered him with questions. It was one of…
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Who doesn’t love Florida? I have been a few times and every single visit I see something new, or find some new city or spot that I would love to return to. We all know the popular spots and many of us have visited spaces like Orlando, Kissimmee, Tampa, but I wondered what other Florida destinations might be just off the beaten track, so I did a little hunting. Florida Destinations – 5 Lesser Known, Less Crowded Spots Florida is a wonderful state to enjoy a vacation. Its sunny, breezy weather and absolutely beautiful beaches make it one of the…
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Last year we were lucky to attend a Puerto Vallarta, Mexico media trip together. Our family has travelled a few times since and this dolphin excursion that Payton and I went on in Puerto Vallarta remains one of the highlights of the last 5 years for my older daughter. I have seen numerous swim with dolphin excursions up close in the last year as we travelled. This one was the best, most humane, cleanest and best run dolphin excursions that I have ever seen. You can read my full travel story about Dolphin Discovery here in the travel section of…
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It was our last night in Atlanta, Georgia after a great blogging conference last year in May when my roomies and I decided we hadn’t seen anything much of the city. That’s the problem with conferences in great cities. Sometimes you rarely have time to set foot out the door. So we determined to go shopping and hit a local restaurant, something that screamed Atlanta, Georgia. Conference food, while occasionally incredible, is also often either truly unhealthy, or dainty or overly sweet. While I loved the conference and got a ton of takeaways from it, my sweet tooth was aching…
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Dog Sledding Near Mont Tremblant on a wintery March day can bring out the child in anyone. Snug as a bug in a rug. We are racing through the snowy upper Laurentians in Quebec, about 45 minutes from Mont Tremblant resort. It is peaceful and calm and the mountains are majestic as the snow continues to fall. Three of us are on this one dog sled lurching out of the starting gate and my older daughter rides safely behind us with a driver of her own. Content. This is the definition of contentment and peace and it makes you almost…
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This past month my youngest girl turned 11 and we celebrated with a Minecraft cake and a sleepover and a family dinner at Lone Star Texas Grill. We all learned to ski together as a family in Tremblant the weekend before her birthday party. In many ways, that was the perfect start to sporty spice’s birthday week. This is the daughter I still joke never met a sport she didn’t like. The one who wandered off at Disney when she was four and nearly gave me a heart attack on the spot. The one who sported my eye shadow the…