The Prologue: (This is my first shopportunity. So what is a shopportunity, you ask? Well recently mama signed up with Collective Bias and Social Fabric. I was curious to see what they were all about. Here is my Google plus story about it. My first job was this week, so let me tell you a little bit about that experience. The shopportunities combine a passion for brands, blogging and shopping. And for this one, a little bit of kitchen skill. Once upon a time there was a lady who liked to shop, write and bake.  That’s her – on a good…

Welcome once again to my Thursday feature bloghop. This one is all about Cooking with Kids, or baking with your children, or generally messing around in the kitchen and having fun together making snacks, meals, food, treats, candy, dinner, or whatever great recipe you want. My kids love to cook with me. It’s an easy hands on activity. It’s fun for me too. Together time. In years gone by, we used to have other kids, neighbours, friends, kids I looked after before and after school, come to our house and one thing I noted repeatedly was that they all loved…

The Play is the thing, in more ways than one this March Break. This year my kids and I are doing the staycation thing. We’ll be right here in London, with a band of swashbuckling pirates and a somewhat odd chocolate maker named Will Wonka. I was thrilled that thriftymommastips was chosen again in this second year of the #KinderMOM promotion with Mom Central Canada to talk about the importance of play and how we incorporate that into our daily life. This time of year we are so keen to get through the days and weeks leading upto the March…

A Valentine’s Monday Mingle: For those of you who don’t know this meme, pop by eightymphmom.com and link up. Use your iphone or your Flipcam or your Kodak Playsport and tape yourself answering the weekly list of questions. Then take a half an hour and visit the other vloggers and leave a comment. This is a great way to learn how to vlog and get comfortable in front of the camera.

For several years now my kids have been at the same school. In fact they may have been there collectively for close to a decade and you know journalists, well, we don’t miss much. Truly. Trained observers. Yup. So today when I spied this sign on the outer wall of the school, near the door we walk in every day I was  not surprised. Nope, because, as I mentioned I am a trained observer. Eagle eyes, they call me. Well, not to my face. Because that would be overkill. Anyways today I read the fine print and doubled over laughing.…

Thriftymomma goes to city hall. Oh yeah and that’s my kid Ainsley, sitting in Mayor Joe Fontana’s chair. One of the best things about having children for me, an introvert and former shy person, is how they expand your world socially. Several months ago my youngest daughter befriended London city Councillor Sandy White. Ainsley has a way of doing that. At that time Coun. White offered to have Ainsley take a tour of city hall and it was something my quirky kid went nuts for. In fact she kept asking for several months when the tour was going to take…