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…

In case you missed last Thursday’s brand new feature announcement, here it is again. From now on every Thursday I am running a fun family bloghop. There is so much that is fun about Cooking With Kids. My children love cracking eggs and the sensory nature of beating batter, reading recipes, measuring and – of course, the eating part too. Just this week after launching the idea and letting them know we would all be involved in cooking and baking for my blog thriftymommastips, they were inspired and their interest in cooking and helping in the kitchen was sparked again. I counted easily…

Confidence This is my daughter Ainsley. On the weekend she graded to a brown advanced belt. This picture is just before the grading. She has been doing martial arts for three years now. We walked into the studio one day when she was four. On a Saturday morning when she had been playing with my eyeshadow (a nasty shade I couldn’t scrub off my daughter’s face) I asked if we could take a peek at a class. A fabulous instructor asked my then really hyper girl whose special needs and diagnoses had yet to be completely fleshed out if she…