• family - Parenting

    Building Adoptive Family Traditions at Christmas #adoption

    December 23, 2009 - By 

    People are forever writing and asking about traditions this time of year. I didn’t always feel as strongly as I do now about creating family memories and traditions. In fact there was a time I would have scoffed out loud at that kind of talk. My traditions in my family of origin were sometimes fun and sometimes, as a child, they seemed painstaking. Many were aimed at pleasing adults and a lot were centred around eating and sitting around the Christmas tree. When I got married I made a choice to create my own type of marriage, my own style…

  • Uncategorized

    Christmas Giveaway

    December 14, 2009 - By 

    Deck your halls with two brand new beautiful Christmas ornaments! This marks one of my coolest giveaways yet. I am so excited to launch this one with my new friend over at Deirdre and Company. Deirdre and Company makes truly lovely unique ornaments and jewelry for everyone on your list. I blogged about their Christmas ornaments and beautiful jewelry before and have even purchased a couple of these ornaments for my children this year. It’s a tradition here for us to set aside one special ornament each year for each of my daughters. The two girls love this and enjoy…

  • family

    Weekend Roundup

    December 11, 2009 - By 

    This weekend again there are excellent deals to be had in and around London, so don’t miss these: Saturday Dec. 12th Mark’s Work Wearhouse has a customer appreciation event running from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Also on Saturday Zellers has a customer appreciation hour from 8 to 9 p.m. save 10 per cent off every purchase. Northern Reflections: on line coupon for 40 % off until Sunday. Also customer appreciation event now on 30 % off all regular priced items. Gymboree amazing sales on now. Tabi has a whole host of weekend deals, ranging from buy one get one…

  • family

    Alternative Advent Calendars

    December 8, 2009 - By 

    This year we found some of the coolest Advent calendars we’ve yet to find. Advent calendars are as much a part of Christmas as stockings and mistletoe in our house and the kids love them. But too often, in past one of my children would find the cute chocolate advent calendar and scarf all of the chocolate bits down and be left with nothing. Then other child would follow suit of course. Monkey see, monkey do, right? For the last two years I have made it my mission to find toy Advent calendars. This year instead of the cheap chocolate…

  • Health

    H1N1 and How to Help Your Family

    November 30, 2009 - By 

    It was one heck of a flu season with the H1N1 here at my house for much of November. The only one who escaped the misery was my husband, which I suppose is good for him, as there needs to be one healthy individual in every household. In our immediate circle of friends and family many were impacted this year severely. My brother and his family all got the bug. They live in Toronto and have a one-year-old. My brother’s flu bug evolved into bronchitis while the rest of his family quickly got better. My daughters and I also got…

  • family

    High School Musical 2

    November 29, 2009 - By 

    From preschooler to preteen and everything in between – every girl in the London area will be thrilled over this news. If you and your kids haven’t already seen it, High School Musical 2 by Oakridge Secondary School, plays all this week. I took my daughters to see the preview performance of the show Friday night. Despite a couple of small complaints the show was fun. Sharpay played by Mandy Mates was a highlight and the orchestra was amazing. Choreography and dancers were remarkable and every child there enjoyed the show. Afterwards the HSM 2 cast signed autographs and the kids went wild. Fulton…

  • family

    Five Favourite Holiday Traditions a la Schuck Casa

    November 24, 2009 - By 

    Like my attempts at Spanish? Well so Twitter Moms issued a challenge and contest this morning and I thought what the heck I am up for it today as I am really procrastinating doing any actual work I am supposed to do. (For your chance to win a $100 Amex gift certificate visit http://www.twittermoms.com/ )So here without much fanfare at all are our five favourite things to do at Christmas. 1. Gingerbread House: Every year my girls love to build and sneak bits off the top of our gingerbread house. It is fun with a capital F and it is…

  • family

    Dinner With Princesses and Superheroes

    November 23, 2009 - By 

    This is who came to dinner the other night and frankly that’s more than okay by me. This is my Ainsley, five-year-old girl superhero. I love all of her many sides, the kickbutt girl who charges through a room like a bull in a china shop and the scared toddler hidden just beneath the skin unable to control her reactions to the world and her place in it. The fearless fish who plunges into six foot deep water and races across the pool like mini Michael Phelps and the kid with sensory processing disorder who screams – perhaps to shut…

  • Parenting

    Christmas Traditions

    November 22, 2009 - By 

    I have a holiday tradition started when my babies were each so tiny they couldn’t even say the word Christmas and it is one I maintain each year. Sometimes realtives also get in on the fun as I do. Every year I buy a Christmas ornament – started with Baby’s First Christmas and then Baby’s second Chistmas and so on. My daughters are now five and eight and they love to periodically get their own Rubbermaid Christmas ornament containers down and peer at each of the ornaments they’ve been given. Each one holds a memory. There’s precious granddaughter and a Hallmark…

  • Giveaways

    It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

    November 17, 2009 - By 

    While there may not yet be snow, there’s an awful lot of Christmas-y stuff going on lately to herald the season. London’s night time Christmas parade was last weekend and, as you can see here, we attended the annual kickoff to shopping season. Despite a few glitches, gaps in between floats, and cars somehow not following the traffic barricades and dangerously driving down Dundas Street prior to start of parade, it was a hit. The temperatures, which hovered around 10 to 15 degrees Celsius all day beat last year’s hideous snowstorm that we foolishly braved. My daughter this year purchased…