• New Years Eve Tradition Ideas
    family

    5 New Year’s Eve Tradition Ideas

    December 30, 2014 - By 

     New Year’s Eve Tradition Ideas Just like Christmas, New Year’s Eve is a great time to think about setting traditions for your friends and family to participate in! There are so many different types of traditions you can set anywhere, from activities to games to competitions. Family party? Or adults only? Party in or party out? New Year’s Eve Tradition Ideas are endless. We have typically involved our kids in the creation of our family New Year’s Eve Tradition Ideas. Some years we skate and watch fireworks in the park. Some years we also do number five on this list.…

  • Children's New Years Resolutions Printable
    family

    Children’s New Year’s Resolutions Printable

    December 29, 2014 - By 

    myresolution ps This time of year, when snow days seem inevitable and school lets out for holidays, there are bound to be moments when you might want to tear your hair out. Kids get bored easily in my experience and they seem to need a lot of things to do. So where to start? You might consider googling snow day activities or free printables. There are so many brilliant and fun printables or coloring pages available on blogs like thrifty momma’s tips. As New Year’s Eve approaches, it can be a totally fun opportunity to get the kids in on the…

  • free app
    Giveaways - Technology

    Download Gummy Drop Free App Now Available for Android! Win a Samsung Galaxy or a Kindle Fire #Giveaways

    December 22, 2014 - By 

    Several months ago I reviewed Gummy Drop app here because it had just launched on iPad and iPhone. I remember this one well. It was a Match 3 free app that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that it included a trip around the world, and a geography theme that I found engaging and educational. Today Big Fish’s fastest growing mobile app is now available for Android. Gummy Drop scored high on the gaming charts across all territories. Now this crowd-pleasing free app is available in the Amazon and GooglePlay app stores.  All mobile players can access the free app…

  • close up of christmas decoration hanging on tree
    family

    Free Printable Christmas Tree Coloring Page

    December 19, 2014 - By 

    As Christmas Day inches every closer you might be hunting for things to keep the kids occupied. I have always found coloring to be a simple and calm activity to get kids of all ages engaged in. When I ran a home daycare for a brief period when my kids were small, I often gave the kids crayons and coloring pages to calm them down before and after school. I loved the quietness of coloring. Plus for some of the kids it was their opportunity to just be still and occasionally it gave them a great little chance to just…

  • active family travel - parenting - Travel

    Reflections of Summer 2014 #KinderMom

    August 31, 2014 - By 

    How do you capture a summer? Is it a series of snapshots on an iPhone? An entire deck of tiny Instax mini photo cards tucked into the border of a child’s bedroom vanity mirror, with bright red hearts and flowers, decorating the names scrawled on the border? How do you measure July and August? Is it the inches your children grow when they are free to imagine, run, travel, swim and draw without limitation of time or bells? Is it the height of the green grass on your front lawn, the length of the ivy trailing down the side of…

  • active family travel - family - parenting - special needs - Travel

    Five Tips for Train Travel with Special Needs Children

    August 12, 2014 - By 

    I love to travel by train – usually. I can work all the way and my wasted time is minimized. Plus, typically train travel is very economical. This summer my kids and I travelled to Montreal and Ottawa by train. That’s a substantial amount of time spent riding, and also a lot of transferring to different connecting trains. We travel every year by train together at least once. As some of my readers know special needs kids require a bit more planning when travelling anywhere, in any mode of transport. I have one anxious child, and another with a brain…

  • canopy_river
    active family travel - Travel

    Canopy River Tubing #wordlesswednesday #pvpresstrip

    July 15, 2014 - By 

    Canopy River Tubing is the subject of this photo essay today. At the end of a brilliant day spent zip lining and swimming with dolphins, Payton, my 12-year-old, at that time, had the chance to tube down a river in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The excursion was at Canopy River, and it was a solid two hours adventure. Highly recommend. More about that later. Together we travel often as a family but this was one of our first ever Mother – Daughter Trips. Wordless Wednesday is a photo meme. Link up your recent photos, or a photo that is meaningful to…

  • Travel

    Vallarta Food Tours: Evening Taco Adventure

    July 10, 2014 - By 

    The beef cheek taco seizes your tastebuds and stops you in your tracks. You think: “Wow, I am eating beef cheek on the street in Puerto Vallarta and it is unimaginably tender and moist.” Who knew? But the beef cheek taco is just one surprise on the Vallarta Food Tours evening taco tour.       Surrender to the Experience These are things you learn when you surrender to the sense of adventure that travel brings:   1. Street meat can be magnificent. 2. The architecture in downtown Puerto Vallarta is regal and dignified. 3. It’s possible for a man…

  • Health

    The Best Seat in the Pool – SwimWays Spring Float

    June 30, 2014 - By 

    You might have heard – we bought a new house with a pool a few months ago. This is our first summer enjoying our pool and we are still on a learning curve. We have a few pool toys, such as the usual pool noodles and inflatable rafts, but we didn’t have any super pool recliners until this week when SwimWays sent a Spring Float pool float for us to test out. The Canada Day weekend weather has been perfect and we unpackaged the Spring Float recliner chair so we could throw our first ever pool party here. Now, the…

  • Food

    Cute and Simple Owl Cake Pops – Cooking With Kids

    June 26, 2014 - By 

    Today, on the last day of school my kids shared some treats with their individual classes. My kids are both crazy about cooking and they also love cake pops. Together we decided to try to make delicious owl cake pops. So last night we made these owls. I am pretty happy with them and most importantly the kids were proud of these owl cake pops. It’s our last day of school here. Not only is it the last day of school though, it’s the last day ever at this school where my girls have been students since they were 6 years…