• family - Food - parenting

    The Best Ever Cherry Desserts

    Cherry Desserts remind me of being a child again. Cherries in general also do that for me. My Mom was the world’s biggest fan of strawberries. She loved cherries too. I think that was partly because her parents had a berry farm many years ago and she grew up eating both often. As a kid I loved cherries and some of the best cherry desserts too. My daughters both love blueberries and strawberries, but they crave cherries the most. There is nothing so simple, refreshing and healthy as fresh seasonal berries, just picked and ready to eat. I personally can’t…

  • family

    Summer Days with Cousins

    Summer days are my favourite. I mean what’s not to love? Summer days with cousins are even better than average seasonal sunny days we already love. Always have been and always will be, simply because of moments like this. I shot this random picture of Ainsley when her cousins were visiting this summer. Cousin fun is always special and it was a gorgeous sunny day, as you can see. Summer days are hanging out and leisurely swimming in the pool and sometimes doing day camps and being outside more often than any other time of year. Being out of doors…

  • active family travel - parenting - Travel

    Reflections of Summer 2014 #KinderMom

    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

    The Beach #WordlessWednesday linky

    Every summer we travel to the beach with kids. Most summer vacations mean that we all get together and meet up with cousins in Georgian Bay, Ontario’s cottage country. It’s not possible every single year but it is something we enjoy doing as often as we are able. The beach is a happy relaxed place where we can always connect with family and just chill. Last week we went to the beach with my bother-in-law and sister-in-law. The highlight of that type of break is always all about seeing the cousins play together. This year there was swimming, but as…

  • Giveaways - Health

    Best UV Protective Sunwear for Families #giveaways

    UV Protective Sunwear is extremely important if your family spends any time outdoors at this time of year. There are a few great options for UV protective sunwear. This is one of my favourites. In the summer time, when the weather is hot, and even when the weather is not, we spend a ton of time outdoors. This year we have a pool and we are swimming almost daily. There isn’t a lot of shade out by our pool and naturally, in this beautiful summer weather, skin protection and sun safety rank extremely high as priorities. The kids know the…

  • Health

    The Best Seat in the Pool – SwimWays Spring Float

    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…

  • Health

    Skindinavia Makeup Primer Spray Review

    Skindinavia Makeup Primer spray is the perfect solution to summer beauty. Easy to pack and lightweight, this primer spray will solve your summer skin problems. One of my absolute favourite parts of summer is the simple fact that the lovely warm temperatures mean I can wear little to no makeup some days. Skin is almost always slightly flushed and glowing and my hair can be tamed with a hat or sunglasses. I love that. I’d take it any day over the constant attention needed in the winter. Winter brings dry skin needing moisture daily. Summer is quite the opposite. A…

  • Giveaways

    How Do You Keep them Reading All Summer? #Summerslide #giveaway

    If school is almost out for summer then it’s time to start thinking about summer slide too. Oh don’t worry I am not suggesting that you spend every waking moment of the summer concerned about school. But, take a few moments now and plan ways you can help them avoid summer slide. Then the sailing is easy for the rest of the summer. What are you up to this summer? School is almost out here. Now what’s next? We have some camps scheduled and some great travel opportunities and I am pretty happy for the warm weather to finally get…

  • family

    Nerf Dolphina Bow Blaster: Must Have Toy for Summer

    Pool toys are some of my favourites. We tend to use a lot of them when kids come for a swim and they frequently need to be refreshed. So I was happy when we got hold of this Nerf Dolphina Bow Blaster to test drive here for a bit of fun.   As weekends go this last two have been pretty close to perfect. Our pool is open and weather has been finally warm enough to make the water refreshing and inviting. We are rapidly getting accustomed to summer life in our new house and our new neighbourhood and frankly…

  • Travel

    Blue Mountain Resorts Summer Activity

    Skiing, snowboarding, skating. Blue Mountain Resorts and winter go hand in hand, but what do you know about summer at Blue Mountain Resorts? What can there possibly be to do in the summer? Turns out there’s activity around every corner at Blue Mountain these days. My kids are nothing if not active, so when Blue Mountain Resorts invited us to stay with them in June and test drive some of their great activities, well giddy up I said. Bring it on. What Can You Do in Summer at Blue Mountain Resort? We arrived on a Wednesday in a spell of…