Raise your hand if you’ve watched a weather report and gone back to bed. Or abandoned plans to leave the house when snow began to fall. Canadian winters can be brutal and many of us fall into the trap of staying inside to avoid the elements. Unfortunately, this can result in more screen time and less memory-making family moments.
About to embark on a March Break trip with kids, what makes it into the carryon bags is crucial. We’ve got the swimsuits, the loveys and airplane activities. We’ve got books, flip flops and first aid kits. But one thing I’ve just discovered has been added to the roster of travel essentials for us. The Philips goLITE BLU energy light is a portable light therapy device designed and clinically proven to help increase your energy level naturally and help fight Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), winter blues and jet lag. JET LAG. Do you know what’s worse? KIDS with JET LAG. I know. They’re like a cross between Gremlins and heavy rocks. Here are 7 ideas to combat jetlag in kids so the gremlin thing doesn’t happen.
Eagerly awaiting the spring snow melt and joyous emergence of tulips, many parents are feeling taxed by activities, homeschooling and isolation. We all may be ready for a vacation, but it is also a great time to evaluate the family’s goals. Ours included many ambitious health routines – but over the past weeks there has been a definite downward slide.
Little Alchemy is a HIGHLY addictive and intellectually stimulating game about combining elements to create other elements. It’s like starting out the universe with a petrie dish that includes air, water, earth and fire and combining them so creatively that you end up with beavers, sailboats, lightsabres and jam. As an example, air + fire = energy or E=MC2. You can then use energy combined with wood to make paper.
Remember the old days of air travel when a deck of cards and a few postcards were all that was needed for in-flight entertainment? Travel has changed. Somewhere between forcing passengers to surrender our tweezers and restrict ginormous amounts of liquid in carry-on bags our personal freedom has decreased. Not to worry, though, because our level of freedom with entertainment has actually grown exponentially. We have so many technological-based was to be entertained, counting them can be hard. I get it. I’m totally guilty, which is why I’ve come up with some tech-free airplane activities. For kicks.
Dear Nate –
I know it seems weird to hear from me, your best friend’s mom. Even weirder than the time I sang “Watch Me Whip” in public or came to school in my Griffindor bathrobe. But something happened today, and I didn’t know where else to turn.
Today was a terrible day, Nate. I didn’t know this day would come so soon.
Today there was a hole in the world.
If ONLY this were around when my kids were little. I remember the contortions and broken nails trying to hook up the *9Ghjeu!!!%(* car seats. And even better – when you test drive family vehicles as part of your profession? You have to shift them weekly (along with stale french fries and empty juice boxes). The new Britax Advocate ClickTight Convertible car seat makes me want to have it in the car just because it’s so easy to install. It includes the ClickTight Installation System for the safest and easiest installation in every car, every time. It’s also built for the Canadian as well as the US market. This seat offers three layers of side impact protection, an impact-absorbing base and steel frame for maximum safety.
As a little girl I used to have hot chocolate in a china cocoa set from 1860. The ritual and care required so as not to chip the cups etched the experience on my memory. The hot chocolate was the powder kind and on special occasions, it would contain dehydrated mini marshmallows. You could watch the sugar crystals in the powder as they dissolved. Back then a product was a product and nutritional ‘truths’ were a given. Soup, salad and milk were good for you. Candy was bad, and unless potatoes accompanied your meat, it wasn’t a proper dinner. Eating from the four food groups detailed in Canada’s Food Guide and doing some school ‘particip-action’ would keep you fit.
I’m a happily married woman so I will save you the suspense, I’m not tempted to cheat. Not in a traditional sense anyways. When it comes to my Netflix though, it can be really hard not to. You see, my husband travels a lot and during the day I’m usually busy blogging, raising my boys and doing all the things I love that make life magical. After everyone else goes to bed, however, Netflix beckons.
It’s not every day you meet a guy named Snowy Joey and ski perfect glades wearing a personalised scarf deeming you to be a Babe. But over the Family Day weekend, my family and I did just that.
Explore Mount Baldy – ski over to the Mt. Baldy website for more.
Nestled between Oliver and Osoyoos, B.C., Mt. Baldy is an extinct volcano that looks like a bald guy without a comb over. At 1,722 metres ( 5,650 feet) above sea level, Baldy has the highest base altitude of any ski resort in Canada. With three lifts serving 395 metres (1,293 feet) of vertical, a new racing team, terrain park, snow cross course and robust social event calendar, Baldy is the name being whispered in conversations across the ski community.
