Changing how we (and our kids) look at food

It’s amazing to me how much I take for granted some days. How much my kids do and will take for granted. Here’s a great example – hunger.  My kids will often complain about being hungry, indeed, they may whine that they are starving, that they might not make it until their next meal…you know what kids are like.  ”Mom. I’m staaaaarving….” But the reality is stark when I stop...

Waiting for Easter…with Kinder Canada

Easter brings much excitement to our house as our kids start asking how many days until the Easter bunny will visit.  Suddenly they start remembering details from the years before, and they start getting wiggly about it.  And each day we discuss the details as they remember all we like to do at this time of year. Around these parts, the Easter bunny visits while the kids are fast asleep, filling baskets with treats and...

KINDER Canada, Hot Wheels and Barbie team up

There’s been a new excitement buzzing around our kitchen table lately.  My kids have discovered the latest in KINDER® SURPRISE® fun – eggs that hold surprises from Barbie and Hot Wheels!  Let’s just say they jumped out of their chairs to choose their eggs the day I opened the package. It’s been great fun seeing the new selection of toys, and they’re having fun playing with their new...

Privacy in a social world

Those of us who live with one foot in an online world, and one foot firmly grounded in real life will eventually spend time thinking about privacy. And if you haven’t already, you will now, yes? How do you manage your privacy online? Perhaps you worried about it when first getting online. You guarded your real name, your location, your personal details carefully. Then as time went on, you made connections that turned...

What makes your kids explode?

No matter how smoothly our days run, there are always those moments that make me want to pull my hair out as a parent.  Seriously, my kids can knock me out with their sweetness, their kindness, and their happy hearts.  But some days… There are a few circumstances that are almost always the catalysts when the fur and feathers begin to fly in our house.  I’ll start by telling you what a great day I had yesterday....

Christmas Eve reminders and happy wishes

It’s Christmas Eve! All our planning, shopping, organizing have all come down to this day, like every year before it.  It’s time to sit back, relax, and enjoy.  No more fussing, no more running around.  If it didn’t get done, leave it. I promise with enough love and Christmas spirit in the room, no one will notice what you didn’t finish off. That being said, it would be great to not blow it on the...

Dear Santa…are you ready?

As my kids get older, I notice a difference in how they approach Christmas.  My eight year old son is still fully immersed in the spirit, excited at the prospect of time off school and presents under the tree.  His stocking hangs hopefully in our family room, and I know he can’t wait to see what Santa brings him.  After all, he’s got a few holidays under his belt and knows full well that Christmas morning is...

Giving (and giving back) with Fisher-Price

One of my favourite partnerships this year has been the opportunity to work with Fisher-Price. Yes, the company behind the same toys we all played with as kids are still a leading name in children’s toys today.  I love that I have such long ago memories of their toys, and that I have bought them over the years as baby gifts and for my own children – and today, that they are still coming out with toys that get my...

From darkness into light

On Friday, I couldn’t write.  Saturday, I still wasn’t ready. Today, I am unsure. There aren’t words to make it better.  There aren’t wishes that turn back time. But this space is mine, and I feel that I need to leave room for what I’m feeling here. If all I can do is leave words here, in one of my favourite places, then that is what I will do. I will leave them here for me, for anyone else who...

2012 Giving Guide – Kids and Kinder Canada

I’m wrapping up four weeks of giving posts (did you catch my 2012 Ultimate Giving Guide, along with part two, and part three this year?)  This week I want to talk about all the ways we can encourage our children to help and give at this time of year. We often take the youngest in our families for granted when it comes to charitable giving, but impressions are made early on in our children’s lives.  They take...