Reviews – Page 2 – Canadian Dad

The King of Laundry Mountain!

April 19, 2017/3 Comments/in Reviews, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

Mostly due to the fact that I am overly passionate about the way I feel the laundry should be done, I have inherited the title of “clothes cleaner” in our house. It’s not a glamourous job but it’s one that I have learned to enjoy doing, also because I believe that chores are an act of love. I am a huge laundry nerd, which we will cover in a future blog post, so deal with it!

Plus there’s really no task that music can’t make more fun and exciting, right? I’ll give you a minute to imagine me folding bed sheets while dancing to Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs”. A couple months ago while working on my t-shirt folding salsa dance, I heard a strange noise coming from our washing machine and knew it was time to say goodbye.

Our previous Whirlpool set served us well for 12 years, so when it was time to purchase new appliances, Whirlpool products were the natural choice. I couldn’t believe the innovative new features that were now available since I was last in the market for a washer and dryer. I guess that sounds ridiculous to say considering how everything seems to change so quickly these days, but it still caught me off guard.

Before I get to the cool features of our new washing machine I have to give a huge shout out to my mom for letting me use their washer/dryer for the couple months that we were without. You have no idea how much laundry you actually go through until you spend 2 weeks watching it pile up into a giant mountain on the floor. I was wearing clothes that hadn’t seen daylight in years, possibly ever, but we got through it and I believe we are a stronger family because of it!

The machine we chose was the Whirlpool 4.8 cu. ft. I.E.C. Front Load Washer with Closet-Depth Fit and two weeks in I am loving it. I think my favourite feature about this model is that it has a 12-Hour FanFresh® option which keeps clothes fresh for up to 12 hours after the wash cycle has ended. A built-in fan activates after the wash cycle is over, tumbling clothes for up to 12 hours so you can finish laundry when you’re ready.

Another awesome feature with the washer is the Load & Go™ system, which lets you skip adding detergent to every load. The Load & Go™ cartridge holds enough detergent to wash up to 12 loads of laundry and with their precision dispense technology you can simply fill it and forget it. You can see all the other features, such as Adaptive Wash Technology and EcoBoost by checking the unit out on the Whirlpool website! These innovations have all been inspired by the way families care for each other so that they can get the job done better and faster.

I’m going to be talking a lot about laundry in the coming months because I feel like it gets a bad rap. Now if you’ll excuse me I just heard the beautiful sound of another load of laundry that needs folding!

Disclosure: I was provided with a new washer/dryer set from Whirlpool, however I reached out to them in the first place because we were so happy with our last Whirlpool set.

Disney’s Moana Review

November 26, 2016/1 Comment/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

I took my daughter to go see Disney’s new feature film, Moana, and we both absolutely loved it! While it may not have the same powerful soundtrack that a movie like Frozen had, Moana was fun and exciting from start to finish while also having an amazing message that even my 6 year old could grasp.

Besides Moana, who is a strong, ambitious and bright young girl, my favourite character was Maui, who is played by The Rock, Dwayne Johnson. His arrogance made for some hilarious scenes but his kindness keeps you rooting for his character throughout the movie. As you will see in the video from our experience, my daughter’s favourite character was Moana’s grandmother who is another bright spot throughout the movie.

The one thing that always strikes me about Disney’s movies is that there always seems to be an underlying message for viewers to think about. Whether it’s a strong political message in a movie like Zootopia, which I was lukewarm about, or the emotional roller coaster that was Inside Out, Disney seems to to want to make more than fluff piece movies that you will forget about in a week or two. Moana was no different as it delivers a strong message about the environment and the effects of taking from the land without giving anything back.

I really hope you get a chance to check out Moana because outside of Big Hero 6, this was my favourite Disney offering in a long time. Yes, I enjoyed Frozen, I am not a monster, but this one had so many great scenes that we will definitely be buying the DVD when it comes out so we can watch it over and over again! Feel free to check out the video I put together of our experience at the screening and I’d love to hear what you thought of Moana once you get a chance to see it!

How To Create The Ultimate Home Theatre Experience

November 6, 2016/1 Comment/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

One of the top items on our holiday list this year was a new TV for our living room as our current model is about 6 years old and the advancements in home entertainment in that time have been beyond anything I could have imagined. Not wanting to make the wrong decision, we worked with Best Buy to set up an appointment with one of their Blue Shirt associates and home entertainment experts, Ryan, and he helped us throughout the process.

I wanted to share some of his tips with you because it was all new to me so I figured there were more of us, less technology savvy, people out there… Honestly, had I not asked for Ryan’s help, we would have walked out of Best Buy with a mishmash of things that don’t belong together. That said, here are some of his top tips for outfitting your home entertainment system!

Good Sound Is Key!

As great as TV technology is these days, if you want a true home theatre experience, you need to up the ante when it comes to sound. I always used to walk right by the sound aisle because I knew I’d be spotted for the fraud I was while pretending to look impressed by it all. Ryan taught me all about the differences and importance of the various components of sound, pointing out that the sound bar was where the magic happens, while the sub woofer played in important role in the projection of bass. I admitted to him that I had received a surround sound set a few years earlier and had no idea what the sub woofer did, so I just left it unplugged next to the TV… Shame.

Obviously, the sound set from Bose was incredible but it was the Sonos system that caught my eye. I liked the ability to purchase pieces as I had money for them as opposed to having to shell out all the money at once. I also liked that you could connect your mobile devices to any of the pieces through wifi so you could play your music from anywhere in the house.

To Make It Great, You Must Calibrate!

That’s right, I said calibration. Let’s just be honest here, I had no idea what this meant as Ryan talked about it until he showed me the difference. You see, when most people see a TV with bright, vibrant colours, they are immediately drawn to it. In most cases, however, you are not watching with the colours or clarity you were intended to see. Best Buy offers a service where the Geek Squad will come to your house, with all their fancy equipment, and calibrate your new TV for you in the room that you are going to place it in.

What this does is sets the colours and clarity around the specific natural lighting that your room contains. Oh, and don’t worry about losing the calibration due to power outages or other errors because the Geek Squad saves your settings and can easily re-calibrate for you!

Miscellaneous Odds & Ends

Here are a few other tidbits of information I got out of my visit to Best Buy!

1. Make sure you measure your living space before purchasing your TV and TV stand. You don’t want to have to worry about these details while you’re in the store and then pick the wrong sized things.
2. Grab a couple extra HDMI cables and a power bar. Do you know how annoying it is to excitedly set everything up only to realize that you need one more cable??? I do…
3. Don’t be afraid of buying open box items. Not only is this one of my secret strategies, but the store clerks also emphasized that open box does not mean faulty. It is almost always because someone returned it without even trying it and you could save major dollars by taking it off their hands!

That’s all for today’s lesson! I hope it proves helpful for you when you are ready to redesign your home entertainment space. Oh, I almost forgot, here is the TV we ended up with!

It’s the Toshiba 49” 4K UHD Smart TV and we can’t wait to get it fired up! I’ve been told that 4K is the wave of the future so I’m excited to see what it brings. I also love the fact that the TV has Google Cast built in to give us easy instant access to apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify!

I highly encourage those of you in the market for a new home entertainment setup to stop into your local Best Buy and ask for one of their experts to walk you through all the options. Thanks to Erin and the Best Buy team for making this such a great experience for us!

Disclosure: I was compensated for my participation in this program but my wife is loving watching The Bachelor on this giant new TV so I am definitely 100% satisfied with my experience!

Schick Yourself & Feel Great About It!

June 14, 2016/15 Comments/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

The truth is that I’ve been tired lately. Working multiple jobs while trying to coach and be there for the kids as they take part in multiple activities. It’s our own fault for letting them try all the sports they wanted to all at once instead of making them choose one or two. My fault or not, it’s still tiring and with that comes sacrifices, some in the form of personal hygiene.

Before you avoid me like the plague, I still bathe, wash my clothes and brush my teeth, most of the time… My beard game, however, has been bordering on Jabba the Slob for the last couple months and I finally decided to take charge! I kept telling myself that I was a trendsetter and that disheveled dad was the new baby face. I wore the uneven patches of gray throughout my facial hair like a badge of honour after winning another battle over whose turn it is to shower next. The hair in my armpits bec…nah, I’m kidding, who cares about that!?

Of course, all of this is ridiculous and really comes down to simply being too lazy to shave. I considered it excellent timing from the folks at Schick that made me realize just how lazy I had become. They asked me to take the new Schick Hydro® 5 razor for a test drive and even invited 50 of you to try it out as well. More on that later, though! The new Schick Hydro® 5 system has an upgraded Hydrating Gel Reservoir which hydrates throughout each shave, a larger Guard Bar for increased skin stretch, and reduced Blade Span to minimize skin bulge which all help to get a smooth shave – all the while with the signature Flip Trimmer for hard-to-reach places. How could I say no??

So, I shaved, and suddenly being clean shaven after months of slobbery felt pretty darn good. Everyone in the house was excited for the change, especially my children who said they were tired of my beard scratching their faces. Who knew that taking some time to clean yourself up could feel so good? Well, I guess a lot of people who do it regularly knew that, but still! Of note, the Schick Hydro® 5 razor did an amazing job! Even with the thick weeds I had growing on my face it never jammed up once, which has been a problem with different razors for me in the past.

How To Get Your Hands On The New Schick Hydro® 5 Disposable Razor

As I mentioned earlier, I am not only giving away the new Schick Hydro® 5 razors for 50 people to review on Amazon.ca, but also an opportunity for one of those 50 people to win a $100 prepaid gift card! Here’s what I need from you to make that happen.

1. This is open to anyone living in Canada, excluding Quebec.
2. To leave a product review, you must have an Amazon.ca account and have purchased an item in the last 6 months.
3. Send an email to me at [email protected] with your Name, Email, Home Address and Phone Number. I will send the 1st fifty people the new Schick Hydro® 5 disposable razor along with instructions on the how to enter the $100 draw.

That’s it! Make sure to get your name in by June 23rd so you don’t miss out!!

*Disclaimer: This program is only open to age of majority residents of Canada (excluding Quebec). To participate, you must have purchased an item on Amazon.ca within the last six months; otherwise, you will be unable to leave a review. All participants will receive a Schick Hydro® 5 disposable razor as featured in this post.” Full Rules Here.

These Boots Are Made For… Everything, Apparently!

May 29, 2016/0 Comments/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

Kids are funny creatures. They are completely opposite from us grown-ups in that they don’t seem to care about things such as fashion, common sense or practicality. Okay, they are unlike ‘most’ of us grown-ups…

My son recently received new Bogs rubber boots from Altitude Sports and I was very excited about it. There’s something special about watching a child splash through puddles in rubber boots. It helps remind us of the freedom we once enjoyed as children to do whatever we pleased. The smiles on their faces as they thrash their way through the rain are enough to tell a thousands stories.

As it turns out, what I saw as a simple and practical pair of puddle jumpers meant something completely different to my son. Sure, he still loves splashing in puddles with them but much like a new pair of running shoes, his new boots came everywhere with us! Without further ado, here is my list, in no particular order, of the strangest things my son used his new rubber boots for.

Baseball Practice

*Jose Bautista also plays in rubber boots! (*Not true)

Street Hockey

Everyone knows rubber boots are best for running…

Jumping on the Bed

Are my kids living the dream, or what?

Soccer

Actually the rubber boots are good for unleashing crazy kicks in this case.

As you can see, my children are just as weird as yours and I couldn’t be happier about it. Having structure is cool but sometimes you just need to throw on a pair of rubber boots and jump on a bed, am I right? Please tell me your kids do this kind of stuff too…

I should also mention that Altitude Sports is a 100% Canadian company and my transactions with them have all been amazing. Their discount website, The Last Hunt, has some incredible deals from brands like Salomon and The North Face and you should definitely check it out if you don’t mind wearing the previous season’s gear.

Don’t forget to visit Altitude Sports at their Facebook and Twitter pages to say hello and to let them know that you support a solid Canadian company!

Why Didn’t You Eat Your Lunch??

May 25, 2016/3 Comments/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

We have asked our children this question on an almost daily basis for this entire school year. I have no idea what it is about the lunches we are packing that repulses the children so much but it seems the one thing we can count on in our house is a less than half eaten lunch when they get home from school.

When prompted about their decisions to neglect their lunches we have received a number of different, yet equally unsatisfying answers, that range from “They didn’t give us enough time!!” to the half-mumbled version of “I don’t know” that sounds kind of like Tarzan’s roar if he were to do it quietly and curtly. It is a frustrating daily exercise that we have tried to fix in a number of ways but still seem to be losing the battle.

Much like the rest of you, we have very active kids who compete in multiple sports and activities. I’m actually at a loss on how to explain to them that they need this food in order to fuel themselves throughout the day, as everything we have tried seems to go in one ear and out the other. Actually, if you guys have any tips, please feel free to share them in the comments because I am all ears! All this said, we have found a few items that the kids will eat no matter how little time their ~~dictators~~, oops, I mean teachers give them.

The latest such items are the new Quaker Chewy® Super Grains granola bars, which were sent to us by Quaker for the kids to try out. In the last week since we have been sending them in the kids lunches, they are the only empty compartment in the lunch bags when they return home and the kids would eat them all in one sitting if I left them out in the open. The things I didn’t tell the kids are the reasons why I am happy they are eating them. The Quaker Chewy® Super Grains granola bars are made in a peanut-free facility and combine super grains like whole grain oats, brown rice, whole wheat, quinoa, sorghum, and barley to deliver 8 g of whole grains, 5 g of protein and 2 g of fibre. Remember the mention of fuel earlier? This is at least some of the fuel they will need to get through their afternoon activities.

I will admit that the lunch time battle is far from over but I will definitely take these small victories as they come. I mean, my kids are enjoying both the Oats & Chocolate and Oats & Honey flavours of the Quaker Chewy® Super Grains granola bars. That’s a win in itself for my picky eaters and we are now one step closer to an empty lunchbox at the end of the day. Now if only we could force them to eat their fruit…

How about you? Do you have picky lunch eaters? How do you deal with it? No, seriously, please help!

Disclosure: I was compensated for my participation in this program but I did in fact have to hide the granola bars because my son is a granola monster who would hide in his room and eat them all in 2 minutes…

A Brief History of the 2016 Dad 2.0 Summit (Now With 10% More Canadians!)

February 22, 2016/1 Comment/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

I spent this past week in Washington, DC taking part in the 5th Dad 2.0 Summit. This being the first Dad 2.0 that I wasn’t speaking at, the first thing I noticed is that my anxiety level had dropped dramatically. Don’t get me wrong, I love speaking at this conference but I get myself so worked up for imminent failure that I can’t let myself relax until I am off the stage, so it was nice to have that calm feeling the whole time. Of note, imminent failure has yet to happen…

The hotel for this year’s event, Mandarin Oriental, was the classiest one to date and this fact became evident to me after my first night there. I drew the short straw on night one and slept on the floor, however the Mandarin provided me with a ton of pillows and comforters to make a bed with. When I entered the room after the cleaners had been by, I noticed that they had remade my makeshift floor bed for me, left me some slippers and folded my previously worn clothes for me. The only thing missing was the towel swan! On top of that, they had what can only be described as the “greatest promo video ever” playing on the television sets in each room. Check the link and I promise you’ll be amazed.

Oddly, one of the highlights of the Dad 2.0 Summit over the years for me has been the unrelated karaoke night that usually happens. Last year in San Francisco was a very light, yet extremely fun, group of people and so I expected this year to be about the same. Imagine my surprise after a couple of us planned the outing to find about 40 people waiting in the lobby, all excited to join us for a night of fun. We laughed, sang and danced, and I’m thankful to everyone who showed up!

There were also a record number of Canadians at the event this year and it was great to see so many of my countrymen and women representing what they do. If you are looking for great Canadian content, here are some links to these fine people! Mike & Andrea Reynolds, Mike Vardy, Justin Connors (also my roommate extraordinaire), Buzz Bishop, Dai “the Moose” Manuel, Andrea Nair, Mike Granek, Matt Clarke, Stewart Reynolds! I’m still buzzing and apologize if I’ve missed anyone. I promise you will be added!

Just a few of the Canadians in attendance at Dad 2.0!

Finally, it isn’t lost on me that the reason I get to attend Dad 2.0 every year is because of the sponsors. I am now going to take a minute to show them some deserved love in the hopes that they continue to want to support fathers from around the globe by sponsoring future conferences. I can’t mention everyone but there were a few that really stood out to me so I’ll give you the bullet points on them.

Not to play favourites but I look forward to the Lee Jeans booth every year and they certainly didn’t disappoint. More than just being able to walk out of the room in a brand new pair of jeans, Lee creates an amazing experience by offering couches, beer, basketball and an amazing staff who take the time to connect with the attendees. Relaxing in the Lee Lounge has become a Dad 2.0 staple.
A new sponsor to the event this year was photo app company, Memory Web. They were so new in fact, that they launched their business just before the summit began. We deal with a lot of PR firms, which is great, but I really thought it was great that the actual owners of the company were there running the booth and their pride in their company shone through in my discussions with them.
I couldn’t talk about Dad 2.0 Summit without giving a great deal of credit to the people at Dove Men+Care. These guys have been title sponsor of the event as long as I’ve been attending and they bring it to a new level each and every year! Outside of the amazing barbershop they set up each year, they sponsor meals, speakers and create a mad rush for the tons of product they bring each year. On top of all that, they truly respect and understand the importance of good fathers and that is evident not just at the conference but also in the work they do with the dad community throughout the year.
Best Buy took us out on a wicked drone experience in the Virginia countryside and the laughs on the bus ride alone would have been worth the trip.
The LEGO night out at the Smithsonian was outstanding and the interactive games they had planned at the event made it a night to remember! You are looking at one third of the LEGO Duplo Bridge Building Competition champions, baby! Getting the whole room to belt out “Oh Canada” was a career highlight for me, too! They also have some great stuff coming down the pipe for dads so keep your eye out for that!
KIA added a new wrinkle to their test drives this year by offering professional headshots and the lineup was 6-7 deep at all times, proving that we all want to be made to look pretty!
Meta Wellness brought Michael Strahan to the event. Enough said! (They also had an awesome snack bar that I frequented on a “regular” basis. Get it??)
In the “memorable moments” category, the folks at Kidde Fire Safety had one of the more interactive displays as they allowed us to compete in a firefighter challenge to see who could get geared up from head to toe the fastest. If you want to see me struggle with this challenge you can head over to the HowToBeADad Facebook video…

There were so many more great sponsors, which you can find on the Dad 2.0 Sponsor Page, but these are the moments that stuck with me.

My Professional Shots from KIA

I’ve decided to split my recap into two posts so that I can talk about my personal takeaways, and there were many, separately. For those of you reading this who were or are on the fence about attending the Dad 2.0 Summit, not only is it excellent for meeting the people in the dad community and also for personal growth and development, but the connections you make here are invaluable.

Thank you to Doug French, John Pacini and the rest of the Dad 2.0 team for another excellent event!

Canadian Dad’s 2015 Holiday Gift Guide ~ Kids Edition!

November 26, 2015/3 Comments/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

Welcome to the 2015 edition of the Canadian Dad Holiday Gift Guide! This guide is all things that my kids have put on their Christmas lists and I’m excited to share them with you! Please take a look at what’s hot in their eyes this year and feel free to leave your child’s wish list in the comments section. Happy Holidays!!

Furreal Friends Daisy Plays-With-Me Kitty

My daughter is obsessed with Hasbro’s Furreal Friends at the moment. She walks her Furreal dog more than most people walk real dogs and I’m guessing the Daisy Plays With Me Kitty will be no different.

You can grab your very own Furreal Friend by visiting Toys R Us!

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Playmation Marvel Avengers Starter Pack

It would be a lie to say that I am not as excited as my son is about Disney’s Playmation. This is the closest we will ever get to becoming actual superheroes and that’s more than good for us! Power Activators bring missions to life with over 20 different enemies so you can fight along side your favourite Avengers!

For more information on the Playmation Marvel Avengers Starter Pack, visit Hasbro’s Website!
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LEGO Creator Toy & Grocery Shop

LEGO just feels like a childhood rite of passage, doesn’t it? Both of my kids spend hours creating the most amazing things and take special pride in the creations they come up with in their own heads. That said, it’s always nice to start with a fresh set and my daughter has asked us for this LEGO Creator Toy & Grocery Shop so her LEGO Friends have somewhere to buy food…
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LEGO Ninjago Ronin R.E.X.

Back to LEGO for a minute, my son and his friends love LEGO Ninjago so much that they’ve even started to play it outside with the actual LEGO. They each pretend to be a character and run around the yard completing missions. My son’s favourite character, Kai, is a part of this very cool LEGO Ninjago Ronin R.E.X. set he has asked for this Christmas.
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Maplelea Sparkling Ice Taryn

My daughter’s Maplelea doll, Taryn, may just be her favourite thing on the planet right now. She brings it everywhere she goes and treats it as if it is her own child, which is really fun to watch. This year she has asked us for some new outfits and seeing as how she is just learning to skate, we got her the Sparkling Ice outfit, which comes with the dress, tights, scrunchie, skates, skating bag and more. She is seriously going to flip out when she opens it!

Visit Maplelea’s Website for more information
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My Amazing Penpal

This one is one of the more unique things you will find this year and my kids have loved it so far! Your kids get a new package every month and it leads them on adventures through various countries where they’ll learn about its traditions, foods, animals and much more! My kids also love the online games available with their memberships.

Visit the My Amazing Penpal Website for details!
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Monster High 17 Inch Tall Freak Du Chic Gooliope Jellington

Where was Monster High when I was a kid? This is my daughter’s newest love and I can’t say I’m upset about it. Just look at Goolliope Jellington for instance. She is a circus orphan that oozes, literally, chic! The best part is that my daughter lets me be more creative with Monster High than she does with her less undead doll collections…

Check out the entire collection over on Mattel’s Website!
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Kidizoom Action Cam

Probably the gift I am most excited to give my kids this year is the Kidizoom Action Cam from Vtech. My kids love making videos and while my old digital camera has been great for them, this action cam is going to open so many possibilities for them and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. Just picture seeing what your kid sees while playing hockey or even just playing outside with their friends. It’s going to be a blast!

For more info on the Kidizoom Action Cam visit the Vtech Canada Website
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New PLAYMOBIL NHL Hockey Theme

We are officially a hockey crazy house so anytime I can get my hands on NHL licensed toys that will actually get played with, I jump at the chance. Playmobil’s new hockey themed arena lets my son imagine that he is in the NHL and winning the Stanley Cup as the Montreal Canadiens! What? It’s going to happen eventually! Anyway, this promises to provide hours and hours of hockey fun!

Check out the Playmobil Website for products, colouring sheets and online games!
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Sphero Darkside Ollie

If you haven’t seen a Sphero toy in action yet you should go check it out right now. These tiny machines are controlled by you on your smartphone or tablet and have a ton of tricks that you can make them do. I like to call toys like these “friend-makers” because all the kids will gather around when your child plays with Ollie.

For more info and demo videos, check out the Sphero Website
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Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Pack

We’ve been huge Skylanders fans in this house since before Skylanders was cool! Adding vehicles into the mix has brought the game to a new level for my son and he hasn’t stopped playing it since getting it for his birthday. Now if only someone could explain to me how Kaos keeps getting away…

Check out the Skylanders SuperChargers Website for more info!

That’s it for this year’s edition of the holiday gift guide! Please feel free to share in the comments what your kids are asking for this year. It never hurts to have a few more ideas under your cap!

Disclosure: I received a few of the items in this gift guide but all items included are things my children have actually asked for this year.

Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey. Hockey All The Time!

October 13, 2015/0 Comments/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

I’m not exactly sure when it happened but my son went from lukewarm about playing hockey to being an absolute monster who eats, sleeps and breathes the hockey life. I made a promise to myself that I would not push him to do anything he doesn’t want to do as far as hobbies go but if I’m being completely honest, I am so excited that he loves hockey so much.

I’m not just talking about playing ice hockey, either. This kid loves watching it on TV, playing road hockey in our free moments, mini sticks in the basement, practicing his shooting and possibly my favourite of his addictions, collecting hockey cards and stickers! No, seriously, I have a collecting problem that might actually need professional help…

There’s something about the fraternity of hockey that I can’t help but love. I love the smells associated with hockey. Yes, even the stinky hockey bag smell. I love that I get to lace up my skates next to my son and take to the ice with him. I love watching the kids grow and develop their skills. I love knowing that I may have had a small part in their development. I love watching the little puffs of breath in the air after a hard fought shift. I love hockey so much that I don’t even mind getting up at 4:30 in the morning for the 6am practices. You know, within reason.

Now that I am a grown man with a job and his own money, there is something else I love about hockey season. Shopping for hockey stuff! With last season being my son’s first in hockey, we opted to go with used skates in case he decided that he didn’t like it. In retrospect, that was probably a bad idea because the skates were fitted to someone else’s feet and he never really grew into them. This year we went all out and grabbed him some brand new form fitted Bauer Vapor X900’s from Sport Chek and the difference has already been night and day from last year. Just look at his concentration above!

A funny thing happened that day at Sport Chek. The goal was get in, get skates and get out, but that is not exactly how it ended up going down… You see, my wife saw the FitBit Charge and snuck it into the shopping cart. I can’t claim innocence either as I used my new found title of assistant coach as reason to purchase a brand new coaches tracksuit. But I mean, c’mon, it was worth it, right? My scratch and save card says yes!

Here’s hoping you all have a wonderful hockey season!! Don’t forget to pop in to Sport Chek to check out their awesome hockey selection! You can also visit them on Facebook and Twitter for more contests and great deals!

Looking all coach like with my new Under Armour threads from Sport Chek.

Disclosure: I was compensated for my participation in this program, however I did in fact spend it all in a single trip to Sport Chek. But man do I look good now!

Back To School Also Means Back To Fitness

September 28, 2015/1 Comment/in Reviews, Reviews/Giveaways, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

This is a tough thing to admit but I tend to make a lot of excuses when it comes to my health and well being. No matter how often I think about being active, I always seem to have an excellent reason to do the exact opposite of that. Take this past year, for instance. I was working out at my local GoodLife Fitness at least 4 times a week and started training for my first 5K in the Canada Army Run. How many times do you think I’ve gone running from that day to about a week ago, almost a full year later? Zero! That’s right, in some twisted trick that my brain played on me, I had completed my goal and therefore had nothing left to prove. Even my time at GoodLife has been reduced to once a week, which is completed unacceptable.

Now that the kids are back in school and I have realized just how many hours there are in the day, I have decided to pick myself up off the couch and get my butt moving again. I figure one of these days it’s going to click, so as many times as I get off track I think it’s equally as important to keep fighting for consistency in my exercise regimen. I also decided that I couldn’t keep running in the discount running shoes I had been using, so I turned to Sport Chek for some assistance and decided on the Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 32 running shoes. Between the sole support and the mesh uppers, these shoes make it feel like I am running on top of clouds. Look at them up there in all their orange glory!

Just so you don’t think I’m a selfish monster, I also let my wife and kids pick out some new shoes. Besides, back to school seems like a special enough occasion to warrant some shiny new kicks, right? That and the fact that my kids have been running with me to keep me motivated. My wife, who has also been joining me on this exercising adventure, went with the Nike LunarGlide 7 women’s running shoes and I could tell by the spring in her step that she made the right decision. The kids? Well, my daughter saw the Skechers Twinkle Toes shoes, glittery with light up ability, and practically started shaking with excitement. My son chose the Under Armour Micro-G Velocity shoes because of the colour… Kids, am I right? I told both children that they could pose any way they would like to show off their new shoes and, go figure, they both decided to wear the shoes on their hands instead of their feet. Again, kids.

Under Armour Mirco-G Velocity Kids’ Grade-School Running Shoes

Skechers Twinkle Toes Sport Chek

And there you have it. I have now successfully run 5 times in the last two weeks and I am starting to get that confidence back in my stride. Here’s hoping it sticks around but as you all know, I won’t be afraid to admit it if I get knocked down again. I would also like to say thanks to Sport Chek for helping me select my awesome new running shoes. I expected the price to be obscene and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was going to cost me an arm and a leg for excellent quality equipment. You can find out more about what’s happening at Sport Chek by checking out their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Disclosure: I was compensated for my participation in this program, however I did in fact fall off the health wagon again and the shoes really do feel like what I imagine clouds to feel like.