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When I Grow Up

When I Grow Up I Want To Be…

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Each year before the kids go off to their first day of school, we take the same picture of them out front of the house, as parents do. We ask them what they think they want to be when they grow up and we write it on the sign and snap the picture. The first couple years we got the standard responses of policewoman, doctor or firefighter, which are excellent choices by the way, but we noticed this past year that the kids are really starting to give the question some thought.

Instead of doctor, our daughter has narrowed down her field of choice to veterinarian, which, judging by the way she takes care of her stuffed animals, is an excellent choice. My son, on the other hand, has bounced between policeman and firefighter the last couple years but this year he too narrowed his choice down to working in forensics, just like daddy, as he put it.

While I realize there is a very good chance that my children will not work in these fields, I’m excited that they are already thinking about what it is they would like to do in the future. I spent a lot of time focusing on sports as a kid and then flaked out in high school, despite my parents encouragement to strive for more. So as I sit here still wondering what I want to do with the rest of my life, I’m hopeful that my kids will continue to dream big and not let anything get in their way. At their young ages there is truly nothing they can’t accomplish and I can’t wait to see what they do with their lives.

I mean, who knows, my daughter might still change her mind back to skateboarding princess, which would be absolutely rad! Plus, if she ever stumbles for career ideas, she can look no further than the Barbie collection she plays with almost every single day. Fun fact: Barbie has had over 155 different careers in her lifetime and although that makes her sound like a terrible employee, I can assure you it’s just because she never ever ages…

Giveaway

To celebrate the new Barbie “You Can Be Anything” campaign, I am giving away a very cool Barbie Prize Pack to one luck reader. Just enter as many options as you would like on the Rafflecopter form below and I’ll select a winner on the weekend! Giveaway is open to residents of Canada, excluding Quebec, and includes the Barbie™ Careers Eye Doctor Playset and two Barbie™ Fashionista dolls. Good Luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, however I do think skateboard princess is the coolest job you could ever hope for!

Mattel Holiday Barbie Hot Wheels

Don’t Panic, Here’s A One Stop Shop For Your Kids Christmas Needs

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If your family is anything like mine, your children are sort of an enigma come holiday season, specifically as it relates to their Christmas lists. This is mostly due to the fact that they literally want EVERYTHING IN EVERY STORE EVER and can’t seem to decide on a theme. We have recently resorted to just taking pictures of the things they ask for with our smartphones and just yesterday I ran out of storage…

The truth is that regardless of how many things they ask for, we know what they actually play with and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mattel had created a new website for the holidays, appropriately called, Mattel Holiday, to help us narrow down the kids lists. With everything from Frozen and Hot Wheels to Monster High and Barbie, the Mattel Holiday site had us covered and even provided to links to the products at a variety of different stores so you don’t have to do any of the work.

We were able to select a couple items for the kids and a couple more for our local Toy Mountain initiative. I love watching the pride in their faces as they drop off the toys for those less fortunate because I know that they are starting to understand that concept and that in turn brings me great pride.

Alright, here’s what’s going to happen next. I am going to give you a sneak peek at what I got for my kids but if you tell them what I got them or if you let them read this blog, we are going to have to sit down and have a little chat. Capiche? Okay, here we go!

Barbie Glam Camper Mattel

The Barbie® Glam Camper™

When I think about the pure excitement that will be coursing through my daughter’s veins when she opens up this Barbie Camper, I get a few goosebumps. You never plan to have a Barbie girl but my daughter latched on to dolls pretty early and here we are. We bought an old used camper a few years back but it was pretty beat up, so I can’t wait to see her face when she tears the wrapping paper off of this one!

Hot Wheels Super Loop Chase Race Mattel

Hot Wheels® Super Loop Chase Race™

I have to say that Hot Wheels have come a long way from my days as a kid. Never did I imagine a time where I would be fastening entire race tracks to the wall to watch creativity and imagination in action. My son is fascinated with throwing all the pieces in a pile and coming up with his own track creations, which is why Hot Wheels is always near the top of my list.

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There you have it! You’ve seen what I have to show you, so if you are looking to make Christmas shopping a little easier this year, I highly encourage you to check out the Mattel Holiday site. Parenting Pro-Tip: Maybe wait until the kids are in bed before doing this or you WILL lose total control of your own computer…

Disclosure: I was allowed to choose a couple Mattel toys in exchange for my participation in this program but I promise not to keep them for myself. I am a grown man and do not play with my children’s toys after they have gone to bed…

My Summertime Reading List and Subliminal Father’s Day Wish List

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#cbias

As a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community, I was asked to pick out a few of my favourite Summer reads from Chapters and share them with you as part of a #cbias campaign. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client, Chapters.

Only in the past few years have I become more interested in the joys of reading. I realize that sounds weird coming from a grown man but I was so into sports and video games that I never really had time for it. Now with kids, age and gravity all changing the way I looked at the world, I decided to try it out and couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on.

I still remember the exact book that dragged me back from my Hardy Boys days and into and new era of appreciation for books. It was Mo Hayder’s “Birdman” and it is a gruesomely amazing detective thriller. The kind that you never want to put down and that wakes you with nightmares so realistic that you’d swear you were living it. I have read all of her books since and was excited to snag one of her newer ones, “Hanging Hill”, on my latest trip to Chapters.

#cbias

Since that first Mo Hayder book, I have been sampling every genre I can think of in order to find a few that fit. As it turns out, I haven’t been able to narrow down the field too much because there are so many incredible titles throughout all genres. If pressured, I could probably cut it down to murder mysteries and biographies but it would be painful to leave the others behind. The biographies have really been growing on me lately, especially after reading “Always Looking Up” by Michael J. Fox and “Home Game” by Michael Lewis.

With Father’s Day just around the corner, I was excited to see that Chapters had dedicated three separate displays to books for Dad. On one of the displays I found what I believe to be a jewel in the rough, so to speak, in Mike Adamick’s “Dad’s Book of Awesome Projects”. I consider myself to be a novice crafter but this book looks to challenge me to step outside of my home made light sabers and to step up my game to the next level of Fatherhood!

#cbias

Not to be outdone, the kids love a good trip to Chapters as well because on top of the incredible play areas they have set up, they know that a book store is the one place where Daddy can’t say no to a new purchase. I’m not saying I bribe them but the promise of new reading material is an excellent way to get them to behave while Daddy shops for his literary needs.

#cbias

I have to admit that I may have gone a little overboard on my latest shopping trip but it’s a long summer and once I’m in the beach chair it’s really hard to convince me to get back out of it. Yeah, I’m kind of lazy, wanna fight about it? Sorry about that. Anyway, here is what my shopping bag full of summer reading looks like. Do you recognize any of these titles?

#cbias

Finally, I imagine that we all have a favourite place to read, whether it be in bed, on a park bench or on the beach, and I am no exception to that rule. There is nothing I love more than heading up to the cottage, grabbing a copy of Barbie’s Princess and the Popstar and curling up on a deck chair with my best gal.

#cbias

We had a great time on our shopping trip to Chapters and you can see everything I checked out, which includes my subliminal Father’s Day Wish List, over on my Google+ page! Also, I’d like to know, do you have a favourite genre, author or book? Give me your suggestions in the comments so I can expand my summer library. Happy Reading, My Friends!

A Fish Called Mater

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My family were always dog people. So much so, that I can’t remember a time from my childhood where there wasn’t a dog running around the house. Before we had kids, my wife and I had a Husky named Bacardi (keep in mind that my wife won that battle,  I wanted to call him Crown Royal). He was a great dog but the amount of hair he left around the house coupled with his hyperactivity and a new baby meant one of the two had to go.

We chose to keep the baby but found an amazing family with a huge yard for Bacardi to play in. It was a tough day for both of us but we know we did the right thing by letting the dog go, he wouldn’t have got the attention he deserved with a baby around. We’ve kept in touch with the family that took him and all is well.

My dear wife, thinking the kids were ready for pets, decided they should each get a pet fish (Daisy and Mater) for their birthdays (which are 2 days apart). I didn’t fight it too hard, after all, how hard can fish be to maintain? The answer to that question came about 2 weeks in, when the first fish, Daisy, suddenly died of natural causes…

As I was starting to panic about how I unprepared I was to have the “death” discussion with the kids, I realized that not only had they not noticed the fish had died, they had forgotten about the fish altogether. Somewhat relieved, I sent Daisy off on a swirly journey to fishy heaven and went about my business.

Later that day, we (read:my wife) decided that we should replace the fish with another one, just in case the kids noticed we were one fish down. Off Daddy went to the pet store to get a replacement fish, to be named Daisy 2. What happened next at the Pet Store was probably one of the most unexpected and humiliating things that’s ever happened to me.

There I was in the fish aisle, looking for Daisy 2, when the small fish “expert” came to see if I needed any help. I explained the situation as delicately as a man could, “stupid fish died, need another stupid fish before the kids notice the last stupid fish is missing”. Apparently my story didn’t jive with the clerk, who laced into a tirade that would have made Ace Ventura proud. It was clear to me why this clerk had been hired by the pet store and it also made me think about how many fish posters this person had plastered throughout their home.

After feigning regret for a few minutes I had found my Daisy 2 and proceeded to the check out, where my fish story had obviously been told and a lecture from the cashier ensued. I wanted to scream, “It’s Just A Fish, Get Over It!!!”, but held my tongue and made my way home to sneak Daisy 2 into her new tank as Daddy the Hero would do.

Just as the kids hadn’t noticed a fish was gone, they also didn’t notice that Daisy had completely changed colours. This turned into a good thing, as Daisy 2’s health didn’t last nearly as long as the year we were told it would. In fact, it lasted about 3 weeks before she too met her fate. It was embarrassing really, to not be able to keep a fish alive for longer than a month! We did everything we were told to but it still didn’t work out for poor Daisy 2.

I decided there was no way I was going back to the pet store for another round of booing and hissing, so we were down to 1 fish and the kids were none the wiser. Eventually my son began to pay attention to the remaining fish and surprisingly never asked what had happened to Daisy 1. He decided the fish’s new name would be Lanny, the lovable elf from Disney’s Prep & Landing movies. About once a month he decides to show the fish some love and asks if he can feed it and he talks to it for awhile.

My daughter still doesn’t bother paying any attention to it, there’s plenty more important things like Barbie and Hide and Seek for her to be bothered by something that just floats in a box and does nothing entertaining. Maybe someday she’ll be interested but I imagine she’ll go straight to wanting a dog judging by the way she reacts around them. But that’s a story for another day.

As for the fish, he must feel completely lost up there on his lonely perch. Not knowing what your name is can be very confusing when you’re trying to meet the lady fish and hes had a lot of them. Here’s a detailed list of all the names I’ve heard called to date: Mater, Lanny, Wayne, Zerby (??? I know), Mater again, Nemo, Flounder, Mater once again and just this morning when I asked my son what my next post should be about, he said it should be about Doc. Based on the post, I imagine you could guess who Doc is…

Do your kids have funny names for their pets? Let me know in the comments section and thanks for reading!!

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Cheers!!