Posts

Disney On Ice Delivers Again!

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Let’s face it, having children can get pretty expensive, which means that we have to choose our activities and events wisely. After attending Disney on Ice’s “100 Years of Magic” event at the Canadian Tire Centre last night, I can say with complete certainty that it is worth the price of admission for my family. It sounds cliche to praise Disney but between the light displays and the non stop action in their stories, they really know how to put on an amazing show that a whole family can enjoy.

From my son screaming, “Stitch, Stitch!!!”, in my ear, to my daughter’s excited squeals at seeing all of her favourite princesses, there was never a dull moment for the entire two hours of the show. Admittedly, I spent more time watching the wonder in my children’s eyes than I did the show, but seeing their joy alone was completely worth it. On the adult front, my wife and I both agreed that the production of Mulan’s story completely stole the show and had me drawn in as if I were watching a Broadway play. It’s really tough to explain how good the quality of the production is without you watching it yourself but I promise you that you will be amazed.

One of the other cool things about these shows is that I’ve had the opportunity to get to know a few of the cast members and have come to find out that they are all fascinating people in their own unique ways. You may remember a few weeks ago, I interviewed cast member, Matthew McLean, and this week I had the chance to chat with Kirstie Nelson, who also taught me how to do the ever popular, “Twizzle”, of Olympic fame. Kirstie’s bio blew me away by how diverse she is and because we had major audio issues with the audio during filming, I just wanted to point out a few of her many talents. She is a surfer, hair stylist, figure skating champion, yoga instructor, who also happened to graduate University with a degree in chemical engineering. Yes, I felt like an incredibly lazy human being after reading all of that. Anyway, I have attached our interview below and even though you may not be able to hear the whole thing, you can always skip to the end to watch my incredible Twizzles!!!

Thanks to Feld Entertainment and Canadian Tire Centre for facilitating the interview and I offer my sincere apologies for the technical issues with our sound. On the bright side, guess who just purchased a bunch of new sound equipment… Also, the Ottawa show runs until Sunday Feb 23rd, so there’s still time to see the show! You can buy tickets RIGHT HERE!

Disney on Ice cast

18 More Sleeps

/10 Comments/in , /by

“18 more sleeps until Disney!”, the kids shouted with glee. That’s how early the countdown began. That’s how soon the magic starts to flow through your veins. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling it too, even though I worked hard at containing my excitement. At 35 years old, 18 days of uncontrolled excitement can cause burnout.

The trip didn’t get off to the magical start we had anticipated but a stranger on a plane helped restore our faith that all would be fine. Upon landing in Disney, because explaining the difference between Disney and Florida to a three year old is almost impossible, the kids loaded up on pixie dust while the grown ups focused on grown up things. Magical bags needed to be collected from the magical conveyor belt and children needed to be reigned in so they wouldn’t fly away in the busy airport.

The planning for this trip had been meticulously drawn out by the missus, down to the very last ride. Rain, however, was not on the agenda. In any other place on earth, rain would be a deal breaker. But not at Disney World. Not on this trip. Our smiles were as bright as ever as we crossed through the gates and into paradise, ponchos and all. The kids gripped their autograph books tight as the first character, Jake the Pirate, approached our breakfast table. Overwhelmed with excitement, my normally reserved young boy leaped from his seat and hugged Jake as tightly as he had ever hugged one of us. That was the magic of Disney.

There were many more hugs and smiles throughout the weekend. Some for us, but the most enthusiastic ones reserved for the characters they have grown up watching, which was more than fine by me. The magic was there for me too, just in a different place. Instead of the exhilaration of meeting the characters, my joy came in the form of watching the excitement on my children’s faces as they discovered a world they had only dreamed about. They were my Disney and I cherished every excited squeal they belted out.

There were more magical moments than I could count, from tears during Fantasmic to our emotional meeting with Mickey Mouse. The one that stands out to me, though, is when my three year old daughter snuggled up to me on our last day and said, “I love you more than Disney”. Impossible, but I’ll take it.

Buzz Woody

How I Became Known as Prince Chris

/0 Comments/in , /by

It was this year’s Santa Claus Parade where it was made official. As the amazing staff from Official Princess Parties drew closer to us, my daughter lit up with the joy of a child whose magical belief of princesses always makes me think back to my youth. As they often do, the princesses spotted her, waved, called her name and made her feel like the most special child in the world.

Something different happened this time though.

One of the princesses, Ariel, if you’re keeping track, looked over and said “Hello, Prince Chris”, to which my friends immediately shot my a sideways glance. I’m not sure whether it was because of the fact that she knew my name or the fact that my wife had little to no reaction to the shout out, but I think I managed to explain it to them in a way that didn’t make me look creepy. I won’t go through that process with all of you, instead opting to link to a few times I’ve run in to the amazing princesses from this company, such as Here, Here and Here, plus countless others at smaller events.

Now that I have officially been dubbed, Prince Chris, I feel like I will fit in a lot better at this year’s Official Princess Parties “Royal Ball” on Feb 23rd. I’ve been spending the last few months practicing my royal dance moves and trying to eat properly so the food doesn’t end up on my shirt. It’s a work in progress… Aaaaanyway, I hope to see you at the Royal Ball on Feb 23rd, and don’t worry, it is not necessary to kiss my royal hand. It’s more of a mandatory thing.

Prince Chris, signing off.

Official Princess Royal Ball

Why Simply Shop When You Could ShopWise?

/2 Comments/in , , /by

In case you hadn’t noticed, I am a guy, and as such I am held to a certain standard of cluelessness when it comes to holiday shopping. Well it just so happens that I am smarter than the average bear and located the ShopWise app on my iPhone last week. I am always a little skeptical about apps that are supposed to make shopping easier but I knew from the first featured special that we were a match!

ShopWise Chips

For some background, the ShopWise app, which is offered for free by the Yellow Pages Group, was designed as an everyday shopping app to save you time and money. The app is free to download and ShopWise also just launched their new version 2.0 here in Canada. I figured the app would be good for Christmas shopping only but I have been using it all over the place for everything from restaurants to kid’s clothes. My favourite feature has to be the interactive map that shows you all the deals in the area you are actually in at that moment. It’s genius, and also a little dangerous in the sense that there always seems to be a Dairy Queen in there…

ShopWise Map

On to the shopping portion of the app! We had decided to get our son a scooter for Christmas this year but hadn’t found the right deal yet. Low and behold, two days into my new app adventure, I saw this amazing 40% deal on scooters at Toys R Us! I had never felt more like a bargain hunter and it got me itching to see what else I could save on.

ShopWise Scooter

For my next trick, I got a little fancy and decided to search the word, Disney, to see what would happen. I never got past the first featured item because it was an incredible deal on overstock Halloween decorations, and because that holiday happens every year, the decorations are pretty much always good, in my mind at least. Not to mention that smaller things are great stocking stuffers because the kids love everything Disney!

ShopWise Disney

Last but not least, the toughest person to shop for on my Christmas list, my wife. She is not the best at getting me a detailed list, so I am usually in charge of picking out my own gifts for her. With the ShopWise app, I simply went to the Find button, hit Apparel, and voila, I had two options right in front of me. The one I think she needs and the one she probably wants. I’ll let you figure out which is which.

ShopWise Clothes

Did I mention that the ShopWise app is free?? There’s really no reason for you to NOT check this out and I’m telling you that you will find it incredibly useful. The ShopWise app is available in the iTunes store, on Android and also for Blackberry.

If all that wasn’t enough, if you own an iPhone or an iPad, ShopWise is giving away a $100 prepaid shopping card to one of you just before the holidays! Simply download the ShopWise app and fill out the form with your email address in the “Help” section of the app. Then you can enter the giveaway using the form below. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This post was
and I received compensation for my opinions on this product.

Disney Infinity ~ Review

/1 Comment/in , , /by

As someone who has played video games for his entire life, I have been salivating over the release of Disney Infinity since it was first announced. We finally got our hands on a copy and, not to ruin the suspense, my son loved it!

I’m not going to lie, we were so excited to open it up and start playing, that I took zero pictures of the experience. Watching my kids’ faces light up as they watched the intro video would have been enough for me to recommend the game to people and we hadn’t even played it yet. They just stared in amazement as all their favourite characters appeared on the screen and it reminded me of the magic that Disney brings into our lives.

My son is only five, so it took him a little longer to figure out the buttons and object of the game but by the second time he played, he was a seasoned pro. The thing I like most about this game compared to most others is that it allows kids to explore lands and teaches them to figure out situations by themselves, without the fear of their character dying before they have a chance to solve a problem.

Obviously the other benefit, and slight detraction as a parent, is that you can purchase all of their favourite characters, which all do different things. The detraction, obviously, is the cost of new characters for the parents. Birthdays and Christmas are an easy way to counteract the hit on your wallet and this game is totally worth the investment, in my opinion.

Oh, and yes, I let my kids play video games, especially when they can play something like this game that opens up their imagination and let’s them create whatever they want. We set specific times and lengths that they can play and it works well for us.

There you have it, Disney Infinity is an excellent alternative to all the good vs evil games out there and will open up your child’s creativity in an amazing way. Now if you’ll excuse me, there are new characters coming out in a week and I need to check the couch for spare change…

Disclosure: A copy of the game was provided to me to facilitate this review.

My Day With The Cast Of Disney On Ice

/61 Comments/in /by

Disney on Ice2

When I pitched the idea of me skating with the cast of Disney on Ice, I was only half joking. In my mind, there was no way they were going to take time out of their busy touring schedule to let me do this. As it turns out, the joke was on me when they gladly accepted my offer.

So, after a rigorous hunt for a videographer, I set out to Scotiabank Place at 6am on a Friday morning and had my opportunity in the Disney on Ice spotlight. After attending the amazing show with my family the night before, I was more nervous than I had been in a long time. Even as I left the arena that day, I still hadn’t processed how awesome the experience was. That was, until I saw the video that Algonquin College student and life saver, Troy Baker, had put together for me.

This was my first experience with live interviewing someone and also with creating my own video and I’m proud as heck at how everything turned out. I want to say a huge, huge thank you to everyone at Scotiabank Place and Feld Entertainment for helping facilitate my request. I also want to thank Whitney Thomas and the rest of the cast from Disney on Ice for being so friendly and welcoming, even though I made them wake up very early to watch me humiliate myself. Finally, thanks to Troy Baker for stepping in and shooting and editing all the footage, you saved the day, man! I realize that life changing sounds like an exaggeration but that’s exactly what it was in a lot of ways and I am very grateful to have had the experience.

Without further ado, here is a quick recap video of my day with the cast of Disney on Ice. The show was amazing as well and I highly recommend checking it out! Enjoy!

Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Hits Stores March 5th

/3 Comments/in , , /by

Wreck It Ralph DVD

To say I am excited would be an understatement. When Wreck-It Ralph first came to theaters, I was first in line to take my son. Did I push a few people out of the way to get there? Maybe. What do you want from me? I was really excited to see this movie and it certainly did not disappoint! In fact, I think I even let out a slightly angered, “No!”, when Brave won the Oscar for best animated feature over Wreck-It Ralph. Love you, Merida, but Ralph was awesome!

It was the idea behind Wreck-It Ralph that drew me in. I loved the concept of the video game characters coming to life after the arcades closed down. Travelling through the power cords to Game Central Station is pure genius, and mixing old and new characters was enough to keep parents and kids excited about who they would see next. My son loves Sonic the Hedgehog and even though he is only in the movie for about 3 seconds, it’s one of his favourite moments.

Check out this clip from Wreck-It Ralph and make sure that you get out there and grab your copy of the DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack on March 5th! I promise you won’t be disappointed as this movie has a little something for everybody. There are a couple scary parts but my 2yo daughter got through it without getting upset, so I’m pretty confident in saying that it is for all ages.

The Combo Pack also includes some great behind the scenes footage and interviews, plus you get the Academy Award winning short, Paperman, which was better than a lot of full length movies that came out last year! I wanted to leave you with my family’s thoughts on Wreck-It Ralph in a 6 second Vine video! Remember, March 5th, go get it!

Cheers!

Disclosure: I received a copy of the Wreck-It Ralph Combo pack in order to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.

Phineas & Ferb: Animal Agents DVD Giveaway {Canada}

/44 Comments/in , , /by

Perry Files

Hi. My name is Chris and I am addicted to Phineas & Ferb. There, I said it. Since the moment I got my first taste of this show I have been hooked. My house is littered with action figures, DVD’s, stuffed animal and even Phineas & Ferb cutlery. What can I say, I believe that this is the perfect animated show for children and adults alike.

My kids agree as well, having logged more hours on this show than any other. You know Disney is on to something when the kids select a DVD of Phineas & Ferb episodes instead of an actual movie on movie night. I was really excited to find out that Disney was releasing a new “Perry Files” DVD, not only because I love the show but also because Agent P and Dr. Doofenshmirtz have quickly become my favourites. Here is some info about the new DVD, which is available at your local retailer starting today, February 26th!

Phineas & Ferb: Animal Agents

How well do you really know your pet…or ANY animal? Behind a cute and/or cuddly exterior there may lurk a cunning crime-fighter with a brown fedora, a top-secret identity and a license to thrill! Meet the heroic Animal Agents of the O.W.C.A. (Organization Without A Cool Acronym).

Join Perry the Platypus – a.k.a. Agent P – and his fellow operatives as they team up to thwart Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his dastardly “Inators.” Be they furry or feathered, scaly or slimy, these fearless agents roll over for nobody when it comes to crushing evil in the Tri-State Area and beyond. Fully loaded with over two hours of animal-themed adventures, including the exciting, two-part Phineas And Ferb cliffhanger “Where’s Perry?”, this fun-filled, action-packed laughfest will drive you wild!

DVD Giveaway!

I’m so happy to be able to provide a copy of this new “Perry Files” DVD to one of my readers. All you have to do to enter is Leave a Comment Below telling me who your favourite Phineas & Ferb character is. It’s as easy as that! This contest is open to residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) and closes at midnight on Thursday, March 7th. Good Luck!

A Great Giveaway from Sports Posters Warehouse {CAN/US}

/53 Comments/in , , /by

Sports Poster Warehouse

Let’s get something straight. Just because I lost my man cave to a daycare, that doesn’t mean I can’t have nice things. To me, nice things, is code for sports memorabilia. For as long as I can remember, I have been a collector of things. Not just sporty items either. I’ve collected bottle caps, stamps, match packets, coasters, shot glasses and even rocks at one point, although the rock phase only lasted until I stepped on one for the first time.

That’s why I was excited to get an email from Sports Poster Warehouse about some promotions they were running. I dove right into their site and immediately got a rush of excitement thinking about how all of those posters would look in my basement. I mean, what sports nut wouldn’t want these lining their walls?

Canadiens CupNotre Dame Irish

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the cool things about Sports Poster Warehouse is that it’s not just about sports. They have everything from Motivational posters to very cool Disney stuff for the kids. Funny, now that I’m a parent, I find myself gravitating to anything that has a picture of a cartoon on it. Maybe that’s just me though… Check out some of these cool non-sports posters:

Disney AlphabetBeatles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is so much more to pick from that I couldn’t possibly list every type of poster and pennant they carry. You’ll have to go check it out for yourself to find out what I’m talking about. And that brings me to my next point. The fine people at Sports Poster Warehouse have agreed to let me give away one of their amazing posters (up to $40 value) to you guys.

All you have to do to enter is visit their website, Right Here, and then come back here and leave me a comment letting me know which poster you would like to win. Pretty easy, right? Contest is open to residents of Canada and the US (excluding Quebec) and will close on Sunday, February 24th at midnight.

You can also find Sports Poster Warehouse on Twitter, @SportsPosters, and also on Facebook at Sports Poster Warehouse. And if you aren’t the winner, you can still order from Sports Poster Warehouse and get 10% off with this discount code: DAD-10 (expires 2/28).

Good Luck!!

Just a quick update that the winner is entry #2 – Amy. Congrats!!

Deeder Dodder Date: Princess Edition

/13 Comments/in , /by

Daddy Daughter Date

“Daddy, is tomorrow Deeder Dodder Day?” she asked.

“You bet, honey!” I answered.

“Yay!!!” she squealed excitedly.

If I could have frozen that moment forever, I would have. You see, “Deeder Dodder Day” is actually my 2 year old daughter’s way of saying “Daddy Daughter Date“, and to see how excited she was to be hanging out with me was enough to swell my heart with pride.

When I asked my daughter out on the date a few days before this exchange, I had just secured tickets to the Official Princess Parties “Royal Ball” and I knew she would love it. My only concern was whether she would say yes or not! Luckily for me, she said yes and I was able to keep the event a surprise until the big day came. I had been eyeing this event ever since our chance run in with an awesome Snow White earlier in the year. The fact that we had met Rapunzel and Minnie Mouse at later events were icing on the cake. Knowing that the proceeds were going to the Children’s Wish Foundation and that these particular characters were going to be there were just added bonuses.

Snow WhiteSnow White Belle

 

 

 

 

 

The magical day arrived and we were off to meet our favourite Disney characters. It’s hard to pinpoint my favourite part of the afternoon because there were so many. From seeing my daughter’s face light up as we were greeted in the parking lot by Mickey Mouse, to the moment the princesses were introduced, the entire event was amazing and well put together. They had a candy bar, nail painting and lots of interactive things for the little kids to do with the princesses (and two princes). Oh yeah, did I mention the chocolate fountain?? That one was for Daddy.

I loved watching the emotions that ran through my little girl’s brain that day. She was excited at times and shy at others. She participated in all the activities, even though she was the smallest one there by quite a bit. We danced, sang, ate candy and laughed the whole time. We had pure unfiltered fun and it was a perfect afternoon.

I want to say a great big Thank You to all the wonderful employees and characters at Official Princess Parties. You made a wonderful impression on my daughter and gave us a Deeder Dodder Date that we will remember forever.

PS – Funny story. While we were talking to Rapunzel, I brought up that my daughter had asked to have a princess birthday party. She had asked for a Rapunzel party at home but when Rapunzel herself asked, my daughter said she wanted an Ariel party…awkward. If Rapunzel is reading this, as soon as we got in the car, she again asked for a Rapunzel party. Followed by a Snow White Party. Followed by a Belle party…No hard feelings??

Cheers!

Princesses