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A Great Giveaway From @TagAlongToys in #Ottawa!

If you have kids and live in the Ottawa area, you have no doubt heard of Tag Along Toys. If you haven’t, I encourage you to finish reading this post and then proceed immediately to 499 Terry Fox Dr in Kanata so you can experience the joy that is toy shopping there!

Store owner, Patti, is one of those people that draw you in with her kindness. The first time I brought my kids in there, she welcomed them and treated them as if they were one of her own. My son then played with her son for about 30 minutes while we chatted. It was an experience that makes you want to come back in to the store everyday.

Patti has agreed to allow me to give away a couple great toys to my Ottawa readers and I couldn’t be happier. Even more happy about it were my children, who got to pick out one toy each to review for the store.

We landed on a Make Your Own Paper Airplane Set for him and a Make Your Own Sock Puppet set for her. Oddly enough, both sets were from the brand Creativity for kids and I couldn’t have been more happy with their choices. They were so excited that we did both of the when we got home that day!

My son was up first and we had a blast making paper airplanes all together. Here’s the proof!

Next up was the puppeteer! I could post a million pictures of how that went down but I find that videos always work best! Enjoy the amazing JubeJubes!

And there you have it! The kids loved both toys and now I have a chance to award one of my Ottawa readers with both of these great and creative items! All you have to do is leave me a comment below with your child’s “Must Have” toy for this year.

Simple as that! Contest closes Monday, October 8th at noon and is open to residents of the Ottawa Valley and you must be willing to go to the Tag Along Toys store to pick them up. In the meantime, I encourage you to stop in to the store anyway or you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook. I promise, you won’t be disappointed with their social media presence because it’s where I became a huge fan!

Good Luck! Cheers!!

CDN Spotlight: Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Unveils Blog

Ben Franklin has been quoted as having said, “In the world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” While I don’t want to be the one to disagree with the great Mr. Franklin, I do have one more thing to add to his list of certainties.

That addition would be the certainty that you can trust the caring people at Ottawa’s, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, to take the best possible care of your children while they are there. I speak from personal experience, not only as a father but also as a former patient. The people at CHEO have never been anything but extraordinary each and every time I have had to take my little one’s in there.

Both my children screened for Biotinidase Defficiency at birth, so my wife and I have spent many hours in the Genetics department at CHEO, worrying about the effects it will have on our children. It takes a special kind of person to work in a children’s hospital and it’s evident from our time spent there that all the staff at CHEO have that special something to make parents and children feel at ease.

I’ve been starting to realize lately, that people are actually listening to the things I have say. With this realization came an opportunity to use that voice to do some good and that’s fully what I intend on doing. When I contacted CHEO a month ago to see if I could help out in any way, I was excited to hear that they were starting a blog. I mean, what better way to help that to do for them what I have already been doing for the past 7 months!

They even let me help out with the design of the site by running ideas by me and actually listening to my input, which was a surreal time for me. You’ll see the results of my efforts throughout the site and also on the main banner, as what started as CHEO Moms has now become something that all parents (Dads included) can be proud to be a part of. There are even 3 Dads on the Featured Bloggers list, which is amazing!

Without any further ado, I am proud to present to you, my first post as a member of the CHEO parenting blogger team! I wrote about my CHEO experience as a father and hope you’ll stop by to say hi.

I hope you’ll bookmark CHEO’s new blog as has some amazing writers working on it and promises to be an invaluable resource for parents. I’m so proud to be a part of the CHEO team and can’t wait to read more from everybody involved!

You can access the blog by visiting CheoMoms.com OR CheoDads.com ;D You can also connect with CHEO on Twitter @CheoHospital and on the Main CHEO site.

Cheers!

Canadian Spotlight: Elizabeth Manley

Another week, another new feature on the blog! This one sort of came out of the blue though. If you’ve talked to me since I began blogging, you’ll know that I have a love for Twitter. After all, it was Twitter that helped me convince Jann Arden to call my wife on her birthday this year.

Imagine my surprise this week, when I ended up in another conversation with Canada’s Sweetheart, the one and only Elizabeth Manley. Her Twitter handle is @Lizmanley88 by the way. You should follow her now and say hi for me. She was incredibly friendly and I decided to abuse that friendliness by asking her if she would let me feature her on the blog. You would have done the same so don’t judge!

It’s not often that you get a chance to talk to an Olympic Hero and I think it’s important that we don’t lose touch with them either. Besides that, Liz (I hope I can call you Liz, we never really discussed it) has been up to some great things in her post-Olympic career and I think it’s worth sharing.

Let’s start with a quick Elizabeth Manley recap for my American friends, because all Canadians should already know this stuff… 😉

Liz is a member of 5 different Hall of Fame’s (Olympic Hall of Fame, Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, Skate Canada Hall of Fame, Belleville Sports Hall of Fame, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame).

She has won 4 World Cup Championships, 2 U.S. Open Championships and has won over 50 national and international medals.

She has also written two autobiographies, “Thumbs Up- The Elizabeth Manley Story” and “Elizabeth Manley- As I Am”

There was something else but it’s slipping my mind….. Oh Yeah!!! She won a freaking Silver Medal at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary!!

Not too shabby, right? I also forgot to mention that she has also had a Park and Arena named after her in her (our) hometown of Ottawa.

With all the great accolades and achievements, something people don’t know is that Liz battled a very severe depression that weighed on her for years. It never really goes away but these quotes from an amazing expose about her shows her strength and courage. Seriously, it’s a great piece and I encourage you to check it out!

“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. Depression was the best thing that could have happened to me. It taught me who I was. I didn’t get lost in a world of sport. I found myself through the whole experience.”

“I was bald, I was 35 pounds overweight, I was locked in a house because I didn’t want people to see me. I’ve had a nervous breakdown. I was 16 and I thought there was nothing good in life for me. Four and a half years later, I was standing on the podium and having my greatest moment. When you think your life is no good, you can change it.”

Flash Forward to today and Liz is busy helping others cope with mental illness and on top of being a spokesperson to a number of Charities and Foundations, has even started her own charity event, Elizabeth Manley & Friends, which will help raise money for teen mental health, specifically the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. In all honesty, while she was telling me all of the things she was doing to give back, I thought “How am I going to fit all of this into a post?!”. She is truly an amazing person and it shines through in her work.

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On top of all of this, Liz was kind enough to answer a few questions for my post and I am very appreciative for that. In fact, this is my first official interview, so I guess I am a journalist now, haha. Here are the results of our brief Q&A:

1. How does someone hire you as a speaker? They can contact [email protected] or me directly (Twitter: @LizManley88).

2. Are you still doing skating events (For fun, charity or other)? I am producing my own benefit show this coming winter Jan 26 at ScotiaBank Place called Elizabeth Manley + Friends to benefit YSB and D.I.F.D. It’s still in the works and will have major stars such as Nancy Kerrigan, Elvis Stojco and more!

3. Where is your favourite place in Ottawa? The canal area!!! Soooo beautiful!

4. You have a lot of living left to do, what is your next goal? To make Elizabeth Manley & Friends a major success and a yearly event to benefit local area charities.

Stay Tuned for more info on the January 26th Elizabeth Manley & Friends benefit show at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa. I’ll be reminding you about it every now and then as well and can’t wait to see the stars shining once again! In the meantime, if you are interested in sponsoring this event, you can contact Liz on Twitter or let me know and I’ll pass along your information.

Before I leave you all, I just wanted to say a HUGE Thank You to Elizabeth Manley for taking the time out of her busy schedule to talk to me. It’s always great to see someone emerge from the darkness that is mental illness and want to give back so others don’t have to suffer so much. She is an amazing person and I’m proud to have been given this opportunity!

Cheers!

The 5th Annual Gil Read Memorial Fastball Tournament in #Ottawa

I’m very happy and even more excited to announce that The 5th Annual Gil Read Memorial Fastpitch Tournament is all geared up and ready to go! The tournament will take place at the Carp Fairgrounds in the Village of Carp, Ontario, home of the Carp I4C Victory Fast Ball Club.

The tournament will run from July 27th to July 29th and features some of the best fastball in Eastern Ontario and Quebec. The games will begin Friday the 27th at 7pm. A day pass is $5 and a weekend pass is $10 with kids under 12 free.

For those of you who don’t know, and there’s probably a lot of you, The Gil Read Memorial Foundation is a charity that my family set up shortly after my father passed away. Our goal is to help less fortunate children compete in sports and we’re proud of the work we do in his honour!

I could go on forever about my Dad, as you all know, but I want to focus on the tournament this time around so I’ll leave you with a link to the About Gil page on our website, as well a Guest Post I did about him for the Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Ottawa website.

A little bit about the venue. Carp, located approximately 20 minutes west of Ottawa, has been a fast pitch community for many years. In the early 1990’s, The Carp Valley Pride made their home at the Carp Fairgrounds and boasted one of the top lineups in all of Canada. It was an easy choice for us and we know you’ll love it there.

We have 10 teams entered in this years competition, ranging from local to long distance: Carp I4C Victory, Kars Aces, Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric, Ottawa Taylor Blitz, Stittsville 56ers, Toronto Gators, Donnaconna Blue Sox, Cornwall Pickups, Chisasibi Comets & the Elkland, PA Thunderbellys.

As far as fan entertainment goes, we have a lot lined up for you! There is a Beer Tent on location, sponsored by our friends at Molson’s. We also have Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, lots of Water and other snacks available throughout the weekend. We have lots of prizes available as well and all the wonderful volunteers are available and willing to help out in any way possible to make this a great experience for you and your family!

Please feel free to bring your kids out to the event as well, as the diamonds feature a Splash Pad and Park on site, along with plenty of open space for the kids to run around and play. Not to mention that they are the future of our sport and we love to see them out there enjoying themselves!

We are always looking for new volunteers and we are especially in need of Corporate Sponsorship, as this is what helps the Foundation continue in providing for our local kids.

If you’re interested in helping out with sponsorship or volunteering, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or find me at our Twitter page @GilReadMemorial and I’d be happy to talk to you!

Thank You for your continued support and I hope to see you at the Ball Park for some great Fastball for a great cause!

Cheers!!

Hey Aerosmith, You Owe Us A Show!

I’ve never taken part in a campaign to bring a band to town before. Frankly, I’ve never really cared enough to bother or have in fact been far too lazy to make any sort of effort.

I saw a post on Facebook that caught my eye the other day and decided to jump on board. I mean, who wouldn’t want Aerosmith to roll through their town!

Aerosmith was booked to play a concert in Ottawa (My Hometown) on Sept 5, 2009. The show was understandably cancelled after Steven Tyler broke his left shoulder and cracked his noggin’ after falling off the stage at the Sturgis Biker Rally in August.

Aerosmith never did play Ottawa after that.

Their newly announced tour takes them to Toronto on June 27th and Laval, Quebec on July 10th- but NO Ottawa!! Do you agree that Aerosmith owes us a show? If so, Sign up at our Facebook Page here, and please Share, Share, Share

The thought of missing out on Steven Tyler’s Leather Panted, Leopard Print Extravaganza brings tears to my eyes and the eyes of many other Ottawans!

Please help us in reminding Mr. Tyler and the rest of his crew that we’ve spent the last 3 years waiting for this tour to come back our way and we will not stop pestering them until it does!

You don’t have to be from Ottawa to take part, simply click the tweet box below and help us bring Steven Tyler and his microphone handkerchief collection to our forgotten town!

[tweetbox width=”450″ height=”75″ label=”Easy Enough, just Click Tweet and Your Job Is Done!” content=”Hey @IAmStevenT and @Aerosmith, I believe you owe #Ottawa a Concert! %u (via @canadiandadblog)”]

Here’s what we want to see! Please Help!!!

Cheers!!

Review: FunHaven in Ottawa

I took my son to this new kids place in Ottawa called FunHaven. Anyone who knows me is aware that I like going to these types of places about as much as the kids do, so my excitement level was pretty high.

Before we left the house, my son gave me some more material for my “Sh*t My Kids Say” section. Strange kid for sure, lol.

On to the show, we arrived at our destination and we were both giddy with anticipation at what lay ahead.

We got to the counter and paid for the package that included jungle gym time + the mini bowling experience. It was about $24 after taxes, which seemed reasonable, plus I didn’t have to pay to supervise my son, which is a plus for me.

I was excited to play the bumper cars but they were all broken so it was a No-Go. Disappointed to say the least.

Ah well, at least we had the mini bowling to look forward to. Or at least we thought we did.

There were 4 lanes for mini bowling, however 3 of them were broken and the line of people waiting for the single open lane was staggering. We opted for the jungle area with ball pit.

The first thing I noticed about the jungle area is that they had employees standing at the gates but they didn’t seem to be doing anything. My son and I walked right in and then right out again with no questions. I’m not really sure what their role was but I’m hoping it wasn’t to make sure kids didn’t leave unattended because they were not paying attention at all.

The Jungle/Ball Pit is neat. It has these cool cannons that fire harmless foam balls around the open area in the middle of it all. We went to try it but once again a couple of them were broken, leaving only a couple other cannons for like 40 kids. My son is only three and I’m not a parent that can approach other people’s kids to tell them to share. It just doesn’t feel right.

The other issue I had with the jungle area was that there was no one enforcing any sort of order in there. There were kids climbing up the slides and others throwing balls at kids coming down the slides (including my son). I agree that it is the parents responsibility to discipline their kids but from looking around, I could tell that most of the parent’s there had no interest in discipline and were there for the rest on the couches.

Once we left the jungle area, we decided to try out the bowling again. It looked like one of the broken lanes was fixed but upon closer inspection, it was zapping in and out of consciousness. I asked an employee about it but he just shrugged and walked away with no explanation. We threw a couple balls while it worked but my son was getting frustrated at the fact that it kept breaking dow so we moved on.

The gaming area was alright, we played some spin the wheel game and sat in the racing car game seats. My son thought he was driving the car, which was probably the highlight for me, lol. “I won, I won” he exclaimed at one point.

We got a swipe card when we got in (standard procedure at these types of places now) and when I decided it was time to go, we went to see how many points he had on it. 59 points was the total and the girl at the counter was very nice and bumped us up to 60 so my son could get what he wanted.

Overall, I was disappointed with our trip to FunHaven and thought it was going to be a lot more fun than it turned out to be. A lot of stuff was broken, Mini bowling, bumper cars, 2 cannons and a couple of the toddler games. There were some pluses such as price and prizes but it definitely wasn’t an experience to write home about.

I was also disappointed at the lack of stuff for anyone under 3-4 years old to do. They have one play structure but that’s about it. For people with young families, this is not somewhere to bring your very young kids.

I think from now on we’ll stick to Cosmic Adventures. They are a little more expensive but you get way more for your money in my opinion. I hate doing negative reviews but I can only call it the way we saw it. Too much broken equipment for such a new place.

Have you been to FunHaven? Let me know what you thought, who knows, you might even change my mind about it!

Cheers!