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2015 Canadian Dad Holiday Gift Guide

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

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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 Hasbro

 

 

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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Hasbro Playmation Marvel Avengers Starter Pack Gamma Gear

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 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.

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

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

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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Mattel Monster High 17 Inch Tall Freak Du Chic Gooliope Jellington Doll

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

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

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

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

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.

Kids Video Camera

Two Kids, Their Toys And A Video Camera

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My wife and I recently bought a new camera and we decided to give our old camera to the kids. We taught them how to take pictures and thought it would be funny to check back in to see what they came up with. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined that they would have figured out how to shoot their own videos, but they did…

After marveling at their work, I plucked my favourite video off the memory card and loaded it up onto the YouTube. Without further ado, I present to you a short film by my children entitled, “Nice To Meet You”. Enjoy and never underestimate your children!

Win LEGO From ‘The LEGO Movie’ Courtesy Of Tag Along Toys!

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Since I began blogging two years ago, I have developed a new appreciation for the term “Shop Local”. There is something really special about the small businesses that make my city great and I have been able to find this out first hand. I have had the pleasure of meeting many of Ottawa’s small business owners and am constantly amazed by their kindness and hospitality.

My first experience with this was when I stumbled into Tag Along Toys for a wine and cheese event that they were running. That night I met the owner, Patti, and we have been good friends ever since. My favourite part about going in to Tag Along Toys is that it always feels like I am at home while I shop there. Everyone is greeted with a smile as they walk in and now my kids even ask if we can go see Patti, even though they know they won’t always get a toy.

It’s through local businesses and owners like Patti that I have learned the true value of supporting local companies and I highly encourage you to do the same. To thank YOU and all of her customers, Patti from Tag Along Toys has asked me to help her in giving away some very cool LEGO sets from the recent hit, The LEGO Movie!

We will be selecting two winners and each will get one of the sets in the image above. The only catch is that you have to be able to pick them up in store at 499 Terry Fox Dr in Kanata. Deal? Alright, just head down to the form below and get yourself entered so you can scream “Everything Is Awesome” when you win! After you enter, you should pop in to the Tag Along Toys Facebook and Twitter pages to say hi to Patti for me!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An Argument Against Bribing Your Children

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It’s not like I do it often. Frankly, the only reason I have ever done it is because, well, it works. As a parent, you know when your kids have that look in their eyes that says, “I am having a bad day and you are going to pay for that multiple times over!” For the most part, my policy is to just deal with it as it happens, but, every now and then you have a special occasion that commands precision behaviour. In these instances, I have been known to pull out the bribery card.

Recently, I can think of two such occasions. The first being Great, Great Nanny’s 100th birthday party. My logic for bribing them with a trip to the Dollar Store the next day was that you will rarely get a chance to attend a 100th birthday party and Nanny deserved the best behaved children in the land. Plus, at $1.15 each, it was a win-win! They were angels and did exactly as they were told the whole time. More on that later.

The next was my son’s first appearance on television. We were going to have a PlasmaCar race, which he as excited for, but first we had to talk to the morning show hosts and I was worried he would flee. I brought the Beyblade in the car with us that morning and he did a great job on TV and proudly held his new toy all the way home.

You’re probably thinking that everything worked out perfectly, so what’s the problem? Here’s a little story about how this strategy backfired on me. I came home from work the other day and was met by my 3 year old daughter, who was running towards me, arms extended, as she does every day. The conversation, however, was slightly different..

Daughter: “Daddy, I need you to buy me a new Rapunzel Barbie set”
Me: “Why? Did you break another Barbie?”
Daughter: *In her saddest face, nods head yes*
My Wife: “No she didn’t. Ask your son about it”
Me: “Son, why does your sister need a new Rapunzel Barbie?”
Son: *Smiles slyly*
My Wife: “I let her play on my iPhone while I was doing laundry, but when I came back, he had the phone. When I asked her why he had it, she answered that he promised to buy her a new Rapunzel Barbie set if she gave it up…”
Me: “Oh boy”

While my first reaction was to half be proud at his negotiation skills and hide a laugh, I quickly connected the dots and realized that I had created this monster with my recent bribery. I thought I was being clever by offering cheap toys in exchange for good behaviour, but missed the bigger picture issue.

The moral of this story is that KIDS NOTICE EVERYTHING! I will definitely think twice before I go to the bribery method again and I hope this story has helped newer parents in some way.

And Now A Grown Man Gets Excited About Hasbro’s Iron Man 3 Collection

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Hasbro IronMan 3 Tpys

You’d think I accepted the opportunity to review some cool news toys because I knew my son would love them. For the most part that’s why I do it, but this time was a little different. I am a huge superhero geek and the second I saw the full sized Iron Man 3 mask, I immediately went into selfish mode by thinking about all the hilarious places I could bring that mask, for myself to wear…

My evil plan was foiled when the box arrived while I was at work, and my son noticed the Iron Man logo. Without a leg to stand on, I gave in and let him and his daycare friends play with the toys. They obviously had a blast, as I looked on with toy envy. We were fortunate enough to receive three different items, and they are as follows:

MARVEL IRON MAN 3 ARC FX Mission Mask

Hasbro Iron Man 3 Mask

 

 

As previously mentioned, I was most excited about the mask and the plethora of places I could wear it around town. There’s something satisfying about watching people’s brains try to figure out just exactly what it is I am trying to accomplish by wearing this thing to the local grocery store.

 

 

MARVEL IRON MAN 3 Avengers Initiative ARC STRIKE Iron Patriot

Hasbro Iron Man 3 Patriot

 

 

Having already seen Iron Man 3, I was excited to get this Iron Patriot figure, ven if my son had no idea who it was. Don’t get me wrong, I love Iron Man but I also enjoy having a variety of different characters at my disposal. No lie, we had about 6 Iron Man’s after the last movie..

 

 

MARVEL IRON MAN 3 Avengers Initiative Assemblers Battle Vehicle

Hasbro Iron Man 3 Car

 

 

This turned out to be the big ticket item. I know this because my son’s eyes bugged out so much when he saw it that I almost got knocked over. The only thing cooler to a little boy than cars, are cars that shoot rockets out of them and this fits that bill.

 

 

For the most part I am kidding about stealing my son’s toys. He plays with them all the time and loves them more than most of the things I have purchased for him. The mask however…

Daddy Iron Man

Disclosure: I was provided these toys by Hasbro for review purposes. While my son did love the toys, I may underplayed how often I actually wear the Iron Man mask. It is addictive for adults and you should proceed with caution.

A Great Giveaway From @TagAlongToys in #Ottawa!

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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!!

PlasmaCar Review & Giveaway from @PlaSmart (US/CAN)

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One of the things the amazing people at PlaSmart said when they agreed to let me do a review and giveaway of one of their PlasmaCars, was that I should only use photos or videos that I took myself.

As you can see from the image above, it looks as though I didn’t follow their instructions very closely….

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I can assure you that those 4 PlasmaCars all belong to me! You see, my wife runs a daycare in her spare time (LOL, kidding honey!) and we have 6 kids in the house at any given time.

Even with the 4 PlasmaCars, we still have fights over who gets to use them! The point is, these are probably the greatest toys ever made! Seriously, the kids (and Daddy) love them and use them literally everyday. On top of that, they are perfect for all ages!

My son even took his out in the snow this year because he was tired of waiting for winter to end. True story!

I’m so proud to be able to bring you this amazing giveaway, where PlaSmart will send the winner a PlasmaCar of their very own! All you have to do is use the RaffleCopter form below and I’ll notify the winner by email. Please read the Terms & Conditions before entering so we don’t have to do the awkward rules dance later!

With that, I leave you with this short video of my 1 year old daughter enjoying her PlasmaCar! Proof that they are suitable for all ages, lol. Good Luck!!

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Front Runner For Toy Of The Year

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My kids have a LOT of toys! They live in a house that is also home to a Day Care, so there is never a time where a toy isn’t within arms reach.

Do you know that we had our first nice day of the spring today? Yep, I spent 10 minutes dragging all my kids toys out of the garage so that they could enjoy them in this beautiful weather.

There were other things going on too. Some neighbourhood kids came over, I did groceries, Oh Yeah, and I took the garbage out to the curb.

With all the glorious toy goodness the kids had to play with, I was excited to see how they were going to react.

Were they going to play with their new PlasmaCars???

NOPE!

Most Definitely they’d be using their new hockey nets though!! Right?

WRONG AGAIN!!

You can imagine my surprise, after all my hard work, to find that the most popular toy of the day was in fact something that I had put out with the garbage.


There you have it folks! The 2012 Toy Of The Year is…..

Random Cardboard Box?!

Remember that when you are debating whether or not to get the $600 Kid sized Hummer from Toys R Us. It may look cool to you but the box it comes in will look a lot cooler to your kid!

Ever found your kids wasting your hard earned money by playing with garbage?? Share your story in he comments section and we can all console each other.

Cheers!

Sh*t My Kids Say #2 – Disney On Ice

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Kids are funny people. They really have no concept of right or wrong, they don’t know not to call people fat or stupid and they have no idea how hilarious their imaginary stories are to adults.

That has led me to the decision to create a new section here at Canadian Dad called “Sh*t My Kids Say”. I know, I know, it’s a semi dirty word but this is my blog and I’ll swear if I want to, LOL.

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We had a great time at Disney On Ice last night, other than the length of time it spanned. I mean seriously, 2 hours and a bit of dancing princesses? I’m as excited about Disney as anyone but after a while they all start to look the same.
On the drive home, we asked my son what he thought of the show.

D: “Hey buddy, what was your favorite part of the show?”

L: “Ummmm, the part where I got my toy”

D: “Really? The part before we even sat down at our seats, when we bought you the Incredibles figurines?”

L: “Yeah, I really, really love them”

D: “What about the show? Anything from the actual show that you liked?”

L: “Donald Duck”

D: “Donald Duck was in the 2 hour show for 3 minutes and said no words, that’s all you liked?”

L: “I liked….(clearly humouring me at this point) the claw”

D: “What claw???”

L: “The claw from Peter Pan”

D: “?????” “You mean Captain Hook?”

L: “No Daddy, the claw. And when the crocodile ate the guy”

D: :Well, I’m glad you liked it???”

L: “But I really, really love my Incredible guys”

D: “Excellent!”

The main thing I learned from this conversation is that my son could care less about what happened that night because he lost interest upon receiving his late Valentine’s Day gift of Incredibles figurines.
I know he had fun because I was watching him throughout the show, I think he just hasn’t figured out the “favorite part” thing yet. Maybe he just enjoyed it so much that everything was his favorite part? Either way, the toys ruled the day and I’m happy to report that as of 12 hours later, he still really, really loves them, haha.

Cheers!