Son is watching NEXT STAR. "Hey mom do you know Justin Bieber is only 5 yrs older than me?" here we go into puberty

Lasting Power in a Boy's World

It will come sooner than you think.
CHRISTMAS
I know you're thinking Halloween, but really, buy costume, buy candy, put up some (hopefully) fake spiderwebs, carve pumpkin. Done!

Yes Christmas will be here before you know it. I'd like to give some advice to the parents of those 3 & up (basically any child that doesn't shove toys in their mouth).
Certain toys have lasting power, & most big ticket kids toys sit in the corner once the new year has started.
Believe me, I've been there & have some $60 "decor toys" to prove it.

I know every child is different, but my son is now 10, & this is a list of things that he has loved since age 3 & still plays with

1. Action Figures, particularly Star Wars & Transformers, but all the "dudes" end up in some battle of good guys vs bad guys. Unfortunately in my house the good guys never win. Apparently it's more fun that way.
2. Lego, the most (non messy) creative item for kids. Many times my son will ask for toys & cars for his action figures, & yes we do have some, but for the most part I will say, "Why not build it with LEGO?" Some great battleships & fortresses have been built this way.
3. DVD's. All kids love movies with their favorite characters.
4. Pokemon, don't kid yourself, it will happen. As soon as they start going to school Pokemon will invade your life (I use Pokemon cards as allowance tool). Sure we've gone through fazes of Yu-Gi-Oh & Chaotic cards, but it always reverts back to Pokemon.
5. Video Games. Here's a little hint about video games. If you're child really wants a certain video game, rent it 1st. We have a couple of video games that just sit here, as they are too difficult. Now we rent & if a particular game gets requested to rent again, I know that is worth the purchase.

Those are the TOP 5 toys that have stood the test of time in my house. Honorable mention also goes to Hot Wheels cars & Mini-Hockey sticks.

Hopefully this list will help with your upcoming Holiday purchases. Now back to buying Halloween candy (don't ask where the 1st batch of it went)!

Back To School In Kitchener Waterloo Ont

So my tween son said to me
"This year instead of coming into the gym with me on the First Day Of School, can you just drop me off?"

Oh so grown up!

Here's a treat for all of you getting your kids ready for the 1st day of school from the Billy Madison Movie.

Coupons for Ontario Attractions

A few days ago we went to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was a great time. We don't go to too many museums as my son wants to blow through the whole place & it doesn't make it worth the cost of admission.

BUT.....

I knew the theme would make him take notice (plus there's a fun interactive zone too).

How did I make it affordable?

With a KIDS GET IN FREE COUPON! For the Hockey Hall of Fame
http://www.attractionsontario.ca/index.cfm?DSP=Chapter&ID=11&ACT=Coupon-Info&Coupon_ID=73&Member_ID=1069

You see that's one of my tricks
If I'm ever going somewhere I google
Coupons for _____________ (place I'm off to)
& then I google Deals for ___________________

A couple of other good places for deals are
RedFlagDeals.com & TicketOps on the ShoppersDrugMart site

Here's a full list of coupons from Attractions Ontario
http://www.attractionsontario.ca/index.cfm?DSP=Chapter&ID=19

The fact I live in Kitchener Waterloo helps as I'm just 45 mins from Toronto, an Hour away from Niagra, an Hour & a half from the Niagra Border & 2+ hours from the Detroit/Windsor border.

My problem is I don't like to drive outside of KW, but I'm getting braver. Next year I hope to get a newer vehicle & I'll get a GPS!

But for now I try to find stuff to do in my region.
Want to see what's available in KW?
Visit
http://stufftodowithyourkidsinkw.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your Labour Day Weekend!

New Meaning to TUB of LEGO

It's been very chilly in the evenings her in KW, so that means every time you open the door (to let the dog in/out) a gazillion little bugs want to enter as well.

I thought we were doing well by keeping the outside light off when opening the door, but then I heard it...

"MOM MOM MOM there's an earwig in the LEGO tub"
CRAP CRAP CRAP is more like it.

We keep our LEGO in a big Rubbermaid Tub with a lid, hence our LEGO TUB.
Well this incident sure changed the meaning of a Big LEGO TUB




Yup after I got the earwig out, I clean all the LEGO. I gave it a bath in OUR tub (with some bubble bath). Seems easy enough, but the trick is getting it out without losing any of those OH SO TINY, but yet OH SO IMPORTANT pieces. You know the ones, the little sticks & buttons that hold the Star Wars sets togther.

So I put a big towel around the drain so when I pulled the plug we wouldn't have to worry about pieces heading down the pipe.
Next I grabbed the plastic strainer to scoop everything out of the tub. That was when I realized I got more than I bargained for.
There was pet hair, dimes, candy wrappers, pieces of pencil crayons, action figures & all the other things boys like to keep in their pockets, amongst the OH SO PRECIOUS LEGO.

I kept scooping & finally finished. I put all the LEGO on a towel to dry & realized it looked like a page from an I SPY BOOK.
Can You Find Darth Vader?

Hot Topic at our House

If you hang around our house there is always something "HOCKEY" being spoke of.
My son, now 10, aspires to be an NHL Goalie.
This is not recent dream. This is THE DREAM (according to him). We are a hockey household. I like hockey, my family likes hockey, my son LOVES HOCKEY.
Heck I even painted his toy room to look like an arena (well up to our standards of what a hockey arena would look like).
He's been going to Kitchener Rangers games since he was an infant. I remember him coming home from his 1st day of Kindergarten telling me that at school they sang THE HOCKEY SONG.
At 1st I thought it was the "Good old hockey game, it's the best game you can name..." which I thought was weird for that age group. So I started to sing it. He said "NO" the other hockey song that they play on the speakers. I then realized he meant OH CANADA!
I laughed so hard, because he had only heard OH CANADA played at arenas!
Today we went to see the Holy Grail of Hockey & it was such a blast (& I thought it would help inspire his dream to one day raise the cup)
Here we are doing a play by play (it will only be up for a few days)
http://www.legendsofhockey.net/TSN/playbyplay.jsp?video=FOSTERMCDONALD@ROGERS.COM_60f9966a-9918-4639-a7c2-fcfdd8819815.wmv

& here we are with the Presentation Stanley Cup



Tomorrow I will write about how I was able to make this a great Staycation.
Hope you enjoyed it.
What Dreams do your kids have & how do you help inspire them? I'd love to know so please leave a comment below.

Math & Cleaning made FUN?

My son is on a mission for some new Star Wars action figures ('cause the huge bin of them just isn't enough-ha!)
So he's decided instead of begging he'll be a little more sly & convince me he's going to earn them. How's he doing that? Well he says he'll clean up the areas of the house he's responsible for (rec room, toy room & his room).
As wonderful as it sounds, I know that it will become an unfinished project unless he gets some motivation. He likes to start then, then stops & I get "Is this done enough?"
Yesterday I had an idea, we played something I called DOUBLE IT!
You know the old story were the man says he'll start at a penny & the amount gets doubled each day & he is quickly a rich man.
I put my own spin on it.
I also made it a contest between the 2 of us.
The rules are we each pick up one thing & see who does it first. Then we keep doubling the amounts of things we had to pick up.
One item, then doubled is 2 items, then 4 items, then 8 items, once it got to 16 items there was a bit of a math challenge in there for him as well. We got up to 64 items each & the room was back to normal.
Do you think this might work at your house?

For More great Ideas head over to

http://www.wearethatfamily.com/