#MarchBreak Ideas from #Hasbro and Nonmom!

That’s right, March Break is upon us and even as a Non, believe me, I notice it.

I must admit I even look forward to it.

It’s not because I go away anywhere, it’s not because I get time off, because I don’t.

But I freely admit I count down to it for one mega-reason: LESS TRAFFIC!!! LOL Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I know that growing up we never did the big trip for March Break, but my parents and parents to this day, struggle with ideas of how to keep the kids busy during this time so that everyone can have some fun.

The weather affects a lot of plans for sure, but here are some indoor tips from my friends at Hasbro combined with some of my own that I really liked. I also really liked how they organized it by day. If it were me, and I’ve seen some of my parent friends do this so I know it’s possible, I would make a bristol board visual countdown for the kids on this. Oooh! Maybe like an advent calendar of sorts but for March Break? (For my crafty friends, it should have glitter….cause everything needs glitter right?)

Hasbro gave these suggestions, and I really like that they’re low-tech in a lot of ways. It’s all about being a kid and I really really like that. It makes me smile so much when I see the kids play with actual toys like we used to, I can’t help it, I want to join in constantly. I’ve also added my ‘two cents’ as it were….oh my, is that phrase going out of style soon in Canada with the loss of the penny? Sorry, back to March Break……

Monday: Family Game Night! Kids pick the first game and maybe mom and dad pick the second and so on? I think that would be fun! It would also be the perfect cap for a day out at perhaps the zoo? That’s one of my favourites. I so love animals. The meerkats are my favourite. Love those guys!

Tuesday: Play-Doh fun! Seriously, who doesn’t love Play-Doh? I do. I keep a stash of it for when munchkins come over….but I also keep another stash for me LOL. Perhaps watch a movie and then make stuff from that movie with the Play-Doh and have a contest to see who gets to pick the next movie?

Wednesday: Host a Beyblade tournament. Ok seriously, I tried this out last year for the first time and I was HOOKED! This would be a blast! But it doesn’t just have to be for the boys either, the Dizzy Dancer fans can also have a tournament, maybe a dance-off? This could work well as a play-date too. You could turn this into a whole day thing too but making a ‘stadium’ and flags etc for the teams, or an equivalent stage for the Dizzy Dancers. For the girls, they could also make tutu’s. It’s fun. I made one for Halloween. Easy peasy too. Here’s the tutorial on how I made mine, took me all of 40 minutes.

Thursday: An Easy-Bake day for the girls! You could make this into a whole girly day and also have mani’s and pedi’s and make it into a Princess day! Add a couple Princess movies, tiaras (they have them at Target and also Michaels) and you’re set.

Friday: Building day with Kre-O and the Transformers! These kits will absolutely keep the kids busy for a few hours, and mom and dad too if they do one too.  Cap the day off with pizza night and a Transformers movie marathon. Why not make the pizza part even more fun and make themed personal pizzas? Yellow peppers and pineapple for a Bumblebee fan on a pita as a crust for example? Maybe strawberries, blueberries and yogurt parfaits for Optimus Prime? Have fun with it and you won’t go nutty on the budget either.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. This is one thing you miss out on as a Non but I am happy to brainstorm for my friends anytime!

Enjoy!!!

Changing Phases and Trials and Tribulations

Fall means change and natural progression. In my family this currently includes transition as my grandmother moves from living on her own to a care facility.

We are all going to have to go through this at some point and it can go either the easy or incredibly rough route. Thank goodness for the teamwork going on behind the scenes between my aunt and my mom. They are both running themselves ragged but they are moving forward and getting the stuff done that needs to be done. Kudos to my dad too. He’s been a rockstar. And my darling hubby for helping out last weekend, hence why I bought him dinner .

There comes a point for most of us where our parents and/or grandparents can no longer live on their own and that means a time of serious flux for everyone, them included.

My Gramma is beyond independent, she’s worked hard literally every day of her life and now that she is edging closer to 92 (in about a week and a bit from now) it is noticeable that she is slowing down a bit.

It has been a rough process for all parties but after last weekend’s tidy, sort and divide and one more trip up by my parents and my aunt at least the apartment stuff is now taken care of.

Step two which is getting Gramma moved into a proper facility which is closer to all of us is in progress and the focus now. Eliminating the 2-hour plus drive to see her will also make life easier for all but it’s going to be an adjustment nonetheless.

Going through all of this and seeing what my mom and aunt are going through and trying to be as supportive as possible has definitely been a trial. Knowing that my Grandmother will be safe and cared for so that she can enjoy every day is what we all look forward to.

Does all of this make me think about how I will do when it’s me doing what my mom is doing? You bet. And I think I can safely say that I admire her even more now seeing how well she is handling the twists and turns that are constantly being presented. She and my dad and my aunt are truly a team and I only hope that when I go through this process I can do as good a job as they have.

Has your family been through this yet? How did you cope?

Family Comes Furrst

The past couple of days have been rather stressful in my household as we have had a sick family member. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell us he was sick, we had to (and thankfully did) recognize it and jump on it.

Mr. Smudgie, one of our beloved furbabies is still in hospital.

On Saturday morning I picked Smudge up for snuggles and noticed his fur was dryer than normal and he felt lighter. Hubby immediately took him from my arms and we weighed him, yup, he was definitely down. We had a couple cans of wet food so I put some in a ramekin (Smudge prefers his wet food served a certain way…not that he and his brother are spoiled at all), picked him up and set him down in front of it. I figured the wet food would fill him up and rehydrate him a bit too.

We kept this up on Sunday and his fur did get softer and he did eat but yesterday morning (Monday) hubby came upstairs after getting up way earlier than me and said he was going to rush him to the vet. Mama panic set in, this is one of MY babies, and I know they’re cats, but for us, they are our kids. I stayed with Spot and I got ready for work and waited for hubby’s call.

‘We think it’s a tooth but they’re going to run tests to be sure that’s all it is.’

Ok, I can deal with that.

Then later in the day a second call, kidneys, renal issues. That’s much more serious. Acute is what we were aiming for, chronic, we were really worried about.

I called my mom. I know it’s not the same as humans, but my mom was a dialysis nurse and that means kidneys. She told me which results to look at from the tests and eeep, they were way high. As soon as I walked in the door after work I walked back out again with hubby and off we went to go see the poor little guy. I had that sinking feeling in my stomach worrying for Smudgie but when the vet said he was visibly perking up with us there to see him it made me feel a lot better. Even moreso was when he ate some food for daddy.

We had a long visit with him, he did not like his cone at all or his little leg being wrapped up for his IV but mama brought him a toy from home to help him not feel as lonely. If I could have slept there I would have but we did have to leave him. Poor little Spot has been just lost without him and would not leave my side when I was watching a movie with hubby last night and then wouldn’t come to bed because he was waiting for his brother to come home. Spot also did not come to bed Sunday night, neither did Smudge which was another warning sign. Spot is very good about sticking to his brother when something is up. In the past when Smudge got stuck in a closet (still trying to figure that one out) Spot just sat at the door and wouldn’t leave, that’s how we knew Smudgie was in there. So him staying with him on Sunday night was a definite sign that he needed brotherly support.

The vet called again before bed to update us with more positive news and then this morning hubby called me with another update (out vet is really great for keeping us in the loop) and he is doing even better and might possibly come home tonight! My heart about burst with this news, I cannot wait to have him back home again and give him cuddles and snuggles and kisses again.

My whole life went on hold for this little guy. Again, I know these are cats, but I know that when my sister or I got sick as kids or even now with my nephew, life gets put on hold for them when they need us. Priorities get re-evaluated and everything stops. And I did. Stop that is. Nothing was important other than my fur-son getting better and getting home.

You don’t realize just how much these little fur-kids become a part of your life until something like this happens, unfortunately this is the second time Smudgie has scared us, the first being when he was still a kitten and again, we found a way and dealt with it. You go into crisis-mode and where you couldn’t find options before, you find them now. These are your little ones, and I know that doing everything you can for them and having your heart break for them is universal.

Family comes first, or in my case ‘Furrst’.

We’ve had all good reports so far today but they’re running a couple more tests and my fingers remain crossed and life remains on-hold until he is home with his brother and us.

Hubby and his Smudgie, they are inseparable. Feel better and come home soon buddy!

No One Is Perfect

When I was at BloggyCon we broke up into Blog Squads on occasion and I decided to go with the non-niche bloggers as I wasn’t really quite sure where my little corner of the blogosphere should belong.

My squad gave such a wonderful variety and, as was bound to happen, we all got to chatting and the topic of ‘keeping up and organized’ came up. We had a mom to special needs kids, some budding entrepreneurs, and even a blog about beauty at our table and we all connected over our many things, but I noted that  we all admitted we weren’t perfect, but darn it, we’ve all tried to put on the Carol Brady hat on occasion and were forced to compare ourselves to that standard in our homes and lives.

Growing up I was not what you would term the neatest child, but I knew where everything was, yes I did. Then, once I moved out and was on my own I realized that if I didn’t put something away that it wasn’t going to be put away and it hit me like a jolt, I better change my ways.

I had a lovely condo and then a sublime little townhouse (which I’m still in but ruing at the moment as the central air has decided to die during a heat wave). It took a bit but everything did indeed have it’s place and neatening up took a mere hour or so per week.

Then I met my darling, wonderful husband.

Hubby, not what you would define as ‘tidy’. He moved in with me and after his moving in, both of our parents downsizing the same summer and now the addition of two wonderful little furry cats, the house is a constant battle that, try as I might (and I do!) is one I am losing. Every (almost) Saturday hubby takes off for the day and I am left to come downstairs and face my nemesis: the housework. I used to enjoy it, back when, once finished, I could see that things were indeed better and that for a few days at least I could enjoy them.

Now, I’m lucky if I can tell I cleaned let alone enjoy it for more than a couple of hours.

I see the tv shows, the magazines, even some of my friends places and I am green with envy. How come I can’t see my kitchen counter but they can? Why is their living room ‘company ready’ when mine used to be the nice one? Why oh why can’t my darling (and I really do adore him) hubby-kins seem to put his clothes into his dresser and not in a mountain on the floor of the bedroom? Isn’t everyone’s homes the same as Mrs. Brady? Why don’t I measure up? I don’t even have the kids….just a hubby and two cats!

The answer: I don’t have to!!!! Why not? Because no one does, and the ones who seem like they do, cheat! Picture perfect magazine photos? You think those spaces just naturally look like that? Nope! All the extras are likely stuffed just off-camera or in a closet, JUST LIKE HOW I DO IT! Cheating isn’t bad in this case, it’s a necessity as far as I see it. If you want real life, real life is messy. Real life isn’t perfect, we don’t live on movie sets with set decorators and prop rooms for storage, we really have piles of laundry, dirty dishes and dusting we just never have the time to do properly.

And I’m starting to be ok with that. Of course if my hubby magically picked up his laundry and put it away I’d be happy too, but his name isn’t Mike Brady and we don’t have an Alice helping us!

Review: Cars2 Operation, Trouble & Memory!

As my regular readers and friends will know, NonMom has been a bit busy of late but never one to shirk responsibility, and fun, I got creative and outsourced some of my testing to some utterly adorable munchkins who are BIG racing fans!

They tested and reviewed and really put the games through their paces, these munchkins even took the games on the road….to the racetrack! Talk about appropos for the new Cars2 movie huh?

So here’s the review and their impressions via their oh so sweet Grandma (who I still say is too young and vibrant to be a Grandma):

Hi Amy – Here are the photos of the kids I took on Saturday, playing the games you gave the boys.  They love them!  Hey, we’re at Mosport, and while the cars are racing, they found time to play with the games.  Nash’s favourite is Operation, Dane loved both Memory and Trouble, and Joeleen enjoyed all of them.  The games came out several time over the course of a couple of days.

Dane beat the pants off me, playing Memory.  He really loved moving the race cars  forward each time he got a match.  He’s only 3 ½, but he was able to play by the rules and match up those cars!  Nash 5 ½, and Joeleen, 9, played Operation a lot.  Not only was the eye-hand coordination tested, but earning the money for successful operations allowed them to practice counting out their money.  They all played Trouble together, although Dane didn’t really understand the rules & purpose of the game.  He just loved popping the dice and hopping the coloured markers around the board.

             Thanks so much, Amy, for giving them the opportunity to test-drive and play these games.  As a grandmother, I found it fun to play the games with them too!

Auntie Time!

Wow! So the second of my friends who are all expecting this year has ‘popped’ as it were. She was booked in for today, but apparently Little Missy wanted to come out before the Stanley Cup final! Her daddy is already proud, welcome to the world little Melissa!!!  I get to ‘Auntie’ again and can hardly wait to see her and her big sister, my Bex! I adore her and I’m sure I will her sister as well.

Last weekend I got my ‘fix’ as it were with our niece visiting. I think she needed her ‘Uncle’ fix so I tried to let them have lots of time together and as you can see below, they were ‘in sync’ with their iphones/itouches. She has always adored her Uncle, or at least they’ve always had a great relationship, and she chats with both of us regularly on Facebook so I couldn’t resist taking this pic. Like Uncle, like Niece

Hubby & Niece 'in sync'

I was worried a bit, I mean I adore my hubby’s niece, but she’s 15 now (I clearly remember when she was under 10) and was stressing over what to do with a 15 year old. We wound up having two movie nights, Gnomeo and Juliet was up first (our friend actually worked on the film) and she loved it as much as we did. Our second movie night selection, Transformers 2 and again, success. She got a whole day with my hubby where they were outside and was all smiles when she came back.

She even joined us in playing some of the new Cars 2 games that we got (review to come) and she and I were literally doubled over giggling when we tried out Operation with Mater and set off the buzzer. HILARIOUS!

I’m hoping next time to maybe take her shopping (NonMom is saving her pennies for next week’s property taxes at the moment) or meet her at the beach and have some fun. We had some nice Auntie moments where she shared her crush’s picture with me and again, we had some laughs over games and other silly stuff including getting the cats to warm up to a new face in the house. Since she left they’ve been upset, they felt they were just breaking her in.

Cousin Spot psyching our Niece out

Overall, a successful weekend, I hope she comes back again soon! Before I know it she’ll be graduated and off to post-secondary! Oh my!

 

 

 

Living Healthy Free Seminar in Oakville!

Our Family—Our Food
Empowerment through the love of food!

My friend and colleague Sandra Saville is one of the keynote speakers at this free seminar being put on by Halton Region, Longo’s, Kids Culinary Community and Julia of Ritorno Julia!

Sandra, Julia and Roseanne Longo will all speak and you could not possibly pick a better panel than these three ladies!

Parking and refreshments are also free and families are welcome!

Display and Refreshments take place at 6:30 and the seminar begins at 7pm on April 11th at the centre on Bronte Road just North of the QEW.

For reservations contact:
healthpromotion@haltonhealthcare.on.ca
or 905-878-2383 ext. 4379.

Or click on the link for the flyer below.

Our family – Our Food Flyer Feb 2011

 

It’s Here!

The new year that is! How did you spend your new year’s eve? I hid out, honestly I did. After 2010 I felt like I should just lie low and let it pass so I did. I even had the house to myself for most of NYE and NYD, but I did not miss my cherished Rose Parade. My tradition is to make sure I get to watch it and I missed it a few times but not this time! And how beautiful the floats were again. Wow, hats off to the volunteers on that one!

New Year’s was always my favourite holiday growing up. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, but there was something really wonderful about New Year’s in my family and I still miss how we used to celebrate it.

We would pack up the car on the 31st and head to Guelph to the Holiday Inn and meet our friends and their parents there too. We always had room 300, tradition, and we always had fun!

It started by going with our family friends that we had grown up with in our first house and their 3 sons. Oh my did us kids ever have fun! We would play elevator tag (yes, we were the kids you hated), mini-golf, swim and more. I don’t think we stopped moving actually. At midnight our parents would ‘sneak’ us in for the countdown and one or two dances and then we’d be off again running!

In fact, the very first year we went we attended the kids party that they put on and that was the first time I saw The Goonies!

After a few years our friends from boating started to come out and we again ‘terrorized’ the hotel. Our friend even brought along exploding golf balls to fool the partygoers….and they did, and it was a riot! Even the staff got used to us and had a laugh. We would even drop GI Joe’s on repelling lines over the front desk….ahhh memories!

Arriving on the 31st and playing til the wee hours of the morning was our way of sending out the year in style, and coming home the next day always felt like something had changed and the new year had started. It was a way to refresh ourselves before facing the challenges that a new year brings.

As we grew up we stopped going but ever since, the closer we get to midnight on the 31st, the more I can visualize being there, the sights, the sounds, the layout of the hotel and where best to hide in elevator tag….end of the hallway or under the stairs

Happy New Year to all!