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Roxymandy August 5, 2014

My Favourite iPad Apps for Toddlers

My iPad has been an absolute lifesaver with my toddler, especially when we’ve been travelling. Flying with him can be tricky, and I am positive we would have never survived without the iPad loaded with Apps and videos for him. It’s like torture waiting for takeoff, so having the iPad ready to go has been great to keep him occupied. We were stuck in customs once for an hour, and our iPad was the perfect distraction for our son and all of the children around him in line!

We also had a long road trip to Lake Placid where we needed a distraction for the long hours in the car, and the iPad was amazing. We try not to let our son play with the iPad too much since I am selfish and I want to play with it myself (ok partially, mostly because I would rather have him play outside at this time of year than sit on the couch), but we have had to admit to ourselves that there have been times when we would have been lost without it.

There are so many Apps out there, and I end up deleting a lot of them because they are frustrating for my toddler. Some of them are too difficult for him to navigate, and some of them I will download and he is bored in seconds. I think all Apps include a lot of trial and error when choosing a good one.

I’ve added a list of Apps that have been the most successful with my son. His favourite right now is the Lego Duplo Trains App. Do you know how hard it is to find a good train App? Very very hard. I feel like I have been through them all, but that one is perfect for his age. You can find my list below, but if there are any Apps that you are using right now that you love for your kid, please add them in the comments section below – I would love to hear them!

Lazoo Zoo

This App allows you to travel around the zoo and feed the animals. Once they are fed they may change colours, grow hair, or change in some fun way. This one is very easy because you just need to drag and drop food in the animals mouth, and there are lots of animals to visit at the zoo.

Lazoo: Let’s Colour!

This App is part of the Lazoo series as well, and in this one you can colour or add stickers to a photo, and then if you press “Go” the photo comes to life. There are trains and planes that move once you hit “Go”, fish that will swim and sundae’s that will melt when you are ready to hit the button. There are a lots of different pictures to colour, and it comes with a great little movie as well with the Lazoo characters.

Elmo Calls

In this App Elmo phones and you can answer the phone and FaceTime with him. It’s great because I think kids probably get more excited seeing themselves on the screen! This App only has a few different calls Elmo can make, but the FaceTime keeps them occupied a bit longer. Elmo is a big hit at our place, and I think every child loves phones, so it’s a pretty awesome combo.

Talking Ben The Dog

We have had this App for over a year and it still doesn’t get old. Not educational in the least, but it’s a free App where the dog will mimic your voice or belch on command. It’s just a lot of fun. There are even a few spinoff animal Apps similar to Ben now, and he’s so popular you can find a stuffed talking version of him in stores.

Lego Duplo Trains

This App is great for boys who are obsessed with trains like mine is. It lets them build their own train, load the train and build tracks and bridges along the way. Plus it was free! I’ve probably downloaded a dozen train Apps, and this has been the best one!

Endless Alphabet

This one was suggested to me by my friend Jen! This one was the most pricy of the bunch at $6.99, but it really is an endless alphabet! Words from A – Z pop up and you have to match the letters in the word. You can press the button to hear the word out loud, and to explain what it is. Each letter makes a sound as you match it to the right spot. You get bonus points as a parent for downloading something so educational too.

Elmo’s Monster Maker

This App was $2.99 but it’s really fun! Elmo parades a group of monsters out, and you have to pick one to dress up. Then you can decide if Elmo plays with him, or of he should dance. It’s pretty cute for Elmo fans.

Endless Numbers

Similar to Endless Alphabet, this counting App comes in a lite version so it’s free, but has some great matching games with numbers. Again, the educational points you will score by downloading this are great, plus the little monsters in the App are super cute and entertaining.

Roxymandy August 1, 2014

Vacationing with a Toddler at The Westin Trillium House, Blue Mountain

I’ve got a lot of hobbies, and some I decided to give up when I had a baby. Don’t feel too bad for me; it was a conscious decision to focus on the things I really liked, and to get rid of those extracurriculars that I didn’t really have the free time for anymore. Plus I found some of those hobbies were taking up some of my dinner and drinks nights, so a few things had to go! One of the things I gave up was snowboarding. I’m sure I will go snowboarding again if a fun trip comes up or something, but I realized even before I had a child I hardly went. I sold all of my gear and haven’t been in a couple years now, but in the winter I did miss heading out to Blue Mountain to go boarding, and more importantly hanging out in the Blue Mountain Village to shop, eat, and to keep warm!

This year I started to look into what Blue Mountain had to offer for the summer, and I was surprised how much was going on. We decided to head to Blue Mountain for a couple days with our son to check out The Westin Trillium Blue Mountain resort.

We decided to stay at The Westin Trillium House. The cost per night was not horrible (our rate was $199 per night), and they stated on the website that they had cribs as well. After I booked our room I called the hotel to ensure there would be a crib in our room as I requested, and I was informed that they were available on a first-come first-serve basis, and they would not reserve one for me. This was a little annoying as I was calling to reserve a bed – couldn’t I reserve a crib as well? We were told the best we could do is call the day of our arrival and ensure there was one available. We automatically decided then to bring our pack and play instead. When we arrived we were told our crib was already in our room which was nice, but because we had totally forgotten to call about the crib it didn’t really matter anymore.

Our room was just a deluxe Guestroom but had lots of space and included a kitchenette, sofa, coffee table and chairs. The room was very clean and roomy! I think I would have gotten a different room next time though with a separate bedroom so my son could go to bed at a different time than us.

The Westin Trillium House advertises the Westin Kids Club, where upon arrival your child is given a complimentary welcome bag with treats to keep them entertained during their stay at the hotel. We actually didn’t receive this (to be fair, we also didn’t ask for it). They also had a Kids at Blue Discovery Room at the hotel as well which had some fun toys and books to play with, but it was so nice outside we really didn’t play in there. The hotel also offers babysitting services, and a Kids Specialist who entertains kids in the Discovery Room.

After checking in went went straight to Plunge! Aquatic Centre which is attached to The Westin Trillium House. Our room was on the third floor which was where the entrance was to the water park – awesome. Children under the age of 3 were free, and the rest of the rates were for a 3 hour period, a full day, or for 3 days. We did the 3 hour option and it cost my husband and I $30.00.

They had indoor and outdoor pools, an indoor water playground, hot tubs, a rope swing, and slides. Our son loved it – the children that were enjoying it were aged toddlers to teenagers. A towel was included, and although we enjoyed it, it was a little expensive.

The Westin Trillium House has an Oliver and Bonacini restaurant in the hotel which we ate at for lunch. The had a great kids menu which had the option of cute kids appetizers like veggies and dip. Our kid felt pretty grown up when his appetizer arrived. They had high chairs and a great kids menu, but there weren’t a lot of kids eating at the restaurant so we were trying to keep the toddler fun to a minimum. It was a little stressful, but he was on some pretty good behaviour.

The Blue Mountain Village itself had lots of restaurants to eat at that were kid friendly, or they also have lots to choose from with more of a romantic vibe. There were lots of options! The village is only a super short walk on a path from the hotel, and there were lots of cute shops like a Columbia Kids store, and an all year-round Christmas shop. For activities there were paddle boat rentals, a volleyball court, power wheel courses for kids, Segway rentals, zip lining, a ropes course, mini golfing, the mountain coaster, and the gondola ride to name the major ones.

There was actually a lot to do! We tried a few activities, but our son really liked the gondola. It was very safe and had a great view at the top of the mountain.

If you could show proof you were staying at The Westin Trillium House you could receive a discount on some of the activities, including the gondola.

At night there was a movie under the stars set up at the base of Blue Mountain which we loved – I took advantage of the Beavertail hut and Starbucks nearby!

Overall we found the area very kid friendly with lots of fun activities, and we felt the hotel was very accommodating to children as well. The Oliver and Bonacini was good, but in the morning we couldn’t even get seated because there was literally no staff to do so and we had to go elsewhere. As I mentioned the Village is only a couple minutes away so we could easily go somewhere else for our meals.

Parking at the hotel was $20.00 for valet and $15.00 for regular parking which we didn’t see coming, and you really have no choice but to use their parking.

The hotel also had a great park and play structure, and a section where kids could catch frogs for fun.

I thought The Westin Trillium House was very picturesque, in a great location near Blue Mountain Village, and there were lots of activities for our toddler to enjoy.

www.westinbluemountain.com

Roxymandy July 28, 2014

My Dinner Courtesy of Fresh Canteen

I feel like my domestic cooking career has been through many stages so far in this life. When I moved into my first house with my boyfriend I was in the trial and error stage, desperately trying to fake my way through recipes and act like I actually knew what I was doing in the kitchen. This stage included a lot of burnt dishes, band-aids, and an emergency pizza delivery number on hand.

The next stage was when I finally had a foundation of a few dishes I could solidly make, and I felt comfortable experimenting with harder dishes. At this stage I was able to host dinner parties, and contribute something better than meatballs at potluck dinners.

Then I had a baby, and I entered a good six months of take out food. Cooking sort of started up again around that six-month mark, but I didn’t realize then there was an even harder challenge coming up! When I went back to work there was another stretch where those take-out menus got a good work out, and then I started to get into fast and quick meals. It’s so stressful to get home from work and need to get dinner on the table ASAP, plus to have it not suck.

It seems like the only time I can actually create a meaningful dish is on the weekend when I am not working, and usually my weekends are spent with family and friends at restaurants. I can’t believe I am going to say this, but sometimes I actually miss cooking a good meal!

This week I tried an AMAZING solution. I ordered a meal from a company called Fresh Canteen in Toronto.

The process for ordering a meal is super easy. First of all you should enter your postal code into the website to see if you are in their delivery range. If you aren’t yet, don’t stress because they are expanding their reach right now. If you are in range, consider yourself lucky!

Next up take a look at that weeks recipes to see what you would like.

You need to chose which recipes you would like and the number of servings, and then Fresh Canteen will deliver the recipe and ingredients straight to your door.

They use a refrigerated box so you don’t even need to be home for the delivery.

All boxes are delivered on Tuesdays between 12pm and 6pm. The refrigerated box I received contained insulated packaging with a gel pack which kept my food fresh.

When I opened my first box I found all of the ingredients I would need to make my chosen recipe, which was Honey Glazed Chicken with Watermelon, Feta & Mint Salad and Potatoes.

There were a couple things I needed out of my pantry like salt, pepper, a bowl, a pot, and a dish to use in the oven, but otherwise everything else was provided. That was amazing news to me because I had a box of Cherios and a loaf of bread in the pantry at the time, so I wasn’t really prepared to add anything significant to the meal based on what I already had on hand.

Included in the box were step-by-step instructions complete with photos to explain how to prepare the meal. I LOVE recipes with photos because I really need a visual to see what dinner is ACTUALLY supposed to look like.

So basically Fresh Canteen does all of the shopping for you, and they send you the ingredients with a quick and easy recipe to follow. My meal only took 40 minutes to complete which solved my time issue, along with the fact that the shopping and meal idea was sent right to my house. It doesn’t get much easer than that. The produce was super fresh as well! Fresh Canteen source their ingredients locally whenever possible, and everything was already measured out so I could just chop a few things up and add them to the mix. All of the nutritional information is included as well if you are watching what you are eating carefully.

You are able to choose how many portions of each meal you would like, and Fresh Canteen charges $12.50 per serving.

Fresh Canteen sends you almost everything you need to make any of their meals, but you may need a few things out of your own kitchen. They suggest you keep on hand a ladle, locking tongs, spatula, chef’s knife, grater, serrated bread knife, y-shaped vegetable peeler, colander, skillet or frying pan, pot, baking tray and cookie sheet. You will note that Cherios and bread were NOT on this list, but if they were I would have totally been prepared.

I absolutely loved this service! I loved that all of the shopping was done for me, and that I was able to create this quick and healthy meal without needing to do much other than some herb chopping. It felt good to create something in the kitchen so easily. The instructions were so easy to follow, and it really was time saver to have everything measured and ready to go.

Check out Fresh Canteen at www.FreshCanteen.com – but only if you are interested in saving time, eating healthy, and want to look like you have mastered the whole “cooking” thing.

Roxymandy July 17, 2014

Be A Part Of The Etsy Road Trip This Summer!

You may know about my obsession with all things Etsy via a few posts I’ve done here before, so you may understand why I am so excited that Etsy is on a road trip this summer!!

For the first time ever Etsy will have a travelling mobile marketplace visiting four cities over 10 days across Ontario.

Etsy will have a 30-foot custom AirStream trailer that will embark on a four-day Canadian road trip featuring local Etsy sellers, and wherever it parks you will also find musicians, food trucks, a photo booth, and more!

Starting on August 1st the mobile marketplaces will pop-up in Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto.

Online shopping is amazing because it’s so easy (almost TOO easy for some of us and our weary credit cards), but it’s also nice to see what you are purchasing before you buy it, so this is a great chance to buy from your favourite Estsy sellers while seeing their one-of-a-kind pieces in person.

Visitors can meet and mingle with some of their favourite sellers while shopping their one-of-a-kind pieces on the spot.

You can follow the online road trip by looking up #EtsyRoadTrip on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or by visiting etsy.me/roadtrip for the full program schedule.

And for those of you who want to check out the schedule, I was sweet enough to post it for you below. As always, happy shopping!

#EtsyRoadTrip Calendar:

Montreal – Friday, August 1 and Saturday, August 2

On August 1 from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., catch Etsy at Olympic Park (4141 avenue Pierre-De Coubertin) as a part of Montreal’s #FirstFridays – the largest food truck gathering in Quebec. Sample tasty food and shop handmade clothing and statement accessories from Noemiah, grab a hand-drawn card or print from Kristy Boisvert, or pick a handmade sterling silver piece of jewelry from Angry Weather. A live performance by Corinna Rose will be the soundtrack to the party.

On August 2, Noemiah, Kristy Boisvert and Angry Weather will travel with the caravan across town to Old Port (333 Rue de la Commune Ouest) to join the Divers/Cite “Fireworks night at La Ronde” from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. with music by Little Scream and Corinna Rose.

Ottawa – Monday, August 4

There will be no case of the Mondays in Ottawa on August 4 thanks to Etsy. At Lebreton Flats from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Ottawans can enjoy a set from Kelly Sloan and the Claytones and snack on food from Bridgehead, The Merry Dairy and Streetside Curry. Meet local Etsy seller Burrowed by Caryne and shop her upcycled clothing that has been resewn into fashion forward pieces. Visit Tangente, who specializes in stylish and eco-friendly clothing and who will bring her sewing machine along for demos on-site. Say hi to Hello Yellow who will be selling candles from her recently launched company, Campy. Unique items from Infinite Purpose, Forestiere and Littlest Bird Workshop will also be available for purchase.

Kingston – Tuesday, August 5

On August 5 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., meet, shop and mingle with Kingston-based sellers Here and Now Shop, who designs and creates one-of-a-kind jewelry; Nicole Tarasick, whose Canadian-themed prints, pillows and tote bags are a great way to show true patriot love; Salvage Jewelry Co, with jewelry that incorporates upcycled scrap metals and vintage components to create modern and trendy jewelry; and Ox and Victor, who creates unique silver jewelry pieces with an edge. Special musical guests: the Bernstein Band Trio and a free lunchtime yoga class from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. provided by Lululemon!

Toronto – Friday, August 8 and Saturday, August 9

The Etsy road trip will end its tour in downtown Toronto. On August 8 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at King St. W. and Brant St., pick up a festival-favourite flower crown from Jordan De Ruiter, check out show-stopping neckties and bowties by Handsome + Lace, grab a handmade nail polish, nail art and jewelry from Nail Kandy, and hunt down accessories made from found, limited edition textiles from Grace Design’s travels. BeaverTails, We Got Balls and Gourmet Gringos will bring the food to the party and tunes will be provided by Emmy Rouge and Michael Rault.

On August 9 Etsy road trip will make its final stop at the historic Distillery District on South Trinity Street from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Watch Toronto seller Jordan de Ruiter craft a floral headband, check out Handsome + Lace’s handmade neckties and bowties, pick up your very own DIY handcrafted embroidery kit by Kiriki Press and stock up on Grace Designs’ accessory collection while listening to Taylor Knox Band. Eat a sweet treat from Choco Churros or have an afternoon snack from We Got Balls.

Roxymandy July 15, 2014

Summer Reading Material for Toddlers

No only do I need summer reading material for myself, but also for my toddler! When you are hoping to squeeze in some time reading magazines and books on the weekend or on vacation, you need to find a way to occupy your toddler too, so why not a book for them? My son is 2 now so it’s at the stage where he will pick up a book and flip through it on his own, pointing out the things he sees and reading it in his own way. I read him so many books at night it’s important to find a few that I like to read too! Here are a few of my summer reading picks for toddlers.

Potty by Leslie Patricelli

This book is perfect for the potty training stage. It’s short, sweet, and to the point!

Toot by Leslie Patricelli

This book is by the same author as Potty, and it’s a really cute read!

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Rinker

This one is a favourite at our house right now. It’s a little long, but it’s a great bedtime story for boys who love trucks!

The Boss Baby by Marla Frazee

One of London’s all time favourites! We picked this one up in Lake Placid, but you can buy it online with Amazon. It’s pretty accurate description of how the baby runs your house.

Rockin’ Babies by Dr. Jenn Berman and Cynthia Weil

I’ve been reading this book to London since he was a newborn so it’s one of his favourites. It’s all about babies partying in their cribs, and traveling with their roadies (that would be you!).

Away We Go! By the Disney Book Group

I love this book because it is all about travel around the world, and London loves it too because of the bright photos.

Whizzy Wheels: London Bus By Marion Billet

This bus has wheels that spin on the book so it doubles as a toy!