Teach Children the Importance of Perseverance with the Never Give Up Bunny-Giveaway

In many ways, kids don’t get as many chances to fail as they used to. Sports are often played in a non-competitive setting, children are no longer held back at school and because instilling positive self-esteem has become a focus for so many parents, many children no longer learn about how to continue on regardless when they’d don’t succeed at a task.

But failure is a part of life and learning to keep moving forward despite a setback is one of the most important lessons we can give our children. That is the concept behind the Never Give Up Bunny and recently I received the Never Give Up Bunny Family Pack to review so I could see just how these adorable bunnies help children learn about perseverance and achieving goals.

boy with never give up bunny bani-o [Read more...]

Life Coach Caird Urquhart Shares Five Tips To Keep Your Kids Out of Her Office When They’re in Their Twenties

I had the pleasure of meeting life coach Caird Urquhart at a press event last October and I was very impressed by her down-to-earth approach to life, work and family. We chatted recently and she very generously agreed to share her knowledge with Mommy Kat and Kids readers through this fabulous article. We all want our children to grow up to be confident, independent adults. Here are Caird’s top five tips for making that happen!

caird urquhart photo

1. Be a mother not a friend

Too often I see parents bend over backwards to be “liked” by their children. Let’s not confuse like with love. To be a loving parent doesn’t always mean you need to be liked. I remember when I was little I had a friend whose mom would let us do whatever we wanted. We even got to draw on the walls in one room in their house. At that time I thought how lucky she was to have such a cool mom. Fast forward ten years. I ran into her one night at a then common teenage hangout and found out she was living in a home for wayward youth. That was the first time I was glad my mother hadn’t been my friend growing up. The kicker for me on this subject came more recently when I was discussing with someone whether they should buy alcohol for their 17-year-old daughter. She wanted to take something to a party she was going to. Since when did being a parent equate with dropping off little brown bags to your kids? I’m no prude but I draw the line on breaking the law as a way to win over your child’s affection. [Read more...]

Inspire Your Family with the Family Manifesto Poster from Life Manifestos-Giveaway

FamilyManifestoPersonalizedSmallI want my home to always be a place where my children can feel safe and loved. A place where they can share their feelings, express their frustrations and use their imaginations all that they want. There are times when it can be hard to remember how much I want that. (Like those moments when I’ve asked them something nineteen times and asking a twentieth just might make me go crazy!) So that’s why I was delighted when I got the chance to review the Family Manifesto poster from Life Manifestos.

This gorgeous 16” by 20” poster comes in both a generic and a personalized version. I decided to get the Personalized Family Manifest Poster that features the words “We are the Lavallee Family” printed in the centre. The manifesto contains a statement that embraced everything I want my boys to feel when they’re in their home, a manifesto that inspired strength and confidence while creating an atmosphere of love, comfort, and support. [Read more...]

Cool Your Kids Down with Homemade Freezycup Ice Pops from LifeWithoutPlastic.com-Giveaway

To me, nothing says “summer” quite like a child eating an ice pop. I usually prefer making ice pops at home since the ingredients in a store-bought treat are mostly sugar and artificial flavouring. I’ve always had ice pop moulds at home but with recent concerns about BPA and other toxins in plastic, I’m a little more hesitant about using my tried and true ice pop moulds. Fortunately, Life Without Plastic came to the rescue this year by sending me two of its fabulous new Freezycup moulds.

freezycup ice pop mouldsThese ice pop moulds are made of stainless steel and come with three reusable bamboo sticks and two silicone gaskets each. They are the perfect 100ml size and I loved the fact that they featured curved edges on the lid to help contain drips. My oldest son can devour an ice pop almost before it starts to melt but my youngest son likes to take his time when eating frozen foods and the versatile lid really minimized the mess when he was eating. [Read more...]

How I Conquered My Phobia of Instant Mashed Potatoes

At some point in my childhood, I learned to look at certain foods with a critical, disapproving eye. Margarine was a thing to be abhorred. Miracle Whip was an odd relative of the mayonnaise I preferred. But nothing was quite so bizarre and unpleasant to me as instant mashed potatoes.

vintage instant mashed potato ad

Now I don’t think my family really had anything against instant mashed potatoes, but they were never a product that we had in the house and I always felt that they were something to be sneered at. After all, making actual mashed potatoes isn’t that hard! Peel a few potatoes, boil the heck out of them for a half-hour or so, mash them up and enjoy! Why on earth would anyone want to pay extra money to make a side dish consisting of dried-out flakes of processed potato when real potatoes were so cheap and easy to prepare? Even after I had grown to adulthood, I remained determined to never use such a strange and unnecessary product.

Then I had a fun-loving, high-energy boy. And then I had another one. And then I started a blog. And the prep-time I put into dinner started to dwindle more and more. When my husband came home from grocery shopping one day with a box of instant mashed potatoes, I suddenly realized that I had virtually stopped making mashed potatoes as a side dish. Rice and pasta were just so much easier!

At that moment, I decided to throw caution to the wind and see what those little potato flakes were all about. I followed the instructions, pushed aside all my reservations and made my first-ever pot of instant mashed potatoes.

And you know what?

After going to bed at two in the morning, getting up again at seven, feeding and dressing children, packing lunches, playing games, answering emails, planning blog posts, picking people up, dropping people off, washing dishes, cleaning up toys AND making dinner for my family at the end of it all…I actually found that those instant mashed potatoes tasted pretty darn fabulous!

Even if it’s just a different food, why not try something new today? You may end up pleasantly surprised by something you were convinced would be gross!

Belated Wordless Wednesday with Linky-Christmas Morning

playing with hot wheels on Christmas morning

Zackary and his dad with an interconnecting track containing both old and new Hot Wheels sets

If you have a Wordless Wednesday post, feel free to link it up below; I’d love to check it out!