Category: Reviews, promotions and giveaways

Ingredient of the week: cabbage – and a Food Revolution Day giveaway!

When I was a kid, my dad did a fair bit of overnight traveling for work. I always knew my dad was on an out of town road trip when I smelled the unmistakeable odour of cabbage being boiled for dinner. My mom and granny loved it; my dad couldn’t stand even the smell of it cooking. I therefore called it a victory of considerable magnitude when we had my folks over for dinner recently and he not only didn’t hate the cabbage side dish I’d made with meatloaf – he actually liked it.

I had never cooked cabbage before this year. I neither liked nor disliked it as a kid so I never bothered to try cooking it or even paying much attention to it. I knew I liked coleslaw and cabbage rolls, though, and knew it was a fundamental ingredient in both. It turns out cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin C, and vitamin B6. It is also a very good source of manganese, dietary fiber, potassium, vitamin B1, folate and copper, and weighs in at a hefty 22 calories per cup. (That’s about the same as one twisty snack pretzel!)

But you know what I love the very most about cabbage? You can fry it up with bacon, garlic and onions and have the world’s best side dish. My friend Danielle recommended this recipe not too long after Christmas and I’m sure we’ve had it at least twice a month, maybe more, ever since. The smell of garlic and onions frying in rendered bacon fat is a thing of beauty, and despite being fried in bacon fat the sheer volume of low-calorie cabbage turns this dish into a reasonably nutritious, low-calorie AND flavourful option. This is the dish that I want to cook up for Sobeys #PotluckChallenge for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day!

(Remember I mentioned it last week? The Better Food for All site is now live – you can now register your potluck event and to share tips and tools to host the perfect potluck event. And through it all, Sobeys will be donating to the Children’s Aid Foundation in support of cooking workshops for kids across Canada. And don’t forget to visit the Food Revolution Day site, too. Food Revolution Day is coming up two weeks from this Friday on May 16!)

So, back to the recipe – I streamlined and tweaked it a bit from the link above. Here’s how it rolls in my kitchen. Chop up three, or six, or however many you have available, strips of bacon and set them up to cook in a really big pot over medium heat. While the bacon is cooking and rendering, spend an inordinate of time cursing and trying to peel several cloves of garlic (seriously, there must be a trick to peeling garlic that I am missing. Help?) and decide that three cloves is better than the six you were aiming for, and chop that up with half an onion or so. When the bacon is mostly crispy, about 10 minutes or so, pour most of the fat into a jar without pouring it all over the outside of said jar (I am still perfecting this part) but don’t be too fussy about getting it all out. Put the pot with the bacon and a little bit of the fat back on the burner and dump in the garlic and onions. Give it all a good stir and wait for the magic.

While you are waiting for the alchemy, cut up the cabbage and swear that one day you will replace the ridiculous child’s toys that are your kitchen knives. I cut mine into strips that are small enough that they aren’t coleslaw candidates but not so large I can’t stuff a lot of them into my mouth at once. Avoid the core of the cabbage – you’ll have more than enough to fill your pot, trust me! Right about now take a deep whiff of the heavenly aroma that is the garlic and onions carmelizing in the bacon fat. There is no smell better in my kitchen, ever. Once the onion becomes translucent, maybe 5 or 7 minutes, start dumping the chopped-up cabbage into the pot. I dump some in and then use tongs to mix the cabbage in with the garlic, onions and bacon, then add more cabbage and mix some more, until the pot is full or I run out of cabbage. Despite the recipe, I usually only add a smallish pinch of kosher salt and that’s all – I find the bacon plenty salty and the onions and garlic give it all the flavour it needs.

If you perchance have burned the bacon to the bottom of the pot, which never happens to me regularly, don’t worry! Put a lid on the pot when you’ve crammed in as much cabbage as it can hold and let it stew in its own juices for 10 or 15 minutes, stirring frequently with tongs or a big spoon. The juice from the cabbage will soften up the flavourful burnt bits and you can scrape them into the mix as you’re cooking. Take the lid off the pot for another 10 to 15 minutes of cooking and you’re done. It is one of my favourite side dishes (goes great with meatloaf or any BBQ meat) and it’s even better by itself for lunch the next day, cold or warmed up. Best part? The kids eat it!!!!

Since I loved that dish so much I thought I would love this easy variation on the same theme – cabbage wrapped in bacon and grilled in foil on the BBQ. But meh, it was not worth trying a second time. I did expand my cabbage repertoire to include homemade coleslaw last week, though. I’ve always liked coleslaw but hate that the storebought versions have so much sugar and other things I can’t identify. This vinegar coleslaw recipe was fairly easy and I liked the tangy-ness of it.

I’m open to suggestions, though – got a family favourite coleslaw recipe to share? I personally like mine on the oil and vinegar side of the spectrum, but I am not opposed to a creamy recipe if its a keeper. Do you cook cabbage? I’d love to hear your favourite recipe or tips!

And now for the giveaway part! Thanks to our friends at Sobeys and their Better Food for All campaign, I have a $50 Sobeys gift card to share with one lucky winner. You could buy a lot of cabbage at Sobeys for $50, I’m just sayin’! Want to win? Leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite dish is to bring to a potluck. Or are you the one who volunteers to bring the plates and napkins?

Here’s the fine print:

  1. This is a giveaway for one $50 gift card for Sobeys.
  2. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post (not on Facebook, must appear on danigirl.ca/blog) telling me your favourite dish or item to bring to a potluck.
  3. One winner will be chosen at random from all comments posted.
  4. Everyone who “likes” Postcards from the Mothership on Facebook will get a bonus entry. (This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.) If you already like Postcards from the Mothership on FB, just say so in your comment.
  5. This giveaway is open only to residents of Canada, excluding residents of Quebec. (sorry!)
  6. This giveaway will run until 11:59 pm EDT on Friday May 9, 2014.
  7. If you win, you must be willing to provide your full name and address to me so I can mail you the gift card.

Thanks to Sobeys for sponsoring this one and good luck to everyone who enters. 🙂

Disclosure: The author has received consideration from Sobeys or Sobeys’ media partners in exchange for this content. Sobeys has not reviewed these claims and is not responsible for the content.

Family Fun Giveaway: Family pass to Kidsfest Ottawa!

Have you heard about Kidsfest Ottawa?

What’s Kidsfest?

At Kidsfest Ottawa families will enjoy quality, family-fun entertainment including stage shows, interactive animal exhibits and opportunities to meet popular children’s characters, explore over 70 exhibitor booths providing a unique platform for parents to purchase products and services for their families, and have access to fun and valuable information and resources.

Some of the events and activities to expect:

ï‚· the Kratt Brothers will be performing a 1/2 hour live show Amazon Adventure Event on Saturday followed by an autograph signing session

 Mike the Knight will delight crowds with two performances on Sunday with his motto “Be a Knight, Do it Right”

 “Inspiration Stage” will expand your imagination with songs and music

ï‚· Junkyard Symphony will perform on the Main Stage both days and later teach children how to play instruments using recycled materials on the Inspiration Stage

ï‚· Ray’s Reptiles will showcase its new performance of ‘Under the Canopy – Animals of the Rainforest’

ï‚· Funatorium Emporium will be a new partner with its Gyro Gym, Magnetic Wall, Lego Build & Plasma Cars

Kratt brothers!! *swoon* I have such a mom-crush on them! And there’s a special place in my heart for Ray’s Reptiles, too. We do love our critters around here! The boys are super-excited about attending this one – doesn’t it sound like kid heaven? Kidsfest runs Saturday and Sunday April 5-6 at the EY Centre. For details on tickets and the schedule of events, visit the Kidsfest website.

But you, my bloggy peeps, can win one of two family passes that I have to give away! I have TWO family passes, each comprising two adult and two child admissions to Kidsfest Ottawa on either April 5 or April 6, 2014. If you would like to enter the giveaway to win one of the two family passes, simply leave a comment on this blog post telling me about a family-friendly activity you enjoy in Ottawa.

Here’s the fine print:

  1. This is a giveaway for one of two sets of family passes to Kidsfest Ottawa on April 5 or 6, 2014.
  2. A family pass comprises two adult and two child admissions to Kidsfest.
  3. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post telling me about a family-friendly Ottawa activity that you enjoy.
  4. Two winners will be chosen at random from all comments posted. Each winner will win one family pass [2 adult and 2 child admissions] to Kidsfest, good for either April 5 or April 6.
  5. Everyone who “likes” Postcards from the Mothership on Facebook will get a bonus entry. (This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.) If you already like Postcards from the Mothership on FB, just say so in your comment.
  6. This giveaway is open only to residents of Canada, excluding residents of Quebec. (sorry!)
  7. This giveaway will run until 11:59 pm EDT on Friday March 21, 2014.
  8. If you win, you must be willing to provide your full name and contact information to me to share with Kidsfest Ottawa. Your pass will be available at the EY Centre’s “Will Call” desk during Kidsfest.
  9. Please note that the family passes do not include fees for parking at the EY Centre.

Sounds like fun, right? Good luck!

Disclosure: In addition to offering two family passes for this giveaway, Kidsfest also offered us a family pass in exchange for this promotion. Now to figure out which kid has to sit in the parking lot since the pass only covers four admissions, and I don’t think I will be able to convince Beloved to sit this one out, either! 😉

Edited to add: Thank you all for entering. Two winners have been selected and contacted via e-mail and I will share the details once they confirm their availability. However, here’s a good deal for everyone else from Capital Parent: Use promo code ‘CPSOCIAL2014’ and get $3 OFF adult admission when you buy your tickets online!

Sponsored: Diet is a four-letter word

I like it when pitches for sponsored posts align with the ideas rattling around in my head. This is another one of those instances.

Canadian Olympian and mom Silken Laumann worked with Multi-Grain Cheerios on the World Without Dieting campaign. This is the basis of the campaign:

We believe that nutrition is healthier than deprivation and that dieting is harmful to us and to our children. So let’s embrace a healthy, balanced lifestyle, and empower the next generation to do the same by removing the word dieting from our lives and replacing it with words like nourished, strong, and fulfilled.

In this video, Silken tells her young daughter why she thinks “dieting” is a hurtful word.

I like this message. To me, “diet” implies something to which you subject yourself, something you endure, something short term and unpleasant. Although I never framed it in those terms, I do see how dieting can be a hurtful word.

You might remember back a few years ago I lost nearly 30 lbs, and I felt terrific. Since then, my weight has crept back up – doesn’t it always? It’s not as high as it was after I had Lucas, but it is about 10 lbs heavier than I want to be. I’ve been hesitant to go back on the “diet” I was on because it was restrictive and involved a lot of planning and hard work and denying myself things I really like to eat. Instead, I’m trying to bump up my activity level and be much more moderate with things that are yummy but perhaps not quite the best nutritional choice. (Hello, cheddar jalapeno cheesies, I am talking to you!)

Even more of a challenge is watching the eating habits of one of the boys. His metabolism seems to be a little slower and he is disinclined to physical activity, so his weight is starting to creep up. It may well be one of those growth phase things, where he is filling out and about to shoot up in height, but I am still trying to take this opportunity to teach all three of the boys about good nutritional choices without actually restricting what they are eating. All that to say, I’ve been making the same choices that Silken outlines in her video without being consciously aware of it. I’m trying to teach them the best possible every-day eating habits so dieting will never even cross their minds.

What do you think about the whole idea of doing away with the word “diet”? Do we empower ourselves when we take away the power of the word? Does taking away the word take away the problem?

Edited to add: Hmm, I’m having trouble with the embedded video player, are you? You can see the video and take the “never say diet” oath here.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Multi-Grain Cheerios. However, as always, the opinions in this blog are my own.

Fisher-Price reinvents four classic toys this Christmas

Sigh. After a lovely three-year run, this will be my last post on as a Fisher-Price Ambassador. It’s been fun, eh?

Speaking of fun, for my last post I’d like to tell you about four iconic toys that Fisher-Price has re-invented this holiday season. Everything old is new again!

Take the Chatter Phone Talking Game, for instance. I don’t know anyone who didn’t have the iconic 1970s version of the Chatter Phone with the extra-long cord – can anyone say choking hazzard? Now they’ve updated it as an interactive game with fun sounds, phrases and prompts that plays four different games and helps your child learn about animals and animal sounds, numbers and counting. (In all truth, I kind of prefer the original Chatter Phone, but props to FP for keeping up with the times. I’m kind of an old-school forget-to-put-the-batteries-in-the-noisy-toys kind of girl, but I’m sure kids will love this!)

And speaking of my childhood, while we did have a Chatter Phone, I always coveted a See ‘n Say. Funny what you remember, isn’t it? We received samples of these toys (that have now been donated to Toy Mountain, thank you Fisher-Price!) and even in the box Lucas loved playing with this one.

I was thinking about Simon as a toddler when I saw the Lil Snoopy Tippin’ Treats game. I think he would have loved this toy much more than the Mr Bucket he begged for and then was terrified of many years ago. Same idea, but less terrifying to a toddler, I think: collect the bones and chase the motorized Lil Snoopy around the room to get them into his bowl before he tips over. This has three games in one, and helps develop hand-eye coordination while getting kids up and moving.

And last but not least, I wish we had this toy a few years ago. Lucas loves loves LOVES jigsaw puzzles, but he’s such a little savant with them and has been doing them so long that I think this one might be a little too easy for him. So much more than a jigsaw puzzle, the I-Jig Interactive Electronic Puzzle System has several modes of play. First you put the puzzle together, but then in mode 2 you play an electronic game of seek and find. Mode 3 is more advanced with games to play that are unique to each puzzle. And don’t worry about kids getting bored with this one – you can get two additional puzzle refills to keep them challenged. See what I mean about 21st century spins on old favourites?

And since this is my last post as a Fisher-Price Ambassador, I’d like to steal a few pixels here at the end to say a few thanks yous. Thanks, of course, to the amazing team at Fisher-Price. I am as proud to work with you today as I was the day I signed on to the program. It’s been a wild ride with you and I could never say thank you enough for all your generousity through the years. Thanks, as well, to Mom Central Canada, and especially to Kathryn, Pam, Cora and Sarah. You guys are terrific. And finally, thanks to you, dear readers. I know that it’s your visits and your views that make sponsorships like the Fisher-Price one possible.

Disclosure: I receive special perks as a part of my affiliation with the Fisher-Price Play Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada. The opinions in this blog are my own.

Ho-ho-hot holiday toys from Fisher-Price!

It’s the first week of December, do you have your Christmas shopping done yet?

When did I become the kind of person who is done the bulk of her shopping by the first of December? I am all about the last minute! I’ve noticed in the last few years, though, that if I don’t have at least a clear idea of what I am getting, if not actually having the stuff hidden in my (shhhhh!) garage, I am downright panicky. I hate the feeling of not knowing what I’m going to get someone!

As the boys are getting older, I’m finding that their Christmas wish lists comprise more and more electronics. I will be sad when the day comes that all they want are gift cards for downloads and cartridges to stick in their devices. I’m enjoying the toy-buying while it lasts.

If you have kids to buy for this year and are stumped for ideas, Fisher-Price has put together a great little site with recommendations for the hot holiday toys of 2013. Here are some of the toys I liked or would recommend for each age group:

Ages 9 to 36 months: the Laugh & Learn Crawl Around Car (sigh, I miss this age!). See my blog post about it here.

Ages 1 to 5 years: the Wheelies Stand and Play Rampway. Gravity rocks – such a fun toy for little fingers! See my review of the very similar Wheelies Loops and Swoops Amusement Park on the Fisher-Price site.

Ages 3 to 8 years: while I love all the Imaginext toys, our favourite is still the Eagle Talon Castle. I wrote about it here. Honourable mention to the entire DC Super Friends Little People line, the Imaginext BatCave and the Apatosaurus. Because dinosaurs! So much play value in all of those for my curious five year old!

Imaginext dinos in Manotick!

While I may be partial to Fisher-Price, I still gotta admit I am charmed by this ad for Imaginext at Christmas:

Cute, eh? 🙂

On the Fisher-Price Hot Holiday Toys site, you’ll find a couple more videos and a link to some coupons for some Fisher-Price favourites.

Do you have any toy recommendations, Fisher-Price or otherwise, to share?

Disclosure: I receive special perks as a part of my affiliation with the Fisher-Price Play Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada. The opinions in this blog are my own.

Imaginext makes multimedia fun by incorporating toys, apps and webisodes

This month, Lucas received a wonderful treat from our friends at Fisher-Price: the Imaginext Rescue City Centre play set. What little boy doesn’t love playing firefighter and police officer? Come to think of it, I know a few little girls who would love that adventure, too!

Like its cousin the Eagle Talon Castle (one of our most favourite FP toys ever!), the Rescue City Centre is programmed to recognize different accessories and respond to them. This never fails to delight Lucas! (I personally still to this day chuckle every time the drawbridge is lowered on the Eagle Talon Castle and a sing-song voice calls out “who eeees it?”) There’s lots to keep little fingers busy: the action figures drive the fire truck, you can zip up and down in the elevator or open and close various doors, and you can do fun stuff like shoot water projectiles at the fire. There’s a full line of extra accessories to the Imaginext line, too, so parents and grandparents can continue to build the collection for subsequent birthdays and Christmases.

Beloved and Lucas have been having fun exploring some of the Imaginext apps available to accompany the toy line. Just yesterday, Beloved was rather delighted to find out that through the Imaginext DC Super Friends Batcave app he was able to watch a brand new DC Super Friends episode he had never seen before. (Remind me again which one is the kid?) And Lucas was showing me how he can use the iPad, the Batcave app and his actual Batcave for an interactive game. Pretty cool stuff! There’s an Imaginext Dinosaur app we’re going to try out next. And by we I actually do mean we – talk about a game the whole family can play. 😉

Speaking of apps, the ones that accompany the toy sets are free but there’s another fun one for $3.99 in the iTunes store – it’s a comic-book style storybook app based on the Ed Venture Imaginext webisodes I mentioned in my last post. Lucas loves these! There are two modes, either “read to me” or “read it myself” and you interact with each pane of the comic. There’s also a choose-your-own adventure element at three places, so you can read through the story several times with different outcomes. These are perfect for my learning-to-read, technology-obsessed five year old!

If you’re looking for gift ideas this holiday season, I genuinely recommend any toys from the Imaginext line. You know that our friends at Fisher-Price have been kind enough to send us a few sets this year for testing and review, but we’ll be going shopping for several of the other sets for Lucas on our own dime. They’re great toys with a lot of play value, and I only wish we could have started investing in them a couple of boys ago!

What’s at the top of your “hot holiday wish list” this year?

New: Ed Venture webisodes from Fisher-Price’s Imaginext

I may have raved a few (ahem) times about Fisher-Price’s Imaginext toy line. From the Batcave to the Eagle Talon Castle to the Imaginext Dinosaurs, we love them all.

Photo of children pretending to run from a toy dinosaur

(Did you know that the dino on the left is called an apatosaurus? When I was a kid they were called brontosauruses, but apparently that was wrong. The things you learn from a five-year old, I tell ya!)

I love watching or listening to imaginary play. I find myself sitting with fingers paused over the keyboard, staring sightlessly at the monitor in front of me, while I listen to Lucas enacting elaborate and epic scenarios nearby. Heros, villians, chases and captures – it all plays out across the dining room floor, until Bella takes an interest and tries to make off with one of the action figures. Then the REAL drama begins! 😉

I appreciate the Imaginext toy line because they encourage thoughtful open-ended play. Rules are swapped out for roles, and the inner world of Lucas’s imagination (currently populated by seas of Puffles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Batman and Creepers) tumble together in a fantastic society of magic and mystery. The play experts at Fisher-Price explain that imaginative play like this builds more than just creativity, but self-confidence and problem-solving skills, too, and they help kids explore their own sense of identity.

Imaginext has taken an exciting leap into the multimedia world. They’re turning on the Adventure by introducing the new Ed Venture webisodes, featuring Ed and his friends as they discover worlds of adventure. They’re firefighters in Hot Time in the City: Check it out!

And they’re knights in Through the Crystal Eye:

Fun, eh? My only gripe is that most 9 yr olds I know are probably not carrying a cell phone, but if that’s the only challenge to my suspension of disbelief I think the kids will enjoy it. You can see more about Ed Venture and his adventures on the Imaginext microsite.

There’s a contest, too! Visit www.imaginextadventure.com to play an online game and unlock the next phase of the game by solving clues. By registering to play the game, you’ll be entered to win 1 of 5 $300 Imaginext prize packs. Each prize pack will include:

•Imaginext Rescue City Centre
•Imaginext Mega Apatasaurus
•Imaginext Eagle Talon Castle
•Imaginext Batcave
•Imaginext Monsters U Scare Floor

Pssst! This is an awesome prize pack comprising most of Lucas’s favourite toys!!!!

Disclosure: I receive special perks as a part of my affiliation with the Fisher-Price Play Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada. The opinions in this blog are my own.

Now YOU get to give away the hottest Fisher-Price infant toy of 2014!

One of the hottest new toys from Fisher-Price is the adorable Laugh and Learn Crawl Around Car. I heard it was so popular that they had wanted to share one with each of the Fisher Price Ambassadors but they kept running out before they could even send one to us!

Have you seen it? This is the latest TV ad. (If it doesn’t display for you here, you can also view it on the Laugh and Learn Crawl Around Car page on the Fisher-Price site.)

I would have loved having this in the house when my boys were wee. I know they would have loved it! It’s got buttons to press, levers to twist, balls to roll down ramps and shapes to sort. Please note this is NOT a moving toy – it’s perfect for little ones to crawl around and learn to pull themselves up with.

Here’s some great tips from the learning experts at Fisher-Price on how parents can play with baby and this toy together to make learning fun:

The Crawl-Around Car puts baby in the driver’s seat with a fun-filled learning vehicle just their size!

• Encourage exploration and discovery. As baby interacts with the different play features for the first time, show excitement and reinforcement as you label the different objects on the car. “You found the horn! That’s a key. Let’s see what it does.”

• Use word descriptors. It helps your child understand meaning and fosters developing language skills. “This is a BIG red car. Let’s find the green shape and put it into the door.”

• Show how to open and close the door. Baby will learn about opposites while opening and closing it…”Can you open the door? Now let’s see you close it!”

• Encourage early role play. Ask your turn on the car to go for a ride…”Where should we go today?”

• Introduce opposites. Roll a ball fast, then roll it slowly, talking about actions and opposites.

• Play Hide-and-Seek with the shapes—helping your child learn that things can disappear, then reappear.

• Help draw comparisons for your baby in your everyday life. “Remember when mommy drives you in the car? Our car is white, this car is red. Turn the key to start the car. What sounds does a car make? Vrooom!”

Super cute, eh? I can see this being great for any baby old enough to sit up all the way up to the toddler years.

And now, my bloggy friends, here’s a twist on the usual giveaway: YOU get to give this away! From today through November 1, I’ll be taking nominations and at the end of the week, I’ll randomly choose one lucky winner from amongst all the nominees. There are two conditions beyond the usual fine print, however. The first is that you cannot nominate yourself or your significant other living with you to win. The second is that either the nominee or you must be local to the Ottawa area for delivery. I have the car here and am willing to drop it off within the Ottawa area, but because it’s so bulky I fear the shipping charges may be a little out of control.

So here’s a recap of the fine print:

  1. This is a giveaway for a Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Crawl-Around Car.
  2. By entering this giveaway, you are nominating someone else to win the toy.
  3. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post telling me who you are nominating to win and why. For example, “I’m nominating my friend Dani because her blog makes me laugh.” Or “I’m nominating my daughter-in-law Emma because she puts up with my son and gave me a beautiful granddaughter.” You get the point? Please don’t use full names, we can sort all that stuff out later if you win.
  4. Either you or the nominee must live within reasonable driving distance of Ottawa, Ontario. Let’s call that within 45 minutes drive from the Parliament Buildings.
  5. This giveaway will run until 11:59 pm EDT on Friday November 1, 2013.
  6. The winner will be contacted via e-mail and arrangements will be made for delivery before November 30, 2013.

Sound good? This is the first time I’ve done a reverse giveaway like this, so if you’re the lucky nominator of the winner, you’ll have to bear with me as we figure out the logistics – you can keep your nomination a secret if you like, for example. I will work out all the details with the winning nominator so this is as fun as possible for everyone.

Remember, you are nominating someone else to win, because it’s fun to share, right? 😉 Good luck to everyone!

Disclosure: I receive special perks as a part of my affiliation with the Fisher-Price Play Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada. The opinions in this blog are my own.

A Fisher-Price Little People contest, and two Little People favourites

Okay, I apologize in advance for this. It’s not even Halloween and I’m going to blog about holiday gift giving. I’m sorry. Well, not really. I love Christmas, and I love even more having great gift ideas so I’m not panicking at the last minute.

When I think of essential toys for toddlers, the Little People farm is at the top of my list. Farmer Eddie and his animals provide lots of interesting things to do – there are doors that open and close with sing along songs and fun animal sounds, a drop through silo and slide with funny sounds, a baler that tips up to deliver the hay into the top floor of the barn, a ‘clucking’ chicken on her nest and fences to create a separate corral. So much to keep little fingers and little imaginations busy! And here’s a tip from a mom who does not always love toys that make sounds – it’s still a terrific toys if you (shhhhhh!) take the batteries out! Every boy of ours loved that farm, and I spent many hours lying on the floor listening to the boys howl with laughter as I made the horse cluck like a chicken and the cow quack like a duck. Ah, memories…

My other favourite Little People set was the doll house, more formally known as the Little People Happy Sounds Home. The vast archives of this silly blog are recalcitrant to cough up the post I wrote at least six years ago about buying a doll house for Simon, but I do remember having the conversation, and it was the Fisher-Price Little People doll house Happy Sounds Home that we acquired. It was, at the time, the most gender-neutral one we could find. Because boys do like to play house, too.

We are nearly done with our Little People days, I do believe. After more than a decade of play, and by play I mean sucking on them, throwing them down the stairs, floating them in the tub and rescuing them from at least one chewing dog, they are still in surprisingly good condition. We gave away most of our Little People sets recently, and while I was sad to see them go, I was happy to see them toted off for another family to love. We kept the Little People DC Superhero sets, though. I don’t think either Beloved nor Lucas were ready to part with those yet! 😉

I mentioned a few months ago that Fisher-Price has launched a new line of Little People characters. You can “meet” Eddie, Mia, Tessa, Koby and Sofie on the Little People Meet the Friends site. And through October into November, there’s a fun contest being hosted by Fisher-Price and TreehouseTV. Kiddies, with their parents, can play a hide-and-seek game to find new characters on the Fisher-Price playsets, watch videos, and enter to win one of five Little People prize packs worth $265.

Each prize pack will include the following:
• Little People Happy Sounds Home Playset
• Little People Fun Sounds Farm Playset
• Little People Wheelies Stand ‘n Play Rampway
• Little People Zoo Talkers Playset
• Little People Disney Princess Klip Klop Stable

Visit Little People – Big Discoveries to check it out!

So, too early for holiday shopping? I feel like I’m ahead of the curve thinking about it, if not yet actually doing anything about it. Intention is 90% of the law, right? Or something like that.

Disclosure: I receive special perks as a part of my affiliation with the Fisher-Price Play Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada. However, as always, the opinions in this blog are my own.

In which she runs off to Toronto with Mike the Knight and ends up with the cops

So this story has been a while in the telling. Oy September, you vex me so!

You might remember I mentioned that earlier this month, I had the opportunity to run off for a quick trip to Toronto to visit with the lovely peeps from Mom Central Canada and Fisher-Price. If you remember, the first week of September was abruptly and unseasonably cold, but the day I zipped off to Toronto was like a little reminder of summer – warm and near 30C but with enough of a breeze off the lake that it seemed just about perfect.

Any day that begins with a view like this has to be good.

Toronto the good

From here I went down the lakeshore to the headquarters for Corus Entertainment, where we were having our meeting. Even if you’ve never heard of Corus, you’re probably familiar with some of their media properties: Nelvana, Treehouse, YTV, Teletoon, Q107, the Edge, Kids Can Press and many many others. As part of our day, we were taken on a fascinating backstage tour through the Nelvana offices of the 3D animation team behind Mike the Knight.

Do your kiddies watch Mike the Knight? Lucas really likes it, and I find that it’s one of the rare kid shows that’s not painful to watch as a grownup (as compared to such other Nelvana fare as Max and Ruby, which Lucas also inexplicably loves.) The Fisher-Price team shared some viewership stats that showed clearly Lucas and I are not alone in our appreciation of the goodhearted little knight: it’s the top-rated show for boys and girls ages 2-5, boys ages 2-11 and kids 2-11. (Don’t ask me about the demographic breakdown – different assessment tools, maybe? Anyway, it’s clear that Mike’s popular across the kiddie landscape.) It’s popular with parents, too (apparently the #3 show with the mom audience), probably largely due to the positive themes around encouraging kids to champion their responsibilities and inspiring kids to do the best of their abilities. And hey, what kid doesn’t like kings and queens, castles and dragons?

Did you know Mike the Knight is a Canadian creation? I had no idea! The concept came from the same fellow who created Bob the Builder (my boys’ first favourite show) and Lunar Jim, and the show – a co-production between Corus, Nelvana and HIT Entertainment – is created entirely in Toronto. Mike the Knight was launched 24 months ago, but was recently picked up by US network Nickleodeon, which led to the merchandizing launch supported by the folks at Fisher-Price.

The studio tour was wicked cool. We got to visit see several stages in the 3D animation process, from storyboarding to animating to the addition of textures, lighting and special effects. I don’t know if I ever mentioned that Beloved worked for a few years in the animation industry, so I have more than a passing knowledge about animation, but I’d never seen the 3D animation process up close. Once I got past coveting the hardware (giant monitors that act like tablets – you can draw right on them!), I was entranced by watching how 2D drawings are rendered into 3D figures. I think because of Beloved’s old-school animation training (flipping back and forth between key drawings and in-betweens, etc) I have never really appreciated what goes in to 3D animation – it’s a completely different process.

Anyway, all that to say, between the gracious animation team at Nelvana, the fun tech toys, and the spectacular Corus building on the lakefront (they have, among other things, a lakeside patio, several foozball tables in the lounge and a two-story indoor slide) by the end of the afternoon I was wondering if it was too late to consider a career change. I could learn to be an animator, if perhaps maybe I could dredge up some artistic talent from somewhere, yes? No, eh? Okay, then, I suppose uprooting the family and moving to Toronto is not the best plan ever after all.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. We had some great conversations with the Fisher-Price marketing team and with the terrific team from Mom Central Canada. We had an a-maz-ing dinner on a lakeside patio. And it was just when we arrived at our hotel for the evening and I went to check in that I realized that somewhere between the Porter gate at the Ottawa airport 12 hours before and the hotel lobby in Toronto — my driver’s license had disappeared. With a familiar sinking sensation in my stomach, I checked and rechecked every pocket and pouch, but it was gone. I clearly remember having it as I settled into my seat on the plane, and I clearly did not put it back into my wallet where it belonged.

This would be troublesome enough, but it also happened to be my only piece of photo ID. And they’re not really flexible on that whole “you need a piece of photo ID to get on our airplane” thing. I called Porter in a panic, and after a bit of hemming and hawing they confirmed that I needed to visit a local police detachment to file a report, and the occurrence number on that report would get me on the plane.

So that’s how I found myself on an unexpected quest that involved not knights and dragons but traversing Dundas Street in downtown Toronto from Jarvis across Yonge Street to the community police station near Dundas and University. My fellow Fisher-Price Ambassadors Caroline and Jody were kind enough to escort me on my quest through an unexpectedly busy downtown. Caroline was nice enough to document this, my first-ever visit inside a police station.

It’s not an adventure until the cops are involved, right? Suburban moms gone wild, I tell ya! And seriously, if you ever need an entry for your gratitude journal, I recommend the six block walk back and forth through downtown Toronto on a humid September evening. Yikes!

So it’s a good thing I had such a great time hanging out with Mike the Knight and my fellow Fisher Price ambassadors and the Mom Central Canada team, because after the travel snafus from Mexico (disappearing bank card) to Jamaica (hurricane) to Orlando (hurricane AND missing tickets), I’m pretty sure I’ll never again be invited to another Fisher-Price trip!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that you and your little ones can catch Mike the Knight on Treehouse up to 27 times per week, or on his very own website on Treehouse.com and you will find the full line of cute Mike the Knight toys at a store near you starting this fall.

Disclosure: I receive special perks as a part of my affiliation with the Fisher-Price Play Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada. The opinions in this blog are my own and I take full responsibility for my ongoing travel misadventures as well. 😉