Week 8 Summer Bucket List Update

At the beginning of summer, the kids and I sat down and created our summer bucket list. The list of things we were hoping to do over the summer.  We may not get to everything on the list, but it just gives us an idea of things to do.

August 29th Monday Madness Giveaway Linky

The last giveaway linky for August....hope that you had a wonderful summer - we sure did!

Happy 6th Birthday My Sweet Boy

Mr. K and I at the Ottawa Fury game on his birthday

Dear Mr. K:
Today, you are 6.  I can't really believe it has been six whole years since you came into my life. Labour and delivery with you was fast and furious and that seems like it was foreshadowing your personality.
You were a wonderful gift to our family - so much fun and full of life. You have definitely added a bit of adventure to our lives.  Watching you grow has been a wonderful privilege, and I can't wait to see what the next year holds for you as you enter into grade 1.
Love,
Mommy

Saturday was Mr. K's birthday party. He had 4 friends over for a video game truck party. 90 minutes in a trailer with a whole bunch of video games to choose from - they were all thrilled.  He had requested a Paw Patrol cake, and while we searched online for ideas he found one that was REALLY simple and easy to do.

I made some marshmallow fondant and cut out a few dog bones, added a few of the characters that he already had. The paw prints were made from melted chocolate - I put the melted chocolate into a Ziploc bag, snipped off a corner and then used it to make circles on a piece of parchment paper. Once they had set, I removed the circles and placed them into paw shapes on the  cake.

Sunday we had a surprise in store for our kids.  They have been wanting to see an Ottawa Fury FC game. They were each given a free ticket with their soccer registration, so we just needed to purchase our adult tickets.  There happened to be a game at 2pm today and we got tickets for the 4 of us.

We headed to Lansdown early and walked around the farmers market for a bit. Then we checked out the skate park and climbing structure that they have. The kids had fun making their way across the web.

When we were done with that we headed to the stadium and told the kids why we were there. They were pretty happy.  When we left the game we headed back to our end of the city and went to Don Cherry's for dinner (Mr. K's dinner choice for the evening)

The Braces Are On!

Braces: Before and After

(If you haven't been following along with our orthodontics journey, you can read the first and second posts)

Last week I wrote a quick update about Mr. J and his palate expander. We had the appointment to assess how well it had worked, and the orthodontist was extremely pleased. He gave us the go ahead to have the braces put on.

We ended up getting an appointment 2 days later - so not much of a wait (this was great).  It did mean leaving camp for 2 hours in the middle of the day, but that was better than waiting almost 4 weeks.

I am not sure how Mr. J was feeling leading up to it, he just wanted to get it over with.  I know that my children are much more co-operative when I am not with them, so I opted to wait in the waiting room rather than be with him (I knew the hygienist would come get me if it was needed).

When Mr. J came out to get me, he smiled to show me his new gear - and he had chosen blue and red elastics.  He was pretty happy with his choice.

I was a little worried how he would handle the tenderness/pain afterwards, so I made sure to give him some tylenol before his appointment, and a dose of advil 2 hours after. We continued alternating between the 2 for the first 48 hours, and then on the 3rd day he was good with 2 doses of advil and that was it.

It took him a few days to get used to having them on his teeth but he is doing great. He is not too happy with the extra time it takes for brushing and cleaning the braces, but he is doing pretty well.

Week 7 Summer Bucket List Update

A few weeks ago the kids and I sat down to create our summer bucket list. It's something we do each year, and while we know that we may not cross everything off our list, it just gives us some ideas of what we want to do with their time off school.

August 22 Monday Madness Giveaway Linky

If you are a blogger, feel free to list any open giveaways you have on your blog. Make sure to list the prize, end date and country eligibility (CAN/US/WW) any listed without this information will be deleted.

Let Groupon Help You Save On Electronic Purchases #Ad #Groupon

There are so many different tech gadgets around now, it's hard for me to keep everything straight. When I was growing up the closest thing to an on the go gadget was the Walkman and the Gameboy. Now, you can get almost any technology right at your fingertips. My kids are still pretty young (9 and 6) and I am in no way ready for them to have their own devices yet, as much as they would like to. They each have a Nintendo DS – but anything that connects to the internet is not happening. They are stuck using mine to play Pokemon Go when we are out, or using the family ipad while we are at home.

That said, I am always looking to see what IS out there and thinking ahead to when they are a little older – I am not sure when I will be comfortable with them having their own phone or ipad, but I like to check things out AND I like to save money on my purchases. Groupon is a great site to help do that. I love that you can search what you are looking for, or browse through what they offer. The best groupon purchase we have made was for a trial at a karate dojo. Mr. J LOVED it and is still there, almost 2 years later.

Mr. J after his 2nd tournament

There are so many different items available on Groupon Goods from activity trackers, phones, accessories and more you should have a look and see if YOU can save some money.