Kraft Celebration Tour and 2 Giveaways!

An amazing thing will be happening in communities around Canada this summer. TSN and Kraft have teamed up to create The Kraft Celebration Tour. This summer Kraft will give 10 communities across Canada an opportunity to win $25,000 each in facility upgrades! These can include upgrades to local school facilities and community centres. Amazing! Each community will also receive a live TSN SportsCentre broadcast! How incredibly exciting and generous! I can think of a couple of areas in my city that could truly use such a generous donation.

More About The Kraft Celebration Tour:

· Canada’s #1 sportscast SPORTSCENTRE will broadcast live from 10 communities in 10 days this summer from August 19 to 28.

· Kraft Canada will donate $250,000 in community awards across Canada!

· Canadians can nominate their communities online at kraftcelebrationtour.ca and tourneedecelebrationkraft.ca

How do you enter? · Communities can enter by submitting an essay (4,000 characters or less) and a photo (up to a maximum of five) describing why their community deserves to be a part of the Kraft Celebration Tour. The nomination period is open until June 10th, so hurry!

· On Canada Day (July 1), TSN and RDS will announce the 20 finalists selected by a panel of judges. Then it’s up to Canada to decide the 10 winning tour stops via 10 intense weekdays of head-to-head online voting beginning July 11th.

As part of this fabulous celebration Kraft Canada has generously offered to give two of my lucky readers this amazing array of products. Just look at what you can win!!

The Kraft Celebration Tour giveaway includes the following:

· Triscuit Thin Crisps – Balsamic & Basil

· Bull’s-Eye Bold Original BBQ Sauce

· Miracle Whip Regular

· Stride Gum

· Layers Gum (mint and grape & orange flavours)

· Clorets Gum

· Sizzling Salads

· Crystal Light

· Chips Ahoy

May also contain Cheese Whiz and Maxwell House Coffee

Want to know how to stock your cupboard? Here’s how:

Mandatory Entry: Canadians Only for this one.

Tell me: What facility in your community could use $25,000 in upgrades from Kraft Canada?

Easy Extra Entries:

1) Follow Kraft Celebration Tour on Facebook

2) Give this giveaway a tweet! If you like you can just cut and paste the following:

Cdns! Enter to Win 1 of 2 Fab Kraft Gift Baskets courtesy of #KraftCelebrationTour & @SassyModernMom #giveaway http://bit.ly/mz46df

3) Follow me publicly or tell me that you already do!

4) Blog about the Kraft Celebration Tour and leave me the link.

5) Follow my facebook fan page. Please! Again, tell me that you do.

6) Add my super cute button to your beautiful blog page. Come back and tell me where I can find it.

*AMENDED Due to problems with Blogger this giveaway has been Extended until June 1oth.

Contest closes Saturday June 7th. Two winners will be drawn using random.org and will have 72 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn. I received product as compensation for this post. If you have already won a prize pack from the Kraft Celebration tour you are not eligible to win again.

* Pictures courtesy of Kraft.

*now closed

Goodbye Paris

I’m back!  Back from my incredible nine day vacation in Paris that can only be described as perfect.  A couples getaway that was more then I could ever have hoped for.  Paris is far more beautiful then one could ever imagine.  Around every corner, a new breath taking discovery, a new adventure unfolding.  So many stories to tell!  So much to catch up on in real life.  Reality comes crashing down quickly after that plane touches down, and I’m struggling to hold on to the magic that was Paris.

For now, some pictures….truly worth more then words.  Notre Dame, The Louvre, The Arc de Triomphe.       

 

Of course the Eiffel Tower with all it’s size, strength and awe inspiring beauty. 

As I slowly get caught up on work and life I will be around to visit and return all the comment love lavished upon me while I was away.  Until then…au revoir!

Pride

In the past two weeks I have watched my daughters conquer their fears and embrace their joys. I sat on the side lines and marvelled at their strength, their determination, their drive.  I sat there, with pride.

  

I am so blessed, and so thankful for these two incredible little beings.

My little babies are growing up so fast and I am so far away from you right now!  I think of you always and will be home with you soon!

What I didn’t know…

Yes, Hello, Bonjour!  I’m still in Paris!  Here is a Guest Post (my very first guest poster ever!!) from the incredibly sweet and fabulous Courtney of The Mommy Matters.  Don’t follow her?  You should!

I have to admit, when I became a mother I was completely and totally ill-prepared for the job that was ahead of me. I’d read all of the What to Expect books, joined tons and tons of online “parenting” forums, and had sought advice from every wise and knowing mother who had come before me. But in the weeks that followed my son’s birth and our transition from the hospital to our home, I discovered that I was totally and completely clueless.

No one told me when I was pregnant, that for the first several post-partum months, I would find under-eye concealer as essential as breathing. They also failed to mention that if I wanted the stuff to do its job and hide the fact that I was completely sleep-deprived, I would need to lose the spit-up covered Yoga Pants and opt for something…clean.

Remember having that thought while you were still pregnant that six weeks seemed like an eternity to go without sex? After that baby is delivered, I promise you sex is the last thing on your mind. And that “six week appointment” you thought you’d be looking forward to? You know, the one where they give you the “go ahead” to have sex again? You’ll most likely be trying to reschedule that bad baby and move it to a later date. And if you can’t, you’ll be amazed at what kind of excuses you can come up with not to hop in the sack with your man again. Because the idea of spending even 15 minutes of “free time” doing something other than sleeping, seems absolutely absurd.

Remember those really cute, low rise skinny jeans you used to rock prior to mommy-hood? Yeah. You might as well rid your closet space of those. Even if you get back down to your pre-preggo weight, the likelihood that you’ll be able to squeeze everything that has been “misplaced” back in those jeans, is slim-to-none. Because people forget to tell you that after delivering a baby, things move and weight isn’t about the number anymore. It’s about finding room to put that new-found “junk in the trunk” and figuring out how to contort your body so you can squeeze those baby-mama hips into a pair of normal jeans again.

Starting to feel like you were short-handed? Feeling like those pregnancy books ripped you off and failed to share the realities of motherhood with you? Don’t. Because despite your new concealer addicted, sex-averting mentality, motherhood really is joyous. The sleep deprivation fades, you get eventually start to look at your husband like he’s a good guy again (instead of the evil sperm-giver who got you in this situation in the first place) and you start to realize that motherhood is the most exciting roller-coaster of emotions and happiness that you’ve ever been on.

Thanks so much to Modern Mom for giving me the opportunity to Guest Post!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

K. So I don’t want to brag, but I’m not here!  Ha, by the time you read this scheduled post fingers crossed that blogger co-operated I will be landing safe and sound in Paris France! 

Right about now I should be exhausted, riddled with Mommy guilt and giggling with pure joy and excitement.  What do I have to look forward to?  An entire week to explore the most romantic city in the world with just my adoring Hubby.  A week to act like a couple!  Re-connect, walk around hand in hand until we are exhausted, eat until our pants our tight and umm other stuff.  Le sigh. 

Take care of each other while I am away.  I will miss you!

Mwah

Monday Morning Rant

It’s been a wild and busy weekend and I have some complaints!

Bad drivers make me crazy.  Worse then that, men who assume it’s always a woman who is the bad driver! Sure I may suck at parallel parking, but last I checked that was PARKING not driving. Just sayin’ I am an excellent driver.

People who give away the ending to reality TV shows.  I don’t love the girl who announces on twitter or at the school drop off “Can you believe XXXX won Survivor?”.  Shutie! Have you people not heard of PVR’s? Maybe SOME of us haven’t seen the ending yet!

Wet rainy days and dogs that must pee outside.  Seriously, why can’t my pup learn how to wipe her feet already.

Skinny girls who imply that they are fat.  If you are fishing for a compliment from me….keep dangling honey, not gonna happen.  Confidence has to come from the inside, not fished for compliments.

Doctors that run an hour behind. Yep, we know you are important but guess what, my time is too.

Drunk girls.  Not just having a drink and a giggle drunk girls.  Really drunk girls, with their boobs all hanging out.  Congratulations, you have boobs, half the planet does.  Be a little less proud of them and have a little more respect for yourself and cover those babies up. 

End of Rant.

Go ahead, add your complaint, it feels good to get it off your chest!

Five Ways to Stress Before A Vacation

*yes I am reposting this because blogger lost 30 or so comments on this one?  I can’t respond to any of those fab comments that were left because I’m not smart enough to remember what you said! Sorry!

1. Help organize and run a major school fundraiser exactly one week before your very first European vacation. 

2. Six days before vacation, start major renovation of basement.  Certainly that won’t take up any of your time.  The contractors will always be respectful and punctual and will not add any stress to your already jam packed barely manageable everyday routine.  Dumbass.

3. Suddenly decide you are Martha Stewart.  Volunteer to serve Hot Lunch at the kids school, take a fancy dessert to a friends engagement party, and cook dinners for a family having a hard time.  Seriously?  

4. Spend precious hours you do not have searching in vain for shoes that are both comfortable and pretty.  Finally settle on ugly but comfy.  Screw it.  Decide to wear bright lipstick and a tight top….then no one will look at those feet.

5. Begin to hatch a plan to have 9 little outfits pressed and ready to go for each child.  Add to this 9 little gifts, one for each day you are away. (this is clearly to alleviate Mommy guilt)  The sheer magnitude of organizing the house, the dog, the cat, the kids plus the outfits and the gifts leads to one classic case of insomnia. 

Congratulations you are officially stressed out!

Breathe….it will all be worth it in the end.

End of rant.

WTH is that Wednesday?

I can’t find any….socks!  Are you kidding me.  We scoured the house, collected them all, and ended up with a freakin sock mountain.  Sigh.  Now I just need to sort.  Volunteers?

Please, please tell me I am not the only Mama with a sock mountain.  Socks should really be disposable. 

It’s almost barefoot weather right?

Car Crashes & The Kindness of Strangers

We walked out of the grocery store pretty darn proud of ourselves.  I may not be a coupon clipper, but I knew a good sale when I saw one, and we had cleaned up. As my girlfriend and I walked to through the parking lot on the way to our car we were all kinds of proud at the money we had just saved our families by stocking up at the grocery stores once a year sale. I never would have predicted grown women would be so excited about a sale on orange juice and frozen pizza!

As we got closer to our parking spot we noticed there was a bit of a crowd near my girlfriend’s car.  Wait…not near it, AT my girlfriend’s car.  What on earth was going on?  An older gentlemen was eager to explain.  Almost too eager. Some “sweet little old lady” had just driven full speed, in reverse, into my girlfriends parked mini-van.  Then put her vehicle in drive and taken off like a bat out of hell.  The left side of girlfriends van looked just fine, the right side, something more like this…

 

(picture from google images)

Suddenly a million questions?  What kind of a person does that?  Did you get her licence plate number?  A picture? Do you have car insurance?

There are truly good people out there.  These strangers rallied around.  Gave us the licence of the crazed driver, plus all of their own information.  Even offered to be witnesses. 

We heaved heavy sighs and then our heavy bags into the back of the mutilated van. Quick call to the Hubby’s and then off to the Police Reporting centre. Brutal.

Today we are still thankful for fabulous sales, the kindness of strangers and insurance….not so much wild drivers with no moral center or sense of responsibility. 

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, I was compensated for the back link in this post. 

A Sometimes Super Hero Mama

There are some days when I really feel like I know what I’m doing.  You know, I feel like I have got my “stuff” together.  Manage to feed the kids a breakfast that includes fruit.  Get them off to school without drama and dressed in clothes that we all deem appropriate.  This means stain free and kind of matchy for me, sort of cool for them.  Throughout the day I manage to squeeze in some volunteer hours, a load of laundry, grocery shopping, coffee with a girlfriend, and even have time to prepare a real home cooked meal.  The after school chaos seems organized and controlled.  Everyone gets to their activities, children are singing and happy, car does not run out of gas.  I can fix scraped knees with the power of my love(and a band-aid).  I solve all their little problems with ninja type quickness.  All of this and I get everyone to bed and still find time to ummm converse with my Hubby?  This my friends is the work of a domestic goddess.  Life is good.

..but then there are those other days.  One of the girls is in tears before they even make it down for breakfast. Breakfast by the way consists of the third peanut butter sandwich of the week.  As I gaze at my gorgeous youngest daughters blond hair I’m seriously considering throwing baby powder at her to hide the greasy.  After four reminders to get a move on I finally Snap at them that if they “don’t get the lead out they are going to be late late late”.  Not my best parenting moment.  After they stomp their way out the door I realize the oldest has forgotten her lunch, and her homework.  Have a little cry as I get dressed and drive the forgotten crap to school.  Feeling like I am the embodiment of the perfect parent fail.  Arrive home, take-out coffee in hand, (caffeine = survival) take a deep breath and try to distract myself by paying the bills on line.  This is when the computer announces it has a virus and starts installing crazy dirty pictures?  I freak out and shut the whole damn thing down. Call a girlfriend to commiserate and no one is home.  Sulk and go and do laundry.  Good thing because I find some putrid stinky  forgotten towels in the washer that clearly needs to be run through or thrown out again.  Leave the laundry room and promptly step in cat throw up.  Clean that up and cry some more.  Why did I give up my job again?  Wander from room to room looking at one disaster after another.  Second deep breath and get to work at my glamorous “job”.

When the kids get home complete homework battles, have fights about the necessity of showers and finish the days carpool crazies.  Look at the clock and pray for bedtime to arrive.  Tuck the little monsters sweeties in and hope that tomorrow will be a better day.  Oh and the Hubby?  He better not even think about trying to find some “alone time” with me. I am NOT in the mood.  This day sucks.

So why do I accept this job of Mom?  Why do I get up every morning and plaster that smile on my face?  Why do I try and find the joy in every day?  Simply, because the good outweighs the bad.  The beautiful outweighs the ugly and the gifts are far greater then any struggle. 

I will continue to wipe tears, give hugs, dry hair, do homework, cook, clean, love, cuddle, learn and play because when it comes right down to it there is no harder or more rewarding job in the world.  I’m blessed to have this career of Mom and can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

This is what is really going on in the Suburbs. Some days you are a struggling to survive, other days you feel like a Superhero.  Happy Mother’s Day to all the other Domestic Goddess’ out there.  I wish you all better days. 

$100.00 Mother’s Day Giveaway Ends Tonight at 10pm! Enter Here!

Kellogg’s $100 Mother’s Day Giveaway

Mother’s Day is just around the corner! Mom’s do so much for every one. Every. Single. Day. Kellogg’s is doing something a little sweet for us! One lucky Canadian Mama has a chance to win this fabulous $100 gift basket!

Mother’s Day Rice Krispies Gift Basket

In the basket:

· A copy of Trish Magwood’s new cookbook, “In My Mother’s Kitchen” and some of the ingredients and tools necessary to make her Sweet Marie Bars recipe:

~A full size box of Rice Krispie Original Cereal

~ Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

~ Baking Dish (it’s beautiful!)

All wrapped up and ready to give!

What a great way to start off what I think should be a national holiday!

Here’s how to win:

Canadians only for this one and please leave separate comments for each entry.

Short and sweet mandatory entry:

What is the best Mother’s Day gift you have ever received?

(My Hubby needs ideas. Ha)

Easy Extra Entries:

1) Follow me SassyModernMom and give this giveaway a tweet! Just one tweet total please. You may cut and paste :

Win a $100 Mother’s Day Gift Basket #Giveaway from #Kelloggs and @SassyModernMom http://bit.lyig5j56/

2) Follow me publicly, or tell me that you already do, that is an extra entry!

3) Follow my facebook fan page. Please! Again, tell me that you do.

4) Add my super cute button to your beautiful blog page. Come back and tell me where I can find it.

Contest closes Sunday May 8th at 10pm. A winner will be drawn using random.org and will have 72 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn. I received a basket as compensation for this post.

* Pictures courtesy of Kelloggs.

*now closed

*Winner! I put all the numbers into Random.org and the winner is: #8

Congratulations to Soozle! Drop me your snail mail address as soon as you can.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Iron Kids Winners!

And the Winners are…

CANADA

#52 GraceandMe said

Just tweeted
http://twitter.com/#!/superstargrace/status/66588836364435457

and

UNITED STATES

#24 Terry said.

I follow gfc
terrylee5151 at aol dot com

Congratulations to both of you!

If you didn’t win this giveaway be sure to check out the $100 Kellogg’s gift basket giveaway just in time for Mother’s Day!

Static in the Air

Took the family to The Ontario Science Centre  in Toronto and was thrilled to see that great big silver ball  (I’m sure that’s the technical name) that shoots static electricity through your body and makes your hair stand on end was right where I left it …..30 plus years ago. 

 

 

Still causing ridiculous amounts of laughter.  The giggles got even bigger when it was Mom’s turn!  I’m getting old, because all that head shaking made me dizzy.

The things we do to make our kids happy. 

What a great day.  Nothing better then making a memory.

 

Linky Love: Time is running out. Please don’t miss your chance to enter the IronKids giveaway.  Two winners!

Suburb Dreams

We have been living the Suburbanites dream. Our little family of four has been living in a comfortable house in the Suburbs with a big back yard and plenty of trees.  There’s a park around the corner and the kids can walk to school.  The neighbours are nice enough, we know their names and the names of their dogs.  That’s good enough for me.  Or it was, until a big fat FOR SALE sign went up across the street. 

I jokingly mentioned to my sister that she and her Hubby should go have a peek at that little brick house across the street with the big fat FOR SALE sign.  So, they did?! (Um since when do little sisters listen to big sisters?  I am powerful!)

Suddenly there were visions of spontaneous coffee visits,  open door policies for nieces and nephews, Christmas where we could shuffle the old folks back and forth across the street.  A warm glow of all that could be began to grow in my heart.  The Suburbs are “nice”, but how comforting would it be to have someone you love right across the road?  People we could count on, people who would look out for us and our kids.  A best friend built right into the neighbourhood.  The benefits of built in family without them being built right in. The Suburbs may be great even if they are a little stuck-up and snobby sometimes but with a new exciting injection of family…it could be so much more!

Could there, would there be a downside to this?  My sister living across the street?  Nah.  It’s not like we would be sharing back yards.

Apparently Sis felt the same because she put on offer on that house!

We loosely discussed drop in rules.  We giggled at all the possibilities that lay ahead.  I was all kinds of excited.

Went away for the weekend. Came home to a SOLD sign….

but

it wasn’t THEIR sold sign.  Sigh. 

I am more disappointed then I care to admit.

Who is the sneaky bitch monkey who swooped in and bought my sisters house?

There goes my dream of a utopian neighbourhood.

At least until the next house goes up for sale!
Love you Sis.

Now PLEASE go ahead and tell me it was for the best!  Someone must have some family “lives too close” horror stories to share!

 

Linky love! Double giveaway. Open to US and Canada. Best Vitamins for kids ever, but I take them too:)