After being together for a few years, many married couples can start talking in point form. We are no exception. Case in point, our conversation from last night.
Set Scene: Me putting movie into DVD player.
Husband: What's that?
Me: Eclipse
Husband: Eclipse?
Me: Vampires
Husband: Like Full Moon?
Me: New Moon
Husband: I'm going on the computer
p.s. I'm still Team Edward
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I was going to write a blog about the parenting disaster that’s been my last 24 hours but instead thought I’d focus on something that makes me happy.
Wine.
Last week I attended a wine tasting at The Wine Bar in Toronto. It was a Yummy Mummy Club event hosted by WineAlign.com. WineAlign is a website which can help you choose wines – you have access to critic reviews, can see if it’s carried in your local LCBO and also find wines based on your budget and food choices. We invited some Yummy Mummy Club members to come out to learn the art of wine tasting by WineAlign master sommelier John Szabo and wine critic Sarah d’Amato.
I’m not gonna lie. I’m pretty much a wine marketer’s dream. I walk into the LCBO and am like a deer in the headlights, wandering up and down the aisles until a label catches my eye and voila! Wine picked. So yes, I’ve bought Strut: Red Over Heels, Sibling Rivalry and Dan Akroyd’s wine. Also, this…because it has the Yummy Mummy lips on it.
If I do manage to write down the name of a wine I enjoy while at a friend’s house or restaurant, I can never find it in the LCBO because I’ll forget what the label looks like or some integral piece of information like the country where it was made. Also, is it just me or can wine labels be really confusing? So again, I’m left wandering up and down aisles while trying to keep two kids from knocking something over. The last thing I want to do is pay for a broken bottle of wine that I can’t drink, or twenty.
Unlike my forays into the LCBO, the wine tasting evening was a smashing success. It was filled with good conversation, fabulous food and we got to learn about (and taste!) some incredible wines – wines I would never have tried because their labels were boring. It was interesting listening to John and Sarah describe the wines using words like robust, lean, long legs, lush, dense, or full-bodied.
They would also describe the flavours within the wine and once again - deer in the headlights. Each time they asked us what flavours we tasted, I would quickly glance around to see what other people were saying because I had no idea.
Like this 2009 Quinta De Ventozelo Reserva Port we tasted. If you read the reviews on WineAlign there are descriptions like: raisined fruit, cookie dough and herbal foresty notes or Lifted floral, plummy, blueberry nose with background spice.
Ya....I got none of that. But I do know I liked it, so much so I needed a second *tasting*.
My absolute favourite of the evening was the Ghost Pines Winemaker's Blend Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Napa County/Sonoma County.
Now here’s where the WineAlign website gets really cool. I know I like this Ghost Pines wine so I do a search for it on the site
Along with information on the wine, I see two critics have reviewed Ghost Pines, Sarah and David. Since I like the wine and they like the wine, I can now go into my profile and change their influence on my profile to High. I can also read all of their reviews and choose a wine that way, because if they like it, I can surmise there’s a chance I would like it too – similar tastes and all that (plus the Ghost Pines had the best label of the night – just sayin)
Not only that, but I can see if it’s available at my nearest LCBO and how many bottles are left. AND there’s images for most of the bottles so I’m not left wandering around the store praying my children won’t accidentally push the shopping cart into one of the diplays. They also came out with this kick-ass Top 50 Value Picks which is how I'll be choosing the wine we gift this Christmas (I'm frugal, what can I say?)
If you want to try it out you can register with WineAlign. Use the promo code YMC when you sign up and you'll get two FREE months of their premium service.
And no, sadly this isn’t a sponsored blog. I just really really love the site. And if I wasn’t knee deep in bad parenting experiences this week, I’d be on top of it and have already download the mobile app too. But at least last night after the kids went to bed, I was able to enjoy a nice glass of Ghost Pines.
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We kick it old school at our house - my kids pretty much have no "real" video games or gaming devices *insert gasp here*. And yes, I do go back and forth on whether or not to get them into gaming. But until I make up my mind, they entertain themselves by doing stuff like performing magic shows or skateboarding on homemade ramps and rigging up ratchet systems to pulley neighbourhood kids up the tree in the park across the street. Right now while I write this, they’re upstairs playing Pong.
Yes, the Atari game from the 70’s.
They also have Centipede. And Pac Man.
When other kid ask them if they have Wii and they’re …no, but we have Dig Dug, it’s all I can do to hide my laughter induced shaking shoulders and keep the tears from streaming down my face.
I’m screwed when they finally realize how I’ve taken advantage of their gullibility.
Necessity being the mother of invention, I’m sort of an expert on buying gifts that (a) are practical (b) are kind of educational and (c) don’t involve my participation. I’ve got things to do, man. This house doesn’t run itself.
With Christmas holidays coming up many moms are scurrying around looking for things to do with their kids during the 16 days they’re off school. And as much as I don’t like snow, it sucks big time when it’s cold and there’s NO snow because then you can’t even send the kids out sledding. Not that I don’t enjoy spending time with my kids…but on about day ten of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots I’m wanting someone to knock *me* out.
If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out what to get your kids this Christmas, these are two gifts we’ve recently given the boys that (a) they’ve loved and (b) they play with on their own.
Son No. 1 loves to build, which is cool when my husband is home to saw and hammer and all that sort of shit, but I’m not a sawdust kind of gal. This of course means Son No. 1 gets angry-faced at me when he wants to build his next new invention and I’m all “wait until your father gets home” or “how about we do a craft instead” or "Seriously....can't I even pee without someone barging in?".
So for his birthday we got him an Elenco Electronic Snaps Circuits Pro. Originally good ol’ hubby was going to get a kit that was beyond Son No. 1’s age range. I know, total eye roll. Because you know who’s going to get sucked into doing the “projects” and it’s not the guy who’s currently working a kajillion and two hours a week. Needless to say, we went with age appropriate.
With the electronic kit we got you can build over 500 projects but there are smaller ones too. I went with the “go big or go home” thought process and let’s just say *high five on the good call Sharon*. I sat down with him to do the first two projects and he was off and running. Know what this is?
It’s a freakin’ radio. He built it by himself last night after we sent him to bed. A radio! By himself! I can't even work the DVD player and he's building radios.
Also? The added bonus is that he and his brother play together with this kit. I mean, not so much playing as Son No. 1 telling Son No. 2 which pieces to get out of the box. But whatever. They aren’t fighting. And isn’t that the point?
Both Son No. 1 and No. 2 are creative. Son No. 1 shows his creativity by drawing cartoons and writing books about his evil mother, while Son No. 2 is more artistic and likes to paint and make crafts. Unfortunately, a lot of the crafts you can buy are geared towards girls and the kiddos are at an age where I can’t convince them this is coolio.
Yet they have no problem donning a long, blonde wig for their rock band rehearsals.
Fairy crafts, bad. Blonde wigs, good.
I'll be 90 and still not understand kids.
This past summer, I was invited to an event by Crayola to view new products. What really got my attention was the Story Studio they were launching in September (now launched). You upload your kid's picture then they can transform it into a cartoon which can be incorporated into stories and printed out as colouring pages. And what do kids love more than themselves?
Uh…nothing.
I was all over it. We may not have video games, but the kids are allowed to use our computers at home - I'm old school, not stupid. You need a special code to access the site which you get when you buy specially marked Crayola products. So, I very nicely asked Crayola to send me some specially marked products to try it out. I promptly opened the sets, took out the codes, then wrapped the sets to give as stocking stuffers.
What? Like you wouldn’t have done the same thing. It’s called “one less gift to buy” people.
Anyway, it’s been a big hit at our house. Both of them have had a blast creating cartoons of themselves, then printing them out to colour. And look! It’s Avatar Sharon, ready for colourin'. Please use yellow for the wine – I don’t like red.
Anyhoo….these are just two of the things that work for keeping my kids busy at home. If your kids have gotten great gifts that keep them occupied for hours at a time, I’d love to hear about them! And if you’re looking for some old school, low tech ways to keep your kids busy over the holidays, you can go here and here.
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