Friday, April 29, 2011

3 Generations of Dresses

With the Royal Wedding being today I thought it would be fun to look over the past weddings in Prince Williams family.  What would be better then to look at his grandmothers, his mother and his brides wedding dresses and see how the dresses have changed over the years.  In my opinion some for the better some for the worse.  However, I will let you choose which is your favourite!










I know this picture is not a bride, but Kate's sister, her dress was so pretty I wanted to share :-)


Though out of all the pictures I have to say this one below is my favorite!  Check out the little girl!
 



A day fit for Princesses

Today my 4 year old got to go to school as a princess. We have a wardrobe full of princess dresses that she clearly had her choice of what princess she wanted to be.  Honestly, I am starting to think there are more princess dresses in her closet then "normal" everyday clothes.

To say she was excited would be an understatement. The first thing she said when we got out of the vehicle at school was "Wow Mommy I have never seen so many princesses". She did not even say goodbye to her sister or I. As soon as we got near her school she was gone. She walked right in to mingle with her friends and never looked back at us again. :-(

So here I am now at home and getting ready to get to work like Cinderella. We have a house to get clean before my parents arrive this weekend. I'll have my fingers crossed that my fairy Godmother will appear soon to help me. However, something is telling me I am going to be on my own with this one.

Have a Happy Friday!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Friday Hops!

Why don't you come join in the fun!  While your here be sure to check out my current Giveaways!!


TGIF Blog Hop











BoostMyBlogFriday









Friend Finding FridaysSmart and Trendy MomsStalk Hop Friday














































Did You know????

Since Canadians have an Election coming up next week I thought it would be important to do this weeks did you know towards that. I am sad to say that more Canadians tuned in to find out if Obama was going to be the next President of USA.

Do not get me wrong I fully understand how important that was for all people and how history was made. Though would it not be nice for history to be made in our OWN country?? I am the first to admit nothing is perfect in Canada, but if we do not all get out and vote how can we make any steps towards letting the government know how we feel.

Did you know that the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP all were graded F on promised government ethics reforms. Is that not great the 3 parties that normally lead the polls truly do not seem to care where as the Green Party was rated the best. Check it out here!

I don't know the way I was told is when you are applying for a job you want to put your best face forward and truly show how much you care and how much you want the job.

If you have not voted why not make this election your first.  If your not sure who to vote for I found this vote compass on CBC and it  uses questions to guide you towards you personal opinions.  For myself it was bang on :-)  Which is a good thing as I have already voted in the advance polls, so it would have sucked if I was in fact voting for a party I did not agree with..lol

So in the end if you DID NOT KNOW  hopefully you'll come across my blog hopefully you KNOW NOW that May 2nd 2011 Canada heads to the polls!  I really do not care who you vote for, its Canada's diversity that makes it such a great place (well one of the reasons ;-) ).  Just make sure you get out and take advantage of the right we have been Canadians and vote for the party of your choice!



MAY 2ND 2011

Thursday Hops!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and hopping around today!  If your looking for some new hops why not check out some of the ones that I am in today:

Tailspin Hop

Obviously MARvelous

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The Things We Find Inside>




Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Water for Elephants Movie Review

This past Friday Water for Elephants came out in theaters.  The movie is based on the book that was written by Sara Gruen.  The story is told from the point of view of  Jacob Jankowski, played by Robert Pattinson, he is a 90ish year old man who finds himself on a rainy night at the local circus and he relives and tells him story to one of the Circus owners/workers telling him about his life back in the depression when he worked for the circus.

With the story being told you learn about Jacob and how an aspiring Vet ends up dropping out of school and "running" away with the circus.  Jacob ends up finding a job he loves, taking care of the animals in the circus and falling in love with Marlena Rosenbluth, played by Reese Witherspoon, the wife of August Rosenbluth, played by Christoph Waltz, who owns the circus.

Jacob learns while working at the circus for a short time how dangerous August truly is to everyone around and how making more money is more important then the health and well being of any animals or humans that work for him.  Numerous account of animals being abused and beaten by August for not preforming up to his standards and staff being thrown off the train like garbage to keep more money in August's pocket.  Every time that Jacob comes to the point to leave the circus something else happens to keep him tied to it.

I have not personally read the book so when I went to the movie I was going in an a new viewer and all I heard was that the book was fabulous.  I can say from experience with the book club I am a member of in my city usually when there is a book and a movie.  If you have read the book first you may not be fully satisfied with the movie.  As with a book the author has no limits to the amount of words that need to be used to tell the story and with a movie they deal with a certain run time and have to create the script to fit into that allotted time.  Which of course means clearly parts of the novel will have to either be left out of they have to find a more direct way to get the point across.

Having said all of this I really enjoyed the movie.  I believe Robert and Reese were great in their roles and had great chemistry and this was the best so far I have seen Robert Pattinson.  Do not get me wrong I am a huge Twilight fan, but there has been so much talk if he has the skills and can act and I personally feel that this shows he does have talent and is more then a good looking vampire!  As for Reese she is just adorable and do I really need to say more :-)

No matter you have read the book or not I would recommend heading out and check out the movie!  Of course, if you have read the book already try to have an open mind and see the movie as a seperate entity from the book and see it as a work of art as it really is. 

As for myself although Jacob talks about his time during the depression I can say in our current economic standing there is much that we can learn from the movie with regards to the recession that we are in.
Remember that this too shall pass and what is more important is to remember to care for one another in our own circus called life!

Wordless Wednesday!!!







A few weeks back you met our dog Prancer and now its time to meet his "big sister" Jade.  Jade is a Boxer/Lab mix and like Prancer we got her from a Rescue!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Tuesday Hopping!

Check out some of the Hops I am participating in today!  While your here be sure to check out my current giveaways!!

Check out this FB and Twitter Hop that just started!!!


AND check out all the other great ones here!


Photobucket




Ourfamilyworld





BWS tips button
The Adventures of My Family of 8 Tuesday Blog Hop

Tasty Tuesday!

On a quest to get healthier and eat healthier I recently had Kale for the first time!  I loved it soooo much I made sure this week when I went shopping I bought two bushels!  There are many ways that you can cook and eat Kale, but this first recipe is actually something quick and easy and you can eat it with your meals or as a snack instead of chips.

This is quick and EASY to make so there is really no excuse why you can not incorporate some healthy food even when life is busy!


Kale Chips

Wash and Dry your Kale and break it up into bite size pieces on place on a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with a bit of olive oil and bake at 375 for 10 Minutes (of course check yours the first time as it may need more or less time depending on your oven).

After the ten minutes your Kale should be crisp and ready to eat!

Serve as a side dish for a meal or put some in a bowl and have your evening TV snack!


Enjoy!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Inpirational Monday!!

Last week I stated that I was going to start posting a quote every Monday to give those that need it, myself included, a refresher and a reminder for the week ahead.  The below quote I have been seeing all over the place lately it seems and it speaks the truth.  So many times we as humans wait for the change to come, but who better then to make the first move then yourself :-)



Be the change that you want to see in the world. -Mohandas Gandhi









BMO Eco Smart Mortgage Blog Tour and $50.00 Rona Gift Card Giveaway

Buying a house or condo is one of the biggest purchases that many people make in their life and it is not really the easiest purchase that one will make in their lifetime.  Of course you want to buy the property of your dreams, but at the same time you want a mortgage rate that will help you pay off the principle more then you are paying interest!

Recently we did some new Green renovations to our home.  Our property is about 20 years old and obviously many parts of it were needing an upgrade.  When I was chosen to be part of the BMO Eco Smart Mortgage Blog Tour I thought this was perfect as I knew I had recently done some renovations so I thought our house would be Eco for sure!  I have to honestly say that even though I believed that my husband told me we would need more upgrades.  LOL


BMO (Bank of Montreal) has a special mortgage rate for homeowners looking to make energy efficient upgrades to their home.  Did you know that 50% of Canadian homeowners site utility costs as the biggest surprise of home ownership?  With our Canadian weather goes from the cold extreme to the hot extreme we all know we are going to be using utilities, but do not realize how big the chunk really is.

For Canadians who meet BMO’s energy efficiency criteria, The BMO Eco Smart Mortgage is a new mortgage product with market-leading five-year fixed rate of 3.89 per cent – a rate significantly lower than comparable green mortgage products.  Which is great because this is an additional reward for those homeowners who have done these upgrades and will save you even more money in the long run!

The process is quite simple as well to find out if you would qualify!  A homeowner downloads the appropriate checklist (house or condo) from the BMO website. The check-list includes things such as: High-efficiency heating and cooling systems, Solar, tank-less or ENERGY STAR qualified hot water system and ENERGY STAR qualified windows, doors and major appliances. If after reviewing the checklist, the homeowner feels their home qualifies; they then contact a BMO branch to talk to a mortgage specialist. BMO will send an appraiser into the home of the consumer to confirm the house qualification.

The great thing about going through the checklist is that you learn more about your house and truly how green or not green it is.  I  downloaded the BMO Eco Smart Mortgage checklist from the BMO website.  Single family homes need to have the required energy features from 6 of the 7 categories listed in order to qualify.   Whereas someone that has a condo has to have the energy features from all 5 of the categories they have.

After going through the list I am sad to say that my husband was right and we did not qualify, but we are very close.  The areas that we need to upgrade still is our windows, doors and our appliances!  We would only be required to do two out of the three and then we would qualify, but of course the more we do the better Eco our home will be and the more savings over the long term!  So once we are finished doing the upgrades we could then contact a BMO branch and talk to a mortgage specialist about our next step – it’s that easy.

Nearly half of all Canadians are planning energy upgrades in the next year, are you one of them?  I definitely recommend checking over your property with the checklist even if it is not time to remortgage, because knowing how Eco your home is just as important!!  Maybe you will get a reality check like myself :-)

WIN IT: One of my lucky Canadian readers will get the chance to win a $50.00 gift certificate from Rona to put towards upgrades to their home!!

Mandatory Entry: What upgrades will you be doing in your home to make it more energy efficient this year??


EXTRA ENTRIES: To qualify for extra entries you MUST complete the MANDATORY entry and please leave a separate comment for each entry.


-Blog about this giveaway and link to this post (leave link) (2 Entries)

-Put Two Children and a Migraine button on your blog (comment where it can be found) (1 Entry)

-Like Two Children and a Migraine on Facebook (1 Entry)

-Like Two Children and a Migraine on Twitter (leave twitter name)(1 Entry)

-Follow Two Children and a Migriane on Networked blogs

-Follow Two Children and a Migraine with GFC (1 Entry)

-Update your facebook status with the giveaway.  You must @ link to Two Children on facebook for it to qualify and I can verify through my facebook page (1 entry per day)


-Follow and Tweet about this giveaway. Feel free to copy and paste " Would you like to #WIN a $50.00 Rona gift card?? enter @momwithmigraine CDA 05/15  "
(1 Entry per tweet but tweets must be 3 hours apart)


Contest Ends May 15th at Midnight Eastern Time. Open to Canada residents only!! Winners will be chosen by random.org and announced soon after the contest ends. Winner will be notified by email then has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.



Disclosure – I am participating in the BMO Eco Smart Mortgage program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of BMO - Bank of Montreal.  I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

Monday Hopping!!

I hope everyone had a great Easter and Earth Day!!!!  While you here why not check out my current giveaways!!






Friday, April 22, 2011

Summer Fresh: Review and Giveaway

2011 has been a year for me of starting to eat healthier. I have to say that it has by no means been easy, but the benefits in the long term are great it is so worth it. Not only do I have to eat healthier for myself, but I do have two little ones who watch everything I do. I am responsible for the eating habits that they develop so I have to teach them how to eat. Of course I still like to have my "unhealthy" treats, but I have been trying to limit it where ever possible.


The great thing is when you surround yourself with great tasting healthy foods you do not really want those unhealthy ones! Recently I was given the opportunity to try some products from Summer Fresh. This was perfect timing as I was already starting to bring more nutritious food into our home.  When I received the products I was surprised to see it was something that I had already bought for my family before.  My girls LOVE Hummus and this is a brand the family had enjoyed before. 

One of the many products I was able to try was their Meals to Go.  This is exactly what the name says it is.  It is a prepackaged meal and you have options of 3 different kinds to choose from :
1. Roasted Garlic Hummus/Taboulah/Flatbreads/Trail Mix
2. Red Pepper Hummus/Couscous/Flatbreads/Trail Mix
3. Hummus/7 Grain Salad/Flatbreads/Trail Mix

I was lucky enough to try each of these and I loved every single one of them.  You are getting a great serving sizes so your able to eat what you would like for a meal and save the rest for a snack later on in the day.  Though if you have kids like myself it ended up being shared among all of us at a meal.

As I mentioned earlier we love our Hummus though normally I buy just the Standard trying to play it safe with the children.  Though I did receive many different flavors and I have to say I was happy to receive both their Standard Hummus that we buy, but new additional flavors.  They have so many different types of Hummus, but some of my new favorites now are Classics Eggplant Olive Hummus and Classics Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.  I was sure to hide my favourites in the fridge so I would not have to fight anyone for them that is how good they were!  YUMMY!!!!

If the above is not enough they have dips that you can also enjoy and are just as good if not better.  I have to be honest and say the Classics Spinach Dip I did not get to try.  Though my husband and children finished it off the day that we got it so clearly this is a winner!  A favourite for myself was the Classics Artichoke & Asiago Dip.  I have to say ever since eating that dip I have started buying Artichokes.  If a dip tastes that great with Artichokes in it clearly I was missing out not buying them.

A great thing about Summer Fresh is that not only are they making food that is good for you, but so is their packaging.  Their containers are Re-sealable, Re-usable, Recyclable, Tamper proof and Stackable.  So you are able to stock up on all of your favourites and try a new flavour and still have room for your other groceries.  The when you are done you can recycle them.

BUY IT: Summer Fresh products can be bought at your local supermarkets so be sure to head on out and stock up for your next shopping trip!

WIN IT: Summer Fresh has been kind enough to offer a $10.00 coupon that you can use towards their products  at your supermarket!

Mandatory Entry: Head on Over to Summer Fresh and let me know one of their products you would love to try.


EXTRA ENTRIES: To qualify for extra entries you MUST complete the MANDATORY entry and please leave a separate comment for each entry.


-Blog about this giveaway and link to this post (leave link) (2 Entries)

-Put Two Children and a Migraine button on your blog (comment where it can be found) (2 Entries)

-Like Two Children and a Migraine on Facebook (1 Entry)

-Like Summer Fresh on Facebook (leave your Facebook name to verify) (1 Entry)

-Like Two Children and a Migraine on Twitter (leave twitter name)(1 Entry)

-Like Summer Fresh on Twitter (leave twitter name) (1 Entry)

-Follow Two Children and a Migraine with GFC (1 Entry)

-Follow and Tweet about this giveaway. Feel free to copy and paste " #WIN with @momwithmigraine they have a #giveaway from @SummerFresh for a $10.00 coupon for their products!! http://networkedblogs.com/gZdid " (1 Entry per tweet but tweets must be 3 hours apart)


Contest Ends May 15th at Midnight Eastern Time. Open to Canada!! Winner will be chosen by random.org and announced soon after the contest ends. Winner will be notified by email then has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure: Summer Fresh  provided products for review purposes. In addition, they are allowing me to host this giveaway to help promote their products and website. Summer Fresh  will be responsible for prize distribution after I provide the shipping information of the winning entrant. No monetary compensation was received for this post. 

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Friday Blog Hop and I am Guest Hosting!!!

Thank you for joining the Friday Blog Hop hosted by myself (Nicole) at Mama to 4 Blessings and Melissa at Home Grown Families! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more blog friends!



It's very easy to join in on the fun!






Add your main blog (PLEASE DO NOT LINK UP GIVEAWAYS) link (we ask that you please follow the hostesses in the first 2 spots (Mama to 4 Blessings & Home Grown Families.) Then leave us a quick comment letting us know you are following.







Then start blog hopping!




This is a great opportunity for you to visit other blogs on the link up and comment on their blogs! When people comment on your blog please let them know that you are part of Friday Blog Hop then return the favor and follow them back! Please feel free to grab our Friday Blog Hop button and add it to your blog and spread the word!








Please only enter your MAIN blog link and please G rated links ONLY - NO CURSING please. Home Grown Families and Mama to 4 Blessings are family friendly blogs.






This week's featured guest hostess is: Two Children and a Migraine





 Please also follow this week's Featured Blogger: Two Children and a Migraine! Each week a new featured blogger who will be chosen at random, but you must be participate in the weekly link up - that's how we will choose a new featured blogger every week! So please come back every week & link up because you could be our next featured guest blogger!





Did you know??

Because tomorrow is such a jam packed day with it being Good Friday and Earth Day I decided to dedicate this weeks Did you know to one of those very topics!


I decided a few weeks back I was going to start educating myself in different areas every week and in turn share with my readers so that you as well will know hopefully learn something new.  This will be the second week that I am doing this and this week I decided to focus on Earth Day!!


First off for Canadians I did come across this great page for all Canadians to educate yourself about ways that you can better your lives and the environment.  Earth Day Canada is a one stop shop.  I even got myself a cute little widget that I have added to my page to remind myself and my readers!!  Be sure to check it out on my home page ;-).

Earth Day Canada is celebrating 20 years!!  How is it that I am only finding out about this great site and this is definitely a page to share.  Our future does depend on us taking care of the Earth and each other!!

Another great site is Earth Day Network.  This site had information on how you can take action and make a difference! As well tons of information on educating  yourself!  Another great site and definitely worth checking out.  They both also have Facebook pages and you can check them out on Twitter.  There really is no excuse why we all can not check out their information and educate ourselves.

We only have one Planet and if we do not take responsibility as individuals to take care of it we can not expect anyone else!