Dashing Dad: Life of a Stay-at-home Dad
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Small Spark
Every time I wear this sweatshirt I get a million questions on where it’s from and how people can also buy one. This clothing line was inspired by my cousin’s daughter Robyn. I’ll let her do the explaining from here. To order please note the name, colour, size and quantity you would like and then…
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My Must Have Travel Items
We just spent a week in Cabo San Lucas with the kids. It was our first trip as a family of four and there were a lot of learnings. Overall it went amazing though and after posting some stories of our trip on Instagram I was inundated with questions about what things were a must…
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Your Favourite Amazon Products To Help Parent
Parenting is a hard 24/7 job and anything that can help make it easier is a win in my books. I went through the last year of Amazon links I’ve published to my Instagram stories to see which ones resonated the most with you, and I’ve compiled them below. Whether it’s better sleep, household cleaning…
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AI Wrote This: A Chat GPT Parenting Article
I have been VERY eager to give Chat GPT a try and so I did it with this article asking it to write a Chat GPT Parenting Article. My prompt was “Things To Do With Your Kids In The Winter. Include Amazon Links.” And voila. (I created the hyperlinks, otherwise it’s all AI). Oh and…
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Things To Keep You cozy AF This Fall and Winter
As much as I hate to admit it, Summer is over. Fall is here, which according to a recent poll, is American’s favourite season of the year. I get it, families are back to routines, there’s no longer blistering heat and you can cozy up with blankets, hoodies and pumpkin spice lattes. For that reason,…
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Best Masks For Kids In Calgary
Sadly the need for masks for both ourselves and our kids is not going away. The list below has both medical and non-medical masks that are perfect for kids both in size and in colours/patterns. These masks are available in Calgary and can ship right to your door so if you’re looking for the best…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Mountain Top Christmas and Nightrise at Banff Gondola
The holiday season is upon us and if you live in Alberta then, in my opinion, heading to the mountains is one of the best things you can do with the family. Last week, we were lucky enough to be asked to visit the Banff Gondola to experience its newest attraction Nightrise as well as…
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Creating True Holiday Spirit At Southcentre Mall
*This is a paid collaboration post with Southcentre Mall* Having grown up in Lake Bonavista, Southcentre Mall has been my favourite mall since we moved to Calgary in 199…..on second thought you don’t need to know how long ago that was (I’m not old, right? RIGHT???). In my humble opinion, Christmas isn’t Christmas without a…
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Life As A Diabetic Parent: Diabetes Technology has come a long way
I was first diagnosed with type one diabetes over 35 years ago. That makes me sound really old, but I was actually diagnosed at just over one-year-old. At that time, diabetes management was WAY different than it is now. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for my parents. There were no devices…
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Creating Mental Support For Alberta’s Teachers
Below is a sponsored post with Sonnet Insurance Since February of 2020, we have collectively experienced a disruption to our lives like never before and besides healthcare workers, perhaps no one has felt it more than teachers. That’s why I have teamed up with Sonnet Insurance to offer these tips for self-care as well as…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Camping At Sundance Lodges
Camping with little kids is an adventure. Depending on your level of comfort and expertise it can either be a breeze or an absolute nightmare, and a lot of how the experience turns out depends on where you go. In the last two years, we’ve gone camping with the kids three times. This hardly makes…
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Profit Share with Servus Credit Union
As we head towards the first part of June, we have now been working with Servus for almost six months. In those six months, a LOT has changed. For instance, we bought a new house. But also, our spending habits have changed. Our partnership with Servus gave us the opportunity to sit down and evaluate…
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RESP: Free Money For Your Kids
If you’re anything like me, then a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) sounded like one of those adulty things you should really do once you have kids, but the why and the how were a little less specific. Well here is a doozy of a why, and if you take nothing else from this article…
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Recapping our savings journey and winning $1 Million with Servus Credit Union
As we head towards the end of April, that means we’re only eight days away from the Servus Big Share contest ending! There’s still time to enter and it’s worth it because you could win $1 MILLION! With the Servus Big Share, every time you save $500 you get an entry to win $1 Million.…
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What’s the difference between a bank and a credit union?
I touched on this briefly in my first post with Servus Credit Union, but really what is the difference between a bank and a credit union? We’re all familiar with Canada’s major banks, but credit unions seem smaller and more local, why is that? Well in this blog post I’ll break it all down for…
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How To Teach Your Kids About Money
Out of all of the blogs I’ve written about our experience with Servus, this blog has been the most requested. Money is an emotional subject for most people, couple that with the most important little people in your life and suddenly the topic of teaching your kids about money is one fraught with years of…
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Breaking down GICs – what are they, and are they right for you?
If I were to write you all of the information I knew about GICs before partnering with Servus Credit Union, well this article would already be over. So, I met up with our advisor Brock and told him to explain GICs to me like I was five. In the simplest of simple terms, GICs are…
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Tips for choosing a financial advisor
This post is part of a paid collaboration with Servus Credit Union. I think for a lot of people the hardest part of getting started on your personal finance journey is the actual GETTING STARTED part of it. How do you choose a financial advisor? Let’s face it, our education system lets us down when it…
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TFSA vs RRSP – What are they and which is better?
For the latest blog on our Servus Credit Union financial journey, we start to dive into the real meat and potatoes of savings. And as it turns out, this is also the part of savings where I get overwhelmed and confused. TFSAs and RRSPs. What are they? What’s the difference? What should we be invested…
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Financial Goals and How We’re Working Towards Freedom
As we embark on our savings journey with Servus Credit Union we started meeting regularly with our financial advisor Brock. In our first meeting, we talked about our life and Brock really took the time to get to know us as a family. He wanted to know what we do, what we’d like to do…
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A Dive Into The Dashing Family Finances
I’m very excited to announce a new collaboration for Dashing Dad – Servus Credit Union. But why should you care? BECAUSE YOU CAN WIN A MILLION DOLLARS! I’m not joking. I’ll get to that in a bit. Personal finance is something that Dashing Mom and I have been interested in for a while. Ok, I’ll…
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Forest Schools In and Around Calgary
As the clock turns over to 2021, we’re quickly approaching the need to register Clara for Kindergarten. With our love of spending time outdoors, we wanted to investigate putting her into a forest school for Kindergarten. There are a number of proven benefits to forest schools including hands-on learning, exercise and real-world examples of learning…
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Dashing Dad’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide
Let’s be honest – 2020 has been an absolute dumpster fire of a year. Small businesses are taking hit after hit, and local makers are no different. So for this years gift guide I wanted to put extra emphasis on local Canadian makers and businesses. There’s only one product on my list not local, but…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Ghouls Night Out
Heritage Park has been one of our favourite activities in the city since Clara was born. We had our seasons passes all ready to go when COVID-19 hit, and greatly missed hanging out there this past summer. BUT, good news! They’re annual Ghouls Night Out is a go this year, with some additional protocols in…
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Daycare, Dayhome or a Nanny? Which is right for you?
Even under normal circumstances looking for childcare is stressful. Juggling the cost with what values are right for you and your kids, with the distance from your work and home is a lot, but throw a global pandemic on top of it and suddenly there’s a whole new set of things to worry about. After…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Strathmore
I was recently invited by the Town of Strathmore to come out and experience all the town has to offer. Despite having lived in Calgary for more than 25 years, I had never been to Strathmore before. I knew nothing about it, which actually was perfect for going into this experience. No previous experience, meant…
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Best Golf Courses In Calgary For Kids
I’ve been a golfer ever since I was young. It’s a great sport that teaches you so many things. Getting the kids out on the course is a great way to burn energy, get outside, spend time together and teach some valuable life lessons. Calgary has a number of golf courses specifically designed for young…
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Things To Do In Your Backyard This Summer
A portion of this post is sponsored by Social Lite. It shouldn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway – don’t share alcohol with your kids. While the entire state of Florida has given up on COVID restrictions if you’re anything like me you’re still hesitant to go out into public for gatherings…
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Support Local With Alberta Beef
This article is a paid sponsorship with Alberta Beef Producers. Since being diagnosed with Diabetic Gastroparesis eating red meat has become a treat for our family that we only do every so often. Since my diagnosis, I have lamented on more than one occasion that I’m not able to enjoy the meals I used to…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Granary Road
Granary Road is quickly becoming one of the best attractions for families in and around Calgary. If you’re not familiar with Granary Road it opened in 2017 and it’s located just south of Calgary. It features a 36-acre Active Learning Park, 3.5 km of trails, Market, Loft serving up fresh food and beverages (including a…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Digital Drama Camps
Summer camps are definitely looking different this year than past years. While some places have opened variations of their regular camps, other places are moving online. Quest Theatre is one of those places moving online, and are offering a fun and unique lineup of camps starting on June 29, 2020. Quest Theatre’s Digital Drama Camps…
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Updating My Dad Fashion
Now that I’m a Dad, dressing like I’m a teenager looks bad and feels wrong. With the help of some local brands I updated my Dad fashion and can help you too
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Outdoor Play With A Geometric Climbing Dome
A review of the Lifetime Geometric Dome purchased from Costco along with ideas on how to use it in your backyard with your kids.
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Things To Do With Your Kids: The Solutioneers
I don’t know about you, but physical distancing and self-quarantining have meant my personal screen time has skyrocketed. Luckily there is a lot of awesome programming on YouTube for kids, including Shaftesbury Kids latest show The Solutioneers.
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Calgary Restaurants, Breweries, and Coffee Roasters Offering Delivery
Unprecedented times, call for an unprecedented amount of ordering in. Delivery drivers are busier than they’ve ever been and it’s easy to see why. If you’re keeping your social distance but still want to support local businesses I’ve assembled a list of restaurants, breweries and coffee roasters that offer delivery options either via in-house delivery…
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Tips and tricks for making sourdough bread
After sharing a photo of Jane’s sourdough on Instagram I asked if there would be any interest in seeing some tips and tricks for making sourdough bread. I don’t do recipes, and if you follow me it is not because of my amazing baking skills. BUT, my wife does have amazing baking skills. In fact,…
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Things To Do With Your Kids While Self Isolating
We can all get through this together. While it’s called self-isolating, and social distancing, we’re not alone. In fact, we’re more connected than ever as we band together to stop the spread of disease.
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Things To Do With Your Kids: DIY Cake Decorating
We were invited to attend a DIY Cake Decorating day at Cakeify in Bridgeland and what resulted was a poorly decorated cake but LOADS of fun.
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What is an Applesauce Sky? Top Parent Theories
The new season of Word Party has been released on Netflix and it will surely bring mixed reactions from parents. Especially this quote from Halle Stanford, President of Television for the Jim Henson Company. “Kids and parents have been asking for more ‘Word Party’ fun and our new episodes will deliver with a new baby,…
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Travelling with Kids: The Ultimate Family Travel Guide to Palm Springs
Palm Springs has lots to do as a family, and no matter the age of your kids you’ll be able find tons t
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6 Sleep Tips For New Dads
Being a new parent inevitably means losing sleep, but it doesn’t have to mean being exhausted forever. Here’s some sleep tips to help you be well rested.
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8 Sleds You Can Buy Online For Winter In Canada
An in-depth comparison of the best sleds you can buy online for winter in Canada
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11 Awesome Calgary Instagram Accounts For Parents
Awesome Calgary Parenting Instagram accounts you should be following now.
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Here’s to 2020, the year of possibilities
As we head into the 20’s, I can unequivocally say I am happier now than I was then and what’s perhaps more indicative of my growth as a person, I’m envisioning and planning for a future more than I ever had before.
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Things To Do With Your Kids Over The Holidays
Things to do with your kids in Calgary over the holiday season
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Dashing Dad’s Best Christmas Movies Ever
I recently polled my Instagram followers to see what they thought was the best Christmas movies of all times. I picked the Top 20 movies as voted by major publications (Like Esquire, Time, Rotten Tomatoes) and pitted them against each other in a bracket style contest. The results were … surprising. For instance, classics fell…
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Dashing Dad’s Holiday Gift Guide & Giveaway!
The annual Dashing Dad Holiday Gift Guide is back. All designed to help with your mental wellbeing this Christmas season. Enter to win all products here!
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Things To Do With Your Kids For Halloween In Calgary
Although we’ve been inundated with more snow this fall, I’m optimistic that weather is going to improve for Halloween. Halloween is a fun time of year with kids. You get to dress them up in adorable costumes that potentially have to somehow fit over a snowsuit and you get to watch them devour candy at…
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Interview with Holly from Swim Kids Calgary
One of my most popular posts talks about swimming lessons in Calgary. Since I get a TON of questions about swimming lessons I thought I’d let the owner of Swim Kids Calgary answer some of the most asked questions.
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Checking out Calgary’s Quest Theatre’s Flibbertigibbet’s Story Exhibit
*I was given tickets to Flibbertigibbet’s in exchange for sharing about it, opinions and experiences are my own.* We just checked out Quest Theatre’s Flibbertigibbet’s (that’s a hard word to type) and Clara was a big fan! Flibbertigibbet’s Story Exhibit is put on by Quest theatre as part of their Sweet Pea Neighbourhood Touring Series.…
Got any book recommendations?