Pardon My Poppet

Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

I am thankful for Lodgenet

Do you know what I’m talking about?  If you travel as much as we do you will!  Many hotels use Lodgenet as their TV providers.  They also provide the in-room movies that you can rent.  They recently came out with an iPhone app.  It allows me to do EVERYTHING on my iPhone.  I can turn the tv on or off, I can order a move, I can even change channels without having to channel surf.  If I want TLC, I just choose it from the list.  Makes me feel a little closer to home when I can find what I’m looking for immediately!

Warmest regards,

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I am thankful for travel time as a family

This week-end my hubby is in Newfoundland by himself.  Of the 10 places he travels for work, we are able to go to 6 of them with him.  When he is gone I really notice the difference in Poppet’s attitude.  She picks up the picture of him on her change table and kisses it.  She is more whiny, more grumpy, more difficult in general.

Sometimes I can grumble about the amount of travel we do, but in the end, I’m glad we get to be a part of it!

Warmest regards,

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The Toronto City Pass is a booklet that gives you access to 5 of Toronto’s favourite tourist destinations:

CN Tower

Royal Ontario Museum

Toronto Zoo

Ontario Science Centre

Casa Loma

Also included in the booklet are TTC passes for unlimited one day travel.  Each pass is valid for 9 days from the first attraction visit.  (Although, in my experience, often locations do not date stamp the beginning date, and so we’ve used ours for over 6 months now).  All the attractions add up to almost $100 if visited individually, BUT each Toronto City Pass is only $58.40 for adults and $34.50 for kids 4 years old and up.  Great way to invest on a Thrifty Thursday!

And if you happen to be travelling for your vacation, City Pass offers booklets for the following cities:

Atlanta

Boston

Chicago

Hollywood

Houston

New York

Philadelphia

San Francisco

Seattle

Southern California

Warmest regards,

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I am thankful for the Toronto City Pass

Papa has the day off after a busy week-end, and we stayed in Toronto at my Mum’s last night so we could go to one of the awesome sites Toronto has to offer visitors!  If you haven’t heard of it before, you should check it out.  Even if you live in the Toronto area as we do, it is a great idea for any family staycation!

Warmest regards,

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This post is for my Mother who has been calling for 2 days to find out what Hubby did for our anniversary this year.  That’s the kind of reputation he has around here!  I officially have the best husband in the world!  Really, it’s not an exaggeration.  Every year I eagerly anticipate what he has planned for our anniversary.  This year was no different.

For our 10th anniversary, he surprised me with a trip to Quebec City.  We stayed at the beautiful Chateau Frontenac for 5 glorious days.  For 10 days before our anniversary he gave me a gift.  Each was in the colours of the anniversary (blue and silver).  Each was something I love.  I got a fountain pen shipped directly from Paris, I got a butterfly business card holder (which I still use!), I got a massage, I got a snowflake sweater (I LOVE SNOWFLAKES!), I got a lovely dinner in the hotel library with private servers, etc.  And to top it off he proposed, on one knee, a beautiful sapphire and diamond white gold ring and everything!  When we got married I had just been laid off, my room-mate was moving back to Toronto from Ottawa, and we just decided we were going to get married anyways, so why not just do it?  So 3 weeks later we went to the justice of the peace and did!  So the proposal on our 10th was extra special.

This year, for our fourteenth anniversary, he came home early on Sunday from a business trip in Newfoundland.  He packed up Poppet and the van and took us to our favourite breakfast haunt.  Then it was back in the van.  I didn’t know where we were headed.  We ended up pulling into the Four Points Sheraton in Niagara Falls (another favourite spot of mine!)  We checked in, went for a wonderful swim and headed out to dinner.  But you already know all this if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook.   We came back, put Poppet down and watched a little TV.

Next morning we packed up and Hubby gave me my gift.  That red suitcase had been calling my name for a week now!  So hard to not take a peek inside every time I passed it on the way to the laundry room.  What did he have cooked up in there?  I’ll tell you!

I’ve been going about the house decorating for winter.  I do this for each of the seasons.  I’ve painted snow on windows, put up snowflake stickers, even made an igloo out of Poppet’s little Fisher Price crawl through tunnel.  This wonderful man had bought me an abundance of small gifts all surrounding my love of winter and snowflakes!  And there was 14 gifts too!  (in addition to the pics below I also received 3 chocolate bars, some snowflake napkins, and a beautiful large white bowl to hold it all!)

Then it was off to Niagara on the Lake for breakfast.

One last stop at the Butterfly Conservatory and we were headed home.  (yes, that is her boot she’s chewing while looking at butterflies!)

This PERFECT anniversary getaway was topped of with a family viewing of The Sound of Music

(which Poppet was absolutely glued to!) and a plate of homemade nachos.   Can’t wait till next year!

Warmest regards,

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There are many ways to save money when you look at your vehicle.  Sometimes it is the biggest expense we have in our budget outside of housing.

One way we conserve funds is by using a toll road transponder.  Usually you pay a deposit up front (which is returned when the transponder is).  In Ontario there is not a monthly fee to use it.  Just having a transponder in your vehicle will save the video toll fee.  This is especially useful for a family with small children.  Without the transponder you are charged each time you enter the toll road.  Imagine you are on the toll road.  Cha-ching $3.25 to get on (plus the cost of the toll).  3 exits down the road your own Poppet has to go.  You know.  The mad rush to find a bathroom!  When you return to the toll road, cha-ching, you are hit with another $3.25 non-transponder video toll charge (the cost for processing your license plate via photo rather than transponder signal).  With a transponder you only ever pay the toll fee for the kilometres driven.

It’s a small, but practical way to save.  We only use ours once every couple of months, but since it doesn’t cost anything to just have it we find it more than worth it!

Warmest regards,

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Welcome to the very first Mabel’s Labels Monday on Pardon My Poppet ~ Pip Squeaks from the Mummy-verse!

Each week I’ll be posting a new idea on how to use Mabel’s Labels products!  (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!)  Some will be obvious, some will be unique.  But each is super practical!

I’m starting with my travel coffee mug, because that is usually the thing noticed first by someone who asks me where I got the awesome label.  And yes, I can pop it in the dishwasher!

The real reason I label my coffee cups is simple.  I hate to share dairy.  Huh??????  That’s right.  Even had to explain it to the server in Sam’s Club one day when I asked if the sundae my husband and I were about to share could be placed in 2 separate cups.  ”He’s your husband” came the reply.  I know all this already, but doesn’t matter.  There is something about dairy and I that can’t mix.  So if someone drinks from my cup that contains any dairy it’s totally all theirs from that moment on.  As we have many of the same travel mugs in our cupboard and it’s easy to confuse them on the road I put labels on “mine”.

I use the Sticky Labels on my travel mugs and couldn’t be happier.  Just as a side note, they are also microwave safe!

Would love to know your favourite ideas for using Mabel’s Labels products too!  Perhaps I’ll feature it on a future Monday.  Simply leave a comment to this post or shoot me an e-mail at:  info (at) pardonmypoppet.com

Warmest regards,

As a Mabel’s Labels Buzzmama I receive free product from time to time as a thank you for sharing my honest opinion on their FABULOUS products!

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