Why Travel Insurance is a Must

This post brought to you by Insurance Hunter. All opinions are 100% mine.

We love travelling, for the last three years we visited different countries around the world: enjoyed delicious food in Paris, tried on Dutch wooden shoes, climbed canyon, every time we buy travel insurance. Everything can happen and simple upset stomach can lead to bigger problems.

The main purpose of getting travel insurance is to protect travellers from medical emergencies and cover their medical expenses. It is good idea to check medical care costs in a country you are going to visit. Medical transportation and treatment while abroad without insurance can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars and frustration for you and your family. Instead of enjoyable and interesting trip you will get a huge bill for medical services. If you travel with little kids as we do, you definitely need travel insurance. Take a look at this short video also explaining how travel insurance benefits you.

No one is planning to get sick when travelling, but just for a few dollars a day you can protect yourself when going abroad. Considering that in Canada we have (in general) only two week vacation a year and have to plan ahead our trip, it is better not to risk and get the most from your travelling time. But how much coverage do you need for your trip? Check this video answering this question.

Travel insurance can be very handy in the situation of cancelled trip or business meeting, lost baggage, some severe weather conditions or loss of employment status. In this video you can also learn about the common protections with travel insurance.

Next videos introduced by Insurance Hunter, as part 4 and 5 of series about what you need to know about travel insurance when you are going on a trip, answer the questions: What are some common mistakes with travel insurance? and How much does coverage vary between companies?

Getting travel insurance is one of those things we think is fine to be without until something not quite good happens to us. So take a look and learn about travel insurance you can get with Insurance Hunter. Travel with confidence and enjoy your trip knowing that high medical and non-medical expenses are covered with your travel insurance. Bon Voyage!

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Notre-Dame Basilica and Montreal Jazz Festival 2013 Opening Night

Morning of the Montreal Jazz Festival opening day was rainy and we took a subway to get to Notre-Dame Basilica where we booked The Grand Tour and organ concert. During our 60 minutes guided tour we explored very private areas of the Basilica - the sacristy, the galleries and the baptistery.


The church's Gothic Revival architecture is among the most dramatic in the world. It is smaller then Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris and doesn’t have any relation to its famous counterpart, except architectural style. Unusual for a church, the stained glass windows along the walls of the sanctuary do not depict biblical scenes, but rather scenes from the religious history of Montreal.


Teddy liked Basilica’s grand and colorful interior and its ceiling colored deep blue and decorated with golden stars. Everything changed when organ start playing. The sound was so load and unusual that Teddy experienced of frightening feelings and we rushed to the opposite site of church where level of sound was acceptable. We didn’t go to the top to join Pierre Grandmaison who has worked as an organist at Notre-Dame Basilica since 1973. After half an hour of organ music Teddy got used to it and even liked when organist played "Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star". When we got out Teddy said that it wasn’t a real music and songs from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Dora Explorer are much better. It appears that children of his age are too young for Bach’s “The Toccata and Fugue in D minor”.


Then we headed to 2013 Montreal Jazz Festival site where at 9:30PM was scheduled grand opening and concert of FEIST. Meantime we checked several performers on few different stages. It was a relaxing evening on the site despite rain and cool wind. After long and exciting day in unknown city Teddy fell asleep in his stroller and we found a nice place close to the TD SCÈNE on the PLACE DES FESTIVALS and started waiting for Feist concert. By 10PM when concert started after official opening from festival organizers Festival square was packed with 40-50 thousands people.


We were afraid that if Teddy wakes up and doesn’t like so many people around we would have a big challenge to get out of that live ocean with him and our stroller. Fortunately for us, people bodies were perfect sound isolation barrier for waves of loud music and Teddy slept all the concert in his stroller like a little baby. We enjoyed every song and it was a really nice family summer night out: out of home, town, province and every day problems.


This post is a part of the series of our trip to Montreal during summer 2013. Other posts about this trip can be found here:

• Heart of Montreal Motorcoach City Tour with Cruise
• Teddy at Montreal Jazz Festival 2013

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Organic Edible Green Tea

I love drinking tea, different flavours and varieties, but when I was offered to try edible green tea I was curious to try it out. The idea is that you do not brew your green tea; you eat the whole leaves finely chopped. I already heard many good things about how green tea beneficial to our health from better looking skin, energy booster to antioxidants carrier. According to the information on Eat Green Tea web site, edible green tea leaves have 100 times more antioxidants than brewed tea found in just 1 tablespoon, because you do not throw your green leaves, you eat them.


I tried Edible Green Tea with different meals, with my drinks, cereals, smoothies, soups and other dishes as suggested and for me the best way to use them in baking or in soups or stews, that way I mix them with other ingredients. I like that they are conveniently packed in pouches where one brings a daily dose of green tea. And stating all the benefits of organic green tea I can say that you can feel energy boost from the first use which is great for my busy life style. Organic Edible Green Tea is natural and healthy product I recommend to everyone, treat your heart, improve your skin, be healthy, energetic or just feel great with Edible Green Tea leaves. You can easily find them on Amazon and check their web site http://www.eatgreentea.com

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Fast and Easy-to-Create Collages with CollageIt 3 Pro for Mac

If you like taking lots of pictures and creating collages based on different themes, styles plus adding some customization, CollageIt 3 Pro for Mac is definitely your choice.

The software brings multiple new features in addition to inherited ones from previous version including over 45 brand new templates to choose from, “Free Mode” option to edit, move, resize, rotate and adjust photos in a collage based on your own tastes (this one is one of my favorite new features). Plus CollageIt 3 Pro for Mac offers to creative minds more than 21 Photo Effects and many Text Effects to achieve more fancy and artistic look for photos. Great that we can play with text changing font, size, alignment, add text effect like Stroke or Glow and other settings. Another interesting feature is zooming of editing area to see and adjust any tiny details of your creation.

Making first step in using this app, choose the photos you would love to see in your collage, select the template from these popular collage styles - Mosaic, Grid, Center and Pile, click and your collage is ready in seconds. After you have a “raw” collage you can enhance it with numerous amazing features: choose the layout, background, add text, edit and preview collage with full-screen mode etc.


Finally when you creation is ready you can save it as image ( JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, GIF etc) and PDF (new feature), share via Email or Facebook or print it out instantly. Ready to impress your family, friends or co-workers then check CollageIt 3 Pro for Mac on App store.  This software supports Mac OS X 10.6 or above operating system, fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion).

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Choosing Vinyl Patio Doors

This post brought to you by Royal Building Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

High quality and low maintenance are what we are looking for when starting our renovation projects, small or big, for home, cottages, offices or business. Do you know why vinyl became so popular in construction? It is very strong and durable, resistant to moisture and humidity and can be manufactured in a wide range of colors.

Royal Building Products offer vast varieties of vinyl patio doors to manufacturers across North America: a fully-assembled, non-assembled (knocked-down) or lineal to meet any sophisticated customer needs. Royal vinyl patio doors are not only fashionable and require almost no maintenance than other patio doors, they are also extremely energy efficient which is great for any season of the year.

It is always great to browse through the big selection of Royal sliding, folding and stacking patio doors, find the right one you need, imagine how they fit your overall home style in colour and shape, because Royal Building Products have so many to choose from. For us we also considered how our family members are going to use patio doors, if it is easy to open for seniors and safe for babies.  We are definitely into durable, easy to maintain, cutting our home energy budget patio doors, modern and stylish at the same time.  And we found really good doors for our home renovations and suggest you to check great quality, durable Royal patio doors for your own projects to enhance your dwelling and improve your living.

Royal Building Products is a leading manufacturer and distributor of building materials that provide very low maintenance and save energy.  Royal products are sustainable and create a beauty that lasts over the long term to brighten up our homes.

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Million Mile Run to Fight Childhood Cancer

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and during this month Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation invites teams and individuals to join The Million Mile Run to spread the word and support childhood cancer research.

Inspired by Foundation creator Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who set out to raise $1 million through lemonade stands in 2004, Jay Scott feels that through combined efforts, reaching one million miles in just thirty days period is a realistic goal. The Million Mile Run is the worldwide event encouraging supporters to walk One Million Miles this September, alone or in a team.

If 10,000 teams or individuals walk or run 100 miles this month it will be quite easy to reach the final goal 1 million miles. There is no fee to sign up for the event, but if only $10 can be raised per mile via pledges or donations, the $10 million for pediatric cancer research can be reached in just one month.

The Million Mile Run participants can use the MapMyRun application or manually enter the miles they walked or run daily. If you are not a runner or walker you can still be a part of the good action by making donation, spreading the word or just shopping at Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation gift shop (they have nice selection of items).


The weather is great recently for walking and running here in Toronto, so good time to take a jogging stroller out, put my favorite Rebook shoes and be a part of  The Million Mile Run.

You can find more about Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation on Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Instagram and Google+.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Our Fall Adventures at Centreville Amusement Park #Centreville4fun

Centreville is always one of the most interesting places in Toronto. It is located on the island which makes it even more attractive to visit. This month Centreville has multiple opportunities to enjoy fall season: rides, events, farm adventures and attractions.


Last week-end we had a chance to visit Centre Island and participate in many fun activities. At the beginning of September Centreville launched Amuzing Race, a fun themed adventures with family-friendly trivia questions and stops around Centreville Amusement Park and Far Enough Farm. So we picked our Centreville Passport at the tent near Town Hall and our adventures officially started.


Our next stop definitely became Centreville Amusement Park rides because when Teddy saw them he wanted to take them right away. Some tasks in our Amuzing Race included rides so we were on the right track getting stamps and answering trivia questions. It was nice to see how many good rides at the park for little kids of Teddy’s age.


Teddy was flying on buzzing Bumble Bees, took a ride on Antique Carousel, and enjoyed spinning adventure on Aunt Hilde's Twirling Teacups & Beasley Bear Ride.


The most exciting rides were where Teddy was sitting in a driver’s seat like in one of Antique Cars. He had to turn the wheel and push the gas pedal and was driving Fire Engine and Ford Touring Car by himself.

And how without breathtaking rides, sliding down in a log and Monster Coaster with a Dragon ahead was thrilling for all of us.


We also had a good time riding on Centreville Train around the park, waving to visitors and enjoying colorful fall park views.


Meeting animals at the Farm was an adventure too, Teddy recognized almost all he saw - pigs, rabbits, a cow, sheep and many others. I think all the kids including Teddy enjoyed pony rides.


We also gave a name “Little Cathy” to a beautiful Cameroon Dwarf goat (everyone can enter this naming contest “Name that Goat” & you could win a Centreville Family Prize Pack)

After taking almost all the rides and visiting Far Enough Farm we finished all the tasks in our Amuzing Race and returned back to Centreville Town Hall to receive our prizes and be eligible to win a Grand Prize – a 2014 Staycation Toronto for a family of four. If you do not have any plans for this week-end you can definitely visit Centre Island,Amuzing Race fun activities continue till September 22 plus you are welcome to take  Centreville Amusement Parks  rides and see all the attractions.

Also great to walk down Cenreville Island to the beaches and see the amazing views of the Lake Ontario. It is getting colder and windier outside but still many beautiful places to visit like Toronto Centre Island and enjoy quickly passing by colorful fall season.

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Madison Wood Gym Set Giveaway US

Kids will be happy to spend hours playing at Madison Wood Gym Set, the high quality playset giving children endless opportunities to enjoy hours of adventures and exercise.

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Get Rid of Unpleasant Odours in Your Bathroom

As a mom of a toddler I experienced many unpleasant odors from pee to pooh that now I can definitely find out where the smell is coming from. Our potty training went up and down and now we luckily can use a bathroom as other grown-ups. I probably became super sensitive to not-so-friendly odors in my house and definitely tried to eliminate them differently with sprays which I think made it worse. Coming to the point that if something smells roses in a bathroom means that someone visited it and made that “bad” job. With our big family, and family members with some medical conditions we have to respect everyone and treat them accordingly, because we love our family no matter what.

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Teddy at the Canadian National Exhibition 2013 #CNE

Living in Toronto it is a tradition to come every year to CNE and say goodbye to summer and have a fun and relaxing family time together. Teddy likes planes and we decided to go to CNE during air show performance.


We start with Thomas & Friends Live Show which appears to be a little dull for Teddy, because Thomas just moved his eyes around and didn’t make any moves. Teddy liked Let’s Make Music zone and made a lot of noise trying different instrument. Then we took a photo with Dora and Diego. Teddy loves them both and was exited to see so familiar The Map, Knapsack and Rescue pack on them.

At YTV WOW! Zone Teddy played ball hockey, soccer and basketball and won some prizes! After that we visited the Reptilia Cruiser and looked into the world of pythons, alligators, tortoises, iguanas and even rattlesnakes. Splash’N Boots performance on Kids' World Stage was hip and edgy, but we weren’t able to talk and take a picture with them.


By that time the 64th annual Canadian International Air Show soared over Lake Ontario for another awe-inspiring show. Teddy liked aerobatics and spine tingling stunts, but sudden noise that happened when planes flyover disturbed him for few seconds every time. It was a cloudy day and air show took a break every time when it wasn’t safe for performers to fly. Unfortunately Teddy was not able to sit and wait for a long time and we skipped a lot of planes.


We went to Farm after that to see live animals, Celebrity Sand Sculpture, Butter Sculpting and of cause Kids AgVenture. Teddy’s favorites were 3 wheels horse riding, tractor driving and Fun Train trip.


Across the street in Arts Crafts and Hobbies Pavilion was a display of TOY-RONTO KINGDOM with amazing vision of Toronto created in origami, features a 1.3 meter high CN Tower and other notable Toronto landmarks. The final stop of our CNE adventures was Acrobatic Show in Ricoh Coliseum.

It was a nice show that let us sit half an hour after whole day of different activities and relax in cool place and enjoy acrobatic performance. When next day we asked Teddy what he liked the most at CNE, he said that planes and acrobats.

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