CPO Insider

Hi friends, Tracy here.

As usual, our meeting took place over the phone. We spent over an hour running through our list….. CPO is such a busy spot! Our latest contest, the CPO Child of the Week submissions, is getting lots of entries. I’m sure everyone is inspired by the chance to win the scrapbooking locket from Shosh designs.

I can’t wait to show off our Father’s Day video montage! We’re getting lots of submissions for that too. We’ve chosen music to accompany the video, and with Helen’s creative touch, I just know we’ll all be proud. You’ve got till June 12th to get your submission in. Be part of this great tribute to Canadian Dads!

Last week we sent a press release out concerning the launch of our new blogs. If you’d like to see one of the media outlets that picked it up, click here.

On a more personal note, this is Hailey’s final week with us before she leaves to have bambino #2. She’s not due until the 26th, giving her lots of opportunity to cherish Noah, one-on-one, before HIS life changes forever too! We wish Hailey the absolute best of everything - from her delivery to the special time she will be spending with her family - and look forward to her return.

Meanwhile, we have lovely Heather with us! She’s got single parenthood on the brain as she prepares for her husbands business trip. Just back from maternity leave herself, this will be the first time she’s had to “do it all”, meaning work full time and parent her young baby. I’m sure she’ll come through with flying colours but the prospect can be daunting!

Cara is enjoying the sunny summer weather. She took our phone call outside on her deck! Cara’s also looking forward to her end-of-season playgroup party.

Helen is busy preparing for a 3 day field trip with her daughter Emmy, but Emmy was upstairs in bed with a high fever! Since Helen is a class chaperone, she was wondering if they would be counting on her to go - even if Emmy couldn’t! Turns out, Emmy made a quick speedy recovery and all is back on track!

As I hung up the phone from our meeting, it rang again. My son Bobby had fallen off a ladder. He pressure washes houses for a summer job. Oh brother!! What happened to all his safety training? No broken bones, but he’s one sore little puppy.

Get ready for the biggest sleepover in Canada this coming Saturday night (Saturday June 7th, 2008). Girls of all ages are encouraged to gather some of their closest friends for an exciting night of sleepover fun and self-esteem building.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Lisa Naylor, a self-esteem expert with the Dove Self-Esteem Network who co-wrote the Mom’s Guide to Self-Esteem Friendly Sleepovers with Jessica Weiner. The Guide is designed to help kids strengthen their sleepover hosting and guesting skills and includes all kinds of activities and tips to help moms communicate better with their girls.

Lisa says, that although times have changed, sleepovers remain a part of girl culture and they are here to stay. How we approach them may be different, however. Her advice for this and any sleepover is to invite those your daughter is most comfortable with. Group dynamics play a key role in the success of any sleepover. Even numbers are also something to consider, nobody likes to feel left out. Lisa went on to stress the importance of parental involvement in the planning and supervision, giving the girls some space and time to bond and to have fun but still close enough to keep the get-together fun for everyone attending.

The Guide’s activities will help girls to replace some of the games that are typically seen at a sleepover, many of which can be self-esteem hazards. Girls should feel good about themselves and feel safe at a sleepover, positive experiences can have a huge impact on tweens and teens.

The Sleepover for Self-Esteem is a great opportunity to help your daughter and her friends grow their friendships and their self-esteem through fun activities and a national TV movie go-along. I will be hosting a sleep-over with my daughter and her friends and we will share some of what we are up to as the evening progresses.

For those of you who haven’t heard of the sleepover visit www.dovesleepover.ca for more information and to download the free guide. You’ll learn more about the movies playing during the evening, you can print invites and activity sheets too.

Have fun!

Helen

Hi Friends ~ Tracy here.

As you know, we usually have our staff meetings on Tuesday mornings. Last week Cara was away in Florida, Helen had an appointment, and Hailey and I were both too busy!

So we met this morning - all FIVE of us! Yup, we have a new friendly face and her name is Heather Lielmanis. Heather will be covering for Hailey’s maternity leave and we welcome her to our team!

We have a new contest launching tomorrow so make sure you check out our Home Page for more details. We all wish we could enter (employees can’t) as the prize is simply adorable. I don’t think there’s a mother among us who wouldn’t agree.

What else did we discuss you ask? Among other things, our Father’s Day contest/video montage entries (don’t miss out!), the success of our blogs, we planned a blog press release, and did some editorial planning.

Of course we had a friendly chat as well. On a more personal level, here’s what’s on our minds today:
Hailey is ready to pop and busy tying up loose ends around the office as she prepares to take a well deserved mat leave. We’re going to miss her!
Cara is recently back from a last-minute family vacation to Florida and can’t wait for school to be over. She’s dealing with a very tricky teacher situation concerning her daughter. Trust me, she’s NOT having fun - and that’s putting it mildly!
Heather (recently back from a mat leave herself) is transitioning to her new role as acting GM in Hailey’s absence. We wish her all the best and look forward to working with her in the coming months.
Helen is crazy busy with end of school activities including designing T-shirts for both of her kids classes. On top of all that, she’s co-chair of their school’s Fun Fair.
Tracy is trying to make it to the gym every day and not having much luck. She’s also helping a frantic teenage daughter prepare for her school’s Oscar night… and oh no – she just got invited to the Grade 12 prom! Will they survive??

Congratulations to all our wonderful Mother’s Day bloggers, especially our three winners:
Jennifer Christakos
Mandi Naismith
Sarah Ingals
They have each won a one year premium Smilebox subscription!

***Stay tuned for more exciting giveaways and continue to Blog Yourself Silly!

I have three One Year Premium Smilebox Memberships to give away this week for Mother’s Day! To win, simply blog about Mother’s Day, or anything to do with being a mom, or being a daughter. Tell us your wishes as a mom, the details and events of your Mother’s day, or even just your favourite Mother’s Day quote. Don’t worry about being fancy - just be yourself and write and/or post a picture about what’s on your mind.

The contest is open beginning immediately and will stay open until midnight on Monday night, May 12th.
When your Mother’s Day contest blog entry is complete, simply send me an email with Blogging Mom in the subject line and the link to your blog post in the body of the email. You will automatically be entered in the contest. Good Luck and have fun!

We’d like to thank each and every one of the CPO Bloggers who entered our Giveaway for Dental Health Month sponsored by Crest Spinbrush!

Following a random draw, we’d like to congratulate our winners:

Kelly S Cierra (Miscouchemommy)

Britany Henson (lilmissie)

Janice Common (punkypboy2006)

***Stay tuned for more exciting giveaways and continue to Blog Yourself Silly!

Hi friends - Tracy here.

We had our staff meeting a day late this week. Usually it happens on Tuesdays but Hailey was doing a “photo shoot” featuring her pregnant belly yesterday!

We all call in from our offices and connect via a conference line. Often we can hear Cara’s little ones in the background, or Finn latching on for some cuddly mommy time.

Today our list of items to discuss included our CPO Blogs, Mother’s Day, the excellent success of our Clutter Control Club and some upcoming contests that I will keep secret for now

Besides work related topics we always chat about what’s going on in our lives. Cara is just getting her voice back from a bad cold/flu that went through her household. Her Clutter Control Club aspirations were put on hold due to this illness but she’s looking forward to getting back in the de-cluttering groove! Helen is busy making plans for her daughter Emmy’s 12th birthday. Imagine, Emmy was a BABY when we started working together on CPO! How time flies (when you’re having fun)! Hailey just came up for air after putting in long hours relaunching our sister site, Today’s Parent. A Job well done Hailey, and we’re glad to have you back with us! I’m still getting over my trip to Dubai - trying to get things back to “normal”, whatever that is! Everyone had a good laugh when I shared that my suitcase is still half unpacked on my bedroom floor.

Stay tuned as tomorrow we’ll be announcing our Crest Spinbrush gift basket winners. If you haven’t sent in your entry, you have until midnight tonight. Here’s how.

Have you ever found yourself searching for a wet wipe to clean up a messy face or sticky hands only to discover you don”t have one or the package you had tucked away has dried out ? Well - this has happened to all of us and most recently to me - just the other day.

I had to run out to do a quick errand and asked the kids to jump into the car. We drove across town arriving at our destination in a few minutes. When I got out of the car and opened my son’s door I discovered a very very dirty face. He had been playing basketball and I guess his hands were dirty from the ball. He wiped his face in a downward motion leaving long black marks all over his face!

I remembered tucking a new product into my purse, knowing someday I would give it a good test… well today was the day. The Wysi Wipes are small tablet biodegradable towlettes about the size of a nickel. The package and ads say that you just need a little water and you are good to go. Well, as it turned out I had a bottle of water in the car with about a tablespoon of water in the bottom; the amount the wipe says you need. I took a tablet out of the package and carefully poured my remaining liquid over top and to our surprise the tablet expanded and turned into a moist wipe. Sam cleaned his face and hands and we were off to the store.

I love that these wipes are biodegradable and can fit into your purse or the glove box of your car or minivan. They really have a myriad of uses especially with the summer around the corner. I love that you can drop a bit of water on the tablet and you have a wipe or… for those unexpected spills, you can drop a tablet on the spill and it soaks it up leaving you with a wipe to finish the cleanup!  I have seen products similar to this and can’t speak to how well they perform - but I love this great little product.  Wysi-wipes are the original tab wipes and they are Canadian too!

Do you have a unique product? Tell us about it!

Hello everyone, Helen here!

We had our weekly staff meeting a day early this week so I thought I would pop in and share the latest on what we are up to.

Tracy is away this week, enjoying a holiday with her friend Judy. They are having a great time, check out Tracy’s blog for her latest entry.

Cara was in full spring cleaning mode - she’s is taking part in the CPO Clutter Control Club challenge and has just finished putting together her sparkle kit. If you haven’t joined the club what are you waiting for - you’ll find lots of fun, prizes and help getting rid of all that “stuff” that weighs us down. Join in on the fun!

Hailey also found that she was getting into the swing of SPRING - but we aren’t sure if it was spring cleaning or “nesting” - after all our sweet Hailey is expecting her second little bambino at the end of June! If you have any tips for Hailey on getting ready for a second child be sure to leave a comment!

As for me - well, I am suffering from a bit of a sunburn. I think the sun caught me by surprise on Saturday. So, if you haven’t stocked up on sunscreen for you and your family be sure to do it now. If you read my Photo a Day blog you will know that we just got over a sick house and are all feeling much better! Click over and read about Sam and his sick bucket!

If you are new around here - welcome! Be sure to read the earlier posts to learn more about CPO’s latest give-away. There’s still time to get in on the action - so read below to see how you can win!

If you are looking for some help click on the HELP link on the main page of the CPO blogs for help getting started and a quick link to the message boards where you can post questions. We are continuing to work to resolve any of the little glitches you have discovered and will be adding a link to the sidebar of the blogs to help you access the HELP area and report problems to our administrative team. Watch for a new theme to be released soon.

Have a super week!

Helen

Hello everyone! Cara here, back from Toronto and Today’s Parent Babytime Show. I must say I was amazed at the size of this show, and impressed with the many exhibitors that were there. The best part for me though, was getting to meet some CPO Community Members. It truly felt like I was meeting old friends! Thanks for making the trip out to see me gals, I really appreciated it!

I got to meet: BabyBrain, TamC, Shanora, Noahs_mommy, Scarletsmommy, Juliansmum, FK’smommy, MMummy, Kiki Canadian, All4them & Momof4boys. I also unexpectedly got reunited with a pal from highschool and we had fun reminiscing.

Here’s a few pics from the show and my dinner out with some of the girls.

TamC, her sweet dd Avery and myself

Sam (Shanora), her ds Liam and me!

Sheila (Scarletsmommy), Scarlet, Katheleen (Noahs_mommy) and Noah!

Scarlet wore a special pair of earrings just for me! The most adorable Ladybugs, I just needed to capture a pic!

And last but not least a shot from dinner at the Lonestar Grill, from left to right; Shelley (All4them), Mandi (MMummy), Lori (Momof4boys), me (Ladybug Mom) and Titia (Kiki Canadian). Thanks for all of the laughs ladies, it truly was a fun trip!