A Father's Day Experience + a Giveaway

Isn't it amazing how life comes around full circle once we "grow up"?  Way back when, I remember thinking about how uncool my parents were and how they didn't know anything (because teenagers know EVERYTHING, haha!).  Now I know that they were just trying to raise us, teach us morals and give us the foundations we would need to tackle this thing called life.  There are certain things that I've had to figure out myself, but I know my parents did the best they could.

As I raise my two kids, I realize just how much my dad did for us on a daily basis.  From the time I was five years old, I was a competitive gymnast.  This meant many practices, gymnastic meets, volunteer hours and commitment - not just from myself, but from my dad.  His shifts at work changed quite often (mornings, days, nights), but he always made sure he was present when he could be.  If he wasn't working, he was driving me wherever I needed to be or he was at the bingo hall volunteering or at the bottle drive, car wash, selling raffle tickets / chocolate almonds / his life (?) - you name it!  And let's not get started on those late night pick ups at 12:15am when my shift ended at my local grocery store at 16/17 years old (poor Dad!).

Whatever I needed, I knew I could always rely on Dad.

I initially intended to document a day of experiences with my Dad for this post, but we ended up running behind and didn't get to meet up until later in the evening.  Despite the change of plans, we were able to score Dad (and hubby) an in-store experience and new fit gear from Sport Chek!

Dad is normally a fairly laid back guy, so (as you can imagine) he was completely out of his element when I told him he was going on a shopping spree.  I just assumed he knew why we were meeting up, but when I told him he could get something for himself, he was beyond himself (growing up, Dad would always say by 'assuming' you're making an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me' - typical Dad joke, I know)!

We browsed around the shoe department and tried to make Dad 'cooler' by making him try on a pair of Pure Boosts, but that kind of failed haha!  I could tell hat he wast trying to convince himself that he truly needed another pair of runners.  After circling the store a few more times, Dad received a Fitbit lesson from one of the electronics specialists and he was sold!  Nothing like a little nudge and a challenge from his daughter (did you know that you can 'challenge' your friends through the Fitbit app?).  And off he went with his new Fitbit Charge 2!!

Since Sport Chek is our go-to shop for Father's Day gifts, I've put together some budget friendly gift ideas for the amazing dad / grandfather / step-dad / special man in your life just in time for the big day!

1. Fitbit Charge 2 | 2. Adidas Training Pants | 3. Nike Sandals | 4. Jason Mark Essentials Kit | 5. GoPro HERO5 HD Action Camera | 6. Nike Aerolayer Jacket | 7. Nike Flex Distance 2-1 Shorts | 8. Under Armour Sport Wireless Headphones | 9. GT Mountain Bike | 10. Adidas Pure Boost Runners

{win it!}

Father's Day is just around the corner and Sport Chek is generously offering one of our Canadian readers a chance to win a $75 gift card to help out with those gifts for Dad!  To enter, please follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is open to Canadian residents only and ends Friday, June 16, 2017 at 9pm PST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure:  All opinions in this review remain my own and do not reflect the opinions or views of Sport Chek and/or their affiliates.  We received a form of compensation from Sport Chek in order to complete this review.  Note that SwankMama does not accept responsibility for sponsors that do not fulfill their giveaway duties.  Winner will be contacted via email and will have 24 hours to respond, otherwise, a new winner will be chosen at random.

SwankFinds: Things We {Heart}

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and we can't help but see hearts!  We're loving everything about them this year and since we LOVE sharing our finds with you, we couldn't help but share these gems:

SwankFinds: Black & White and Striped All Over!

You may remember our black and gold obsession that came to life back in late 2013.  While that obsession is still going strong, we've found another colour/pattern palette that could stand to rival the black and gold combination {or as Lil J puts it, shades not colour}:

BLACK AND WHITE STRIPES!!!

This "shade" combo is definitely our anthem for 2014.  Just looking at it gets us motivated, so it's no surprise that our obsession has been channeled into an inspiration board for 2014:

Swank Holiday Gift Guide: Hostess with the Mostess

I used to feel a little overwhelmed and intimidated trying to find the perfect hostess gift for the many parties that we attend over the holiday season but, nowadays, it seems that everywhere we turn there's a fabulous option right in front of our eyes.

We searched high and low, and scoured store after store, website after website, and put together a collection of our favourite gems for your swank hostess:

Swank Holiday Gift Guide: For the Littlest Ones

We kicked off our Swank Holiday Gift Guide a couple of days ago with some solid gold lovin' and now we've gathered our favourite {what else?!} baby items of the holiday season!  It wouldn't be a SwankMama gift guide without some of the amazing gifts for the littles.

Here are some of our must-have baby items that are suitable for our littlest creations and that also have us mothers swooning over:

SwankFinds: Travel Essentials for Kids

If there's one thing about travelling with a family of five, we are big believers about finding the necessary essentials and packing for the "just in case" scenarios.  Case in point:  during our recent visit to Las Vegas, one of our checked-in luggage went missing {and, as we found out later, was left in Vancouver} and Baby Z was left to fend for herself.  Luckily, I had packed a few backup solutions for Baby Z but only had five diapers with no idea where our luggage ended up.  Sure, we could easily head to the Strip to buy her diapers and necessary essentials while we waited for news on her suitcase, but it would have been easier for us to have those essentials on hand.

Here, we've rounded up our favourite travel essentials for kids:

SwankFinds: Girls Night Out!

In anticipation for a much-needed girls night out tonight last night, we've rounded up some of our favourite items that would be perfect for a night on the town!

SwankFinds: Beach "Bum" Essentials

Now that summer's in full-swing, we've been finding ourselves frequenting the beach over the past couple weeks.  Seeing all the beautiful, young people soaking up the Vancouver sunshine inspired me to put together my dream beach essentials in this week's SwankFinds feature:

SwankFinds: Baby {Gifts + Essentials For Baby!}

As the quintessential online shopper, I find that I'm always coming across the swankiest items.  Whether it be for baby, the home or a girl's night out, there's no real reason why I should be keeping my finds to myself.  Hence why I'll be starting a new feature on this blog called SwankFinds.

I'm so excited to be able to share these amazing finds with you!  While a number of the items on our SwankFinds list may have been personally used/tested/reviewed by moi, only the elite few will make the list. And there will be items that have never touched my fingers, items that I could only dream of having and items that just deserve to be considered a swank find.


While doing a mass amount of online research for baby items when I was pregnant with Lil J, I found that I kept coming across the cutest baby gear/accessory/clothes that I never knew existed.  Three years down the road, I was pregnant with Baby Z and the baby market keeps getting cuter and more trendier.  To kick off our first ever SwankFinds, we put together our swank top 10 baby list: