Bunchland

We have something to announce, and it’s kind of a big deal.

Starting today, you’ll be getting more Bunchland for your buck. Fresh new content will be coming at you on a daily basis. Get ready for guest blogs from people you already know and love, playlists, recipes, movie and book reviews, weekend guides, family style, contests and more. All the more reason to subscribe to our newsletter, be our fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep up with us.

We’re also busy assembling a kick-ass pool of bloggers to contribute posts to Bunchland on a weekly, monthly or one-time basis. But here’s the really exciting part: you could be one of those bloggers. That’s right, if you’ve got extra time and some mad writing skillz, you can be one of our Bunchland blogging superstars, reaching our ever-growing audience of 10,000 newsletter subscribers, 775 Facebook fans and 3,700+ Twitter followers.  Read more...

Late August and early September is when we shop for school supplies, lament that the days are getting shorter and spend one last glorious long weekend at the cottage. As we prepare to put away our flip-flops and beach blankets, we remember all the crazy-awesome fun stuff we did at Camp Bunchland. From gourmet popsicles and s’mores to backyard movie theatres and campfires, summer 2010 will always be remembered as the best summer ever. Until we top it next summer, that is.

How we spent our summer vacation

Packing for and then riding the bus to Camp Bunchland

Using fresh fruit and herbs to make gourmet popsicles

Sitting under a blanket of stars and watching movies in the backyard

Roasting s’mores over a crackling backyard campfire  Read more...

These movies are great if you like having nightmares

When I was growing up, VHS was the only way to bring 110 minutes of peace to the house, and our collection was small. So the few tapes we owned were played over and over again. And you couldn’t exactly preview the tape before you bought it. Gems like My Little Pony and the Aladdin series were a cherished part of my collection. But that can’t be said of all the movies I watched as a kid. Some of the tapes in our small collection were outright creepy!

Having recently acquired a digital copy of The Brave Little Toaster, but not yet mustered up the courage to watch it again, I’ve been inspired to share the top five disturbing movies of my childhood.

1. The Brave Little Toaster (1987)  Read more...

Do you have any naked pictures of your kids? If you do, you’re apparently a child pornographer. Or at least you could come under investigation as one.

After a breakdown and a long period of extreme depression, journalist Jody Jenkins worked up the nerve to share his story about how he, his wife and another couple came under police investigation as “child pornographers,” and were eventually also investigated for “endangerment of a child.” All because of six photographs taken on a camping trip. Six. The photos included naked pictures of the children, the children playing with a beer can and being near a campfire. Really?  Read more...

A family round of board games is a cottage tradition

Has your family cottage trip ever included a rousing round of board games? The shouting as the competition gets intense, the pitting of half the family against the other, maybe the odd accusation of cheating. It’s the perfect kind of unplugged fun, and if your cottage is anything like ours you have a stack of dusty old games piled in a corner, ready to be pulled out on a rainy day or after dinner.

Or maybe a closet full of them like in The Royal Tenenbaums. Swoon.

While your family may be perfectly happy playing that beat-up old box of Pictionary summer after summer, consider adding some new and still completely awesome board games into the mix. We got our friend Randal, owner of Toronto’s Toy Space/board game expert extraordinaire to talk about his must-have games. Here are his top five.  Read more...

Contributor Kari Svenneby describes spending summer with kids in Norway

Norway!

One of the things that strikes me about Canada is how similar Norway and Canada are in both landscape and climates. It is as if someone left Canada in the dryer too long and made a woolen Norway shrink. The coastlines, the mountains and the breathtaking views of Norway are very similar to Canada. Even the similar climates, and our abilities to produce both oil and fish products seem to connect us. They have both traded the number 1 spot for best country to live in by the United Nations.

I live in Toronto now, but Norway will always be my home as well. Every year the kids and I try to visit my family in Fredrikstad in the summertime where we love to spend most of our time outside. After living abroad the one thing I miss the most is nature. Not because Norway has the most beautiful nature or more of it that in other countries, but because nature is so close to you wherever you are.  Read more...

Kids’ lemonade stands are facing the wrath of health inspectors, we say do them anyway

Remember how important you felt running your own lemonade stand – nay, lemonade business – as a youngster? That old folding table in the garage became your very own “store” where you peddled your wares: fresh-squeezed lemonade, or maybe just some grape Kool-Aid.

Sadly, times have changed, and running a lemonade stand is no longer the innocent money-making endeavour it once was. No, pouring your friends cold drinks out of a plastic pitcher for 50 cents a cup is illegal. At least according to bylaw officials in Port Coquitlam, Vancouver. As this National Post article reports, 12-year-olds Mackenzie and Alex were selling lemonade, popcorn and homemade dog treats to raise funds for Mackenzie’s soccer team until some presumably bitter lady with nothing better to do reported them to city officials. The poor little dudes had to dismantle their stand because (and remember, we are not making this up) they were running it without a business licence. Ridic.  Read more...