Calypso winners!

Congratulations to our four winners, and thanks to all who played along. Courtesy of the random number generator, the lucky winners for blog comments are:

Karen
Rebecca
Rachael

and our Twitter winner is
Shawna!

Winners, check your e-mail for details.

Thank you to everyone who left AMAZING ideas for enjoying our gorgeous city. Many things I have done, some I had forgotten about, and some I can’t wait to try! I’m going to be clicking back to the ideas on that post for years to come!!

Thanks as well to Calypso for providing the passes. 🙂 Stand by, I’ve got another great giveaway later this week!

Project 365: A busy week of summer adventures

Yikes, I have been so crazy busy this past week that I’m a whole week behind on my 365 posts. I have managed to take a photo each day (actually, a couple of times I took more than a hundred pictures each day!) but despite spending hours with Lightroom and Photoshop, I never did manage to get a post written about them. So here’s the pictures from the penultimate week, July 1 through 7. With any luck, I’ll get last week’s pictures up by the beginning of August!

This one is the finalé from my Dog Meets Cat love story. This one is my favourite, and while I loved the idea of storyboarding all the pictures, I think this one is lovely on it’s own — the cat behind the curtain has a kind of ethereal quality that reminds me of a Nicholas Sparks / Audrey Niffenegger alternate-universes kind of love story, yanno?

191:365 Dog meets cat - finale (the kiss)

We bought a membership to the Manotick community pool (I know, we’re “club” people now, I can hardly get over myself!) and have been spending a lot of time there. Glen at OttawaStart.com used this picture on his OttawaStart guide to swimming in Ottawa – fun, eh?

192:365 Splashdown

I’ve been reading Judy Blume’s Fudge books to the boys, from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing to Double Fudge. In one of the books, the boys go to the mint in Washington, which inspired the idea for a trip to the Byward Market to visit the Royal Canadian Mint, a destination none of us had ever visited. It was okay, not quite stimulating enough for the wandering three-year-old, but the big boys were interested enough in the 20-minute tour. They were a lot more interested, though, in the excellent milk shakes at Zak’s Diner (hadn’t been there in 20+ yrs!) and the visit to Sugar Mountain. In all, it was a fun day downtown playing tourist — if you haven’t done it recently, you should try! We ran out of steam before we made it over to Parliament Hill, so we’ll have to make another trek on a different day for that one.

I love composition of this photo of the boys perched on a box beside the National Gallery, lost in a sea of lilies. I also love the patiently indulgent expressions on their faces, too: I’m not particularly enjoying this, but it makes mom happy, so I’ll endure it.

194:365 Lost in the lilies

This was from our rainbow cupcake adventure day. Hmmm, I think we’re due to try this one again! *drool*

197:365 Cupcakes

We went on this massively weird road trip that was supposed to be a quick trip up to Kemptville to check out a flea market and maybe have some lunch. The flea market didn’t exist, and I couldn’t get a cell signal anywhere in Kemptville so I couldn’t rely on my iPhone map for directions. There must have been a classic car rally nearby, because at one point we gassed up and there was a 1978 corvette, and two other early 1970s vintage cars gassing up at the same station. We decided to truck on to Smiths Falls in search of other flea markets we’d heard vague reference to with no map and no real plan. We found these two old flea markets that were more junk shop than anything, but they had some fascinating stuff. It was a really surreal kind of day!

In particular, I was charmed by this set of 1960s-era salon hair dryers — remember these? I remember being terrified when the hairdresser used them on me when I was a kid. These ones even had little ashtrays in each arm rest — pure vintage awesomeness. I wanted to buy them just for the conversation-piece value of them, and Simon thought they looked like something that might launch him into orbit!

193:365 Flea market find of the day

I finally enticed Kerry all the way out to Manotick (she was fixated on the fact that she passed dairy farms on the way out – she’s such an urbanite!) and we had an excellent adventure involving burgers at the Side Street Grill, a visit to the Mill, a browse in the used book sale that goes on every day across from the Mill in the carriage shed, and ice creams and coffee for dessert. Really, despite the fact that it threatened rain the whole time, it was a perfect little wander. I’d promised Kerry a portrait months ago, and so we set up an impromptu portrait session on the dam. Isn’t she gorgeous?

195:365 Kerry

There are people who do entire 365 projects of self portraits and I have such admiration for them. I can barely stand to take one of myself every couple of months, but I did like the light in my room as I was sitting on the bed teaching myself how to better use my speedlight. (This is a natural light picture, though – the flash is on the bed with a book behind me!) I called it “Portrait of the artist in her natural environment” – with tongue firmly in cheek.

196:365 Portrait of the artist in her natural environment

One of these days, I might even take a self portrait without the camera stuck to my face…

Friday Family Fun: Calypso Water Park – and a giveaway!!!!!

It’s no secret that I love Calypso Water Park. I went on a sneak-peek tour when they were getting ready to open it last year, and I blogged about our first visit last summer. We’ve since been two more times, including on Canada Day this year. This most recent visit was our best so far, because we arrived first thing in the morning and stayed almost until dinner time, and even Lucas, the ferociously fearless preschooler, went on some of the big slides with me!

Rest assured, neither Lucas nor any of us were brave enough to try out the newest addition to the park, the crazy 10-story Summit Tower. Yikes! We did enjoy the giant wave pool, though (apparently the biggest in North America), both the Pirate’s Cove and the toddler-sized Zoo Lagoon, and I think all five of us thought the best part of the whole day was the time we spent floating down the Jungle River Run.

479:1000 Bucket dump!

So did you hear the latest Calypso news? MSN Travel has named Calypso as the best waterpark IN THE WORLD!!!! How awesome is that?

And how timely, because your Friday Family Fun post for today is offers you not only an idea for an excellent summer family adventure, but an awesome giveaway as well. Yes, my pretties, I have day passes to give away, thanks to the fine folks at Calypso!!

Here’s the deal:

  1. I have four sets of two day passes to Calypso to give away. I will give away ONE set of passes exclusively on Twitter, and THREE sets of passes here on the blog.
  2. You can enter on Twitter AND/OR on the blog, but you can only win one set of passes.
  3. The contest is open from right now through 9 pm EDT on Monday, July 18.
  4. The passes are only good for the 2011 season.
  5. To enter on the blog, leave a comment below offering a suggestion for family fun, preferably in Ottawa.
  6. To enter on Twitter, tweet “I want to win #Calypso Water Park passes from @DaniGirl at http://tinyurl.com/66znjt4 “
  7. Only your first comment and/or first tweet will be counted.
  8. Winners will be chosen via the random number generator at Random.org and announced Tuesday July 19.
  9. Day passes will be sent via snail mail as soon as the winner provides a mailing address or be made available for pick-up from me.

Sound good? Good luck!

Crazy times, I tell you. C-R-A-Z-Y!

I have so many blog posts backed up in my head that I’m quite sure my brains are about to start leaking out my ears any minute now. My life is in one of those whirling dervish phases, and it’s all I can do to hang on – there’s just no room for blogging!

Here’s but a sampling of the blog posts I’ve been dying to write but haven’t yet been able (not to mention a few that I’m dying to write and probably won’t ever be able to!):

  • Child care. Ugh. Still looking for care for Lucas for next month. I thought we had a lock on a spot in a daycare centre, but it turns out that we were lower down on the waiting list than they had vacancies. I’m still interviewing, with increasing desperation. Last night I was so sick of it all I cried it out for a little bit, then shook it off and lined up three more interviews for this week. Cross your fingers for us?
  • Blog Out Loud Ottawa! OMG, did BOLO ever rock the house down this year or WHAT? The readers were this amazing mix of raw, gut-wrenching honesty and side-splitting funny and jaw-dropping insightful that it was just a roller-coaster of entertainment. I had an amazing time, despite the fact that I was starting on what would turn out to be a four-day doozy of a migraine. If you get the chance, though, you should head on over to the BOLO site and click through to some of the readers for the night. Man, we are blessed with some amazing writers here in our community!

197:365 BOLO readers

  • Social Capital Ottawa: The SoCapOtt social media conference is coming up fast! Do you have your tickets yet? I’ll be doing a co-presentation with Lara and Vivian on how to choose the best social media tools for your business, whether you’re a sole proprietor, a not-for-profit or a government department. Come on out and check us out!
  • Critters: There are many, many benefits to living out here a semi-rural community. There’s more birds, more trees, more space, more bugs, and more critters. While Willie didn’t turn out to be much of a mouser, what he didn’t take care of a trap did — let’s hope there’s no more of those! But my real concern lately is a GIANT raccoon that keeps tipping over our garbage can and green bin. One of these days I’ll get around to blogging about the time Beloved chased him away from our garbage at 3 am one morning using the swiffer. But in the interim, HELP! I am so sick of picking up picked-through garbage — what can I do to keep this bear-cub-sized raccoon from tipping over the bins? The worst part is that I’m actually thinking of not using the green bin anymore, it’s just too much work cleaning up the food bits from the curb every single week, and now he’s started tipping it over at the back of the house, too. Ideas?

There’s more, oh so much more, and I’m hoping my life slows down enough in the next week or two for me to get back around to blogging it all in real time. Really, I think I’ve forgotten how to live the life unblogged!

Porch Portrait Mini-Sessions: Sneak Peek!

If you’ve been around here long enough, you know I can hold a secret like a colander holds water. Um, not very well at all!

So while I’d like to put up a blog post featuring each of the fun, fabulous and photogenic families that dropped by last weekend for Manotick porch portrait mini-sessions, I just had to put up a quick sneak peek so you could see how well they turned out.

And? If you’re going to do your first-ever portrait mini-sessions, I highly suggest you find yourself a set of families just like these ones. 🙂

The T family dropped by first. Mom, Dad, and a curly-haired beauty I wanted to keep for my own by the end of the session.

Sneak Peek T family

Next up was the M family. I’d been warned ahead of time that their sweet young son was a purveyor of that tight-lipped non-grin that all boys of this age seem to make when you point a camera at them. Luckily, I’ve had LOTS of practice overcoming that one, and these kids had gorgeous, genuine and warm smiles to share.

Porch mini-sessions: M Family

And last but not least, the F family had me jumping up and down and shouting “boo” to make little Miss M smile for the camera. No doubt, these two are monkeys and kept me on my toes (and in the air!) but I think the final product was worth every crazy leap.

Sneak Peek F family

I’ll have a few more pictures from each session posted in the next couple of weeks, but I was so pleased with the results that I had to share a few sneak peeks with you!

Friday Family Fun: Rainbow cupcakes

For this third installment of my summertime Friday Family Fun series, after suggesting some places to get out and visit around the national capital, I thought I’d post a suggestion for a fun kid activity that you can do whether you live in Ottawa or anywhere else. We did this last weekend and the boys loved it!

Cupcakes 1

You can start with cupcakes from scratch if you have that kind of talent, but we went with a box mix for plain vanilla cupcakes cuz that’s how we roll. However you start out, you should end up with a big bowl of cake batter. Separate that into as many bowls as you want colours — we went with four: red, green, yellow and blue. Add enough food colouring to each bowl of batter so you get a nice, rich hue.

Cupcakes 2

We made cupcakes, but the first time I saw this was on Amy’s blog, where she did a whole cake this way. I personally like the cupcake thing — I like my activities and my snacks bite-sized! Put a spoonful or two of each colour into a cupcake sleeve, and keep dripping layers of colour in until the batter fills the cup.

Cupcakes 3

As you can see, there’s not a lot of precision in our methodology. I’m learning to watch more and control less. It’s not always easy!

Cupcakes 4

When you bake them, they end up like this.

Cupcakes 5

As if fresh-baked cupcakes didn’t look delicious enough without the rainbow effect! And then, we added some frosting. Daddy dug out some star sprinkles to add just a bit more whimsey to the final product.

Cupcakes 6

Some of ours ended up half yellow and half blue, or mostly green with a touch of pink, but a few actually ended up like I had intended, looking something like this:

Cupcakes 7

Of course, this was the best part!

Cupcakes 8

If you’re looking for a fun rainy-day activity this summer vacation, consider rainbow cupcakes. So easy that even we could do them, so I’m sure just about anybody could!

Dog and Cat are Friends, A love story in seven acts

One day, Willie the cat found himself trapped between the curtain and the window when Katie, the large and smelly but largely benign dog, dropped down for a rest.

Dog meets cat, Act 1

For a while, Willie pondered various plans for his escape. Finally, he had an idea! “Pssst, dog… c’mere, I have a secret!”

Dog meets cat, Act 2

Katie, benign and benevolent creature though she was, once lived with two evil cats, and was naturally suspicious of Willie’s intentions.

Dog meets cat, Act 3

“Dog! Hey, dog! I may be small, but I’m tough, and I’m gonna get you, dog. Come a little closer and I’ll give you the what for!”

Dog meets cat, Act 4

“Hey you, dog! I’m talkin’ to YOU!”

Dog meets cat, Act 5

And then Katie looked at Willie with her best puppy dog eyes. “Do we have to fight? Can’t we just be friends?”

Dog meets cat, Act 6

And so they were. *smooch*

191:365 Dog meets cat - finale (the kiss)

And they lived happily ever after.

(Written with love for my Beloved, on the 12th anniversary of the day we were married. Ours may be the greatest love story of all, but this one is a close second! Happy anniversary, my love — and thank you for all of it!)

Project 365: Happy moments, happy memories

Help! I need more models!

I’ve really been enjoying taking pictures of people rather than stuff lately. The daisies in the garden are gorgeous, the sunsets are spectacular, but what I really want to take are portraits. Thank goodness the boys are reasonably indulgent to mom’s camera habit. (Okay, actually, they’re just easy to bribe.) It wasn’t until I started putting this post together, though, that I realized that every single picture this week save one was of the boys — and the last one was of the cat.

Really, I need more models!!

My friend Yvonne gave us this kiddie-sized wicker sofa, and it fits in perfectly on the porch. When I brought Lucas out to take his picture on it, I was just planning on a straight-up portrait of him sitting on it, but he had other ideas. I just laughed and snapped as he created the various poses for me, all without any direction at all. Clearly, I am grooming him to be either a Calvin Klein model or a circus clown.

185:365 Porch party

Not to be outdone, the next day I had all three of them in on the action. I figured if I was going to offer porch portraits, I’d better make darn sure I could do it properly.

186:365 Porch week continues!

I had it in my head to do an entire week of porch portraits, but the porch version of this idea wasn’t coming together, so we moved it onto the lawn. It’s far from my original conception, and yet ended up being one of my favourite pictures of the boys, ever.

187:365 Fun in the grass

I’d remembered taking pictures on the little bridge beside the boys’ school on the first day of school in September, so I snapped one to memorialize the last day of school in June. They’ve both grown up so much in the last year, haven’t they? I love how these work together!

188:365 First and last day of school 2010 - 2011

(It’s been at least two weeks since I used the vintage frames — that’s enough of a gap, right? 😉 )

We now interrupt this boyfest for a catnap…..

184:365 Catnap

While all of Ottawa headed downtown to meet Will and Kate for Canada Day, we headed in the opposite direction. Much as I would have liked the crowds and excitement, I know the boys would have been bored and tired and probably not very happy. So we went to Calypso and had the best day at the waterpark ever — can you believe Lucas went on the big waterslides with me? He’s fearless! I didn’t bring my camera (!) and couldn’t really see the screen on my iPhone when I snapped this one of Simon, but it’s a happy picture of a fun family day, and the Instagram processing emphasizes that for me.

190:365 Canada Day at Calypso park

Speaking of family fun, it’s the little moments that make good memories, don’t you think? We wandered about Manotick one sunny morning to celebrate the start of summer, checking out Watson’s Mill and the toy store and stopping for lunch, and then on the way home we stopped for home-made ice cream at the HodgePodge Shoppe.

189:365 Ice cream at the Hodge Podge Shoppe

When I started writing this post, I wasn’t quite sure what the weekly theme would be, and then I realized it was as simple as this: happy. These pictures all make me happy. What a great way to start the summer!

Edited to add: Oops, I almost forgot — Thursday was the end of June, so here’s the monthly mosaic, too!

June mosaic

Friday Family Fun: Five places to get soaked

Hooray, it’s summer vacation, and according to the forecast, the first week of summer vacation is going to be hot and steamy — just the way I like it! All summer long, I’m going to be posting suggestions for activities to keep families busy and happy. This week, I’ve got five suggestions for ways to beat the heat around Ottawa — and four of them are FREE!!

1. Andrew Haydon Park’s water park

This is one of my favourite places to visit with kids in Ottawa. Andrew Haydon park sprawls down the edge of the Ottawa river with beautiful walking trails, duck (well, mostly geese) ponds, a waterfall, a bandshell, and several play structures. It’s anchored on one end by the Nepean Sailing Club and one of our favourite splash parks on the other end.

Andrew Haydon Park splash play, Ottawa

Bring a blanket (but there are benches and picnic tables on site), a snack, a handful of buckets and a change of clothes (there are also washrooms on site) and expect your kids to get wet. And sandy. Very, very sandy!

If you go: Andrew Haydon Park is located off Carling Avenue at Holly Acres Road. The splash park is near the eastern-most parking lot (and a long walk from the western-most one — be warned!) Parking and admission are free!

2. The city’s wading pools are not just for wading!

When I think of wading pools, I think of those very shallow pools from my childhood parks, often circular and graded down to a central drain, and all of about 10 inches deep. Some of the city’s (free!) wading pools are a heck of a lot deeper and more fun than that! In particular, we like the one at the corner of Greenbank and Lisa Ave, just around the corner from Ikea. It’s got a deeper area for big kids, a shallow area perfect for toddlers, and the lifeguards are always terrific, actually engaging the kids while watching over them.

You can find a list of the city’s 56 (!) wading pools, as well as a great mapping system, on the city’s website.

3. Ottawa beaches

I may yet write a separate post about beaches in and around the Ottawa area. For now, I couldn’t write a post about ways to keep cool on a hot summer day without at least a passing mention of the terrific beach at Brittania, just up the road from Andrew Haydon park, in fact. We visit Britannia beach at least a couple of times each year. There’s a huge stretch of sand, the water is clean, shallow and kid-friendly (it’s the least-often closed-due-to-pollution beach in the city), it’s supervised with lifeguards during certain hours, and there are also play structures, a snack bar, and a huge, grass and tree park nearby.

512:1000 At the beach with Granny

There’s also a great breakwater for exploring, which happens to be one of the best places in Ottawa to watch the sun set!

Hiking the rocks

4. Splash pads

We were lucky that the water ban in Manotick, Barrhaven and Riverside South didn’t affect us too much, but I was relieved to hear when it was lifted so that we could continue to visit our favourite splash pad in Barrhaven. Did you know there are more than 50 splash pads in parks throughout Ottawa? Some are bigger than others, but how fun would it be to visit one each day for a week?

5. Waterslide parks

Summer just wouldn’t be complete without at least one day at one of the two awesome waterslide parks near Ottawa. Mont Cascades is on the Quebec side, and Calypso is about 40 minutes east of downtown Ottawa in Limoges. We could spend a whole day in Calaypso’s Pirate Splash Pad and the wave pool alone — and in fact, if the stars align correctly, that’s exactly where we’ll be today!!

Pirate splash pad

I blogged our first visit to Calypso last year, if you’d like more details.

So there’s my best suggestions for beating the heat of an Ottawa summer — and I didn’t even get around to mentioning the city’s outdoor swimming pools, indoor wave pools, or that old standby, the backyard sprinkler!

Got any suggestions to share? What are your favourite places to get soaked in Ottawa?