On Friday night, Simon and Tristan and I made the trip out to Scotiabank Place for our first-ever Ottawa Senators game. Can you believe I’ve never been before? I’d always had the intention to go, in a civic-duty kind of way, the same way you feel like you should haul your sorry self down to the Canal at least once each year for a skate. The parking thing seemed like a hassle, though, and it’s not cheap to bring a family to a game, and by the time we got out it would be way beyond the boys’ bedtimes, and (whine) it’s just so faaaaar…. yeah, I know. Pathetic, right? We are just so not a sports family.

Anyway, when the boys’ school sent home a note that they were organizing a Sens game night back in the fall, it seemed like a great opportunity to bring the boys out to their first game. Because really? Everybody ought to, at least once. While we’re not particularly sporty, Sens fandom does infuse kid culture. When Daniel Alfredsson visited the school last year, the boys talked about it for days, and even though we decided against enrolling the boys in hockey, they still love to play in the driveway.

I figured the whole game experience would be a little too much for Lucas, so I bought three tickets, and for most of this week Beloved and I engaged in a loose game of “I think YOU should take the boys because…” While the idea of the game seemed like a great time in theory, especially three months ago when we bought the tickets, actually hauling ourselves out there on a Friday night after an exhausting week seemed like more work that it was worth. In the end, I agreed to go to the hockey game if Beloved agreed to take Simon to his first reconciliation later this week. Seems a good trade to me!

I’d been dreading the parking situation, and it figures that Friday was the night Beloved had to teach late, so we couldn’t even leave particularly early. We left the house around 6:30 for the 7:30 game, and I was cautioning the boys that we may miss the opening face-off. Instead, we had absolutely no problem zipping right in to a parking lot and entered Scotiabank Place with at nearly 30 minutes to spare.

Our seats were WAY up in the 300 level, only three rows from the rafters. I think we may have sat in the same seats for a Tragically Hip concert a decade or so ago, and with Beloved’s fear of heights, it was probably for the best that I’d agreed to take the boys after all. It was a lot of fun sitting with the families from the boys’ school, though. I found out too late that our $25 tickets had also included a hot dog and a drink, which is actually a decent deal for the entertainment value of the night.

Funny, when the game started it took me a minute to get used to the lack of colour commentary. I’ve watched plenty of hockey on TV but I’ve never been to a live game before, and at first I thought it would be harder to follow the action without the commentary. I was surprised, however, at how captivating the live action is, even from waaaaay up in the bleachers. I was also surprised at how quickly the game flew by, even during the intermissions. Watching hockey on TV is something to be endured for the sake of finding out the outcome, I find, but watching it live is unexpectedly captivating.

The boys really surprised me, too. I’d expected them to be fidgeting and restless, but they were also completely engaged by the experience. Simon seemed to enjoy the cheering and the company of his friends, but Tristan spent the entire game sitting forward in his seat, his attention riveted on the action. He really surprised me the next day, when I showed him a picture from the game in the sports section, and he pointed out one of the Islanders and said, “Oh, there’s number 27. He’s the one that got hurt.” I was amazed not only that he had paid enough attention to notice his jersey number at the time, but that he’d retained it. Then again, little boys are known repositories of hockey stats and trivia, right?

I have to admit, I’m at heart a baseball girl. I can tell you why the infield fly rule is invoked, and when you should sacrifice bunt, and more than you ever need to know about the history of the game. I’ve read Ron Luciano’s entire oeuvre, and all of WP Kinsella’s too. Hockey, on the other hand, is a bit of a mystery to me. I have a vague grasp of the concepts of offside and icing, and that’s about as sophisticated as my knowledge of the game gets. And yet, I had a great time at the game. Way better, in fact, than I had expected.

The boys were particularly excited when Spartacat made the trip up to the rafters to visit us in the third period. I stepped on a water bottle trying to catch this photo and had a bad millisecond of imagining myself tumbling the entire way down to the ice like something in a Looney-tunes cartoon, but Tristan was enchanted. “Did you see? He had his hand on my head! I’ll never wash my hair again!” Simon felt the same way about the hand that Spartacat had high-fived.

As we drove to Scotiabank Place, I’d told the boys we’d consider leaving at the end of the second period. With a 7:30 start time, we’d already be way beyond their bedtime at that point, and I was dreading the post-game traffic. I’d figured two periods would give us a good taste of the game experience, but still have us home at a reasonable hour.

The game flew by so quickly that as the end of the second period approached, I began to think we’d probably be sticking it out until the end of the game. And then, with just a few second left in the period, the Sens scored the first goal of the game, and I knew we weren’t going anywhere. The Islanders tied it up in the third period, though, and when we got to the end of regulation time we were done. We snuck out, and heard the wails of dismay from the parking lot when the Islanders scored the gamewinning goal a few minutes into overtime. Ahead of the crowds, we zipped out and were home by 10:30, with both boys asleep in the back seat.

If you haven’t been, you really ought to go. It was Metro family night when we went, and I’m already considering picking up a set of tickets for the family game night in mid-March. And maybe this time the Sens will win!

Surely I’m not the last person in the city to have ever been to a game. Have you brought the family out? What did you think?

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I read somewhere in the Ottawa media recently that today, January 19, is the official “dead of winter.” Today is the date with the lowest average daily temperature of the entire year, and the average daily temperature creeps upward from here. So now we can officially say that winter is more than half behind us.

I was trying to pacify myself with that thought as I scraped that merciless ice off my windows at sparrow’s first fart yesterday morning in the rampaging wind. Summer is coming!!

Since winter is on it’s last legs (heh, maybe a little too optimistic?) you might as well get out and enjoy it during Manotick’s official winter carnival, Shiverfest! It runs next weekend, January 27 through 29.

There will be horse-drawn sleigh rides, a chili-cookoff, a photography contest, a trivia night, bands, reptiles, a kids’ play area and more! You can check out this PDF for details on the full weekend of activities.

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The kids may be counting down the sleeps until Christmas, but I’ve got my eye on the calendar for another reason, too. Only one more week until the solstice, the shortest day of the year, and then the days finally start to get a wee bit longer. Despite the lack of snow, it seems like it’s been a particularly gloomy December, don’t you think?

So I got curious and looked on the weather channel and sure enough, the sun is setting right about as I’m typing this – 4:20 in the afternoon, Ottawa time. Sigh.

And then, because there are a million other things more pressing but less interesting than researching useless data on the Internet, I wondered how much shorter the days will get in the next week, and I stumbled upon a bright little fact that makes me rather happy.

Turns out, while the days will in fact get another three or so minutes shorter in the next week, the extra daylight get lost in the morning. In fact, 4:20 pm is as early as the sun will set this year, which it will do today, Thursday and Friday. Then on Saturday, it sets at 4:21, which it does for another couple of days, before setting a whole ‘nother minute later at 4:22 on the solstice. And it only gets better from there!

Hooray! We may be in the midst of the darkest time of the year, but there’s long sunny summer evenings on the way…

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It was a dark and stormy night in Ottawa, but it was dry and bright with brilliant colours inside the new Ikea during the special media sneak peek last night! ZOMG, what an awesome, enormous store!!

It’s laid out on two levels – if you walk the maze through both levels, you’ve traversed an impressive 1.3 km! At the entrance, there’s a giant sort of foyer area with a huge kiddie play area along one wall and an escalator up to the showrooms. There are 55 inspirational room settings, and three full living areas (ie complete condo/apartment layouts with bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom), and 29 (!!) kitchens set up. Here’s @MrsLouLou and @missfish standing in my dream kitchen. *covet*

(I figure it’s a year, maybe two, before we find ourselves sitting at one of the dozen or so lovely little consultation areas near the kitchen inspiration section. One of our cupboard doors fell off last week, and other is wobbly. And really? The faux painted brick backsplash from the 70s has got to go! Once the furnace replacement is paid off, the kitchen reno project is next on the list, and I am giddy to get started. I can’t imagine starting a kitchen reno anywhere BUT Ikea!)

Everything about this new Ikea is bigger, better and brighter than the old store. There are more parking spaces (1200, half of them covered), more shopping carts (600), more seats in the restaurant (640), more space (from 113K to 427K sq ft), and more stuff: from 4500 products to 9500 products. There were 12 beds laid out in the old Ikea; there are 31 in the new one! As the manager of the bedroom furniture area said, “That’s a lot of beds to make each morning!”

The new store has a lot of stuff that the old store simply couldn’t make room for. They have a fabric section, for example. (The carpet section in the new store is the size of the entire textiles section in the old store.) The fabrics are laid out on the back wall here:

The whole store is epic, rather jaw-dropping in its proportions. Store manager Isabelle Auclair explained that the new Ottawa Ikea is now more in line with some of the other stores, with the inspiration rooms laid out across the upper floor and the “Marketplace” with the smaller, non-flat-packed items spread out through the lower floor. I could have spend days (and dollars!) just wandering about the kitchen and bath sections. Oooo, pretty colours!!

I think if you went through my house and rounded up all the empty picture frames, you’d find more than a dozen. Maybe even two dozen. I have this weird compulsion to buy them, and then I get all non-committal and have difficulty deciding what to put in them or where to hang them. Still, this frame section made me positively drool with covetousness.

Did you hear they are expecting 13,500 visitors the first day? Not in the first week, or month. The first DAY alone. Yikes! So I’m guessing you’ll wont see the checkouts looking quite so empty for some months to come!

But, there’s an impressive 36 cash lanes, and they’ve hired an extra 100 or so “co-workers”, adding about 50 per cent to their staff for the new store. Here’s another neat fact from the press kit: more than 45 per cent of the co-workers at the Ottawa store have been there more than 10 years. And you could really see the pride of the managers showing off their setions last night — it was a really neat insight into a company I’ve always been curious about.

There are a few more pictures on Flickr, and more information about the grand opening festivities on the Ottawa Indoor Beautification Facebook page. I’m grateful to Ikea for the chance to have a sneak peek and Ikea is sponsoring the blog this month, but as always all opinions are entirely my own.

The night got a little hectic for me when I realized that my iPhone was not, in fact, in my coat pocket where I thought I left it. I had a few very unhappy minutes when we went out to the car and found it also not there, and I was sick with the idea that I’d lost it. We made one last quick stop at the Starbucks where Beloved and I had met before the preview — and someone had found it and turned it in to the baristas there.

So thank you, Ikea Ottawa, for the amazing preview to your new store. I will be spending many, many hours there in the months and years to come. And thank you, kind Starbucks patron, for finding and turning in my lost iPhone. Together, you made a dark and stormy night bright and warm.

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I received this information about a great series of information sessions put together by the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and I thought I’d pass the information along to you.

CHEO Connects is a free information series for parents in the community, providing trusted information and access to local experts. There will be six evening events rolled out over the 2011/2012 school year — each covering both physical and mental health topics for a specific age group.

Each CHEO Connects session will help parents focus on key such things, including: What is “normal” for this age group? What are the biggest red flags I should watch out for? What I can do to help make a difference? CHEO experts will be on hand to answer questions.

This Monday, November 28 2011, the session focuses on 6 to 9 year olds. The sessions begin at 7 pm at the Adult High School (300 Rochester at Gladstone) and you can choose two of the following breakout sessions to attend:

Self Esteem, Friendships and Social Skills: What You Need to Help Your Child - Dr. Simone Kortstee
How can we help our children accept themselves and be confident in who they are? What can we as parents say and do to help them get along with others without losing themselves? In developing more independent friendships, what do our children need to know about peer pressure and bullying?

Helping your 6 to 9 year old develop skills for co-operation and self-management - Dr. Virginia Bourget
At this age, children develop increasingly effective executive function skills. Learn to understand and facilitate the abilities that will allow your child to regulate his/her emotions and behaviour with growing independence. Parental strategies for those times when adults and children can’t seem to agree will also be discussed.

Depression and Anxiety in Children: Tips and Tools – Dr. Marjorie Robb
With all the changes that children 6 to 9 experience, some stress and anxiety is to be expected. Children become more independent, and school and friends start playing a more important role. This presentation will look at signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety in children with an emphasis on “red flags” that parents should be aware of and suggestions about first steps to take in responding.

Healthy Activity and Balance! Can We Do Everything Well? – Dr. Annick Buchholz. Dr. Laurie Clark, Kelly Hefferman, RD
Healthy active living begins in childhood and carries on into our lives as adults. How can parents ensure a balance amongst school demands, extra-curricular activities, eating and sleeping? This session will review suggestions for how to help create balance in our children’s daily activities in order to promote physical and mental health.

This sounds like an amazing resource, doesn’t it? You can get more information on the CHEO Connects Web site.

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This week, CBC Ottawa has been doing a series on savvy spenders, featuring ways to save on your groceries and on your clothing budget. And today, they’ll be airing a segment on free activities for families in Ottawa — featuring me and the whole family! It’s been about three years since I wrote what was to become one of my most popular posts: 40 (mostly) free family fun ideas, the post that caught CBC’s eye. I’ve updated it a few times, but I thought it would suit the theme of the CBC segment to repackage it as the story was originally pitched: seven ideas for seven days of free family fun in Ottawa.

Day 1: Be a tourist in your own town

When’s the last time you went up the Peace Tower? Walked around the paths between the Ottawa river and Parliament Hill? Said hello to the feral cat colony near the West Block? Visited Maman the Spider? (And now there’s a brand new Haida totem pole right across the street from Maman.) Not too long now and you can bring your skates for a trip down our very own UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Rideau Canal.

Day 2: Visit the RCMP Stables

We still haven’t gotten around to this one, but it’s definitely on my list! At the RCMP Stables and Musical Ride Centre, you can meet the majestic horses and be charmed by their beauty and friendly temperaments, tour the stables where the training begins, stop by the Riding School, visit the farrier station and see the stately carriages used in royal escorts of Her Majesty the Queen.

Day 3: Enjoy free City of Ottawa programs

Did you know the city of Ottawa offers 247 (!) free outdoor skating rinks — or at least they will if this absurdly warm fall ever gives way to winter. And there are dozens of free splash pads and wading pools for free family fun in the summertime.

Day 4: Find freebies galore at the Ottawa Public Library

Everybody knows you can get books for free at the library, and most people know you can now borrow music on CD and movies on DVD. But did you know you can also borrow Wii, Playstation and Xbox games? After all those video games, you might also want to borrow a pedometer! Or how about museum passes for family admission to the National Gallery, Museum of Science and Technology or the Museum of Nature or even a three-in-one pass for the War Museum, the Museum of Civilization and the Canadian Children’s Museum? And that’s not even mentioning all the cool stuff you can download for your handheld devices! Phew!

Day 5: Go for a nature walk

Ottawa is criss-crossed and surrounded by gorgeous open spaces with easy walking paths perfect for families and even easily negotiated with strollers. Stop at the Bulk Barn and invest 35 cents for a big bag of bird seed, then head out to Mer Bleu Bog in the east, Hog’s Back trail in the middle of town, the Stony Swamp in the west and spend some time feeding the chickadees. Simply put a little seed in your hand and the chickadees will land on your fingers to feed — I’ve yet to meet a kid or adult who wasn’t charmed by this one!

Day 6: Take advantage of free museum days

Starting in December through the winter months, the animal barns at the Agriculture Museum (aka the Experimental Farm) are open on a pay-what-you-can basis. And the fabulous Children’s Museum at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the National Gallery are both free on Thursdays after 5 pm.

Day 7: Visit free local attractions

Did you know that Watson’s Mill in Manotick is haunted by the bride of the first owner, killed tragically just days after the Mill opened in 1851? Or that there is a free Currency Museum in the heart of downtown Ottawa? Other free local attractions include the Nepean Museum, Pinhey’s Point (admission by donation), the Goulbourn Museum, the Osgoode Township Historical Society and Museum, and Vanier’s Museopark.

Isn’t that amazing? So entertaining the family doesn’t have to break the bank! If you’re looking for more ideas for free or inexpensive family fun in Ottawa, try these posts for some ideas. And please do feel free to share your ideas for frugal family fun in Ottawa in the comment box!

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Ho! Ho! Holy Christmas, can you believe it’s that time of year again already?! Time for the 6th annual Christmas/Santa/Holiday Parade round-up! Wheeee! (I’ve pinned this post to the front page for the Christmas season.)

Did you know that a truly dedicated Santa fan could visit sixteen holiday parades this season in Eastern Ontario alone? Or that the busiest weekend for multiple parades is November 25 through 27, with a dozen parades over three days – from Brockville to Gatineau! If you’re up for the challenge, here’s this year’s schedule, in chronological order:

Kanata Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, November 12 2011, starting at 10:00 am. The parade will proceed onto Castlefrank Road, turning onto Abbeyhill Drive and on to Hazeldean Mall.

Kemptville Kinsmen Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, November 19 2011, starting at 1:00 pm. The parade will begin to travel east on Clothier St. before turning right onto Prescott St. Floats will entertain parade-goers the length of Prescott St., before turning right into the University of Guelph-Kemptville Campus.

Ottawa Help Santa Toy Parade
Saturday, November 19 2011 starting at 5:00 pm. The parade will start at the National Archives on Wellington street, head east on Wellington Street and then turn right on Bank Street. It will continue south on Bank Street then turn left on Laurier Avenue, continue east on Laurier Avenue past City Hall and onto the Queen Elizabeth Driveway. New toys (no used toys, please) and cash donations will be collected by the Ottawa Firefighters.

15th Annual Barrhaven Lions Club Light Up the Night Santa Claus Parade
Sunday, November 20 2011, starting at 5:30 pm. The parade runs down Strandherd Drive, starting at Beatrice Drive and ending at the park n ride, where it turns north for dispersal.

Gatineau Santa Claus Parade
Friday, November 25 2011, starting at 7:00 pm. A tradition that goes back several years, this light-filled parade that departs from the Aylmer marina attracts crowds from the entire region.

Brockville Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, November 26 2011, starting at 2:00 pm.The Brockville Rotary Santa Claus Parade will start at North Agusta Road and Pearl Street then travel West on Pearl Street E. to Park Street, South on Park Street and lastly, West on King Street to Gilmore Street. The parade will feature many floats, bands, horses, clowns, community groups, dignitaries and finally the star attraction, Santa himself. Volunteers will collect non-perishable goods, snowsuit donations and letters to Santa.

8th Annual Carleton Place Santa Parade
Saturday, November 26 2011 starting at 5:00 pm. Thousands of spectators, over one hundred floats, and one jolly St. Nick will meet downtown Carleton Place on Bridge Street for the largest Santa Claus parade in the Ottawa Valley. This year’s theme is ‘A Christmas Gift.’

Pembroke Santa Claus Parade of Lights
Saturday, November 26 2011, starting at 5:30 pm. The theme of this years’ parade is ‘Twelve Days Of Christmas.’

Orleans Parade of Lights 2011
Saturday, November 26 2011 starting at 6:00 pm. Once again the Ottawa Professional Firefighters Association will be hosting Santa’s Parade of Lights on St-Joseph Blvd. in Orleans. Toy and cash donations will be collected by firefighters along the route.

Arnprior Parade
Saturday, November 26 2011 starting at 6:00 pm.

Embrun Village Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, November 26 2011 starting at 6:30 pm.

Stittsville Parade of Lights 2011
Saturday, November 26 2011 starting at 7:30 pm.

Smiths Falls Santa Parade
Sunday, November 27 2011, time unknown.

Russell Village Christmas Parade
Sunday, November 27 2011, starting at 1 pm.

Rockland Christmas Parade of Lights
Sunday, November 27 2011, starting at 4:30 pm. Parade runs on Laurier Street

Casselman Santa Claus Parade
Sunday, November 27 2011, starting at 5:00 pm

Vankleek Hill Christmas Parade of Light
Friday, December 2 2011 at 7:00 p.m. Watch for Santa on his float! Visit with Santa before the Parade! Santa’s village will be from 4:30 to 6:45 p.m. at The Review, 76 Main Street East, Vankleek Hill. Santa will be on hand with his helpers and will have goodies for each little visitor! The street lights will be turned off for this Special Occasion. Come out and enjoy the Christmas Spirit. (Hey, did you know Vankleek Hill is the Gingerbread Capital of Ontario?!?)

Richmond Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, December 3 2011, starting at 11:00 am. Later that night at 6 pm, enjoy the annual “Lighting of the Park.”

Osgoode Santa Parade
Saturday, December 3 2011. Don’t miss “Christmas in the Village” while you’re there!

Manotick Christmas Parade
Saturday, December 3 2011, starting at 1:00 pm.

Pakenham Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, December 3 2011, starting at 1 pm. The Pakenham Santa Claus Parade is always a wonderful event that takes one back in time. The parade begins in front of the Stewart Community Centre. Santa and Mrs. Claus will make their way to the Upper Hall of the community centre following the parade where they will be available to meet with children of all ages. Complimentary hot chocolate and hot dogs will be served. There is also free public skating from 2 to 3 pm following the parade.

Perth Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, December 3 2011, starting at 5:00 pm.

Hawkesbury Santa Claus Parade
Saturday December 3 2011, starting at 7:00 pm. Let yourself be carried away by the magic of this beautiful tradition which will unravel on Hawkesbury’s Main Street.

Picton Santa Claus Parade
Sunday, December 4 2011, starting at 1:00 p.m. The parade route begins McFarland Drive (at the Beer Store) and continues through Main Street to the intersection of Highway 33, Talbot & Lake Streets (at the LCBO), there will be great viewing along the entire route.

Almonte Santa Claus Parade
Sunday, December 4 2011, starting at 1:30 pm. The parade begins at the Almonte Community Centre Parking Lot. Santa and Mrs. Claus will make their way to the Upper Hall of the community centre following the parade where they will be available to meet the children. Hot chocolate and hot dogs will be served compliments of the Almonte Lions Club. There will also be free public skating from 2 to 4 pm. Enjoy an afternoon of celebration and fun.

Carp Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, December 10 2011, starting at 1 p.m. Parade Route starts at The Diefenbunker (3911 Carp Rd) and follows Carp Road to Juanita Street to Langstaff Drive, then turns right onto Donald B. Munro Drive to Carp Road finishing back at the Diefenbunker.

Note: I had to drop a few towns this year as I couldn’t find any information about Metcalfe, Gananoque, Cornwall or Rockland. If you have any info about these parades, please let me know and I’ll update the listings!

And don’t fret if you can’t make it to the parade – how about one of these other fun family events with a holiday theme in our region?

Santa’s Arrival Pajama Party at St Laurent Mall
Stay in your PJ’s and welcome Santa to the St Laurent Mall on Sunday, November 13th from 9 – 10 a.m in the food court. Santa will stay at the mall until 4 p.m. that day. Festivities include a pancake breakfast, holiday craft-making, live music and prize giveaways, including Ottawa Senators tickets. Tickets are $7, free for kids under age two, but all the proceeds go to the Ottawa Food Bank.

Christmas Lights Across Canada
Each year, the National Capital Commission coordinates the Christmas Lights Across Canada program. The Christmas Lights program was launched in 1985 to brighten the Ottawa winter, and at first the lights were only on Parliament Hill, but over the years the program expanded. Now, Ottawa and Gatineau glow each winter with more tha 300,000 Christmas lights at over 60 sites along Confederation Boulevard. The program also includes all 13 provincial and territorial capitals, making it Christmas Lights Across Canada. You can watch the lighting ceremony on Parliament Hill on Thursday December 1, starting at 6 pm. Here’s my shivery, embarrassingly amateur video of the 2006 lighting ceremony (you can see why I’m a photographer and not a videographer!!)

Upper Canada Village: Alight at Night
Over a quarter million lights adorn the heritage buildings, trees and fences of Upper Canada Village creating a one-of-a-kind magical backdrop for its annual Alight at Night Festival… a true winter wonderland! See the lights Thursday to Sunday from 4:30 pm to 9:00 pm starting December 2, 2011, and then nightly from December 19 – January 7 2012. (Closed December 24 & 25, 2011)

Manotick’s Olde Fashioned Christmas
Saturday December 3 and Sunday December 4, 2011. The Village is transformed into a Village of Yesteryear. There will be a Victorian Tea and Penny Sale, horse-drawn wagon rides, pictures with Santa, face painting, strolling carollers and more. I’m looking forward to the Sunset Carolling at Watson’s Mill!

2010 Canadian Pacific Holiday Train
The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train hits the rails again in November, visiting over 140 communities. Since the program’s inception back in 1999, more than $5.6 million and over 2.45 million pounds of food has been collected in Canada and the United States. The goal of the Holiday Train is to collect food and money for local food banks and to raise awareness in the fight against hunger. At each event, the Holiday Train provides a box car stage, a line up of great musical talents and a corporate contribution to the local food bank. The community, in turn, is encouraged to donate food and funds, all of which stays in the community. Local stops include Smiths Falls at 8:00 pm on November 27 and Perth on November 28 2011 at 9:40 am.

Trees of Hope at the Chateau Laurier
Visit the Chateau Laurier for the tree lighting ceremony and silent auction November 28. The silent auction features over 300 items and the trees will be on display throughout public spaces of the hotel from Monday, November 29th to Wednesday, January 5th. During this time, the public is invited to drop by , vote on their favourite tree, and make a donation to CHEO.

Alexandria Festival of Lights
November 26 to January 1st, from 5 to 10 pm nightly. This is a community event that not only brings forth colorful trees but unique and individual displays from businesses, schools, and local organizations. There is no entrance fee into the festival for either the exhibitors or the public. Events include wagon rides, pictures with Santa and a scavenger hunt, plus fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

If I’ve missed anything, or if you’d like to share information about your family-friendly Ottawa Christmas or Holiday event, please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at danicanada (at) gmail (dot) com and I’d be happy to add them to this post!

Let the holiday craziness begin!

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Had a great afternoon out picking pumpkins at Miller’s Farm again this year! Want more details? See last year’s post.

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I simply had to interrupt my series of post-Blissdom Canada posts to share this awesome Halloween fun idea with you!

Last night, I was loading the dishwasher and checking homework and doing laundry and preparing lunches and all the other fun things we do between dinnertime and bedtime when I heard a very faint knock on the door. I figured it was Beloved, who had been teaching late, and that one of the kids had slipped the lock on the door, so sent Lucas to open the door for him. When Lucas reported that nobody was there, I stuck my nose out, wondering if maybe the screen door had come loose again.

This was sitting on the porch:

A plastic cauldron filled with inexpensive Halloween treats and toys, dropped anonymously on the porch — how amazing is that?! The boys and I were tickled orange and black! Also in the cauldron were two pieces of paper. One had a big black BOO printed on it, and the other had a happy little Halloween poem and a set of instructions that said:

1. Enjoy your treat.
2. Place your BOO on your front door.
3. Now you have 24 hours to copy this twice, make 2 treats, copy 2 BOOs and secretly deliver them to 2 neighbours who do not have a BOO on their front door.
4. Then watch how far this spreads by Halloween.

Is that not AWESOME? I’d never heard of anything like this, but Twitter seemed to have heard of this and called it “ghosting” and “BOOing” — apparently it’s a thing now. And don’t you want to totally start it in your neighbourhood? Well, you should! And to help, I’ve scanned the original poem and BOO sign and saved them as PDFs in dropbox, so you can print out your own copies and start the BOO flowing in your neighbourhood!

What fun! Now I’m off to BOO two of my neighbours, too!

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1. Some random and rambly thoughts on Halloween
2. The neighbours
3. A Happy Halloween

Can you believe it’s been a year this week since we moved out to Manotick? Seems like yesterday. Seems like we’ve been here forever. It has been the most tumultuous, crazy, busy year – no wonder it flew by in a flash!

I still remember the very powerful feeling I had the very first day we moved in, that we belonged in the house. It felt instantly comfortable and familiar, like we’d always lived here. I think that sense of comfort helped me keep my sanity for the first three months, when it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

I’ve taken to calling October through December of last year “the dark time” in my head. There were plenty of happy moments, but in addition to being seasonally, literally dark, I was full of doubts about what we’d gotten into. What I’d gotten us into. Within days of moving in, the dishwasher crapped out and the microwave started acting up. The furnace died, and then we found the mould in the basement. The boys were having some trouble settling in at the new school. We replaced the sump pump, had some rewiring done, tore up carpets and then it took forever to put all the bits of poor Tristan’s room back together again. So much went wrong with the house so quickly, I was sick with worry about what else could go wrong.

And through it all, right up until the spring thaw (that leaked into our basement and knocked over a tree in the yard) I rationalized the decision to move in my head. It was a great neighbourhood. It was a great school. The boys had a huge yard. There was great light, breathtaking light, that made me happy when it streamed through the huge windows. I think the reason I have been so vocal about how great life in Manotick is (and really, it is!) is because I was still trying to convince myself that it was all worth it. Having led the impulsive decision to buy the house and to move out here, I had to justify the decision to lead my family into such upheaval. It was well after Christmas before I could drive past the old house in Barrhaven without a sick feeling of “what have I done?” in the pit of my stomach.

And now, looking back on the first year as a whole instead of as a series of highs and lows, I can really say that it was the right choice — but oh man, that was a dark couple of months back there at the end of 2010!

When we first moved out here, I was on a mission (Beloved might even say it was a bit of a pathological obsession) to be a part of the community. I joined the school council, attended community meetings, went out of my way to meet the neighbours. We paid a ridiculous sum of money for a three-month membership to the community pool, largely because I was seduced by the concept of membership itself. We even started going (wait for it!) to church! I’m not sure why I got so fixated on being a part of the community, except maybe that there never really was a sense of neighbourhood and community when we lived in Barrhaven, and I’ve spent my whole life with a vague yearning for that sense of belonging.

This summer cemented my love for the community, and my faith that moving out here was the right thing to do. The house finally stopped (touch wood) finding ways to vex me, and we actually went a couple of months in a row without a contractor coming in to inspect, quote or fix something. We figured out that the odd, faint smell from the basement has to do with the smell of the water table and the island itself than the mould that I feared it was. The summer was long and glorious and beautiful, and the porch unexpectedly transformed itself into a portrait studio.

I really think, though, that the moment when I stopped rationalizing and justifying things in my head happened just this past weekend. We were at the Harvest Festival at Watson’s Mill, hopping off the horse-drawn wagon ride, and a queue of people were waiting to get on. I heard the boys’ names being called over and over. “Hi Tristan!” from one. “Hi Simon!” from another. And even Lucas’s mate from daycare was there. THe boys laughed, shouted, huddled with their friends. We could barely get down the block, so many friends and neighbours were there saying hello and sharing a quick chat.

There’s still a lot of little jobs, and even a few big jobs, that need to be done. The septic system is another year older, and won’t last forever. I’m not convinced we won’t get more water in the basement next spring thaw. And the damn tree that fell over in April is still waiting for Bell to come and rebury the cables underneath the uprooted stump, which has now started to sprout anew. But these are all things we can fix in time. Or continue to look blithely past.

We have a place where we belong. We are home.

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Wow, did you see the forecast for this weekend? I don’t know if I’ve ever eaten Thanksgiving dinner in shorts before – yowza, it’s going to be a spectacular weekend!

Here’s five quick ideas of ways you can get out of the house and celebrate Thanksgiving in Ottawa:

1. Admire the fall foliage at Gatineau Park
The National Capital Commission is offering a program called Follies of the Fall Forest, a two-hour guided hike along the Sugarbush Trail including lessons on identifying trees and discussions of why exactly leaves change colour. And it’s FREE!

2. Manotick Harvest Festival
This runs Saturday October 8 from 11 until 4 pm. There will be horse-drawn wagon rides, pumpkin painting and face painting for kids, a harvest market, and you can visit Watson’s Mill, among other activities. The village is beautiful in the fall – well worth the drive!

3. Celebrate the harvest at a local farmers market
Is there any better way to celebrate the harvest than fresh, local food? This weekend marks the last weekend for many local farmers’ markets, so it’s time to get out and stock up! This website has a great list of local markets with hours and locations.

4. Saunders Farm
It’s Haunting Season at Saunders Farm, with a list of activities that seems to grow each time I visit the website. Giant jumping pillows, fairy gardens, pedal racing, mazes – there’s more than a full day of fun here.

5. Take some family pictures
The autumn light is soft and flattering, and you simply can’t beat the backdrop of colourful fall foliage. Why not get out and take some family portraits this weekend! (That’s what I’ll be doing!) Last year, I wrote a post with five suggestions for great places in and around Ottawa to take family portraits, but heck, at this time of year it’s hard to find a bad location for pictures!

Got any other tips to share? What will you be doing to celebrate this summer – erm, I mean AUTUMN long weekend?

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You’ve heard of the Great Canadian Theatre Company, right? They’ve been putting on great theatre in Ottawa for more than 35 years.

The current performance, running now through October 2, is a musical called Amelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly. From the description on the GCTC site:

Be transported to the Golden Age of Flight – a world of planes, dreams and celebrity. Amelia is the fascinating story of the meteoric rise and mysterious disappearance of Amelia Earhart. The legendary Earhart was a pioneer of the skies, a courageous woman who defied all conventions of her time. This new hit musical from the writer that brought us Billy Bishop Goes to War, traces Amelia’s transformation from “girl next door” to iconic first woman of flight. Amelia is inspiring, entertaining and chock full of wonderful music.

Sound terrific, right? And our fine friends at the GCTC have offered up a pair of free tickets for you, my bloggy peeps!

BUT WAIT! There’s more!

I love this idea. Love it! During specific performances, the GCTC offers the Playtime Program, a fun and enriching opportunity for children ages 6 to 12 to exercise their creativity while theatre-going parents get to enjoy a great GCTC matinee.

Kids participating in the Playtime Program, with Kids Create, will be part of a fun and exciting craft time. This experience will include learning to create with new and recycled materials. At the end, all children will have finished creating several, unique crafts to take home with them. Crafts and supervision are provided by Kids Create, a local business run by an Ottawa resident and mom with years of experience in teaching and art.

During other performances, the Playtime Program with the OYP Theatre School will give kids the opportunity to play theatre games and work on a short performance piece in the theme of the play you are attending and then perform it for you.

An afternoon of theatre for the grown-ups with free childcare? What’s not to love? The Playtime Program doesn’t run for every performance, though. Check the GCTC website for details. The Playtime Program performance for the Amelia is for the 4 pm matinee performance on Saturday September 24 only.

And, as I mentioned, the fine folks at the GCTC have a pair of tickets to share with you. You don’t have to use these tickets for the Playtime Program matinee on September 24; the tickets are good for any performance during Amelia‘s run until October 2. However, if you want to also check out the Playtime Program, you must use the tickets for the September 24 matinee. Got it?

So here’s the details:

1. This is a giveaway for two adult tickets to a performance of Amelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly
   
2. The tickets are good for any performance of Amelia through October 2, 2011.
3. The only performance during which the Playtime Program for children ages 6 to 12 is available is the 4 pm matinee performance on Saturday, September 24.
4. To enter, leave a comment on this post mentioning a great live theatre performance you’ve enjoyed, from Shakespeare to little Johnny’s third-grade play.
5. The contest runs from now through 9 pm on Wednesday, September 21.
6. One winner will be chosen using the random number generator at random.org. Winner will be announced on this post on Thursday, September 22.
7. Winner will pick up the tickets directly from the GCTC box office.

Thanks to the GCTC, both for the excellent giveaway, and for making it easier for parents to get out of the house with the brilliant Playtime Program!

Good luck!

Edited to add: Sorry for the late update. Congratulations to Cath in Ottawa, the lucky winner!

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As you know, I’ve embraced the semi-rural life on Ottawa’s outskirts. It seems this time of year is rich with festivals, fairs and farmer’s markets. Here’s three suggestions for fun family activities outside of the city’s urban core this weekend!

1. Manotick’s Picnic in the Park and Soap Box Derby
Come out to Centennial Park in Manotick on Sunday from noon until 3 pm to see the soap box derby races, and stay for the old fashioned family picnic games! The Manotick Village and Community Association provides food, fun for the kids and music in the pavillion. Visit their website for more details.

2. The Richmond Fair
The Richmond Fair runs all weekend at the Richmond Fairgrounds, 6121 Perth Street in Richmond. There will be a midway, petting zoo and pony rides, as well as a lawn tractor pull, demolition derby and musical entertainment. We loved it last year!

3. Osgood Museum’s Fall Harvest Festival

The Osgoode Museum (7814 Lawrence Street in Vernon) will be hosting their very first Fall Harvest Festival on Saturday September 17 from 10 am to 4 pm. There will be fruit, vegetable and craft market vendors, local corn, apple cider and pumpkin pie. Go bobbing for apples and participate in the scarecrow-making contest and horseshoe tournament. Admission is free – you can’t beat the price!

It’s going to be a beautiful weekend – how will you get out and enjoy it?

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Apple-picking is one of my favourite summer-into-fall family traditions. On a crisp autumn day, there is nothing better than blue skies, green grass and fresh red apples. And there is no better snack than a tartly sweet juicy apple – I’m drooling just thinking about it!

The apple-picking season is just getting underway here in Ottawa, and there is no shortage of great places to go — so no excuse not to get out and enjoy the fresh air before another endless winter is upon us.

I found this great list of apple orchards in and around Ottawa - there are more than a dozen of them! Here’s a few of our favourites.

1. Kilmarnock Orchard

This is my hands-down favourite place for apple-picking. Kilmarnock is about an hour south of town, along the Rideau River just around the corner from Merrickville. It’s picture-postcard lovely, and after you’ve picked your bushels full, you can poke on over to Merrickville, the “jewel of the Rideau” for lunch and boutique shopping. I wrote this post after our first visit in 2005, and here’s another one from 2009. (Stay tuned for the 2011 version soon!)

2. Cannamore Orchard

While Cannamore Orchards, also a little less than an hour south of town, may not be *quite* as picturesque as Kilmarnock, it has a lot of other fun stuff to engage and entertain kids of all ages. There are wagon rides, mazes, play structures, and even a few animals to pet. I blogged our Cannamore adventure from 2007 here.

3. Apple Hill Fruit Farm

If you’d like something a little closer to home, how about the Apple Hill Fruit Farm on Jockvale, just off Prince of Wales beside Stonebridge/Barrhaven? The Welch family has been operating this small pick-your-own and pre-picked apple orchard for more than half a century!

What say ye, bloggy peeps? Any other hidden apple orchard treasures in the national capital region worth checking out?

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You know how you set out at the beginning of summer with a kind of a checklist in your mind called “fun things we must achieve as a family in order to consider this summer a success”? What, it’s only me that sees summer fun as a project to be achieved?

Anyway, this summer took an odd turn when I found out on the day before I went on vacation that I had to invest a good portion of my summer holiday preparing for my French exam. It all ended well, but it was definitely one of the more stressful summer vacations, and the summer family adventure checklist went out the window. While we had lots of little excursions, I feel like the list of ideas in my head has more left undone than done. It’s kind of a vacation version of my eyes being bigger than my stomach — my perception of our capacity for summer adventures was a little out of alignment with the actual circumstances of our summer. Having said that, here’s five ideas for Ottawa family adventures that we didn’t quite get around to doing this summer.

1. Port Elmsley Drive-In Theatre

I’ve been twitchy to go to eastern Ontario’s only drive-in theatre for years. We used to go all the time as kids and later as teenagers — I’ve always loved the drive-in. This one is about an hour’s drive from Ottawa, just outside of Smiths Falls. This is the last weekend of the season, and they’re playing the Smurf movie. We’ll definitely have to put this one near the top of the list for next summer!

2. EcoOdyssée

This is another adventure I’ve been meaning to check out for years. It’s a mixture of a pedal-boat adventure, mazes and a sort of eco-scavenger hunt. From their website:

Located on an enchanting site, Eco-Odyssée is a water maze that comprises an estimated 60 intersections spread out over more than 6km. Choose the adventure that suits you and enjoy the splendor of the marsh environment from your paddle boat. Learn to identify the numerous animal and plant species that live in the marsh, concealed within the forest’s greenery. You will be charmed by this journey of discovery.

They’re located just past Wakefield in Quebec, about half an hour from downtown Ottawa.

3. Dow’s Lake pedal boat and canoe rental

Don’t feel like the full-meal-deal for the EcoOdyssée? How about a leisurely pedal across Dow’s Lake? You can rent pedal-boats, canoes and kayaks. I may still find the time to cram this one in!

4. Lafleche Aerial Adventures and Caves

This one is on the Quebec side of the river too – maybe that’s why we never quite got enough momentum to make our way over there? Regardless, this seems like an awesome day of adventure to me! Lafleche seems to offer something for everyone — treetop rope bridges, zip lines, rock climbing, and cave spelunking. I can’t wait to check this one out some day!

5. Chasing the sunset at Britannia Beach

The beach is officially closed for the summer (boo!) but you should take advantage of the earlier sunset and take the family to watch the sun set from the point at Britannia Beach.

There are rocks to climb, ducks to chase (or, erm, feed) and stones to be skipped into calm waters. For those of us who spent a summer landlocked, it’s a beautiful way to enjoy the spectacular beauty of the sun setting across the water. We may yet head out this weekend, if the weather holds out.

While summer may be over, I have lots of ideas left to share (and apparently lots of adventures yet to achieve!) If you enjoyed these, I may continue the Friday Family Fun series on a more sporadic basis through the fall and winter. And if you’ve got insight into any of the adventures I mentioned today, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Here’s a quick and simple idea for Friday Family Fun: pop some popcorn, find some sugary snacks and pop a movie into the player of your choice. Such a simple pleasure, and the boys LOVE it when we do this. It’s especially delicious if you’re willing to let them stay up half an hour or an hour past their bedtime on movie night. Is there anything better than snuggling under a blanket, sharing a popcorn bowl and watching a movie together after a busy day of summer fun?

To give you something new to share on your next family movie night, I’m happy to offer brand-new-in-the-wrapper copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules, thanks to our friends at GCI Group.

Want to win one? Here’s how!

1. To enter, leave a comment on this post suggesting a great movie choice for a family movie night.
2. One entry per person.
3. The prize is a set of two DVDs, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules.
4. Contest opens today, August 19 and runs through Tuesday August 23, 2011 at noon EDT.
5. One winner will be chosen via random.org and announced on this post by Wednesday, August 24.
6. Winners must reside in Canada or the USA. You must be willing to share your mailing address with me to receive the prize

.

Good luck!

Edited to add: It pays to be quick! Congratulations to commenter #1, Steve Wynn! Enjoy the movies!!

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In a way, it feels like summer is almost over. I’m back at work this week, while Beloved has one week left. The boys have another two weeks after that, but really, the sun and warmth of summer carries on for weeks after that.

Today’s Friday Family Fun is a great summer treat, but you might want to choose one of those fresh fall days instead of the breathlessly muggy day we chose. We trekked out to Karter’s Korners go-karts and mini-golf and had one of our best adventures of the summer.

I’ve known of Karter’s Korners, eastern Ontario’s largest go-karting track, for years. We have friends with older boys, and have heard them talk about how much fun they had. I was a little concerned about whether our boys were old enough to enjoy — or even accomplish! — go-karting. As usual, I needn’t have worried.

They have two types of go-karts. Riders taller than 54” tall can drive their own kart, and they have a handful of doubles so younger riders can ride with a parent. It worked out perfectly for us that Lucas and I shared one kart while Simon and Beloved shared another, and Tristan drove his (eek!) own.

O!M!G! Did we ever have fun! The track is just a smidge short of a mile long, with a couple of bends and corners and at least one hair-pin turn. We’d bought one of those groupon-type deals that gave us each four loops around the track and a round of putt-putt, which was just the right amount of fun for us.

At first, I was concerned that Tristan might not be able to drive his kart on his own, but he did a fine job. This is me taking a picture of Tristan while zooming around in my own kart, one arm around Lucas, one hand on the camera, one hand on the wheel, tearing down the track at a speed I’d rather not consider. Don’t tell my mom!

After that, we got the boys each a ball and putter and set them loose on the putt-putt range, one of those fun old-skool ones with a windmill and a loop-the-loop and other classic obstructions. It was pretty much pandemonium, and I’m sure the boys managed to break every official rule of mini-golf (Lucas was especially funny, picking up his ball randomly and placing it within six inches of the hole so he could putt it in!) but they had a good time and didn’t bother anyone else so we didn’t care.

Karter’s Korners also has a mini-ATV track where kids under 54″ can drive their own vehicles, a driving range, an arcade, and a little canteen. In other words, pretty much everything you need to keep the kids engaged for a full afternoon of fun. It’s not an inexpensive family outing, but it’s frankly comparable in price to what it cost to bring everyone to the movie theatre last week, and way more fun. Plan your trip for a discount Tuesday and save a few pennies — or play a little longer!

I don’t know who had more fun, the kids or the grownups. Beloved is already talking about heading back and trying a few more laps. Karter’s Korners truly is an Ottawa adventure the whole family can enjoy!

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I love the idea of camping. Fresh air, change of scenery, the great outdoors, campfires and sleeping under the stars. Unfortunately, I’m a bit of a princess and also love nine hours of sleep. In a bed, not on the ground. And not within arm’s reach of my entire family.

That’s why I really love the idea of a backyard camp out — the less diva-ish members of the family (that is, everybody except me!) can sleep in a tent, but there’s no 500 meter hike to the nasty outdoor loo in the middle of the night, and if it pours the farthest you have to run is across the patio to safety. Also? No bears.

Yesterday was just about the most perfect day imaginable for a camp out. Warm sunny day, cool dry night. We had a camp-ish supper of sausages, salads, and (I swear, I didn’t plan it maliciously!) beans. Then we stoked up the fire pit and had s’mores for dessert. If you don’t have a fire pit in your back yard, you can always do these on the BBQ, too!

The kids couldn’t wait to get their jammies on, and Beloved and I laughed at the steady stream of “mandatory” supplies that migrated into the tent: favourite blankies and pillows and stuffies and comic books and more blankets and more books. One handheld electronic game was intercepted and denied. The kids couldn’t wait to get to bed – should have thought of this years ago!

I listened with half an ear most of the night, expecting to hear the patio door sliding open and little feet seeking softer beds, but they all made it until dawn in the tent. Lucky for me, I was already awake — Willie couldn’t find anyone else to torment at 5 am and had been chasing dust motes across my bed for more than half an hour when the kids tumbled in, boisterous and happy after their night in the tent.

And the best part of backyard camping? You don’t need to re-stoke the fire to have that first, and very necessary, cup of coffee in the morning!

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I absolutely love this idea! I was recently asked by the Manotick Village and Community Association to help spread the word about a fantastic family event coming up the third week in September: they’re staging their annual Picnic in the Park, and one of the new features this year will be a soapbox derby. Is that awesome or what?

A soapbox racer (originally built from a wooden soap or orange crate and rollerskate wheels) is simply a non-motorized car that uses a slope, gravity and a big push to power it. You can build your own based on the specifications on the Manotick VCA website, or there are kits available for purchase online. Or maybe there’s one tucked away in grandpa’s shed, waiting for a little WD40 and TLC? Wouldn’t it be fun spending a few days this summer building, test-driving and decorating a soapbox racer with the family? No batteries, no wires, no video screens allowed!

Here are a few of the details:

• registration costs $25 per racer, and you must register before August 31. However, there is a limit on number of participants, so register early to ensure you get a spot!
• the derby will be held Sunday September 18 starting at 10:00.
• minimum age of a driver is 7 years.
• each racer is guaranteed four races, and you don’t have to have the same person driving for each race.
• racers must wear a helmet with chin strap, eye protection and gloves. (The mom in me needed to get that part out there!)

And even if you don’t build and enter a racer, come on out to the Picnic in the Park in Manotick’s Centennial Park on September 18 to cheer on the racers. A picnic and an old-fashioned soapbox derby? I don’t think it gets more family-friendly than that!

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I was in Costco the other day and they had the back-to-school supplies out already. Nooooooo! I’m not ready!!! Yeesh, summer has barely begun!

And yet, when the kids are restless, those long summer days can seem less like something to be enjoyed and more like something to be endured. For this week’s version of Friday Family Fun, here’s five crafty ideas that will keep kids engaged – for a few minutes, at least!

1. Make-yer-own sidewalk paint

I love this craft, and had no idea how easy it would be to make nor how easy it would be to clean up!! I wrote a post all about how to make-your-own sidewalk paint with nothing more than corn starch, water and food colouring last year.

2. Make-yer-own moon sand

Confession: we haven’t tried this one yet, but I’ve seen it all over the Interwebs this summer. Apparently, if you mix 4 cups of sand, 2 cups of corn starch and 1 cup of water, you get the equivalent of that mouldable Moon sand stuff. I think this would be really fun to try with that fancy Crayola coloured sand, which would give more than enough for each boy to have his own bin full.

3. Make-yer-own playdough

If moon sand isn’t your thing, how about some home-made playdough? We got this kool-aid playdough recipe from Simon’s nursery school years ago, and I really like how it turns out. You’ll need

1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
1 pkg unsweetened Kool-aid (the mini-ones)
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

In a bowl, mix flour, salt and dry kool-aid mix. Boil water and add with oil to dry mix. Be careful, it’s hot! Allow to cool a bit but while still warm knead with hands for about 5 minutes. Will store for up to two months in a Ziploc bag.

4. Beads

We make a trip out to the local bead store each summer. Once upon a time, I thought of beads as more of a girl thing, but I couldn’t be more wrong – all the boys I know love to make beady crafts. And you don’t have to limit yourself to jewelry, either – the boys make nametags for their backpacks and lunchbags, zipper pulls for their jackets, and even name collars for their Webkinz pets. I usually buy a big bag of pony beads and alphabet beads and some elastic cord at the dollar store, and let them choose half a dozen or so fancy beads each from the bead store, and we’re good for at least an afternoon of entertainment.

5. Rock painting

This is another one on my to-do list for the summer. You’ll need some bright colours of tempra or acrylic paint (not watercolours), some brushes, and various sizes of rocks. Tip: collecting the rocks can be a great way to waste an afternoon – erm, I mean, another way to spend some quality time with your children! You can be ridiculously fancy like Martha Stewart, or aim a little lower and just hope more paint ends up on the rocks than the kids. You can guess which end of the spectrum I fancy!

I also found this neat idea on Pinterest: Use a stamp kit, stencil or transfer to create a whole bunch of alphabet tiles made from small stones. Isn’t that a fun idea?

So there you go, that should keep the wee beasties busy for at least another week, right? As always, please feel free to share your ideas for crafty family fun in the comments!

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