Category: Ottawa Family Fun

Friday Family Fun: Movie night! And, a giveaway!

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

    7. .

Good luck!

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

Friday Family Fun: Karter’s Korners

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!

KK (1 of 4)

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.

KK (2 of 4)

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!

KK (4 of 4)

Friday Family Fun: Back yard camp out!

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.

Campout 2

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!

Campout 1

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!

Campout 3

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!

Friday Family Fun: Build a soapbox racer and join the derby in Manotick!

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!

Friday Family Fun: Five crafty ideas to keep kids busy

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.

Fun with sidewalk chalk paint (2 of 6)

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.

Beads

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!

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!

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!

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?

Friday Family Fun: Five places to meet the animals

As I mentioned yesterday, this summer I’m launching a new bloggy series: Friday Family Fun! I thought I’d get us started with one of my favourite summertime activities: meeting the animals. Here’s five great places to visit if you’d like to get to know our furry friends in and around the Ottawa area.

1. Valley View Little Animal Farm

Valley View is the perfect place for the toddler to early school age set. There’s fun stuff to climb on at the front of the park, and a small barn with goats, chickens, rabbits and the usual petting zoo type creatures that you can feed by hand. My boys have always been fans of the dozens of metal yellow Tonka trucks strewn around near the entrance… when they were toddlers, I think we could’ve just paid our admission fee, play with the trucks for three hours and then leave again without actually looking at the rest of the farm! If you do that, though, you’ll miss the wonderful animal barns (pigs, ponies, peacocks, geese and chickens, bunnies, ostrich and deer and so much more), the most amazing playgrounds and climbers, and a fantastic agricultural museum. You can read my blog post about Valleyview from 2009 or visit the Valley View website for more details. Valley View is open every day except Monday, and admission is $8 per person.

Tristan airplane

2. Papanack Park Zoo

It’s been quite a few years since we’ve been out to the far east end of town to visit the Papanack Park Zoo, but I’m surprised that I’ve never blogged about it. At this zoo off Highway 174 near Wendover, you’ll find an assortment of animals from lions and tigers to gibbons and squirrel monkeys to arctic wolves and black bears and much, much more. Admission is $17.50 for adults, $10 for kids 6 – 18, and $8.00 for kids 2 – 5 years old (kiddies under 2 are free!)

3. Parc Omega

Parc Omega is on our list of places to visit again this summer! Parc Omega is a kind of African Lion Safari with native Canadian animals like wapiti and wolves and bears instead of lions and baboons. It’s the same concept, though. You drive a 10 km loop through gorgeous forests and plains amidst the (mostly) free-roaming animals. Instead of baboons crawling on your car, you can feed carrots (and, in our case, soda crackers) to wapiti and red deer. There are also hiking trails and an interpretive centre.

Big ol' black bear

Parc Omega is about an hour from Ottawa, down Hwy 148 to Route 323 near Montebello. Rates are as follows: adults $18; children 6 to 15, $13; and 2 to 5, $7. I blogged about our visit in 2008.

4. The Canada Agriculture Museum

We! Love! The! Farm! I’ve had the joint membership to the Canada Agriculture Museum, the Aviation Museum and the Science and Technology Museum for years, and they have paid for themselves over and over again. It just wouldn’t be summer without a morning at the Farm, visiting the smelly cow barns, petting the baby calves, admiring the muscular horses and the chubby pigs, and taking a ride in the tractor simulator. And have you checked out their relatively new (2009, I think?) play structure? It’s awesome! The Agriculture Museum is definitely one of the best places in Ottawa to visit with kids.

189:365 At the farm

Admission is an affordable $16 per family (oh how I love family-pack admissions!) but there are excellent membership and day-pass combo prices as well. Check out their website for details!

5. Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo

Let’s face it, summer is not all sunshine and clear skies. If you’re looking for a rainy day activity or need to get out of the blazing sun for a while, consider a trip to Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo in the city’s south end.

DSC_0636

You may have encountered Little Ray’s traveling show at a summer event or a birthday party, but if you’ve never made the trek out to see them on the south end of Bank Street, you should! They have an amazing array of slithering, swimming, creeping and flying creatures, and an amazing educational program that keeps kids riveted. Family admission for four (sigh) is $38, and $8 for each additional person. I’m particularly fond of Little Ray’s because that’s the first place I ever took all three boys on my own back in 2008, and we make sure to go back at least once a year.

That’s my five recommendations – do you want to play along? If you blog about animal adventures in the national capital region this week, let me know and I’ll put up a link to your post. Or you can play along in the comment box. Got a suggestion for family fun with animals in or around Ottawa?

Summertime feature series: Friday Family Fun!

Hooray for summer!!

194:365 Birthday beach bliss

I don’t know about your house, but at our house we’ve been counting down the days. Only three more days of school lunches and then we’re free for the summer. Yippee!!!!

230:365 Mud Lake dock

One of the things I love best about living in Ottawa is that there is no shortage of fun family activities. In fact, I’ve made a whole bloggy career about exploring them and then telling you all about them! I’ve been thinking for a while now that this would make a fun summer series, so here we go. Every Friday from now through Labour Day, I’m going to try to post an idea for family fun in Ottawa. Some of them will be specific to the city — places to visit, things to do, events to attend — but some of them will be fun ideas for family play no matter where you live. Some may be repackaged ideas from the deep well of my archives, but some will be fresh new ideas too. Sound like a great way to launch a weekend? I thought so too!

Hiking the rocks

I’ll post my first entry tomorrow. If you have ideas you’d like to share, feel free to pass them along. Maybe we can even make this a carnival sort of event, where lots of us post on Friday Family Fun ideas and we can cross-link the posts. What do you think? I even toyed with the idea of a button or a badge, but I think I exhausted all of my graphic capability for the week on the new photo banner! 😉

Sunglasses

Tune in tomorrow and we’ll get started on a summer of family fun!