Everyone's birthday

Have you ever noticed the way kids always want to help the birthday boy/girl blow out the birthday candles on a cake? They crowd in and hover as close as they can get, take a deep breathe and blow all over the cake! There's no wonder they all want a piece of the action, birthdays make you feel special! So why not create that moment of magic any day of the year?

Not too long ago Joel and I baked a cake and decorated it. He insisted that it was a birthday cake, even though it wasn't his, nor mine, or anyone's birthday that day. When I asked him who's birthday it was he replied 'everyone's birthday!'

That's when the idea came to me, why not have it be a birthday cake? So with some friends, we lit the candles, sang happy birthday to everyone, and let the kids blow them out.

You should have seen those happy faces!

Junior Mall Walkers

by Dawn My kids NEED to get out of the house, everyday. Days spent stuck at home because of poor weather outside are torture, not only for them but also for me. We could bundle up and dress appropriately of course, but sometimes you only get 10 or 15 minutes before the kids are whining to go back inside.

Head to the mall! Lots of room to run around. (Leave your wallet at home if you're worried about being tempted. Just remember to bring enough for a coffee.) Go early. Most of the malls are open to the public before the stores open for Mall Walker clubs. It's also an ideal place for eager little walkers who like to touch everything. Let them burn off some energy running down the halls when they can't get into the shops.

Our favourite is Carlingwood Mall. It's almost all one level (the Dollarama and Bargain Shop are downstairs) so few worries about tumbles down stairs and the stores don't open until 9:30 which gives us a little extra hallway time. My youngest (a toddler) and I head over after dropping her older sister off at school. She gets 30-45 minutes to run before the shops open, then is tired enough to sit quietly in her stroller munching on a Timbit while I run my errands. It's a popular mall with seniors too, so if you little one likes attention as mine does, (s)he'll get plenty there!

And it's not bad for Mom's self-esteem either to be told how cute your kids are. :)

Dawn is mom to two daughters, 5 year old Dolly-girl and 18 month old Booboo. She tries very hard to remember which one is which.

Guerilla parenting: playing at Staples

by Zach There are times when I need something to do with the kids that isn't anything that we usually do, and that is free, or very, very cheap. Often doing something different is for my own sanity. And, usually the novelty keeps the kids, and me, entertained far more than would seem logical.

I suspect that these activities sometimes border on the unusual. For example, taking the kids to Staples. Who takes their kids to a big box store primarily to amuse them? Me, apparently.

For example, there is a Staples at 403 Bank Street. It's a big building, by downtown standards. And it has a number of characteristics that make it a pretty effective way to pass part of an afternoon:

• unlocked, out of the way bathrooms
• usually not very busy
• wide aisles and pretty good sight lines
• many, many packaged, hard to break, colourful items (the expensive stuff is generally locked away or out of reach - watch out for the computer monitor displays, though)
• rows of desk chairs to try out
• staff that don't seem disturbed by small children

If you actually need to buy something, that's great. If not, put something in your hands, and you look like you're shopping. The kids constantly grab stuff off of shelves and displays, so I usually have to say "we're not buying that" many times. However, I can also get some extra mileage out of the experience by getting the Boy to return whatever he's holding to where he got it.

While I certainly don't want to visit with kids on regular basis, I have to say, I've been surprised at how well the store entertains them.

Warning: watch out for the many huge, rolling stepladders the staff uses to reach high shelves. To kids, they seem like immense fun, but are definitely not safe for little ones.

Are you guerilla parenting too? Do you find yourself taking your kids places to play that you never would have imagined before? New suggestions are always welcome.

Zach is the dad of a 3.5 year daughter “the girl” and twenty month old son “the boy”. Zach doesn’t have his own blog but he is blogged about at Capital Mom.

Never underestimate the entertainment value of Pooh Sticks

by Shawna With the days heating up (I am sticking my fingers in my ears at mention of nighttime near-freezing temperatures this coming week - lalala, I can't hear you!),  my family is itching to get outside.  Yes, there are lots of fabulous, known parks we can target, but just as appealing is going for a walk or throwing helmets on the kids' little melons and stuffing them in our usedottawa.com-purchased bike trailer to explore.  After all, playgrounds might offer the kids a chance to run around, but the most activity I usually get there is pushing swings, or helicoptering around my almost-two-year-old to make sure he doesn't plummet through a gap in the play structure rails enroute to the slide.

We're new to our Barrhaven neighbourhood (as is everyone around us: we live in a brand-new development) so so far our forays have had us exploring close to home.  We have a path that loops around the water containment pond that's almost across the street.  If we're smart, we head to the left when we get there and branch out about halfway around.  We only return to the path do the second half when we know we're done with the walk.  You see, there's a bridge on that half, and we have learned that throwing pebbles into the water is an inexhaustible source of entertainment when you're a half-pint.  And throwing sticks on the upstream side and waiting for them to appear on the other?  You cannot imagine the suspense!  Especially because the current is extremely sluggish once the spring run-off has happened.  (Where did my stick go?  Why isn't it here yet?  Did it get stuck on something?  I'll get more rocks to throw while I'm waiting... Did I miss my stick while I was getting the rocks? Where is my stick? THERE IT IS!  LOOK MUMMA, LOOK!)  This game, by the way, was "invented" by Winnie the Pooh, hence the name "Pooh Sticks" (no, it's not a scatalogical reference).

Announcements that it is time to go home - or even just move on - are usually greeted with shrill screeches of displeasure, so it's often better to a) hit the bridge on the way home and mentally budget some time for lingering there, and b) have an activity at home which they want to do to lure them away.  My kids, for example, are big fans of the bath, so that's often how I transform their anger to eager acceptance of leaving.

When the decision has been made to go for a bike ride, my husband and I tow our wee mites around (okay, he tows, I just bike along unencumbered with him) until we've been going for a while and see a likely little spot, then we hop out and release our mini-Krakens.  Any small play structure or inviting path to explore will do.   Then the kids get free rein until it's time to pop them back in the trailer and head home.  Since they're usually getting cranky at this point, we quickly learned to proffer a supply of liquids and finger-food snacks to placate them on the way home.

Man, does it feel good to be doing something active for entertainment again.  For the kids, it's about the destination; for the adults it's about the journey, and this sort of activity covers both bases.  Win!

Shawna is mom to 4-year-old Sage and almost-2-year-old Harris.  She has  been writing online since 2003, and her latest project is a fledgling photography blog.  As a delicate hothouse flower, she is not winter's biggest fan and is expansively happy that spring is here!

The Canadian Tulip Festival - the plan

by Shawna With the early warmth this spring, we may be in danger of having an almost tulip-less Canadian Tulip Festival (which runs from May 7th - 24th). While this may put a crimp in my role as one of the "Artists in the Tulips" (this will be my second year my images can be found in the Tulip Art gallery in Commissioner's Park by Dow's lake), it in no way means I won't go to the festival with my kids.  Sure, it's nice for me to see the tulips and use them as a colourful backdrop for pictures of my nearest-and-dearest, but let's not lose sight of the main reason to go: to let the kids exhaust themselves by hopping them up on sugar at the Fudge Shack and tear around like mad things, all the better to sleep that night!

I kid.

Sort of.

In truth, there are tons of kid-friendly activities at the Tulip Festival and they almost all come with the bonus of getting out in the fresh air and maybe even learning a little history along the way.  To kick off the festival, there's an open air Liberation Street Party planned this year on Sparks St., which is being held in celebration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands and Canada's role in it.  Throughout the festival there will be children's activities at Major's Hill Park, and a lot of the area's museums are planning programming that links in with the festival.  The tulip festival website has details on all of this and more.

The fact is, there's a dizzying variety of programming and there's no way it would be fun to dash from activity to activity, trying to cram it all in; what we do is take a look at the schedule and try to earmark just a couple of things that sound fun on a day or two I'm not officially scheduled to be there.  We keep things loose and watch the weather, and if we can go at those times, so much the better.  And if things don't align so that we hit all our "planned" events, we try to keep in mind that what the kids really like best is the chance to ride the tulip shuttle bus (a novelty for my suburban children), see the ducks on Dow's Lake, and yes, eat fudge and Beavertails and tear around like mad things.

The better sleep that night is just a fringe benefit.

Shawna is mom to 4 year old Sage and almost-2-year-old Harris.  She has  been writing online since 2003, and her latest project is a fledgling photography blog.  She feels a defensive need to let you know that she herself rides the bus almost every day.