Smorgasbord of Festivals

by Kari There are many advantages to living in a city with such a diverse population, but one of my personal favourites is the plethora of summer festivals.  Last weekend, we attended the South Asia Festival in Confederation Park.  Was it the best festival I've ever attended?  Nope.  Was it still a good outing and intriguing for the little ones?  Absolutely.  My four year old daughter loved the Bollywood infused dancing, particularly when two of the dancers came out into the crowd to encourage audience participation!  The colourful sarees appealed to her dress-up desire and she's still proudly sporting her henna tattoo six days later.

The onsite concessions also provided a hit for the taste buds.  My husband enjoyed the offerings of the New Nupur Restaurant, while the girls and I enjoyed some fresh naan bread after watching it being stretched, placed in the Tandoor to cook, and withdrawn for our pleasure.

This weekend, July 23-25, offers a minimum of three ethnic festivals for your consideration.

The Ottawa Turkish Festival will take place in Confederation Park.  If your wee ones enjoy vibrant colours, interesting sounds, and dancing, this may be worth making the trek downtown.  The water marbling, ebru, sounds cool and I suspect a kabab may be in order.  Admission is free, but some activities, such as face painting will come at a cost.

The Egyptian Festival will take place at St. Mary's Church in Trend Arlington.  If this is your neck of the woods, this free festival may merit a stop-by.  They boost of many children's activities, including a very popular hair braiding station.

The Lebanese Festival will take place at St. Elias Cathedral, across from Mooney's Bay.  The organizers claim days of sights, sounds, and tastes of Lebanon's rich and lively culture.  In addition to the traditional cultural performances, foods, and crafts, they have children's rides, games, face painting and more.  The Make a Mosaic craft on Friday night may just be the highlight of my eldest daughter's weekend!

As the summer unfolds, look for other ethnic festivals, such as the Muslim Summer Festival and the Ottawa Greek Festival Perhaps I'll see you out there...

Kari is the mom of two girls, a 4 year old and 10 month old.  She can be found frequenting free activities throughout the city in hopes it’ll tire them out enough to sleep through the night.

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

by Brie There is nothing like a glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. Especially if it is homemade.

We have a favorite lemonade recipe that comes from our well used copy of The New Canadian Basics Cookbook. It is one of the husband's favorite party treats to make. It is also one of our favorite treats to give. This year my one and a half-year old and three and a half-year old made a big batch to give to the girl's preschool teachers as an end of the year gift. Needless to say, they loved it!

I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as hard to make as I thought it would be with two kids. My tip is to double the batch and then each child is in charge of their own batch. They each get their own bowl, their own pile of lemons and their own sugar to dump in the bowl.

I will warn you that the sugar, and not the boiling hot water, is the trickiest part of this recipe. I kept a close eye on the girl but when I looked back at her after turning away for only a moment she had her face in the sugar cup trying to lick as much of it as possible. She maintained she was just smelling it but I could see the white sugar crystals on her lips!

Here is our favorite lemonade recipe!

In a heatproof glass jar or a bowl, combine:

- 3/4 cup lemon juice

- 2 tbsp grated lemon rind

- 3 cups granulated sugar

- 2 cups boiling water

Stir well until the sugar is dissolved. Cover and refrigerate. For each service, mix 2 to 4 tbsp concentrate with 3/4 cup cold water, or to taste.

 Then enjoy some yummy lemonade. Or, set up a table out front and teach the kids how to run their own lemonade stand!

Brie is the mom of a 3.5 year old daughter “the girl” and eighteen month old son “the boy”. You can read her blog at Capital Mom.

Playtime at the Park

by Brie Last summer we stumbled upon the Centretown Community Health Centre's (CCHC) free Summer Park program. I was very glad we did. And I am glad to say that they are back again this summer!

Mondays in the month of July and August will find the CCHC team out in force at two downtown Ottawa parks. With them comes craft supplies, sand toys, balls, bubbles and books. It is a great discovery if you are planning to be at the park anyway, but it is even worth going out of your way for. My one and a half-year old and three and a half-year old both had a great time exploring all the new treasures to play with, but I think this is particularly entertaining for older kids that are looking for something different to do.

The summer park programs rotates between St.Luke's Park (Elgin and Gladstone) and Dundonald Park (Somerset and Lyon). More information is available here.

Brie is the mom of a 3.5 year old daughter “the girl” and eighteen month old son “the boy”. You can read her blog at Capital Mom.

Dragonboat Festival: Mooney's Bay Beach

by Sara

Neither my husband or I had ever attended the Tim Horton's Ottawa Dragon Boat festival (despite our best intentions) but we decided this was going to be the year.   The event starts on Friday evening and runs right through until Sunday night.  Over the course of 2 and a half days there are multi-cultural activities and events, live music, roving entertainment, and of course, dozens of teams competing in the races.  There's even a children's area, which this year included performances by an illusionist, Little Ray's Reptiles, Radical Science, and a visit from Spartacat. 

This year the festival raised over $320,000 for several local charities, including the Sens Foundation, CHEO foundation, Bruyere Foundation, ArtsSmarts, The Ottawa Humane Society, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, and Debra Dynes Family House. 

We parked at Canada Post (for free) and then walked over to Mooney’s Bay (about 15 minutes).  There are several off-site parking locations that are connected to the festival by OC Transpo Shuttle bus.  

Clearly we missed out on a lot of the fun of the festival since we were there before noon and didn’t stick around for the beer tent or live music but we did partake in the family-friendly activities, which is what this blog is all about. 

We started our day at Mooney's Bay beach, which is right beside a giant shaded play ground.  The highlight for the boys was throwing sticks into the water and wading into the waves as they watched the boats race by.  It was a great place to watch the races from: we could see the boats heading out to the starting line and then watch them race to the finish line.  And because there are so many heats you don’t have to wait long for the action to start.

We strolled through the staging area where all the teams wait and line up for their turn in one of the massive boats.  We wanted a closer look at the dragons!  It was impressive to watch all the teams waiting in a huge line that snakes all through the staging area.  Even the boys were silenced by all the cheering and singing as people prepared for their races.

The Kid's Zone featured bouncy castles, soccer equipment, a stage for music and shows, face painting, and balloons.  Because the park turns into a veritable tent city for the weekend, it was nice to have a kid-friendly area that was fenced off and easily accessible to families. 

Although the 2010 Dragon Boat Festival is over, there are other events in the Ottawa region this summer.  The Rideau Canoe Club hosts a Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday August 21st and there is another festival on September 11th in Carleton Place

And don't forget, the next big event at Mooney's beach is coming up on July 11, 2010: The Hope Volleyball Summerfest!

Sara is mom to a 4-year-old firefighter and 2-year-old monkey.  You can find her at her blog, My Points of View

How are we doing?

We've been running Kids in the Capital for just over three months and we're LOVING it. But we want to make sure we're heading in the right direction. Do you like the kinds of posts we're putting up?

Is there something you wish we'd cover more of?

Is there something you don't really like about the way we're doing things?

Do you wish we could all get together and hang out a bit more often?

We would really appreciate if you took this short survey (shouldn't take more than 2 minutes) to let us know!

Thanks!