Mother’s Day at the Tulipfest Lego® Community Garden: a photo essay

by Avra  

Lego12

When the Tulipfest schedule first came out, my husband sent me a link to Lego garden activity with the single sentence: "we should go to this." With two Lego maniacs in the house, this kind of activity is a no-brainer for us, as I am sure it is for a lot of families in the NCR area. Lego events of any kind tend to draw crowds.

  This event appeared to be no exception. We chose Mother's Day as the day to head over. The tent was set up at Major's Hill Park, in the FUNtasia zone. The description in the guide billed it as free with the park passport, or by donation. When we got there at 2 p.m., there was nobody checking passes and no donation boxes in sight. But there were piles and piles of Lego.  And lots of kids.

Lego4

A note here: all the building blocks provided were Duplo, which is the larger Lego.  It’s not what we normally play with at home, but it didn’t seem to bother my kids, or even some of the older kids who were in attendance. 

Lego3.

We started off at the back of the tent. There were about 20-25 other kids sitting in groups of 6-8 around large piles of red, yellow, green and black Duplo.  They had chairs set up along the edges for parents to watch and take photos. There was not a lot of talking:  mostly the unmistakeable click-clack of pieces being moved around and clicked together, punctuated by the occasional: “Look what I made!”

Lego9

  Creativity was everywhere. Robin Sather,  A Lego-certified Professional hired specifically for the event, kicked things off that weekend by constructing large, elaborate tulips.  He was still present on Sunday, but all the creations were coming from the visitors.

Lego8

The theme was to build something you find in your garden. Each group was given about 20-25 minutes to build a creation before  volunteers asked us to clear out and make room for a new group of kids.   This was not strictly policed, but it did help keep the crowds from getting too large, and allowed kids to have lots of pieces and room to let their imaginations go.   

Lego7

We stayed for about 45 minutes, and in that time my little guy created two flowers, a bird and a nest.  When I asked him later if he had fun, he said yes.    The event runs until May 23 from  10:00am – 5:00pm , except for Monday May 16, when it is closed. If your kids like building with Duplo, it’s worth checking it out!

Avra Gibbs Lamey (@gibbslamey) is the mother of two little Lego-maniacs.  When she’s not picking pieces out of the carpet at home, she has a day job as the Communications and Media Relations Officer for the Canadian War Museum.

Spring at Petrie Island

by Cathy Spending time outside as the world is waking up again is one of the best parts of spring.

One of our favourite places to celebrate the season is Petrie Island– the perfect place for a Sunday morning ‘wonder wander’. And if you go in the next few weeks, you’ll get to see one of Petrie Island’s star attractions – turtles! – emerging along many of the Island’s trails.

Easily accessible from downtown Ottawa by turning north on Trim Road, the area is home to many wildlife species, including three different types of turtles. A small network of trails, each between 0.5 and 2.5 kilometres long, lace the property and are perfect for little ones to roam.

When they’re ready for a break, there is a small play area near the beach (with a train my 2 year old loves to ‘ride’) and lots of picnic tables for a welcome snack. There is also a small interpretation centre on site for those wanting to know more – or who’d like a closer look at some of the area’s most reptilian residents!

The area is considered a Class 1 wetland, which means we should have worn our rubber boots when we went last weekend. Some of the trails were still flooded but we saw 5-6 turtles enjoying the early sunshine, as well as a muskrat swimming quite close to shore. Everyone came home muddy, wet, and filled with excitement about what we’d seen. A perfect morning, I’d say!

Cathy is a blog-less but avid follower of Kids in the Capital. She has a 4.5 year old daughter and a 2.5 year old son who both love being outside as much as she does.

Rainy day scavenger hunts

by Brie With all the rain in Ottawa lately we have spent a lot of time indoors. We have painted. We have baked. Finally I had to get us out of the house!

One day last week I managed to get the kids dressed into their one piece rain suits (I love those!) and we headed to the park for a scavenger hunt. I made each kid a list with six colour boxes. Their job was to find as many things they could of each colour.

(This would be great to play with kids that are just learning to spell. When the girl is a bit older I am going to spell our some of the things to look for at the park, like "slide" and "swings". For younger kids you could also try drawing pictures of what you want them to find.)

My 4 year old started playing the game before we even left the house by looking out the window! She manged to find way more colours then her two year old brother. But they both had a good time so I consider it a success.

Best of all it got us outside to the park, even though it was raining!

Brie is the mom of a 4 year old daughter “the girl” and 2 old son “the boy”. You can read her blog at Capital Mom.

Parents in the Capital: Meet Josee

Ottawa has some wonderful bloggers and we are lucky that many of them are Kids in the Capital contributors and readers! We want to share some of our favorite Ottawa parent bloggers on a more regular basis so we are introducing a series of posts called Parents in the Capital. Say hello to Josee!

Tell us about yourself and your family.   I'm an engineer and work full-time for the public service. I have two beautiful kids. My daughter "B.G.", is four and my son, "Bonhomme" is two. My wonderful hubby is a teacher for the Ottawa Carleton District School Board.  I knew absolutely nothing about building and maintaining a website and nothing about blogging before I started Frugal Fun Ottawa, and though a friend initially helped me set it up I've since redone the website using CSS, which I taught myself. 

What is your favourite activity to do with your kid(s) in Ottawa?  We love taking the kids for walks downtown, especially in the summer when there are always festivals and activities going on at Parliament Hill.  We love to go see the Changing of the Guard, and every year we take in Fortissimo, the annual massed pipe band performance on the Hill.  I also love taking the kids to the NAC's Kinderconcerts.  They are really well done - I hope that my kids will develop the same love of music and of the orchestra that I have.

What is your favourite at home activity to do with your kid(s)?  My kids love to play hide-and-seek right now! Even though my son doesn't quite understand the concept yet, he gets a big kick out of telling the "seeker" where the "hider" is, and my daughter doesn't seem to mind. They both love the game right now.

What was the biggest surprise that parenthood has brought into your life? Like many new parents I don't think I was really prepared for how much time being a parent takes.  There is no pause button; it doesn't matter what you want to do, it's about what you have to do at any given moment.  It can be pretty relentless; sometimes you have to lock yourself in the bathroom just to get a minute to yourself.  On the other hand, I wouldn't trade my kids' hugs for all the sleep in the world.

What parenting tips/advice do you wish you'd known when you first became a parent? I wish someone had told me "Whatever your kids are doing, it's perfectly normal!"   It seems that every few months, at least between the ages of 2 and 4, they start exhibiting some new behaviour that makes you wonder whether or not you should be concerned, but when you compare notes with other moms it turns out that their children are doing the same thing too. For example my daughter would walk right up to perfect strangers in the park and just stop and stare.  It was a bit embarassing, but then my friend told me her son, who's the same age as my daughter, was doing it too. 

Tell us about your blog and how you discovered blogging. I started Frugal Fun Ottawa because I was having trouble finding these great, free activities that I knew were out there, and I do research for a living.  I figured that if I was having trouble, others were too.  I was pretty sure that if I put all the free and frugal activities and events together on a website, people would find it useful and would visit it.  I started frugalfish, the Frugal Fun Ottawa blog, so that I could have more interaction with visitors to the site, and to give me a bit more of a creative outlet.

What do you love best about being a parent in Ottawa? I love that there is always something going on in Ottawa; there's always something to do.  If you have kids, it's the best combination of big city activities and small town feel you can find.

Thanks Josee!

A Very Good Day at the Agriculture Museum

by Natasha The Canada Agriculture Museum is a fantastic place to take your kids on a holiday weekend, like I did at Easter. The Museum has many activities planned for busy family-oriented weekends. There may be a line-up to get inside, but it’s really worth the wait.

My family and I stood in line for half an hour before getting inside for the 11 o’clock set of activities, but once in we were very happy to have ignored the size of the lineup and persevered anyway. The Easter bunny that walked up and down along the lineup was a really good distraction for some of the fussy kids, and the staff were very accommodating and quick at getting everyone in with the least amount of hassle.

Those with memberships for the Museum don’t have to wait in line at all, so it may be worth looking into if you’re a regular at the Museum.

The tour started with us meeting the new baby rabbits. There are specific times during the day where staff members bring out the bunnies for the children to see. We met a tiny and fluffy six-week lion head bunny, and Baby H was absolutely mesmerized.

After the bunny meet, we headed towards the dairy barn to see the cows. Last year, when Baby H first saw large cows, he got really scared. This year, he was very interested in the creatures and spent some time watching them eat and drink. He walked around the barn, saying “Moo” to every passerby and eventually ended up seeing the new calves that were just born.

Our next stop was the tractor exhibit. We saw different and old models, and sat in the John Deere simulator tractor. I think there’s a future for Baby H in farming, as he was very happy with his Grandpa in the simulator swaying back and forth and pretending to drive it around. Baby H had a giant smile the entire time he was fake-driving and was very happy for the duration of the visit.

Baby H made some more tiny furry friends when he spend some time watching little chicks that were waddling back and forth in their cages. There was an entire process in the Museum showing children the egg hatching process, with some of the older kids designing their own eggs and some colouring pictures of chicks.

The Easter bunny that kept us company at the lineup was walking around the farm handing out chocolates to attendees. Baby H participated in the Easter Egg Hunt, and traded in some colourful eggs for special chocolate treats.

And finally, a quick visit to the demonstration kitchen showed us how the delicious hot cross buns are made. We couldn't pass this up, as the buns are one of my family’s favourite treats.

If you’re looking for a fun outing with your family on a holiday or long weekend, head over to the Canada Agriculture Museum and brave the lineups for some of their special events and activities, and put Easter at the Farm on your to do list for next year! Your children will definitely enjoy their time there.

Natasha is a new mommy to her first born, Baby H. She runs ShopHaven, a blog that reviews products and profiles local businesses and individuals from the Ottawa area. Natasha is also the creative force behind ShopHaven Baskets; a highly customized gift baskets service.