A Trip to Valleyview Little Animal Farm

by Isabelle

Last week, I had the opportunity to accompany my son's daycare on a field trip to Valleyview Little Animal Farm, located on Fallowfield Road, just off Highway 416. Our visit started with a short slide presentation meant to introduce the kids to the different animals they were about to see. The 2- to 4-year olds seemed to enjoy the presentation, although I think they were raring to go and were a little disappointed to have to sit indoors for a few minutes when they first got there (practically speaking, however, it enabled everyone to use the washroom, which was a really good thing). After the slide presentation, everyone got on a tractor-pulled "train" to tour some of the crops. Because of the time of year, we didn't see much growing yet (corn, soya beans, to name but a few), but the under-4 crowd really enjoyed the ride.

Next, we visited the goats, sheep, and chickens, all in an indoor barn. The kids especially enjoyed feeding the goats themselves:

Then, we toured the outdoor animal enclosures, which included cows, pigs, peacocks, ducks, llamas, and deer. The kids ran relatively quickly through those, because they were anxious to get to the play structures, which I think were the best part of the whole farm. I lost count of all of the different wooden vehicles they had there, but my little guy particularly loved the truck, helicopter, and locomotive.

There was also a large pirate ship playstructure as well as one made up of different indoor and outdoor tunnels - the kids played in those two for a long time.

We ate a picnic lunch while we were there - there is a nice set-up of covered picnic tables for groups, and even some coolers out front for lunch boxes. Including lunch, our visit lasted about 3.5 hours - I thought that was a bit long for the little ones, who were tired of playing (!) before the bus came to pick us up. I would recommend planning a two-hour visit, perhaps with a short snack break halfway through. There is a snackbar on location if you're in a hurry and don't have time to pack a lunch or snack before heading out.

Isabelle is the mom of 3.5 year old Jay and two-month old Rosie. You can also find her at Dr. Peach’s Blog.

Easy Birthday Cupcakes - A Mom's Lifesaver

by Isabelle I recently resuscitated an old trick of my mom's for those times where you're busy and you're expecting a bunch of kids to your house: ice cream cone cupcakes. I made them a few weeks ago for my little guy's fourth birthday, and they were a HUGE hit, with both kids and grownups.

Step 1: Prepare your favorite cake batter (or use a mix if you're short on time and ingredients)

Step 2: Pour the batter into flat-bottomed ice cream cones placed in muffin tins.

Step 3: Bake according to cupcake recipe directions (nothing special needed for the cones).

Step 4: Decorate and enjoy!

This is what my quickie cupcakes looked like:

For slightly older kids, an easy birthday party activity would be to frost the cupcakes themselves. With the 3- and 4-year old crowd, though, I picked a different activity and just let them enjoy the pre-decorated cupcakes :)

Isabelle is the mom of 3.5 year old Jay and two-month old Rosie. You can also find her at Dr. Peach’s Blog.

Budding Gardeners Love Visiting Laporte Gardens

by Isabelle My little guy loves helping out in the garden, and now that he's almost four, I can honestly say that he does help me when we're outside together. He helps with the weeding and tilling, carries gardening tools around the yard, sows seeds in the starter containers and fills pots up with soil. Of course, when I need to run gardening-related errands, he's the first one to put his shoes on and run to the car.

Our absolute favorite gardening centre is Laporte Gardens, located on Old Montreal Road near Trim (just east of Orleans). Not only do they cater to all of my gardening needs, with a large, well-organized selection of trees, shrubs, plants and herbs, but they have also thought of the little ones who visit their centre with mom and dad. Our visit starts with a quick overview of what's on sale indoors, where you can find a selection of pots, seeds, books, and other gardening items, but most importantly, where Tim Horton's coffee and Timbits are provided free of charge to customers (a small charitable donation is suggested but not required).

The large outdoor area provides tons of entertainment for little ones, who (when it's not too busy), can run around the aisles of trees and plants and play in the covered wooden playstructure. The playstructure, of course, is the highlight of the visit, although the soil and mulch pick-up is also very popular with my son - we drive to a designated area, where helpful (and strong!) young men pack up our car. Very impressive to a three year-old.

Isabelle is the mom of 3.5 year old Jay and two-month old Rosie. You can also find her at Dr. Peach’s Blog.

Ottawa Public Library: Treasures for the Little Ones in Orleans

by Isabelle I still remember going to the library with my mom as a preschooler. I don't know how often we went, but I do know that every time we did, I took out a huge stash of books, often the same ones over and over again. Now that I have my own preschooler, I love our library trips. We are huge readers, and going to the library means that we're getting a little variety in terms of bedtime stories. With four books every night, we go through them pretty quickly.

My local branch of the Ottawa Public Library  is on Orleans Boulevard. It has a good selection of books for preschoolers in both English and French. There's also a smaller section of board books, again in both languages, for babies and toddlers. The children's section at the Orleans branch has kid-sized tables and chairs as well as a rocking chair for moms and dads.

This particular branch offers a number of different programs for kids of all ages. For instance, it offers several sessions of Babytime and Toddler Time each week, with stories, songs and games for the tiniest library aficionados. For preschoolers, the Orleans branch offers Storytime sessions on weekdays, and older kids (6-9) are invited to special events at the library, such as the Springfun program in April, where kids will hear a story, do a craft and participate in other activities. All of these programs are identified as "bilingual" on the library site, although it is unclear whether the stories and activities will be presented in English and French to the same group, or whether groups will be divided up according to language. For kids who need a little bit of help with schoolwork, the Orleans branch also offers a homework club on Saturday mornings for grades 1-10.

My little guy loves the library and I look forward to bringing my daughter to the baby programs when she's a little bit older. No matter the season, a Saturday-morning trip to the library is always a treat for our family!

Isabelle is the mom of 3.5 year old Jay and two-month old Rosie. You can also find her at Dr. Peach’s Blog.

A Weekend of Museums

by Isabelle The first words out of my four year-old's mouth when he woke up last Saturday were: "I want to go to the train museum today!". Given the rainy weekend forecasted, we packed up a picnic lunch, the baby stroller, and our two kids and headed to the Museum of Science and Technology. We've been there many times before with Jay, but we hadn't yet gone with Rosie, our 10 week-old daughter.

The trains are a huge hit with kids of all ages, of course, as is the museum's well-known crazy kitchen, but other temporary exhibits are also worth seeing for kids and adults alike. We were pleased to see that the exhibit focusing on Canadian space science has been recently expanded, and were impressed with a new exhibit on braille, which included a number of different instruments developed in Canada (including the foldable white cane). Another new exhibit focuses on healthy foods and where they come from, and presents a series of wall-sized photographs of families from different parts of the world, posing with their weekly groceries. Needless to say, there is a remarkable variety when these families are compared. Finally, we ended our visit with our picnic lunch (tables and chairs are available and a small cafeteria offers food and drinks for purchase) and a run through the digital networks exhibit, which includes tunnels lit up in different colours.

We spent about two hours in the museum, and although the parking lot was packed, the museum didn't feel too busy, even with the stroller. I took a number of pictures with my small point-and-shoot and intended to post them, but unfortunately, because of the low light level in the museum, they didn't turn out very well. Next time, I will bring my larger camera, which has a removable flash.

The next morning, my son decided he wanted to visit the Aviation Museum. After a quick look outside our living room window, my husband decided to take him solo. We had last visited the museum on Canada Day, and the museum has changed quite a bit since then. Most striking is the memorial gallery, although my son enjoyed walking through the planes and helicopters and even sitting in one of them! The museum has two buildings, but one is only available as part of a guided tour. Since the tour lasts one hour, my husband decided to skip it and focus on the main building instead. On nice days, the museum has a play structure and picnic tables outdoors for its visitors.

Since his museum weekend, Jay has decided that when he grows up, he wants to be an astronaut, a train conductor, a truck driver and a pilot. He is going to be one busy guy :)

For information on opening hours, admission prices and exhibits, visit www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca and www.aviation.technomuses.ca.

Isabelle is the mom of 3.5 year old Jay and two-month old Rosie. You can also find her at Dr. Peach’s Blog.