Hotel Home

by Alanna My children are very creative.  It is easy to do imaginative things with them.  They wanted to go on a vacation far away like their friends, and stay in a hotel.  This was not feasable for us so I suggested we turn our house into a hotel.  At first they were shocked and maybe a little bit confused, but then they thought it was a great idea.

First off, I had them go and pack their bags.  While they were doing that, I printed out some signs that I found online here.  I put them up all over the house and got to work on a room service menu.

Once the kids bags were packed we put all our bags in the car and went for a little drive (I actually had errands to do).  When we returned home, I got into character.  I jumped out of the car and helped them with their bags.  I had a book ready inside and asked them if they had reservations, handed them their keys and escorted them to their rooms.  They really got a kick out of it.

The activity was seriously successful.  They really want to do it again this year.  I am not sure.  Since then we have actually been to a hotel.  They might be more demanding this time. LOL.

I'd love to hear if it worked for you.

Alanna is a mother of two beauties, Nora age 3 (aka coconut) and Avery 5 (aka polka dot). Former ECE turned mother, party planner and blogger.  Never a dull moment around this house.

Flashback: Camping with Kids

This was a great post that got lots of comments last year by Julie. We're bringing it back for all of you who are going to be camping this summer! by Julie

Did you give up your camping adventures the minute diapers entered your home? Ya, me too.

I had never camped as a child, only as an adult. I fell in love with camping for:

•    The satisfying feeling that would come over me from having pushed my body hard from the hiking, canoeing or portaging to get to the site. •    The heavenly feeling of being in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but read my book or take a nap. •    The romantic nights, sitting around a campfire sipping red wine.

Now, review that list again and imagine putting children in the picture. Doesn’t work, does it? All the reasons I loved camping … *poof* … gone.

But recently, my husband and I have headed back into the outdoors – two kids in tow. Although our much-loved list is now adapted, we haven’t had to give it all up entirely.

•    If you’ve been a hard core camper, the notion of “car camping” is depressing indeed! But rather than throw in the towel, seek out quiet, more rustic sites (hint: look for sites that don’t offer facilities like showers). These will have far few people and don’t line up camping sites in a parking-lot style. Instead, each site has been carefully developed for some privacy and remains treed. (You can see photos of a camping site we recently stayed at in Algonquin Parkhere.) •    Take turns with your spouse to allow for some quiet time. One parent takes the kids for a hike or simply stays as the alert and awake supervisor, while the other is free to doze off or get completely absorbed in a book. •    After all that time in the fresh air, your children will be tired and ready to drop into bed! But, unfortunately, so are you. Try hard to stay up for at least 15 minutes of time together – alone – cuddling and staring at the camp fire, before you join the kids in sleepy-land.

There are plenty of great tip-lists available via a simple google search on camping with kids, so I won’t even try to replicate them.

Instead, I will share with you a list of tips directly from my seven-year-old daughter.

•    Go for hikes! Go on an animal safari and look for garden snakes. •    If not in public, let your kids swim nudie! •    Let the kids get as dirty as they want. •    Collect sticks and make a tipi or a fort. •    Let the kids read as late as they want! •    Bring your two-wheeler bike. •    Make s’mores after dinner.

And, last but not least, she offered these wise words of wisdom to camping parents:

•    Don’t be worry warts!

Julie is an Ottawa local and mother of two. Her personal blog is Coffee with Julie.

Flash back: Surviving the Cottage with kids

We have so many great posts from last year that are still very relevant so we're going to bring some back from time to time.  Here's one Vicky wrote last year about going to the cottage with kids. by Vicky

On a bit of a whim, I booked a week’s holiday at a cottage with a friend and her family. I found it on www.cottagelink.com, and it looked beautiful. One of the features that sold me instantly was that it was owned by a family with young children, so everything we needed was already provided: highchair, crib, change table, toys, toys and more toys, picnic table, wagon, playstructure etc. Also the water was only a foot deep off the dock, so despite not having a beach, it was shallow enough to enjoy with my 1 year old.

This was my first experience renting a cottage with kids. I’ve been lucky to have friends with cottages and have enjoyed many summer holidays by the lake since I was a teenager. But this time was different. It was great to see the kids enjoying the water and playing outside, but it wasn’t what I would call a relaxation vacation. Someone still has to cook, clean and get the kids in bed so it’s not exactly a break for the parents.

That being said, I definitely think I’ll try it again next summer, and I’ll be better prepared for it with this list of tips on how to survive a week at the cottage with kids.

1. Portable DVD player – your best friend. If you don’t have a built in DVD player in your car, this is the next best thing. Throw a movie on, with headphones, and you’re guaranteed a quiet trip. Also this is great for a bit of quiet time in the afternoon if the cottage has no TV or cable.
2. Plan your meals ahead of time. Make a quick menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and pack food items you already have at home. Make a grocery list and pick up what you need before you go or in the closest town if that’s possible (or if space in your car is limited). You don’t need to stick to the menu per say, but when kids are hungry you won’t be running around trying to figure out what to cook for lunch.
3. Do not over pack clothes. I brought WAY too much for the kids – a different outfit for every day, plus extras. What happened was that my son stayed in his bathing suit all day long with a pair of crocs. Shirts can be rung out and hung to dry, and most cottage towns have a Laundromat for emergencies (like being thrown up on, twice!)
4. Bring long-legged PJs for evenings. Cottages can be sweltering during the day, but get cool at night.
5. Swimming tires kids out! If you are trying to get a nap out of your kids, get them into the lake just before nap or bed time. If you can also give them a bath in the lake, you’ll speed up the bedtime process (speaking of which can anyone recommend a good biodegradable baby shampoo or soap?)
6. Bring a box of activities to keep them busy. I brought colouring books, activity books and paints which were all used. Why not try making a nature scavenger hunt that you can work on during the week?
7. If you are cottaging with friends, it helps to have similar aged kids so they can play together. My 3 year old got bored quickly with the 3 babies he had as playmates.
8. Explore the nature! There are so many learning opportunities around that will keep kids busy - go for nature walks, look for frogs, or feed the fish bread off the dock.
9. Expect that normal routines may not be easy to follow when you're away. Bed times may be later in a new environment, middle of the night wake ups will happen, and all this can make for cranky kids during the day. I would say try to go with the flow, and once the kids are in bed crack open a beer or a cooler and relax.
10. One more thing, if you are going to a cottage this summer with your kids, or thinking about it, please be water wise!

What are your tips for an enjoyable cottage vacation?

Vicky is the mom to 4.5 year old son named Joel and 2 year old daughter named Mieka. You can read her blog at blog Some Kind of Wondermom.

Family Glamping

by Julie In the tradition of Bradgelina (the nicknamed given to the celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), jeggings (a pant that combines the fit of leggings with the look of a jeans) and tweeps (your “peeps” on twitter), we now have “glamping.”

Glamping is “glamorous camping.” The appeal of glamping is that one gets an immersion into nature but without (what non-campers consider) the annoyances – lack of toilets, uncomfortable sleep, no heat and basic food and drink. Generally, glamping is insanely expensive and accessible only to adults.

As example of how luxurious glamping can be, take a look at one of the tents at British Columbia’s Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, where celebrities like Scarlett Johansson have been rumoured to stay:

Photo credit: Clayoquot Wilderness Resort

As you can plainly see, this is far nicer than many five-star hotels I’ve stayed at! A three-night all-inclusive stay here, however, will cost more than $5,000 per person in high-season. So, yes, I’d love it. But it’s not happening any time in my future unless I win the lotto.

However, I was recently introduced to an amazing place that I will definitely be taking my family to. And if you’re like me – love nature, but simply don’t have the skills to survive out there – then I thought you might like to know about it too. Québec’s Zoo sauvage of St-Félicien offers a “Walking adventure in the Land of the Caribou” experience that is so ideal for a family that I can barely contain myself!

Whether you’re a grandparent, a camper wanna-be or just someone who wants to share an up-close nature experience with your children, the Zoo sauvage makes it all very accessible. The complete experience comes at a price tag of $265 per person, and is recommended for ages 6 and up. Although pricey, I see it being comparable to spending a full day at Disney Land, with accommodations, food and activities.  

First, you and your family will be provided with a guided tour through the wildlife trails in your own private vehicle with a guide. On these trails, I saw elk, moose, black bears, wolves, bison, and deer -- all living and doing their own thing in a natural environment. It was really exciting to see these animals in such close proximity. One person would shout out “I see one!” and then everyone on the little bus would jump to their feet amid “oohs” and “aahhhs.”

Photo credit: Julie Harrison

For lunch, you will stop into a pioneer-era farm, where Philias Tremblay will greet you and show you around his property. While at his farmhouse, you’ll be treated to a traditional meal of soupe gourgannes (broadbean soup), roast pork and potatoes, and blueberry pie.

Photo credit: Julie Harrison

From there you leave “civilized life” and head into the forest. As you hike towards your campground, the guide enthusiastically teaches the kids (and adults!) about the different flora and fauna of the boreal forest until you arrive to the camp. While it’s no “celebrity glamp,” it certainly seemed like heaven to me. I walked into my traditional canvas prospector tent and immediately lay down because it was so inviting! A mattress and sleeping bag had been laid on top of a bed of balsam needles. I closed my eyes and inhaled the scent. In one corner of the tent there was a stove, while another provides a basin of water and hand-made blueberry goat’s milk soap.

In the picture below, you can see one of the prospector tents in the background as well as the center campfire area. And yes, that is a caribou in the picture that everyone is ignoring! You start to get so used to them wandering around that they just seem commonplace.

Photo credit: Zoo sauvage

Before dinner, you and the family can take a sunset canoe ride on a nearby lake. While the adults paddle, the kids can play “spot the animal.” We were surprised to find an enormous moose hidden behind some bushes on an island and we also saw the largest black bear I’d ever seen rambling along the side of the lake.

Back at our camp our guide (whom I adored), started a camp fire and offered us each a beautiful cold beer while she began to prepare dinner. Yes, you read that right – you don’t need to cook or clean out in this neck of the wilderness! That night, after I’d stuffed myself full of fresh salmon trout, potatoes, vegetables, and sugar pie, I sipped my wine and knew I’d found my type of camping!

After dinner, the guide invites her guests to don some night-vision goggles and go animal trekking. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain on the night we were there, so I didn’t get to do this activity. But I would imagine it’d be the highlight for any child.

In the morning though, I did get to go trekking for a moose in an activity called “telemetry.” One moose in the area has been outfitted with a GPS necklace. The guide lifts an antenna device into the air and the group tracks down where the moose is based on the loudness of the frequency it beeps back. (Okay, so this is not exactly the best technical definition, but I think you get my drift!). Here is a photo of our guide as we embarked on our “hunt”:

Photo credit: Julie Harrison

After this, the group starts to pack up. Your luggage is taken back to the front reception and you are able to have a “backstage” view of the zoo – areas where regular guests are not allowed, the most interesting of which is the veterinarian building. Here, one gets a chance to be very close to the animals and even pet some of them.  

After this, you and you and your family are free to wander about the entire zoo. Celebrating its 50th year, the zoo, in and of itself, is worth at least a whole day’s visit. Particularly fun for kids are its petting zoo area, splash park decked out with super-sized insects, and a viewing area where you can see the beavers inside their lodge. For the adults, getting to the chance to witness two polar bear cubs romping about with their mother was a major highlight.

For more info, check out the first 2 minutes of this YouTube clip and feel free to ask me any questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them!

Julie is a married mother of two children aged 8 and 2. Although she used to be a big camping buff, time has changed her and she has been recently trying to resurrect this love for sleeping outdoors. You can see her daughter's tips for camping with kids on Kids in the Capital, or read more at her personal blog Coffee with Julie.

Surviving the cottage with kids

by Vicky On a bit of a whim, I booked a week’s holiday at a cottage with a friend and her family. I found it on www.cottagelink.com, and it looked beautiful. One of the features that sold me instantly was that it was owned by a family with young children, so everything we needed was already provided: highchair, crib, change table, toys, toys and more toys, picnic table, wagon, playstructure etc. Also the water was only a foot deep off the dock, so despite not having a beach, it was shallow enough to enjoy with my 1 year old.

This was my first experience renting a cottage with kids. I’ve been lucky to have friends with cottages and have enjoyed many summer holidays by the lake since I was a teenager. But this time was different. It was great to see the kids enjoying the water and playing outside, but it wasn’t what I would call a relaxation vacation. Someone still has to cook, clean and get the kids in bed so it’s not exactly a break for the parents.

That being said, I definitely think I’ll try it again next summer, and I’ll be better prepared for it with this list of tips on how to survive a week at the cottage with kids.

1. Portable DVD player – your best friend. If you don’t have a built in DVD player in your car, this is the next best thing. Throw a movie on, with headphones, and you’re guaranteed a quiet trip. Also this is great for a bit of quiet time in the afternoon if the cottage has no TV or cable.
2. Plan your meals ahead of time. Make a quick menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and pack food items you already have at home. Make a grocery list and pick up what you need before you go or in the closest town if that’s possible (or if space in your car is limited). You don’t need to stick to the menu per say, but when kids are hungry you won’t be running around trying to figure out what to cook for lunch.
3. Do not over pack clothes. I brought WAY too much for the kids – a different outfit for every day, plus extras. What happened was that my son stayed in his bathing suit all day long with a pair of crocs. Shirts can be rung out and hung to dry, and most cottage towns have a Laundromat for emergencies (like being thrown up on, twice!)
4. Bring long-legged PJs for evenings. Cottages can be sweltering during the day, but get cool at night.
5. Swimming tires kids out! If you are trying to get a nap out of your kids, get them into the lake just before nap or bed time. If you can also give them a bath in the lake, you’ll speed up the bedtime process (speaking of which can anyone recommend a good biodegradable baby shampoo or soap?)
6. Bring a box of activities to keep them busy. I brought colouring books, activity books and paints which were all used. Why not try making a nature scavenger hunt that you can work on during the week?
7. If you are cottaging with friends, it helps to have similar aged kids so they can play together. My 3 year old got bored quickly with the 3 babies he had as playmates.
8. Explore the nature! There are so many learning opportunities around that will keep kids busy - go for nature walks, look for frogs, or feed the fish bread off the dock.
9. Expect that normal routines may not be easy to follow when you're away. Bed times may be later in a new environment, middle of the night wake ups will happen, and all this can make for cranky kids during the day. I would say try to go with the flow, and once the kids are in bed crack open a beer or a cooler and relax.
10. One more thing, if you are going to a cottage this summer with your kids, or thinking about it, please be water wise!

What are your tips for an enjoyable cottage vacation?

Vicky is the mom to 3.5 year old son named Joel and 1 year old daughter named Mieka. You can read her blog at blog Some Kind of Wondermom.