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

by Avra  

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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.

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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. 

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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!”

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  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.

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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.   

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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.

Fun with bubbles

by Vicky There is something about bubbles and spring time that brings me back to my childhood. I love blowing bubbles, or waving the wand in the air to let the wind make them. I watch them float up toward the trees, drifting into the sky before they burst. My children are inheriting my love of bubbles.

There is a bottle of bubble solution with a wand on the back step. Every time we go outside to play, I sit on the step and make bubbles. Hundreds of them. The kids squeal with excitement, running to catch them before they pop on the grass. And then it happens, I blow into the wand slowly, growing the bubble bigger and bigger. Their anticipation grows, watching to see how long it will take to POP!

Bubbles are such a simple childhood pleasure. I hope you'll indulge in them as much as we do! 

Want to make your own bubbles? Here's a great recipe!

Vicky is the mom to 4 year old son named Joel and 1 year old daughter named Mieka. You can read her blog at blog Some Kind of Mom.

Crafting with the kiddies

by Donna I want to craft more with my girls. I have good intentions, but sometimes the need to 'plan' things out and get prepared gets in the way. My girls are always provided with glue, scissors, markers, crayons, paper, bits of yarn, googly eyes, pipecleaners, playdough, etc, in their easy accessible craft cupboard, but for the more organized 'attivities' (as my 4 year old calls crafts), I'm less good at finding things to do and getting prepared (even though I peruse many kids crafting websites frequently).

I love it when a quilting blog comes through with a good idea. A while back I saw this idea over on Cluck Cluck Sew. I knew that the girls' doors needed one, and last Easter weekend was the perfect opportunity as we had nothin' but time, time, time. And I'm a girl with scraps and buttons, oh, am I.

My four year old (her M is on the bottom) got very into this activity and even wanted to make a face with felt and buttons. My two year old was less focused but of course had to copy her sister's face idea. The Ms (their names both start with M!) now hang on their doors and make me smile when I walk by their rooms.

My four year old's breathey "oh, mama, it's sooo fabricy" statement of pride when she was all done pretty much melted my heart.

Have you and your kids made anything fab lately?

Donna is the mom of two girls, 4.5 and 2.5. She works full time but still tries to find time to craft with her girls (and without them!). She writes about her crafting adventures at Kindred Crafters.