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Fun Stuff to do with Kids

32 Degrees

Which is 89.6 degrees on the farenheit scale.  With the humidex it was 41C, which works out to be 105.8F.  And on this, the first hot, hot, sweltering Saturday of the summer we did not one but two outdoor activities.

First was J’s first day of soccer.  Now, Hubby and I consider ourselves mildly athletic. So by putting that together, J should be a pretty good athlete.  And so far, he is a shining star (at soccer, he didn’t do so well with the gymnastics).  His abilities seem to run along the lines of hockey, football and soccer so far.  He is great with his hands and feet in such a way that he has a wicked slapshot and a fabulous arm.  And so far, so good, his kick is dead on.

Here is a shot of him doing some of his skills training (should I admit that I took 250 photos?  Some were of his best buddy, who ended up on the same team).

And then, as if that wasn’t hot enough, Hubby and I packed the kids back up into the truck and headed over to our first ever local running event.  Originally I was going to do the 5K and Hubby the 10K, but I was a little nervous to push the kids and run 5K by myself, I didn’t think I could do it with both of them in the stroller and Hubby hadn’t been training at all so he didn’t want to run the full 10. Apple is no sweat, but J!  He is 55lbs, so I would have been pushing a little much.

It was Hubby’s idea that we do the family fun run/walk.  It was 2.5k.  In the end, with the heat and humidity it turned out to be the perfect length.   J even got out and ran for a bit, but as soon as he slowed us down Hubby had him jump back in the stroller.  There was a tot trot too, but since it was so hot we skipped it for fear that J would be melting and Apple would get heat stroke.

 

The best part was that this was our first time doing sports together as a family.  A was missing, but he probably wouldn’t have wanted to come, being 16 and all.  I look forward to a few more of these it was really fun getting out, the four of us.

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Categories: Exercise, Family, Fun Stuff to do with Kids, Summer

Tropical Greenhouse

I had this brilliant idea today. I was going to take J and Apple to the tropical greenhouse at the Experimental Farm here in Ottawa. I was under the assumption (not sure why) that it was quite large and had butterflies. After driving in circles, including driving by it once, we arrived.

J was excited and Apple had awoken from her nap already. We started on our tour.

Then the magic words came out of my mouth. “J, don’t touch.” At least ten times. He wanted to touch a cactus.

And guess what.

He touched it.

One that didn’t look prickly, but had those invisible little hairs that get stuck and hurt forever. And me without bandaids today (because J used them all up). We had to turn around and go home. It would seem though, that we actually saw all of the greenhouse. It was rather small and there were no butterflies. The good news is that we were alone with my screaming son and it didn’t cost us anything more than the gas in the truck.

And on the way home, J sobbing in the backseat says, “Mommy, I wish we had never gone to that horrible place”. To which I replied, “And I wish J that you had listened to me when I told you not to touch the cactus.” Hopefully next time he will listen to me.

Now to figure out where on earth those butterflies are.

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Categories: Fun Stuff to do with Kids, Uncategorized

Sunday was a very rainy, cool day here.  But around 4:30pm the rain stopped long enough that we were able to head over to the local ‘fair’.  Now I call it a fair but truthfully it is the carnies that set up at the mall and rip you off raise money for a local charity.  Since we drove by it three times while picking stuff up from the hardware store, it seemed only fitting to take J back for a few rides.  We weren’t the only ones trying to cram in some weekend fun at the last minute.  Other families could be found trying to get just one more ride out of the operators.  The most important part is that J had fun.

He would be Mr. Serious as his ride went around, then he would get to me and the camera and he would pull all these silly faces.  It was great.  I finally feel like his silly joking side is breaking free.  He has always been a happy smiling child, but silly has always been reserved for home.  To see it out in public was such a treat.

Even if he was sticking his tongue out at me.

And Apple did well in the stroller watching all the colours and her silly brother fly by her.  Hubby was trying to make her laugh, but all he was getting was the ‘blaaaahhhhh’ screetch she was perfecting.

Here’s to open fair season and lots of rides to come for the summer.

6 comments
Categories: Fun Stuff to do with Kids, Kids, Summer