Social Media Monday: Coming out from behind the computer

by Brie The social media possibilities are endless. Blogging, Twitter, Flicker, Stumble Upon and LinkedIn are just a few of the ways you can participate in social media. You can write, read, upload, tweet, share. Maybe you are just dipping your feet into social media. Maybe you have jumped in fully clothed. However you are doing it and for whatever reason you are doing it, there always comes a time when you move out from behind the screen and make it real.

Social media is a way to connect with other people. For Lara and I it has been a great way to connect with other parents. And once you start connecting online, there is also the interest in connecting offline.

I am happy to say that I have meet many, many awesome people in real life after knowing them first online. Like Lara. Like most of the fabulous Kids in the Capital contributors. Like some of our readers that have joined us for our play dates and meetups.

The hardest part of meeting someone in person that you have met online is getting over the worry. Are they the same in person as they are online? Will they think I am the same in person that I am online? Will we still like each other? I am happy to say that most people are exactly like I expect them to be in person after meeting them online. And that I now count many of them as friends.

The key word to remember about social media is social. You might have to give yourself a talking to, but it really is worth coming out from behind your computer. If only every  once in a while.

So, in keeping with the idea of connecting offline we want to mention two "in real life" ways of meeting with Kids in the Capital contributors and readers.

Meetup Join us Wednesday, January 19th at 7:30pmfor a meetup at Woody's on Elgin (330 Elgin). It's a chance to hang out and chat without kids interrupting the conversations. Woohoo!

Play dates We are having weekly playdates on Wednesday mornings around town. Everyone is invited and we hope you can join us.  This Wednesday, January 19th we'll be meeting at 10am at the Museum of Nature (at the boat on the second floor).  We'd love to see you there.  There will be a post with more details on locations soon and we will be updating the sidebar of Kids in the Capital with weekly information.

We hope to see you offline very soon!

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.

Bringing back the bean bag

by Brie This snow is making for some long days. It is also forcing me to get creative. With all the activities I am coming up with to the keep the kids amused I suddenly feel like a camp counselor again. Except, you know, I'm definitely not 16 any more.

One day I decided to get crafty. Which for me means pulling out the needle and thread. And trying not to poke myself in the process.

Using some scraps of fabric leftover from the last time I felt crafty and decided to make a cover for my kid-stained couch, I sold the kids on the excitement of bean bags. We are going to make them! And fill them with beans! And then throw them! Seriously, how can it get better then that?

I had the kids trace around a square play dish and then let the four year old cut the fabric. I helped the 2 year old with the cutting. Then while I quickly hand stitched the two pieces of fabric together I had the kids fill their own bowls with dried chickpeas, dried navy beans and popcorn. This entertained them for awhile.

Once the bean bags were done, and the kids were excitedly examining them and practicing throwing them, I started taping the floor. With masking tape I created two starting lines and then filled the distance between them with squares, rectangles and triangles. I gave myself bonus points for building on the shapes and solids unit the girl is learning in kindergarten.

Days later and the tape is still on the floor. The bean bags are still being used and I have decided that masking tape is my new best friend.

Are you a bean bag player? Are there any bean bag games you can recommend?

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.

Cheese train

by Krista My children are generally good eaters, but like most, they go through fussy periods. Times when they will not eat meat or veggies or fruit, or some days when they will not eat anything that I offer them. It was during one of those periods that Woo and I were reading Chirp and came across a cute little snack idea that they called a "cheese train". It was basically a little train made out of cheese and tomatoes on a skewer. "Can we make that?", he asked, with big excited eyes. I assured him that we could and we finished our reading.

The next morning he woke up and came to my bedside to ask if we were going to make the cheese train that day. Then, as I was writing up our grocery list, he asked if I had added the food we needed to get make the trains. When we returned from the grocery store he asked if we could have them right then. He was EXCITED. I convinced him to wait until lunch, and figured out ways to beef them up so that the children could get a full lunch out of them. They were a great success and have become a regular feature at lunch time around here.

What you need is a couple of shish kabob skewers, small toothpicks, the items that you would normally put into a deli-style sandwich, and some cherry tomatoes or olives to act as the wheels. We usually us a couple of different kinds of cheeses, bread or buns, pickles, and some meat, either leftover chicken, deli-meats, or salami/kielbasa. All of these, except for the "wheels" are cut into cubes and then threaded on the large skewer to make the train's cars. You then take the smaller toothpicks and push them through some of the firmer items (I go through the cheese) to act as the axles. Then I cut the tomatoes/olives in half and attache them to the axles. The end result looks something like this:

As you can see by the hand reaching for the trains in the picture, they are well received!

Krista is married to Willy and mom to a 3 year old son, Woo, and 2 year old daughter Goose. You can find her at Life in the Hutch or on Twitter @kgraydonald

Kids in the Capital party at Starr Gymnastics

Update: Starr Gymnastics has offered a Free Drop-in Playtime voucher for any of readers that can't make the January 22nd event! To receive your voucher please email info@starrgymnastics.com with your name/child(ren) age(s)/phone number by February 1st, 2011. Don’t forget to mention Kids in the Capital. Do your kids like to climb and jump and run? Do they have more energy then you can possibly ever hope to have? Then have we got a fabulous meetup for you!

The Ottawa-favourite Starr Gymnasticsis hosting a Kids in the Capital meetup on  Saturday January 22 from 4:00 - 6:00 PM at their Orleans location (520 LacolleWay ). It's a great chance for your kids to discover Starr Gymnastics for free! The kids will get to spend one hour in the gym and then we can all visit for a second hour  the party room. It will be a potluck so please bring along your favorite kid friendly snack (no nuts please - Starr is a nut-free zone)!

We have room to invite 16 kids. If you and your kids would like to come to the meetup please leave a comment below with the number and ages of your kids. Have your kids taken a class at Starr Gymnatistcs before? Let us know in the comment what class they took and how they enjoyed it.

We will send out a confirmation email to everyone attending. And if you are invited and have to cancel for some reason, please let us know.

We can't wait to see you all on the 22nd!

Making pizza!

by Vicky Pizza is a big favourite in our house. If the boys had it their way we'd be eating it every day. We often make our own pizza from scratch, including the dough. My husband has perfected his dough technique using a great recipe we found on A Peek Inside the Fishbowl.

Whenever we do make home made pizza, I give Joel his very own mini pizza to decorate. I put all the ingredients in small bowls and let him decide what he wants on it. It's a great activity which gets him involved in cooking without a lot of the mess. He's always eager to eat a meal he helped prepare!

Do your kids help you make pizza?

Vicky is the mom to 4 year old son named Joel and 19 month old daughter named Mieka. You can read her blog at blog Some Kind of Mom.