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.

A winter getaway with kids? It's all in the preparation. (Part II)

by Shawna …Here’s the rest of the post on packing for a trip south with the little ones this year. It’s continued from yesterday.

In terms of getting there and back, it is highly advisable to have snacks, drinks and amusements for the kids (at the time of this writing, bottles/sippy cups for small kids are allowed through security). Get thee to a dollar store and find a small cache of cheap plastic toys, stickers, paper, and crayons that are new to them, then only pull one or two out per hour, per kid. Happy Meal toys are good for this sort of thing too. If you have cheap headphones, they’ll work in most airline sockets and save you from shelling out for them once you’re in the air.

Other basics to bring in your carry-on? Money, a pen for filling out customs forms in both directions, travel Kleenex, a camera, chargers for the camera and any other electronics you’re bringing.

Age dependent: diapers (more than you think you’ll need if you’re going to a place they may be hard to buy like Cuba), wipes, bottles and a bottle brush and dish soap (I didn’t have to bother with this when my kids were breastfeeding, but now at 2.5 my son likes a bottle of milk at bedtime), and formula if you use it.

I get migraines. My husband gets motion sickness. My kids have allergies. Ergo, we travel with a small pharmacy of first aid stuff. Even without any known allergies being a factor, it does not hurt to travel with a small Ziploc bag containing kids meds (we take children’s versions of Advil, Tylenol, Benadryl, Gravol, and an anti-diarrhoea medication), plus kid-friendly bug repellent, afterbite, bandaids and Polysporin. Another Ziploc gets adult versions of similar meds which come in more compact pill form, plus Lactaid so I can indulge in all the chocolate banana milkshakes I want to (hey, I don’t drink, I’ve gotta indulge somehow right?)

I believe I mentioned my son’s allergy? This year I’ve ordered waterproof stickers with clear symbols and text indicating he can’t eat eggs, and I’m going to slap one on the back of his shirt every day. You can get stickers and even temporary tattoos at a bunch of places online if your child has a severe allergy you think people might need to know about.

You’re hoping for warmth and sun, yes? In addition to the obvious light clothes, don’t forget sunblock, hats, sunglasses, and light clothes to cover up your pasty Northern skin during the height of the day. And lead by example and use this stuff yourself too; it’s not just your kids that can get sunburns. And whether you have a pool or a beach, chances are very good that if you forget your swimsuit (like my husband did one year), you’ll be able to buy new one… but you will feel kind of foolish when your significant other mocks you during the packing session every year after that. A minimum of two swimsuits per person is good so that one can be drying while the other’s in use. Special considerations for young kids: inflatable toys take very little room; good-fitting lifejackets take a lot of room but, for us, are worth the peace of mind on a beach with high waves. Label them with a waterproof marker though ‘cause those suckers are expensive. You also might need/want water shoes if you’re going to a place with a slippery pool deck or a rocky beach. We took them last year but won’t bother this round. I always bring a thin canvas tote bag that squashes to nothing in the suitcase but is nice for carrying snacks, a camera (in yet another Ziploc), and other supplies to and from poolside/the beach.

Kids are messy. And they don’t just spill stuff on themselves. A small amount of laundry soap and/or a stain-removing pen can come in handy and mean you don’t have to bring a mountain of clean clothes. And while our toddler doesn’t want to wear a bib anymore, we have a special clip that can basically turn any napkin into a bib. The same effect could be had with a piece of string and two plastic clothespins.

Do some research on where you’re going and think about whether you will be doing any excursions. Kids old enough to hike up Dunn’s River Falls? Water shoes! Traveling to an area with malaria? Talk to your doctor about whether you’d need to take meds for it (tip: if the answer is "yes" you might want to reconsider this as a good family destination). Good snorkelling right off your hotel’s beach? You may want your own mask and fins, even if they can be borrowed/rented on site. Want to play golf? Clubs are easily rented, but if you don’t have the proper attire for the golf course you might not get to play. Think you’ll be taking a lot of ground transport? Consider whether to take a car seat or not. Do you need an adapter for the plugs in the country you’ll be visiting? A charger isn’t much good if it can’t be plugged in. Our hotel offers arts and crafts sessions that include tie-dyeing, ergo we bring some cheap white t-shirts, or even give some new life to old and slightly stained white/light clothing that still fits the kids.

Most resorts have at least one dining area that’s a bit more posh and requires more formal dress so long pants for men and a skirt or dress for women will likely come in handy. Light, easy-packing fabrics are nice. Don’t bother going overboard on shoes though, unless such things are important to you. I wear my runners onto the plane, and pack one pair of sturdy sandals for general use and one pair of light, cheap flip-flops to get me between my room and the pool & beach. And speaking of “wearing onto the plane”, I wear a hoodie or sweater under a rain jacket and leave my winter coat at home. In transit we’re going between warm house, warm car or cab, and warm airport. Light shorts go into our carry-on and we change before we start the drive from the airport to the hotel.

And, or course, don’t forget the basics too like underwear, shirts, shorts, and toothbrushes & toiletries!

I know this seems like a huge list, but believe me, it takes up less space than you’d think. Young kids go through the most clothes but their stuff is smaller so it doesn’t take a lot of room, and even adult shorts and t-shirts are pretty compact when you roll them up to pack them. I spend most of my time in my swimsuits and cover-ups and have no qualms about using the same dress for dinner for half the time I’m there unless I spill something on myself the kids spill something on me. I don’t even take more than one pair of clean socks since I’m in sandals almost the whole time.

In the end, for our family of four, we typically take two suitcases with pretty much everything, and use a third suitcase for just the life jackets and swim masks and fins. My main carryon is a small gym bag with travel documents and stuff for the plane for the kids and myself (headphones, snacks, amusements, etc.); my personal item is my camera bag (being a photographer, this holds more camera stuff than the average tourist would carry). My husband’s main carryon is a small knapsack that holds the stuff that won’t fit into mine and the diaper bag. Since my son is toilet trained for solids, we might not even need the diaper bag this year (!) and just use one slightly bigger bag and stuff a couple of diapers and small pack of travel wipes into it. The jury is still out on whether we’ll even need the fold-up travel stroller (which we normally take right to the loading gate where it’s whisked away), but I’m currently leaning towards leaving it at home.

So that’s it. Do your homework, fully charge all your electronics before you go, take more drugs with you then you think you’ll need and fewer clothes, arrange for your mail to be stopped or picked up and your house to be looked after and have a great time!  (And seriously, I don’t mind sharing our packing list if you want it – just drop a line in the comments.)

Shawna is mom to 5-year-old-next-week Sage and 2-year-old Harris. She has been writing online since 2003, and her latest project is a photography blog. She tries to go south with her family every January.

A winter getaway with kids? It's all in the preparation. (Part I)

by Shawna This week we are heading to Jamaica. “Are you bringing the kids?” is a surprisingly-oft-asked question. “Of course!” is always the reply.

It’s true, travelling with small kids can be a challenge. When they’re very, very little it’s actually quite easy as enroute they just do the same thing they always do: eat and sleep and poop. You have the challenge of changing them in the smallest bathrooms imaginable, but other than that it’s pretty uneventful as long as they can be easily consoled by having their needs met. (This obviously all changes if they are sick and/or their ears get blocked.)

But when kids are old enough to be more mobile, and too young to be easily amused with books and colouring and the like for long, well, they get bored. And a restrained bored toddler is not a fun thing for anyone to contend with. Our toddler Harris is at just this age. We’ll see how he copes on the flight.

Fortunately, no matter how bad the flight I can console myself with the fact that it’s only a set amount of potential torture and then a whole week of warm days and food cooked for me. Also, typically, these flights to tropical destinations are packed with kids just like ours so we’re just as likely to get sympathetic glances as annoyed glares, and the glares will be shared by all the other parents of toddlers. But I digress…

I could write a whole post on how to handle the actual journey, but what I really want to share with Kids in the Capital readers today is the preparation involved in packing and getting ready for a tropical vacation with youngsters. Bear in mind that my destination is an all-inclusive resort with an extensive children’s program, and that we don’t really plan on leaving the resort much, if at all...

Gone are the days when I could see a good last-minute deal on a Thursday night, then throw my passport, a couple of bathing suits, a pair of shorts, sunglasses and a toothbrush into a bag and head out on Friday. (At least… I had that option. It’s possible my younger self wasn’t really as wild and freewheeling as all that in reality.) Now it’s all about the planning to head off disaster if possible, or be prepared for it if it does happen. I have a formidable packing list divided into whether items go in carry-on or get packed in checked baggage, and organized by person. I also leave an extra column to check off items as they’re packed. Yes, I love me some lists, and will add items that I know are already packed, just so I can have the satisfaction of checking them off right away. I won’t post the whole list (though will email it to anyone who asks me to in the comments), but am going to try to hit the main things.

First things first: immunizations and passports. Do you need the first for where you’re going or think you might want to go? You’ll almost certainly need the latter if you’re heading somewhere warm in the winter unless your definition of “warm” is drastically different than mine. It’s crucial to have some lead time with these items, since it can take awhile for a shot or series of shots to be effective, and Passport Canada has set turnaround times for documents. Don’t forget to look into visa requirements too if you’re going anywhere but the U.S. Want to travel with your kids but not your spouse? Always have a signed letter from the other parents saying you have permission to cross borders with them.

Other papers? Copies of your itinerary and tickets. Proof of travel insurance (yeah, you need this, especially medical with kids – the cost of tickets home in an emergency can be nothing compared to the cost of out-of-country medical care) and contact info if you need to use it. Copies of your kids’ immunization records may be handy, depending on if there’s an outbreak of something while you’re travelling. Photocopies of your passports that you’d keep in a separate place from your real passports.

Feeling extra cautious or just flat-out know that the place your going might be prone to some sort of disaster? Register your intentions to travel abroad with Foreign Affairs. You can do this easily and quickly online.  Just make sure you have your passport handy to fill out the required information to register your trip. A friend of mine also advises to let your credit card company know when you’ll be travelling and where, in order to avoid having a fraud alert pop up and your card temporarily suspended. I thought that was overkill until my husband got a cell phone call from his credit card company warning him of suspicious activity on his card in Victoria, British Columbia… where we were vacationing.

To be continued in the next instalment tomorrow!

Shawna is mom to 5-year-old-next-week Sage and 2-year-old Harris. She has been writing online since 2003, and her latest project is a photography blog. She would like you to tune in tomorrow for the rest of this mammoth entry.

An afternoon at the Pinto Valley Ranch

by Brie The girl was invited to a birthday party for a new school friend. She was very excited. I was less excited about the thought of a 45 minute car ride from downtown Ottawa with a kid that has developed car sickness recently. Still, I would have to say that the trip to Pinto Valley Ranch would be worth cleaning some throw up off of her and the car seat. That much fun was had.

(Thankfully she wasn't sick this car trip. I credit a combination of 1/4 tablet of kids Gravol, open back seat windows, great advice from Twitter freinds and being prepared. The fact that she drove with a towel draped over her and clutching a bowl meant that of coarse she wasn't going to throw up. It also meant that in my attempts to be prepared for everything, I forgot my camera. Sorry, no pictures. )

We were there for the birthday party package. We arrived late, but the girl still have a chance to take a pony ride. Or four. I think this was her very favorite party of the whole party. All the kids took turns riding five ponies around a track for more then half an hour. The ponies were lovely and the staff, many of them teenagers, were kind and patient with all the kids.

After the pony rides, and you know the kids didn't want them to end, we were loaded up onto a wagon for a tractor ride through a big field. The driver did all the things kids like, like going over big hills and making the kids yell yeehaw. He had a clear understanding of the interests of 4-6 year olds. We also got to get out and run around a bit. The favorite stop was by the fence where the horses were grazing in the next field. Some of the horses even came over and gave us all a sniff!

The birthday party had use of a large room and it was there that lunch and cake was served. The birthday party package includes a lunch of hot dogs and drinks, which would be my only complaint about the whole experience. Thankfully the birthday hosts brough along some veggie dogs for the girl and any other vegetarians to eat.  Which as good because I had left all of my snacks at home with the camera.

Pinto Valley Ranch would be a great place for any animal lovers. There were tons of animals all over, including dogs, cats and pigs wandering through the yard. During our barn tour we got to see piglets and the kids got to take turns holding little grey kittens. The party finished up in the large pen with the lamas, sheep and donkeys. The girl loved chasing any animal that moved, mostly the sheep, and I kept busy watching where I stepped. (Note to self, next time bring rubber boots for both of us).

I would definitely make another visit to Pinto Valley Ranch. In fact, the visit has made me interested in trying out other opportunities for the girl to go pony/horseback riding. Do you ride? Do your kids? Do you have any recommendations on horebacking riding in or around Ottawa?

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.

McLaurin Bay

by Annie Last summer, the kids and I stopped briefly at the the playground at Parc Martin Larouche in Gatineau (rue Notre Dame at rue Joseph Roy). Julian was 5 and Emma was 2. We didn't stay for very long because it really was a "big kids" park and Emma wasn't able to climb up to go down the slides. We noticed that there was a nature trail starting at the playground, but there were too many mosquitoes to venture into the marshy woods at that time of year.

With all of the rain we've been getting lately, we were anxious to get out and enjoy the outdoors this weekend. Since Emma is a year older and the mosquito season is over, we thought it would be fun to check out this park and trail again. So we packed a picnic lunch and headed out.

When we arrived, the kids checked out the playground. There are large rock climbing walls that you have to scale to get to the top to access the big windy slides. There are also lots of things to hang from (like monkey bars) and balance on, making it a great park for kids to test their abilities. There are a few swings too (two baby swings, two regular swings), but the highlight really is the play structure.

Once the kids had played for a while, we decided to check out the trail. The trail is 1.6km one-way or 3.2km round trip. It starts from the playground and goes through the woods and across wetlands of McLaurin Bay (Baie McLaurin) before coming out at the Ottawa River. At the start of the trail, there is a sign indicating the number of different species of flora and fauna that can be found along the trail. There are hundreds of different species of birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, insects and plants. As I read off the statistics to the kids, they became a little bit anxious that we might run into lots of scary animals along the trail.

The first part of the trail winds through the woods and the colours were brilliant. The next segment is a bridge across the marsh at the edge of McLaurin Bay. The bridge is a series of floating docks with railings held together by a cable, so the bridge moves up and down in the water as you step from one piece of the bridge onto the next. The next part of the trail goes by several lookouts. One of them is a deck overlooking an area populated by beavers (no lodges/dams to be seen today) and the other is a tower with a view of the whole bay. The final segment goes through the woods again and comes out between a few homes in a residential area by the Ottawa River.

I had briefly considered taking our picnic lunch with us on the trail and eating it when we got to the Ottawa River. I'm glad we didn't though, because the end of the trail at the Ottawa River is all private property except for the very narrow exit of the trail onto the river-side road (Boul. Hurtubise), so there isn't really anywhere to sit and have a picnic.

All along the trail there is signage indicating the types of birds, fish, trees, and other things that you can find in the nature reserve. The kids enjoyed looking at the pictures and also pointing out the things they spotted along the trail, including different types of squirrels, a dead mouse, a fuzzy caterpillar, interesting mushrooms growing in a tree and plenty of red "Canada" leaves.

Once we got back to the playground, we took out our picnic lunch and ate at one of the picnic tables right next to the play structure. The kids came and went from the table, taking a few bites and then heading off to go down the slide again, and then coming back for more.

The one downside, and perhaps the reason we didn't stay any longer, is that there are no washrooms at the park. So when nature called, we went on our way...

Annie is an Ottawa-area mom of 2 kids. She blogs about the art and science of parenting at the PhD in Parenting blog.

Sunday October 17th 10am- 3pm The Glebe Community Center 175 Third Ave @ Lyon St in The Glebe