Flashback: Brewer Park

We love hearing about the great parks around the city. What's yours? by Sara

Despite several nearby parks, we regularly make the trek from Orleans to Old Ottawa South to take the boys to Brewer Park.  Its located across the street from Carleton University, tucked away behind the City of Ottawa Brewer Complex.  There is a large parking lot off Bronson Avenue but you can also park on the many shaded side streets off Sunnyside Avenue, which are right beside the park.  If you use the parking lot, you need to walk across two soccer fields to access the park.

Brewer Park is divided into five areas:

1) A  fenced-in (but not impervious to adventurous toddlers) area with two play structures suitable for the littlest members of the family.  The fire truck play structure is a big hit with my two boys.

2) A play structure on rubber mats for preschool children

3) A multi-level splash pad (there is a large ramp and bridge to access the upper level and water slide)

4) A larger play structure for elementary aged children

5) A sandy area with wheel-chair accessible sand tables, activity walls, and swings.

There are also several shady spots to set-up blankets for snack time and picnics as well as one large covered picnic area in the middle of the park.  The only disadvantage is that the play structure for older children is separated from the rest of the park (by the splash pad), which makes it hard to supervisor children of different ages.  One last important detail: there are (clean) washroom's located next to the toddler area.

What I love most about Brewer Park is the variety.  Both my boys have very different interests and Brewer is one of the few parks where they are easily occupied, entertained, and safe.  Their play structures have fewer death-defying drops and are generally safer for small kids, which is one of the drawbacks of our neighbourhood parks.  My 2-year-old can explore and climb without me hovering right behind him.  While my four-year old love splash pads, my 2-year old hates spraying water; however, at Brewer there is a splash pad and water slide, which means they're both happy to play in the water.

Unlike a lot of parks in new suburban areas, the play structures at Brewer are protected by shade (depending on the time of day), which makes it a great place to visit on really hot and humid days.  It's often busy because camps and daycare's frequent the park so be prepared to keep a close eye on your kids, as its easy to lose them in the melee of swim-suited bodies running around.

Sara is a photographer and mom to a 6-year-old ” firefighter”, 4-year-old “monkey”, and a third boy, “bug”, due in May.  You can also find her at her blog, My Points of View.

Messy Science Fun

by Amy In this house we have been suffering from a spate of "I want to do something else" syndrome. Nothing seems to keep the toddler entertained for more than a few minutes at a time, and it doesn't take long before this Mommy runs out of energy to think of new things. We go swimming, we bake together, she takes gymnastics, but her energy is constant so when we're just home I have to keep trying to entertain her.

Today, after going through a few of our normal activities it was "something else, Mommy!" again, so I logged on to Pinterest to see what else we could try. I came upon this on my Crafts board.

Fun! Messy! Science!

So I got out my corn starch and the food colouring and we mixed it all together and keep the kid occupied for a good little while.

The truth is, it looks messy but it actually washes off hands quite easily. I haven't tried to clean the pan yet.

We'll probably be doing this again.

Amy is mom to two year old Maggie and a 6 year old schnauzer named Henry. You can read her blog at amyboughner.ca where she writes about motherhood and anything else that’s on her mind. She also shares a blog with her husband at boughner.ca where they talk together about parenting a daughter.

Flashback: Backyard playstructures

by Lara We want to hear how you have your backyard decked out!  Will you write a post for us about your playstructure? Your swingset? Your climber? How you make your backyard kid friendly and safe?

We invested in the Costco one and we love it:

Here's a bit about it:

- Costs about $1400-1500 with tax included (I forget exactly now) so it's not cheap.  The wood is really nice quality though and the thing is really sturdy.

- It comes COMPLETELY disassembled.  It took two men two entire days to put together and it was a lot of work. My husband says it's not hard to assemble, just follow the instructions and lay out all the pieces by the number on them ahead of time and you'll be ok.  It's just time consuming.

- It's beautiful

-   My kids are 3 and 5 and they are so comfortable on this structure I get nervous.  The 3 year olds are already walking around the outside!

- Under the house portion is a sandbox that gets used a lot.

- It came with a matching picnic table.

-It takes up a lot of room so if you don't have a fairly large yard you will need to measure and make sure it will fit.

It gets a huge amount of use at our house and I totally feel it was worth our money; we'll get years and years of use out of it.

Lara Wellman is mom to 5 year old Kiernan and 3 year old twins Quinn and Juliette. You can read her personal blog at Gliding Through Motherhood, or get tips on how to simplify social media on her business site.

A Toddler paradise - Constance Bay Beach

by Pam Wheeeee - summer is here (has been for a while, it seems, but, you know...officially)!!!

As a mom of toddler twins (one of which isn't even walking yet), I am always on the lookout for great fun options for outdoor play, especially ones that are safe (well, as safe as possible) for them.

Enter an outdoor oasis a mere 15-20 minute drive from our front door in Kanata - Constance Bay. I mean, I KNEW there was a beach there, and I also recalled that it was shallow, but it wasn't until a veteran mommy friend of mine invited us to join them so that we got to experience it.

How much fun did we have? No crying. At all. All morning long right up until after their normal naptime. Sitting and splashing. Walking and splashing. Eating and splashing. Splashing and splashing. With lots of sand everywhere, and water that as far as I could tell was under my knee height. It was fantastic, and there was no need to strap the girls into bulky life jackets. They were happy little clams.o go that it occurred to me...this might be a fabulous place for an unpredictable, non-swimming, fickle toddler...or two.

A couple other notes:

• There is no one in the parking lot at 9:30 am on a Friday (we parked by Point Lounge at 346 Bayview Drive - easy to Google and get to).
• Meeting up with other veteran Mommies means you learn tips and tricks.
• For instance, take one of those portable umbrellas and set it up right in the water - shade for the mini-splash contingent!
• Eat your snack or lunch right in the water - chances are that what you brought your toddler are things that can be eaten by hand, so why struggle with sandy hands, feet, and ultimately food?
• And finally, when leaving, take your messy sandy toddler deeper into the water, undress them in the water, rinse off completely and walk them straight to the car to put on the fresh diaper and clothes. Worked brilliantly. Also meant that it was straight into bed for naptime when we got home.

What fabulous local 'getaways' do you know? What ages are they perfect for? Share!!!

Pam (@paminottawa)/http://paminottawa.wordpress.com/) is mom to twin toddlers Alexandra and Hailey, trying to rid herself of her mommy tummy, and is also a strategic social media communicator with the government on the side.  She is also newly able to change poopy diapers again after 6 months in cast with a broken arm. All things important in perspective.

Kid in the Kitchen

by Amy When I was a kid, my sister and I used to go over to a friend's house and her dad would gather us in the kitchen and we would make bread. I don't remember exactly how involved we were in the pre-dough stage, but we got to make our bread into shapes and then he would bake them and we would eat them. I knew when my kid started being able to help out in the kitchen – and being very excited to help out – that bread was going to be one of our projects.

Today she was looking for something to do and I decided it might be the right day. I found a recipe online (from Jamie Oliver) and we went out to get our ingredients.

When we got back into the kitchen she was a little impatient as I read through the recipe and figured things out, but once we got started she got her hands right in.

It was a little messy:

...But once it was time to knead the dough, she knew exactly what to do.

The problem with making bread is that you have to let it rise twice, so instead of just mixing, baking and then eating, there is a bit more of a wait, but we got through that extra time with a bit of a dance party.

Eventually the bread came out of the oven.

It smelled like bread and it looked like bread, but we had to taste:

I think she approved.

(And while we had all the ingredients out, and since we had bought yeast, we made some baked doughnuts too...

Amy is mom to two year old Maggie and a 6 year old schnauzer named Henry. You can read her blog at amyboughner.ca where she writes about motherhood and anything else that’s on her mind. She also shares a blog with her husband at boughner.ca where they talk together about parenting a daughter.