ReadySetMom

Good times at the North Clackamas Aquatic Park

My daughter opted not to have a 7th birthday party this year, choosing instead to have an adventure day with Mom. Hooray! While Dad took Brother for a Max ride to the Children's Museum, she and I headed to the North Clackamas Aquatic Park on Sunday for our very first visit. I'd never even heard of this place until a couple weeks ago, when I was furiously searching online for something that I thought she would enjoy. Bingo. It was fantastic. We spent three hours splashing around and we both had a blast. It costs $10 for adults and $4 for kids ages 3-8 (see more rates). Metro Parent is running a 2-for-1 coupon this month, good through December 31. Locker rental is $1.

If you've never been before, I'll give you the lowdown and what we'd do differently the next time:

Where's your favorite pumpkin patch?

Both my kids' schools have field trips planned to pumpkin patches, so it looks like I'm off the hook this year. I was raised as a suburbs girl, and frankly, we bought our pumpkins from the grocery store when I was growing up. So going out to the pumpkin patch is still a bit foreign to me. Regardless, we've sampled quite a few pumpkin patches in the last 7 years or so. Of course, there's so much more than just picking out the perfect pumpkin. There's hay rides, cow trains, petting zoos, corn mazes -- a plethora of fun fall activities.

Amber emailed recently with a tip on her new favorite pumpkin patch: Hoffman's Dairy Garden in Canby. What's your favorite pumpkin patch?

Get out and play: family fun weekend of Aug 22-24

Yes, we are in the final weeks of August. Some call them dog days. Some of you, whom I suspect might be Stepford wives, are actually enjoying quality time with your children and dreading the start of school/fall. Others of us are counting the days, minutes, seconds until school starts. If you're in the second set, take a deep breath with me. The weekend is so close I can taste it...

Friday, August 22, 2008

Festa Italiana kicked off last night at Pioneer Courthouse Square, but fun for the kiddies starts today. Grape stomping competition at noon! Kids' pizza toss and face-painting. 11am to 11pm today and Saturday. 11am to 7:30pm Sunday. Free!

Dive-in Movie features The Bee Movie. Sellwood Pool at dark today. Doors open at 8pm. $5 for adults, $3 for kids. Bring your wetsuits -- it'll probably be chilly! Saturday: same deal at Wilson Pool. Sunday at Grant Pool.

Got gas to burn? Truck on down to Salem for the Oregon State Fair. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! No wait. Make that goats, and chickens and cows, oh my! 10am to 10pm Sunday through Thursday. Open until 11pm Fridays and Saturdays. $10 adults, $5 kids 6-12. 5 and under (and parking!) are free.

Ditto on gas to burn? Mt. Hood Huckleberry Fest. Includes watermelon launch! 8am to 10pm Friday and Saturday. 8am to 5pm Sunday. Mt Hood Village (65000 E Hwy 26). Free.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Bug Fest features spiders (that's arachnids to you and me). Tualatin Hills Nature Park (15655 SW Millikan Blvd. in Beaverton). Noon to 4pm. Get this: it's BYOB -- bring your own bug (now that's hardcore) -- if you want help with identification. Free.

Needing a little culture? The Oregon Symphony plays in Mt. Scott Park. 2pm afternoon festival. 7pm concert. Family friendly and free.

PPS Community Care Day 2008. Find a public school near you, put on some grubby clothes and put your back into it. Times are tough. We all need to pitch in where we can.

See Friday for info on Festa Italiana, Dive-in Movies,  Mt Hood Huck Fest and Oregon State Fair

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Salsa en la Calle PDX. Spice up your weekend! Dancing, kid art! 11am to 6pm, and music until 9pm. Free. Eastbank Festival Plaza (SE Main & Water).

See Friday for info on Festa Italiana, Dive-in Movies,  Mt Hood Huck Fest and Oregon State Fair

What's on your family-fun radar for this weekend?

Get out and play: family fun weekend of Aug 8-10

Well, hope you enjoyed last weekend. Cuz there's like NOTHING that's for free this weekend. But blueberry picking season is in full swing.

Friday, August 8

Bite me Oregon. Er. Bit of Oregon? Oh, BITE of Oregon. Celebrate and taste the bountiful harvest our fair state has to offer. 11am to 11pm, Friday and Saturday. Sunday, 10am to 8pm. Tom McCall Waterfront Park. $7 adults. Kids free (except for cost of food). And you better buy some food. It's an eating festival.

It wouldn't be the weekend without Penny's Puppets! See Super Donkey Saves the Day. All ages. 10am. $5 adults, $3 kids. Moxie Rx (N. Mississippi & Shaver).

Tualatin Crawfish Festival. Oh wait. There is a free day here: Friday, August 8. 5-9pm. Prices and hours far too complicated for me to list. Click through to their site if you want to see adult crawfish eating contests, already!! Festival runs through Sunday, with Friday eve being the only free day.

Clark County Fair. Bull riding (watching, not participating), monster trucks (ditto). Friday through Sunday, $5-9.

Columbia Slough Summer Day at the Ponds. Nature hike and crafts. Ages 7-11. 9 to 11:30am $8. Whitaker Ponds. Registration required (503-281-1132). Do you ever wonder why it's pronounced "slew" instead of "sloff"?

Saturday, August 9

OK, so here's another free event: Penny's Puppets (again!) performs Scout's Grand Adventure. 1pm and 3pm at Piccolo Mondo Toys in Bethany. Course, try to get out of there w/o buying any toys.

Kids Cook at Portland Farmers Market. Ages 7-11. 8:30 to 10am. "Beyond PB&J." You mean there's life after peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Stop it!!

Clackamas County Fair and Rodeo. Nightly rodeo, animal exhibits, carnival rides. Kicking off 6 days of county fair fun. $4-7. Saturday through Thursday.

Sunday, August 10

Providence Bridge Pedal. Staggered start times beginning at 6:30am. Pre-registration highly encouraged. Helmets required. Let's all be on our best manners and not go beating up Hummers with our bikes.

Dove Lewis Birthday Party (35!!). Contests, crafts, raffles. All ages. Free. OK. I lied there are a FEW free things this weekend. Pioneer Courthouse Square. 4-8pm.

And I just have to say it's really rude of the Perseid Meteor Shower to be on MONDAY and not the weekend. We happened to be camping on Hood for it last year and saw quite a beautiful meteor show. Oh well. Probably sleeping through it this year.

Hungry Planet, Michael Curry Puppets at Oregon History Museum

I'm not a huge fan of taking young kids to museums. But when I saw the Oregon History Museum was featuring the Hungry Planet exhibit, we just had to go. I had written on EnviroMom how my 6-year-old daughter became fascinated by the Hungry Planet book when I checked it out from the library a few weeks ago. The exhibit displays huge color photographs from the book showing what families from various countries eat in a whole week. We loved looking at all the wonderful, different shaped pastas the family in Italy eats. The mostly vegetarian diets of the families in some countries. The obsessively packaged everything eaten by the family in Japan (even the bananas were wrapped in plastic). And of course, the big gulps, the pizzas, the smorgasbord of junk food that characterized the American family's sustenance for one week. While the exhibit isn't interactive, there was a group of teenagers who seemed to be there on some sort of field trip filling out papers based on what they were seeing in the pictures. My kids and I just discussed the interesting differences we saw. This exhibit is only there for a short time -- closing on August 17. Note the Oregon History Museum is having a FREE day on Saturday, August 16. Well worth a visit if your kids are interested in the planet, different cultures and food. Mine are.

Turned out it was very wise of us to check out the Hungry Planet exhibit first. Because the museum is also exhibiting some of the fabulous puppets and creations by Michael Curry Design. Get this: YOU CAN TOUCH THE PUPPETS. My kids were in heaven. You can TAKE PICTURES. Really, really cool. Giant white bear. Dinosaurs! Alligator! Kangaroo. New Years' Dragon! Moose Head from the Salt Lake City Olympics. Drawings, videos, masks and puppets from the Lion King -- one with the handlebar of a bike that uses hand-break mechanisms to open and close the eyes and mouth. Dia de los Meurtos skeletons that you can manipulate with ropes: up leg, down leg, up arm, down arm, now both legs up!! The kids could have stayed there for days making those skeletons dance. Truly a wonderful, kid-friendly exhibit. I still cannot believe they let us touch the puppets. This exhibit runs through October 19. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

This museum visit oddly synthesized so many wonderful events of our summer: puppets that we saw in the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade (Uncle Sam); puppets from Finding Nemo and The Lion King featured in shows in Walt Disney World (where we just vacationed, but that I've yet to blog about), and of course the Hungry Planet book that brought us to this museum in the first place.

Get out and play: family fun Aug 1-3

Um. So like, how in the HECK is it August already? And holy cow. This month starts off with a bang if the weekend events are any indication... I also hear it's a great weekend for picking blueberries, cherries and raspberries. So much to do and so little time!!!!

Friday, August 1

Schoolhouse Supplies drive kick-off at Jamison Square. If Pioneer Courthouse Square is Portland's living room, the Jamison Square is it's freakin' rumpus room. 11am to 1pm. Balloon artists, hula hoops, and free snacks, pizza, ice cream treats and root beer (in exchange for some donated school supplies). Rock on!

Mayor's Tailgate Party. 12-1pm. Free Hermiston watermelons (enough said, I'm there!) and other produce donated by local Eastern Oregon farmers will be distributed to the crowd. Also, watch the Mayor of Hermiston and other City dignitaries (yes, but how dignified will they look with watermelon juice on their chins??) compete in a watermelon seed spitting contest!

Under the Summer Sky concert. Free family-friendly dance performance at Washington Park/Rose Garden outdoor theatre. 6:30pm. Bring a picnic, blanket and warm layers, and soak up a bit of culture.

Free First Friday Night at Portland Children's Museum. 5-8pm. It's Dino-Mite!

Multnomah Outdoor Cinema featuring "The Princess Bride" (rated PG). Gates open at 8pm. Movie starts at dusk. Let the quoting begin... "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die." Man, I cannot wait until my kids are old enough to see this movie!!

Saturday, August 2

Kids in the Pearl Block Party. Neighborhood event sponsored by the Peal biz association will be from 10am to 4pm. Music by Greasy Kid Stuff. Fashion show featuring the kid couture the Pearl is known for. Crafts sponsored by the Portland Children's Museum. Puppet show by Penny's Puppet Productions (does this poor woman ever rest??). Perhaps the best is free coupons for the rock-climbing wall at REI on NW Johnson (just 3 blocks away).

Iranian Festival features Iranian and Kurdish music, dance and kids' activities. 10am to 6pm. Free. PSU/South Park Blocks.

Wilsonville Fun in the Park. Action games, crafts and entertainment. 10am to 5pm. Free. Town Center Park.

Central Library Free Summer Block Party in celebration of Multnomah County's great summer reading program. Noon to 4pm. On SW Taylor between 10th and 11th (streets closed to traffic). Face painters, balloon makers and a performance at 2pm by Captain Bogg & Salty. No excuses for missing this great event, unless your kids are at home working on a book report or something!

Washington Park Summer Festival. 6pm. Free. Norman Sylvester Band at the Amphitheater.

Sunday, August 3

OMSI $2 Sunday. 9:30am to 7pm.

Chess at the Hillsdale Library. Preschool to seniors. Noon to 2pm. My husband has recently been teaching chess to our two girls. Our 6 year old is learning and puzzling it out. Commendable. Our 4 year old has earned the title of "Chest Pest" (because they don't call it "chess" they call it "chest").

Washington Park Summer Festival. 6pm. Free. Portland Festival Symphony at the Amphitheater.

Any other fun events for families to add to the mix?

Portland area sites to see with children while vacationing

Kat, a reader from Hawaii, will be visiting Portland in the fall. She's looking for the best Portland area sites to visit with her toddler son:

I recently found your awesome blog and wanted to ask you about sites to see (I've been told there are fantastic parks) in and around the Portland, OR area for visitors with children.  I have a nearly-two-year old, and we'll be visiting in early October to visit some friends and check out the area.  Living near the beach in Hawaii, we're outdoor folks, and want to expose our child to a different form of outdoors. If you have time, could you send some suggestions?

Having just been out of state on vacation myself, I returned home to Portland on Saturday and am so happy to be home I feel like kissing our recycling bins! The low humidity, the warm but not overpowering sun, the lush green-ness of it all... Portland, Oregon is paradise to me. Today I sound like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz: There's no place like home! There's no place like home!

I won't go into too many of my personal recommendations as my brain is still fairly fried from jet-lag and over-stimulation (we went to Orlando, Florida on vacation including three hotter than hell, action-packed, expensive days at Walt Disney World). But I will say that trekking outside of Portland and getting to the Columbia River Gorge is well worth the rental car and tank of gas: see Multnomah Falls and the many other lovely waterfalls along that route, the historic highway, the dams along the Columbia, the fish ladders, etc. Heather wrote a great post about taking some of her out-of-town guests on the Columbia Gorge loop to Mt. Hood last summer.  Our beaches are also a far cry from what Hawaii offers, but beautiful and windy and wonderful in their own way.

Please chime in on what you think Kat should visit while in Portland proper and its environs.   

Good parks for young cyclists?

While walking the neighborhood with friends last night we were trying to think of some good Portland parks where a new cyclist with training wheels could safely ride (not too crowded and relatively flat) and get some good experience. I think there are only two places we've taken our kids to ride:

• Rieke Elementary in Hillsdale, which has a huge blacktop area (and I'm guessing most elementary schools would offer something similar?)
• Willamette Park, on the river in John's Landing. They have sidewalks that are pretty good for kids.

Can you suggest some other spots for the four-wheeling set?

Story time @ Icebreaker, Monday June 23rd

Icebreaker is a really cool store in the Pearl District that carries 100% merino wool active wear. I made some purchases at the store recently and am loving my new underwear! (Aren't you glad to know this?) To get more folks into the store they offer a children's story hour series. The next one will be Monday from 10:30-11am featuring Mo Willem's The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! If you attend, you can also take 20 percent off a single item and get a Literary Lambs punch card. Every time you attend the story hour your child gets the card punched, and after five punches will receive a free pair of 100% merino wool socks. I know, it doesn't sound like much, but the stuff isn't cheap. It is, however, high quality and will last for years and years. I'm a merino wool convert (it's really, really soft, not itchy) so if you've ever been curious about it, here's a good opportunity to check it out. Icebreaker is located at 1109 W. Burnside, across from Powell's Books (on the Pearl side of Burnside).

While you're in the Pearl, you can head to Powell's or to the fabulous gelato shop Mio Gelato (25 NW 11th Ave.), which is on the same block as Icebreaker. Jamison Fountain isn't too far of a stroll (at NW 11th and Johnson) and Sip & Kranz, a kid-friendly cafe/coffee shop faces the fountain at 901 NW 10th. Make a day of it!

Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon: worth the trek?

At the preschool auction we went to in February, we won a family pass for the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. If you're not familiar with it, Oregon's Wildlife Safari lets you view over 500 animals in their natural habitat, roaming freely as they would in the wild. You drive through a 4.5 mile trek viewing animals from Africa, Asia and the Americas. I have one friend who is a Portland native, who told me wild stories about visiting this place as a kid with some rather up-close-and-personal encounters with wild animals. Perhaps a little too close for comfort for me since I've just warmed up to petting chickens at the ripe old age of 41. Hopefully things have changed over the years and tigers won't be pouncing on the roof of our Subaru.

I also read in today's Oregonian that Oregon's most famous deer, Snowball, will move to a petting section of the Wildlife Safari grounds.

When I bought the Wildlife Safari family pass, it might have helped if I knew where Winston was. Turns out it may be a bit far for a daytrip. Do you love the Oregon Wildlife Safari? Do you overnight near Roseburg, or just make it a killer driving excursion and do the trip in one day?