Visit a Pet Store - Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

Visit a pet store

I’m always surprised how much my kids love visiting a local pet store. For me, it’s an errand that needs to get checked off my to-do list. But for them, it’s almost like a free mini visit to the zoo. So now, every once in awhile when we are nearby, we’ll go to a pet shop just so they can look at the fish and the mice, and the adoptable kittens.

It helps to have some ground rules established ahead of time. For us, this is namely that we will NOT be getting a pet to bring home. Any requests to get a new pet means the pet store visit is over and we will leave. I’ve found this is a good place to enforce that kind of rule. Leaving the pet store is no big deal to me – we didn’t pay to get in or drive a long way to get there.

Also, if you can get a small group of kids together, many pet stores will set up a tour for you. We’ve been on one such tour at a PetCo, and it was more fun than I expected. The pet shop employees brought several animals out of their enclosures to let the kids hold and pet them, and we learned a little about what type of care they each needed.

Tilden Park in Berkley

Tilden Park in Berkley

Tilden Park in Berkley is a very big place. The first time we visited for a hike, we could have easily come and gone without ever knowing what other fun places there were for kids and families to visit there.

The hiking alone in Tilden Park is wonderful. It is a wooded area, and tends to be fairly cool compared to many other places around the bay. Our preschooler didn’t have any trouble with the trail we hiked, but since we have only hiked twice here, I am sure there are places with much more challenging trails. However, if you want to hike with little ones, you won’t have trouble finding a good place to do so in Tilden.

In addition to the lovely hiking trails, Tilden Park also has a small train that can take you for a short ride through the woods, and even smaller trains that can take kids for a ride around the miniature train yard. The train runs on weekends only and parking is fairly limited in the lot right by the train. The trains open at 11:00 am, and it is best to get there a little before they start if you want to park close by.

There is also an Environmental Education Center. Inside there is a room-sized model of the Bay Area, and a few other displays to look at. Naturalists also occasionally bring out some of their educational wildlife ambassadors and give short talks about them. We were fortunate enough to get to see a small snake and a tarantula on our visit.

Right next to the Education Center, is what they call the “Little Farm”. It’s basically what it sounds like, a small area with farm animals. There are cows, sheep, goats, chickens and ducks, and rabbits. It isn’t a petting zoo, but if the animals happen to come up to the fence, they can be touched.  When we last visited, guests were allowed to feed lettuce or celery that they had brought from home to the animals. My kids were a little sad that we had nothing to feed because we didn’t know ahead of time. I know from experience that the feeding rules can change at these places depending on the health needs of the animals, so if you bring something, please make sure to check the posted signs to make sure what you brought is safe to feed before you give anything to the animals.

While we have never visited it ourselves, there is also a merry-go-round, a botanic garden, and something called the Brazil building at Tilden. We hope to go explore these other area soon. Most of these attractions are not grouped together, but spread around the park, so we haven’t been able to see more than one or two areas at each visit. To see a map to plan your trip, and check hours of operation and costs, you can visit the Tilden Park page of the East County Parks website.

Halloween Crafts

Halloween Crafts

Kids love Halloween. Most grown ups too for that matter. While decorating for Halloween can be fun, it is even more fun when you make the decorations yourself.

Pumpkin painting:
Supplies needed:
Paints (we used washable tempera paint but you could use fancier acrylic paints if your kids can be trusted with them.)
Paint brushes
Pumpkins

My kids are still to little to do any pumpkin carving on their own, so they usually draw a design, and we do the carving for them. Painting is another way they can decorate a pumpkin on their own. These little pumpkins are usually fairly cheep, and the kids love painting them.

Lolly Pop Ghosts:
Supplies needed:
Lolly pops
Tissues
Ribbon or twist ties
Black marker

This is a old classic too, but still fun. Put a tissue over the lollypop, tie with a ribbon or twisty tie. Draw eyes on. Ta-Da!

Let The Kids Invent Their Own Halloween Craft

Supplies needed:
Possibly, but not limited to: pom poms, pipe cleaners, glue, googly eyes, markers, construction paper, sequins, fabric scraps, feathers. . . etc.

Today, the kids dragged out all our craft supplies on their own and started making Halloween decorations. They made ghosts out of construction paper and craft foam. Spiders our of pipe cleaners, and other spooky critters out of pompoms. Sometimes, giving them a pile of stuff, and letting them create all on their own can be the most fun (and least work for Mom!)

I'm going to try out this neat pumpkin art project with my kids this week:

Starlight Pumpkin Art Lesson

There are many other absolutely wonderful art lessons and projects on the Deep Space Sparkle site. I suggest subscribing to the RSS feed there if your kids enjoy art. 

Make Cookies - Fun Stuff to do Anywhere

Make Cookies

Another good activity for those days that are too icky to spend outside. Plus we’re headed in to that time of year when it’s nice to have cookies around to share and give out.

While it can still be kind of fun to make cookies if you buy the premade dough, I think making them from scratch is the way to go. It takes longer, which is good if part of your goal is spending time together with your kids doing fun stuff. It’s easier to accommodate special diets: you can lower the sugar content using Splenda or Stevia, you can use egg replacers and vegetable shortenings for vegetarians, and so forth. Plus, the kids get to measure and see real ingredients – so much learning can happen over a batch of cookies.

You can decide on a simple cookie or a more fancy variety based on your families tastes and the age of your kids. There are great recipes all over the internet, but often we just use whatever recipe comes on the back of the package of chocolate chips. One of our favorites is to use a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe, but use M & Ms instead of the chips, or mix chips – like half chocolate chips, and half butterscotch or peanut butter chips. You can allow the kids to get creative with the chips, as long as you stick to the recipe for the dough, and they will feel very creative and the cookies will still turn out great.

Western Railway Museum Pumpkin Festival in Suisun

It has been several years since our most recent visit to the Western Railway Museum in Suisun, but it is a trip we remember very fondly each time, and it is on our list of pumpkin patches that we are strongly considering returning to this year.

The Western Railway Museum is open on weekends year round (except for major holidays), and some weekdays over the summer. They have restored electric trains and streetcars on display.

During their Pumpkin Festival, which runs weekends from Oct 13^th thru the 28^th this year, they also add a hay bale fort, tractor ride, music, and games. They also have pumpkins for sale of course, but I wouldn't consider the pumpkin selection to ever have been the strongest point for the Railway Museum's Pumpkin Festival on the times we've been. Even so, they have pumpkins available, and when we go this counts as our pumpkin patch visit for the year.

The hay fort and tractor rides are nothing amazing, but they are nice, and the kids love them. They always ask for a few more minutes in the fort, or another ride on the wagon, so these are winning features in their eyes.

For the grown-ups in our group, the highlight instead is usually the ride over to the play / pumpkin patch area on board one of the historic rail cars. I don't recall how long the ride takes. It is more than a few minutes, but not long enough to drag on. Maybe 15 to 20 minutes? You ride the train to the area with the fort and pumpkins, stay as long as you like there, and catch another train back to the museum when you are ready. Trains run every 30 minutes starting at 10:00 am.

The actual museum part, including the restored streetcars and rail trains was probably more of a hit with the adults in our group, again, but the kids did look around and seemed to really enjoy seeing the trains. They were just "done" sooner with that part of the visit.

The last time we visited, one of our favorite bands, The Hip Waders, was playing, so we spent extra time watching them. They often let the kids perform along with them onstage with toy instruments. I checked, and they will be at the Western Railway's Pumpkin Festival again this year on Oct 21^st, 27^th, and 28^th starting at 11:00 am.

The admission cost for the Pumpkin Festival is slightly more than the regular Railway Resume admission cost. It is $12 for adults, and $9 for kids, $11 for seniors. You could easily, however, take a picnic lunch with you and make a whole day of it in the pumpkin patch / play area.

City Park in Antioch

City Park in Antioch

The City Park in Antioch is at the corners of 10^th St and A St, and has a number of nice features. The play structures are a lot of fun: they’re colorful, and well designed. There is a separate are designed for smaller kids. Picnic tables are available, but there aren’t really any clustered in a group if you plan to be there with a lot of people. The view of the playground from the tables isn’t great, but there are benches closer if parents want a place to sit and keep an eye on their kiddos.

While the playground itself is out in the sun, there are large trees boarding the playground that provide nice shady areas, and I often see kids go play around the trees if they need a break from the heat. Also, in the corner near the trees is a beautiful rose garden created by a gardening club that specializes in roses. Each type of rose is labeled, which helps folks like me who would never know they were different types without the little signs.

There are restrooms available, which is always a plus, but they are across the parking lot from the play area, so small kids still need a grown up to walk with them for safety.  Also, across 10^th St is a snow cone hut that is who knows how old – but my husband remember getting comes there when he was a kid, so it has been around awhile.

We don’t visit often on weekends, but when we have visited, we have never had any problem find a parking spot.

While the beautiful playground at City Park in Antioch isn't all that new anymore, I remember a time when that park was not a place most people would take their children. I love that the city cleaned up and turned the park into a fun place for families once again.

Make Thumb Print Critters - Fun Stuff to do Anywhere

Make Thumb Print Critters

I think we first did this thumb print craft in a preschool group, but we’ve done it a few times since then and it’s always a lot of fun.

The main idea is to make a thumb print, then with a marker or pen, add details to turn it into a critter. I bought a special stamp pad with washable ink to use for making thumb print critter art, but you don’t have to do that. Washable markers can be used too. Just cover the pad of the thumb with the ink and then press that spot onto the paper, and wash the ink off the thumb. Or you can keep some wet wipes at the table with you to avoid the kids having to get up and wash over and over again.

One thumb print makes a good spider or owl. Two together can give you a body and a head for a critter. A whole line of them could be a caterpillar. Just let the imagination go. It didn’t take long for my kids to start  using whole hand prints in their thumb print art creations.

You don’t have to have great art skills to make cute pictures. They kids like that it feels kinda messy (but if you make sure to stick to washable inks, it isn’t really messy). It’s a fun way to spend some inside time when the kids need help for ideas of what to do.