Fun Toronto adventures for your family this weekend!

We live in possibly the best city in the entire world, and there is certainly no shortage of fun things to do with your family.  Check back here often for some of momstown Toronto's tips for family fun in this amazing city of ours!

Looking out the ferry window!

The Toronto Islands


A trip to the Toronto Islands is like an escape to cottage country, a county fair and a yacht club all rolled into one!  The ferry ride is fun for the whole family, and the kids will love the anticipation of the ride over.  It is also stroller friendly, and you can even take over bicycles if you take the Ward Island Ferry.

The Swan Ride on Centre Island.

Once you arrive, there are so many options for fun!  Centreville of course springs to mind with its rides and amusement park atmosphere, but there are so many other things to do as well.  Centreville's rides really are a lot of fun however, especially the 1907 carousel and the log flume ride.  Let's not forget the Swan Ride, a favourite with many children!

Hi Franklin!

The Franklin Children's Garden is a lot of fun to explore, with all of your favourite Franklin characters.  It's an interactive garden for kids and families on Centre Island, inspired by Franklin the Turtle, the celebrated series of books written by Paulette Bourgeois. The garden is divided into six sections where children can enjoy gardening, storytelling, and visits with seven child-accessible sculptures from the Franklin the Turtle series.

A hug for Goose

If you'd like to take a trip down the less-beaten path, then I would highly recommend taking the ferry to Ward Island with your bicycle.  Bring along a picnic for lunch and enjoy it near a splash pad.  One of my family's favourite things to do on the Islands is to bicycle through the streets where Island residents have their homes.  It has such a cottage feel, and there is a great little community park with a play structure.  Here is the website for the Toronto Island community for more details:  http://torontoisland.org/. 

The Rectory Cafe patio

When you're ready to sit down after a long day exploring the Islands, venture over to the Rectory Cafe, possibly my favourite patio in the city of Toronto.  It's like a secret garden oasis, and the staff is super friendly. The food is super yummy too!

This just scratches the surface of the fun waiting for you on the Islands!  Why not visit this weekend and check them out for yourself?



High Park

Colborne Lodge

New York may have Central Park, but we have a serious Canadian contender - High Park.  If you are looking to escape into a little piece of wilderness in Toronto, then this is your destination.  Playgrounds, splash pads, hiking trails, ponds, sculptured gardens, restaurants and snack bars, swimming pool, tennis courts, a nature centre, Colborne Lodge - the list goes on and on.

To get there, take the subway to High Park on the Bloor line and walk south into the park.  There is also free parking in the heart of the park.

The Jamie Bell Adventure Park

A day in High Park isn't complete without a trip through the High Park Zoo.  From the Grenadier Cafe, walk down through the zoo, visiting the many animals en route to the Jamie Bell Adventure Playground.  It is a beautiful park and was actually designed by local children when it was originally built.  My kids' favourite feature is the 'walkie-talkies' that allow to talk across the playground.

If you are a dog-owner, the park has an amazing leash-free zone, which is fun for kids and adults alike.  You can explore the trails and open space with your canine friend.

Climbing a cherry tree in High Park

And did you know that High Park has a Children's Garden?  It is a wonderful adventure to explore the flora and fauna in the park. If you're lucky enough to visit in the spring, High Park's cherry blossoms are famous around the world. 

If you haven't had a chance to explore High Park, I urge you to go soon.  This park is a beautiful place to escape to for a hike, an afternoon or a day.

Art & Play - Learning about our 5 senses

momstown West Toronto hosted a fun-filled Art & Play at the Busy Genie yesterday morning.  Our theme this month is our five senses.

At parachute time, we talked about our senses.  The kids knew that their eyes could see, their ears could hear, mouths can taste, noses can smell and hands can feel. We used our eyes and ears for story time - 'Click, Clack, Moo' - and the children made some great MOO-ing sounds!  Parachute time was fun, with bubbles, songs, parachute ride and the fly-away parachute to end. 

We decided to do a craft based on our sense of touch. We made a collage out of things that had different feelings, and textures.  Sidewalk chalk, feathers, fuzzy yarn, crepe paper and pasta noodles!  Lots of different things to feel, which made very different sounds.  Children love to dribble the glue and then see what sticks to it.

A fun-filled morning.  It was so nice to meet some of our new west-end momstown mamas, and their adorable little ones.  Here are some great snaps from the morning!

Picasso's in the Park - June 17th, 2011

Today we headed to High Park where we had the chance to watch our tots, big and small, paint away and get dirty!


There were sponges, paint brushes and of courses lots of fingers used to create the art work! The overall theme was painting a picture for Daddy for Father's Day!


We had some of our youngest painters out getting "dirty" today too and there were lots of smiles all around!

As always we plan for some free play in the playground where the kids enjoyed the swings, the slides and there was even some racing by the bigger tots!


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Happy Father's Day Daddy

Yesterday we gathered together for a morning where we celebrated Daddy! Our craft of the day was Rock Family paperweights for daddy's desk!
We took some rocks, paint, goggly eyes, hearts and sparkles; painted then glued them into the base of a pot holder! Easy, and Fun!
Daddy will love it!


It was a huge hit, a bit messy but enjoyed by everyone! Here is a quick look at a the combined work of mommy and tot!

After completing our craft time, we joined in a circle and sang some of the kids favorite songs, and read a story about Daddy called, "Daddy, I Love you! as well as a story about Pete the Cat and his White Shoes!

And of course no party is complete without some free time for the kids to run around!

Thank you to all the moms and tots who made it out for all the fun.

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Positive Parenting Solutions Webinar!

momstown.ca is excited to partner with Amy McCready, founder of Positive Parenting Solutions, to offer a FREE live training webinar: Get Kids to Listen Without Nagging, Reminding or Yelling!

We have 2 options for you to attend -

Tuesday June 21st from 9-10pm EST

 or Thursday June 23rd 2-3pm EST

Amy promises that we'll walk away with concrete tools we can use the next day and see results.  I know you'll be especially interested in learning the 5 R's of Fair and Effective Consequences. You can watch, listen and even interact with Amy.  Participants are not required to have a webcam, only a computer with speakers.

Webinar seating will be limited so learn more and 

RSVP now!

momstown is now offering even more events, discounts, and interactive features than ever!

Want to join in on all the momstown fun! Sign up here for your Free trial. 

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Fire Alarms and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

This weekend was definitely an interesting one at my house. My husband and I awoke to the sounds of our upstairs hallway alarm "chirping" at us at 5 am. My husband went to look through the house to make sure that everything was a-ok, then decided it was a dying battery that was setting it off.

Once settled back in, not more then an hour later, we were woken up by our Carbon Monoxide detector in the upstairs hallway, also going off.

That had us up for good, checking the house to make sure that everything was ok. At least my husband was checking, I was with our daughter making sure she was safe - just in case.


We panicked thinking what are the chances that both alarms would go off on the same day.

We decided its important to not take any chances, what with having a toddler in the house and me being 8 months pregnant, so my husband called 911 and reported what happened.


The fire department was here within 2 minutes. I couldn't believe it. As it turns out, it was the firefighters from the same station where momstown Toronto Bloorwest has held our Fire Station tours! It was great to seem them in action.


Here is what we learned:

1. Your child will be the first to show signs of Carbon Monoxide poisoning, which include: nausea, dizziness, and acting out of character.
2. The shelf life of a Carbon Monoxide detector is 5 years, sometimes less.
3. You should vacuum the front of your detector every month.
4. Painting your house can cause a detector to become defective.
5. Checking the batteries in your fire alarm more then once a year is important (we change ours the same time each year, but we will now change the battery 2 x's a year to be safe).
6. You should have a Carbon Monoxide detector on each floor of your house. Say you have a problem in the basement & the alarm goes off, you probably won't hear it on the third floor of your house, and then it could be to late.

As it ends up, we were all safe and there was no cause for alarm, other then the realization that we had to replace the batteries in the fire alarm and get new Carbon Monoxide detectors for the house.


We did this ASAP. It's important to keep you and your family safe.


These tips are something that has now been shared with our message board so all our members can benefit from what we have learned.


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