Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in portland, OR

5 Ways to Keep Cool During a Heatwave in Portland

by Oona Baker

July 28, 2009

Too hot, this town is too hot!
                        --The Specials

With the temperature hitting 105 and beyond the past few days, Portlanders are sweaty, tired and looking for the best ways to stay cool. Those of us lucky enough to have air conditioning are listening to it struggle to keep up with the oven-like conditions outside. The rest of us are seeking out shady/cool spots to take escape the sun. Here are five places to check out (if you haven't already packed up the car and escaped to the beach!)

1) IKEA  Head out to Cascade Station and spend a good portion of the day in air conditioned retail bliss. Start out your morning with a cheap but yummy breakfast. Watch planes come in for a landing while you munch on eggs and potatoes. Pick up a catalog and let your children plan a pretend shopping trip! Afterwards, drop the kids off for playtime while you browse independently. When the kids are down, pick up a roll of paper and some paints and go home to paint a picture of cooler climes!

2) Avalon/Wunderland Keep cool while you challenge your kids to skeeball or Dance Dance Revolution. Your kids will feel like high-rollers when you give them each a bag of nickels and allow them to pick out which classic games they'd like to try. If there's a kid-friendly movie showing, you can see a matinee and buy snacks for under $10. Enjoy lunch afterwards at Laughing Planet or a sweet treat at Saint Cupcake.

3) Regal Cinemas Free Family Film Festival  Each Tuesday and Wednesday, you and your children can catch a family movie for absolutely free at Regal Cinemas. (G/PG titles) Movies start at 10:00am and are first come, first served until theater reaches capacity. Bring the stroller along for some window shopping afterwards or head down to the bottom floor and watch the ice skaters--think cool thoughts!

Lloyd Mall 8
2320 Lloyd Center Mall
Portland, OR 97232
503-335-3760

7-28 and 7-29 Everyone's Hero (G)
                      Surf's Up (PG)
8-4 and 8-5     Igor (PG)
                      Journey to the Center of the Earth (PG)




4) Multnomah County Libraries The neighborhood library is a perfect place to duck in out of the afternoon sun. Kids can enjoy educational games on computers in the children's area or they can redeem summer reading cards for prizes (free ice cream cones at Ben & Jerrys anyone?) Check out some books, audio books or movies on a theme you can take home and expand upon. (A Charlie Brown Christmas in July always helps our family cool down!)

5) Portland Parks & Recreation  Check out all the pools, water parks, and splash pads all within a few minutes drive in the Portland Metro area. Columbia Park has spray features to cool down kiddos and Blue Lake Regional Park (Metro) is a great family destination with picnicking facilities, lake swimming, and cold concessions for sale. Wading pools in Portland will be operating extended hours during the heat wave!

Remember, stay hydrated and stay in the shade! This too, will hopefully pass, soon.










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What's Happening in PDX 7/18-7/19

by Oona Baker

July 16, 2009

The heat might have some of us wishing for Fall, but Portland knows how to stay cool! Check out these very "Portland" family-friendly activities all around town this weekend:

 

Sand in the City   Friday 7/17 & Saturday 7/18: 10:00am-9:00pm, Sunday 7/19: 10:00am-4:00pm

Pioneer Courthouse Square is transformed into a sandy wonderland as Sand in the City takes over for three days. In just six hours, sand teams and architects transform over 450 tons of sand and 4,500 gallons of water into magnificent sand sculptures! Teams compete to create out of this world sculptures that are judged in three categories: Theme/Story/Message, Design/Use of Plot, and Carving/Structural Risk. Judging begins at 4pm. All ages welcome, $3 per person/$10 per family suggested donation. Kid's inspiration center has a variety of info/activities, face painting is additional fee. Event benefits Kids on the Block, an organization that uses puppetry to  educate and empower children.

Yoshida's Sand in the City    Pioneer Courthouse Square, 701 SW 6th St.

Kiddical Mass  Friday 7/17  5:30pm

Family ride plus bike safety tips. Helmets required, wear bright clothes. All ages. 5:30 pm every third Friday. Two locations: Downtown: North Park Blocks by the playground at NW Park and Davis. SE Portland: At the Sunnyside School Park, SE 34th and Yamhill.

Woodstock Festival and Parade  Saturday 7/18 10:00am-5:00pm
Starting at 11 a.m. at the intersection of SE 52nd Avenue and Woodstock Boulevard, the parade will be followed by festivities throughout the day, including live music featured on three separate stages, a beer garden in the parking lot behind Mickey Finn’s, kids’ activities, t-shirts, and several chances to win prizes by visiting participating merchants. Burgerville train rides, climbing wall, vintage Oregon City trolley rides, pony rides, face painting, and free pedi cab rides.

Woodstock Boulevard, between 41st and 52nd Avenue


Portland By Cycle Ride: Family Puppet Show Ride  Saturday 7/18 10:30am-12:30pm
A family-paced ride with a puppet show as a reward.  Bring the kids by trailer or bakfiets, on tag-a-longs, or on their own bikes.  Special thanks to Mudeye Puppet Company. Meet at McKenna Park, N Princeton and Westanna. Helmets are required, water suggested.

Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D @ Dickinson Park Saturday 7/18 dusk
Pack a picnic summer and then enjoy a family-friendly movie. All ages. Entertainment (The Working Stiffs) at 6:30 pm, movie at dusk. Bring a blanket but no alcohol. Free. A Portland Parks and Recreation event.

Dickinson Park SW 55th Ave & Alfred Ct, Portland

 

 

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Konichiwa Japan!

by Oona Baker

June 29, 2009

Having just survived a nine day trip with my daughter, all the travel I'm down for in the next few weeks involves our imagination and the internet! Just a two hour time difference continues to wreck havoc in our household even four days after our return, as my daughter continues to spring awake before six am and I'm still battling the piles of dirty laundry from our suitcases.

 My daughter shares my passion for collecting all things Hello Kitty and lately, we've been talking about making our dream of traveling to Japan come true. I've told my daughter we'll make there before she graduates high school; she's convinced she'll be packing her bags by the end of the month with all the nickels she's saved up (!) I've been planning a virtual trip, want to come along with us?

 --Check out the Little Travelers Japan DVD from your local library. This sweet movie follows the journey of two home-schooled children and their mother as they travel to various countries and immerse themselves in culture and joys of life. Join Chantel and Nakia as they explore daily life, cherry blossoms, and new foods in Japan! My daughter loves this series of films and is anxiously awaiting a new chapter of their travels. Very simple and captivating vignettes will keep even very young children interested.

 --Dream big, plan your trip and destinations online! Print out maps, chart your course, and let your children imagine all the places they will go. Send away for maps or scour thrift stores for old copies of National Geographic to find maps to pin up on the wall and use some yarn to detail your "journey". What animals live where you are going? What do people eat there? Make clothing or instruments that reflect the culture of the country you are investigating.

--Art can help take you there! We are going to make paper cranes, paint cherry blossoms, and create Hello Kitty themed paper dolls. My daughter and I are obsessed with pop culture and have fun collecting miniature sushi and other teeny tiny foods from Re-ment. Your investigations can be as simple as checking out a cd of traditional music from the library and dancing around the livingroom or as complex as recreating Roman architecture out of Model Magic! Have fun with it!

 --Sample foods you and your child may have never tried before. For Japan, we are making a trip to FuBonn for a sampler of Pocky, biscuits, noodles, and mochi. (You can also sneak in some interesting and unusual fruits and vegetables too!)

 --Learn to count to ten, or twenty in a foreign language! Check out  “Count Your Way Through Japan” or “I Live in Tokyo” for inspiration.

--Research the currency of the country you have chosen.
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Movie + Homemade Munchies = Stay at home fun

by Oona Baker

May 25, 2009

Since my husband and I are living the "no-spend" lifestyle right now, a date night for us these days consists of turning on the Xbox and streaming Netflix movies (we made the executive decision that $8.99/month for entertainment was a reasonable cost and well-needed escape/sanity-booster) along with some yummy snacks. It hasn't been that hard to adjust to no movies/dinners out, and actually, watching movies at home, with the lack of teenagers frantically texting on their phones/calling out a continuous summary of the movie's events has been refreshing, not to mention, we can pause the movie to run in the kitchen and make more popcorn!

Here are some of our favorite cool snacks for hot summer nights:

-fruit salad with tangy frozen yogurt from Trader Joe's
-homemade strawberry shortcake made with berries grown in your backyard
-pomegranate vodka coolers
-peach smoothies
-homemade ice cream with grilled fruit (sounds weird, is delicious)
-chips and salsa (char tomatoes, onions, peppers under broiler for extra zip!)
and my new favorite recipe from recipezaar:

Our favorite movies as of late are a mixture of documentaries and odd-ball television series. I'm looking forward to the next season of Project Runway (finally!) and the Top Chef All-Stars competition, but until then, I'll be scoping out more movies about unusual people and their lives. Here are some recent favorites:

-Confessions of a Superhero (wanna-be super heroes and their not so super lives)
-Monster Camp  (role playing games gone way, way wrong)
-American movie (documentary "film-maker" and his journey towards a finished movie)
-Devil and Daniel Johnston (touching movie about a tortured genius)
-Arrested Development (I want to marry Michael Cera)
-Mad Men (ooh-la-la office life + Jon Hamm =fabulous)
-Breaking Bad (the dad from Malcolm in the Middle + Meth Lab=fun times)
-This American Life, Season One (Ira Glass always finds the most interesting people and tells the stories of their lives)


What movies or television series do you like to watch with your significant other?












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