Science Centre Trip #11

Off to the Science Centre we went to beat the heat! Building a house with Daddy

Watching the boys play

Logan never gets tired of this store. Strangely he always buys all the meat and a lot of bread.

Testing out the ball ramp they built

Things ball gravity thingy is always really popular -I remember it from when I was in High School.

Kalia sat eating her cookie and watching it -definitely a lot more aware of her surrounds and very curious.

Giving money to United Way

Having a family picnic is always great fun for Logan. We love that we can bring our own food into the Science Centre -so many places don't let you do that.

Modified Gravity Painting

When looking for some rocks we picked up on our walk, we came across some scraps of drywall from Grandpa in the garage. We laid out some cardboard and set the pieces on some wood. I had envisioned a slight modification to our "tall painting" art project but Logan had different ideas.

He used q-tips to help speed up the process

I gave Logan a sponge brush, a popsicle stick and a bunch of q-tips to work with

Kalia watched Logan's every move

We used finger paints and pink and yellow glitter glue/paint

Man, this looks pretty awesome. Park of me wanted to make it "off limits" and let it just drip down. But art with a preschooler isn't always about the finished product. And it was his art not mine, so I let him explore and do what he wanted.

Logan pushing the paint down

Three paintings on drywall scraps.

He squished this one on a paper to make a print...A popsicle stick on it's side scraped this one

This one is my favorite

Close up of the texture --we used finger paints and sparkle glue.

Two pictures on finger paint paper.

We'll definitely being doing more "gravity painting"! Logan enjoyed it and Kali and I liked watching the process. I think working with different painting tools (q-tips, popsicle stick, sponge brush) and a surface that wasn't paper was interesting for Logan...I'll keep this in mind for our next art project

Splash Pad Review 6: Upper Cornell

We left Tomlinson Park splash pad and went to the Upper Cornell one. This is located beside Little Rouge Public School - at the corner of Bur Oak, and Northvale, just north of 16th Avenue.

Features:
*Cement splash pad floor
*Well-timed floor jets, ball squirty thing on floor and pole with water squirting --aimed at younger kids
*Sand floor on park
*Park aimed at 6-12 but also things for younger kids
*Large covered gazebo between park and splash pad really the only shade

Here's the shade at the gazebo...

But the slash pad is a fair distance down the path from it. So no shade there until the trees get bigger.

We went to this splash pad when Logan was about a year and a half, so I sort of knew what to expect.

At three and a half he still enjoyed this spot -lots of different floor jets and space between them to go around.

After we both got wet and cooled down, we headed to the park. This is one of the reasons why having a sandy playground next to splash pad isn't such a great idea...

The park is designed for 6-12 year olds but there are a few things for younger kids, like baby swings.

"Mommy, why does this cat of wings? Is it sleeping"

I had flashbacks to Toddler Logan sitting in this -man, does time go by fast!

After we played for a bit in the park we went back to splash pad. Even though this splash pad is a fair distance from the playground there is a lot of sand-looks like it's a popular place to wash off your feet and hands! Similar 'slip issue' as the Benjamin Marr splash pad but this splash pad didn't have any steep declines to the drains.

Bringing a bucket to the splash pad (if it's not busy) seems to be a hit with Logan.

Good timing with the different floor squirters.
We both enjoyed running around this one!

There are two splash pads in Cornell -this one and the one at Benjamin Marr Park. This one is definitely the better of the two. However if you can't walk to it and you're driving, you might want to go a few blocks further and go to Swan Lake. Location is definitely a factor, so check out this map where you can plot all the "water play" splash parks on one map -great to see what's close to your house.

Splash Pad Review 5: Tomlinson Park

Late Saturday afternoon, we left sleeping Kalia with Daddy and Logan and I hit the Markham splash pads again! We first went to the one at Tomlinson Park which is on the east side of Boxwood Crescent, West of 9th Line and South of 14th Avenue.

Features:

*Parking lot right beside playground

*Sponge floor on playground
*Cement floor for splash pad
*Seating all along splash pad with some shade
*One large cactus squirty thingy and two floor jets
*Baseball and soccer fields and walking trails

As we were walking into the park, two kids were leaving and gave us their review: "The water is freezing and the slides are really hot". Very accurate and a good summary.

So here is the splash pad. Initially I liked the set up with the circle ring to keep the kids contained and the seating all around. The bushes around it provided shade in some places too.

But this was pretty much the extent of Logan's enjoyment. He placed the bucket in different places, pushed the button until it filled up and then poured the water on my feet. Even when I went on the splash pad it was hard to get him to join me. The water pressure is really high so you get really wet rather than sprinkled or misted on -I guess this makes it feel more cold than the other splash pads. There really wasn't any timing to the jets either -they all turned on and then two floor jets stopped leaving just the middle thing. That's it.

The playground with the sponge floor is right beside the splash pad.

Swings for babies and older kids

Two large playground set-ups with a nice mix for older and younger kids

The marble maze with a hit with Logan

The black floor of the playground structure had that same rubber covering as the Benjamin Marr park so it wasn't hot -the blue plastic slides where though.

Overall, the park was a bigger hit then the splash pad here.