Posts from — January 2012

It’s a surprisingly busy weekend! Of course, we’ve got too much going on our own to take advantage of most of it. M has ice skating lessons on Saturday morning followed by a soccer double header, and then on Sunday afternoon we’re heading out for our annual Jiminy Peak trip. So think snow!

Hey, have you signed up for the KidsOutAndAbout.com newsletter yet? If not, here’s the link to this week’s edition.

And of course, if you have additions or corrections, feel free to comment or email me about future fun at capitaldistrictfun [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Evening of Friday, January 20th:

• It’s Art Night Schenectady from 5-9 pm.
• From 5:30-7 pm, there’s a Family Scavenger Hunt with Radio Disney at Colonie Center.
• Go on an Owl Prowl from 6:30-8 pm at Albany Pine Bush. $3/person.
• There’s Phantoms vs. Albany hockey at Glens Falls Civic Center at 7 pm.
• The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company is performing at The Egg at 8 pm. Tickets are $24.
• Debuts Theater Company is presenting Seussical the Musical at 8 pm today and through the weekend. Tickets are $10.

Saturday, January 21st:

• Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region take their 2012 Radiothon to Crossgates Mall with family-friendly activities throughout the day.
• A five-week session of My Parent & Me, a science program for preschoolers, begins at the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology today at 9:30 am. The website isn’t updated, but it was $75/non-member the last time.
• Students aged 9-17 can audition to join the Capital District Youth Chorale from 9:30 am until noon. You must call to schedule an audition, and it’s a $10 audition fee per family.
• At 10 am, learn about Chinese Calligraphy and Zodiac Signs at the World Awareness Children’s Museum. For ages 5 to 12, cost is $5 museum admission plus $5 program fee, and pre-registration is required.
• From 10 am until noon there’s a Preschool Fair at Saratoga Springs Public Library.
• Celebrate National Squirrel Appreciation Day from 10:30 am til noon at Albany Pine Bush. $3/person, $5/family, register online.
• From 10:30 am until noon, there’s a Saturday Morning Workshop on Landscape Painting at The Hyde Collection. It’s for ages 6-14, and it’s free.
• At 11 am, it’s a Winter Nature Walk at Wilton Wildlife Preserve.
• From 11 am until 1 pm it’s a Winter Hike at Mine Kill State Park.
• From 11 am until 4 pm it’s the Annual Winter Festival at Grafton Lakes State Park.
• There are 11 am & 1 pm Planetarium Shows at the Henry Hudson Planetarium at the Albany Visitors Center.
• They’re planning a Snowshoe Hike at Up Yonda Farm from 1-2 pm. $7/person includes snowshoe rental, or $4 if you have your own.
• Learn about Winter Sleeperzzz from 1-2:30 pm at Albany Pine Bush. $3/person, $5/family, register online.
• They’re planning a Snowshoe Hike at Up Yonda Farm from 1-2 pm. $7/person includes snowshoe rental, or $4 if you have your own.
• Celebrate Chinese New Year at the World Awareness Children’s Museum. The $5 museum admission includes the program.
• There’s a Chinese New Year Celebration at 2:30 pm at The Egg. Tickets are $20 and up.
• At 3 pm, the Empire State Youth Orchestra is performing at Niskayuna High School. It’s $10/adult, $6/student, and tickets are available at the door.
• There’s a Phantoms hockey game at 7 pm at the Glens Falls Civic Center. Tickets are $13 and up.

Sunday, January 22nd:

• Take a 10am Snowshoe Walk at Thacher Nature Center.
• Celebrate Salsa Sunday from 2-5 pm at the National Museum of Dance.
•  At 3 pm, the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra has a concert at Proctors. $12/adult, $8/student, Kids 7 and under are free.

Looking ahead:

• At the Glens Falls Civic Center, it’s Sesame Street Live presents 1-2-3 Imagine! with Elmo and Friends on the 24th and 25th. Tickets cost $14 to $52 and are required for ages 1 and up.
• Shrek the Musical is at Proctors in Schenectady from January 24th to the 29th. Tickets are $20 and up.
• At 7 pm on Monday, there’s a Three Stooges Film Festival at the Palace Theatre in Albany.

Back when Daniel B. posted on All Over Albany about Tacos at La Mexicana Grocery & Restaurant, Cute W and I sent each other the link with messages laden with multiple explanation points about how we must try it soon. But of course, the holidays were busy. Over the weekend, Cute W planned a menu out of one of his Rick Bayless cookbooks, so it was the perfect opportunity to shop and get some takeout at the same time.

Mmmm, it was a hit with the family. If you want the nuanced, well-considered, foodie review, check Daniel’s. I’ll give you J’s review. Regarding the chicken taco, she said, “I think that I have found something new which I adore.”

And the tacos are $2. So that’s awesome. Cheaper than Chipotle, for sure.

Of course, Cute W’s dish was delightful as well: tostadas with a black bean concoction, shredded chicken, romaine lettuce with a bit of dressing, Mexican cheese, roasted tomatillo salsa, and tomatoes. Just typing it is making me a little bit sad that the leftovers are gone.

Cute W is not the only cook in the family. J invented a new dessert recipe. Simply unscrew an Oreo, add a dollop of cranberry sauce, replace the tip, and voila! Very sophisticated if you are 7 years old. And Cute W thought it was tasty, too.

Update: okay, okay. Have I mentioned that I’m not too tech-savvy? My first plug-in, which would have kept you in the dark at Capital District Fun all day, didn’t work, so you just got a teensy blackout. And here’s more info. if you’d like it:

If you spend slightly less time on the internet than I do, or if you’ve been taking care of toddlers or sick children, you might not realize that there are going to be quite a few blacked-out sites tomorrow. Capital District Fun will be one of them. I wanted to give you a little warning in case you want to look something up and write it down with an old-fashioned pencil.

I am blacking out because I like to link & comment with wild abandon, and I like to link to people & places where people are talking about all sorts of things. Sometimes these are vitally important and politically relevant. Sometimes they’re tasteless, not-suitable-for-the-kids spoofs of pop culture. I want access to all of them without fear that my site, or the sites that I love, will be shut down.

Here’s more information, in case you’re looking for it.

FightFortheFuture.org video (this has a quick form to send to Congress) and information on the SOPA Strike.

TechDirt’s got what it calls The Definitive Post On Why SOPA And Protect IP Are Bad, Bad Ideas.

If you don’t feel like reading, and you’d rather listen to a guy ranting in a British accent while you, I don’t know, fold laundry or wash dishes, here’s your link.

Here’s a commentary from Time’s Techland Blog.

Here’s a legal memo by a smart guy from Harvard.

The Bloggess takes on SOPA in video form and makes us fall in love with her all over again.

Here’s a quick list of vacation camps. It’s not an exhaustive list, so do please share additions in the comments or email me at capitaldistrictfun [at] yahoo [dot] com and I’ll update it as I receive more information, too. Some places generally do camps (Tumbling Tykes and World Class Gymnastics come to mind), but they don’t update their websites. And there will be tons and tons of places that will have fun things to do that you won’t necessarily require far-in-advance reservations or large wads of cash. But if you’re up for a money/time investment and you want to plan ahead, these will get you started.

Afrim’s in Latham has Action Camps as well as a Junior Golf Camp for ages 8 to 12

Albany Institute of History & Art has a three-day Vacation Art Break 

The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy has Art Around the World

The Children’s Museum of Science & Technology has a February Break Science Camp

There’s a Kidzartand a Kidzart -Drama Kids camp

Maple Ski Ridge: skiing and snowboarding lessons all week long

Proctors Winter Adventures

Tiny Tots Tearoom has a Prince/Princess Camp–all week or drop in for the day

I hope everyone had an excellent 3-day weekend. We embraced winter with ice skating on Saturday and today,  and our first downhill skiing of the season yesterday at Maple Ski Ridge! We had a super-excellent deal because we took advantage of that Groupon with 7-hour lift tickets for $15 each (and if you missed that Groupon, maybe you should “like” Capital District Fun on Facebook, because whenever I see a  Groupon, Living Social or great deal for fun in the area, I post it so it shows up in your newsfeed).

Skiing was fun but cold, cold, cold. Honestly, we weren’t paying attention to the weather forecast. I usually don’t, because I don’t trust the forecasters, anyway. So I only hear about upcoming weather if it’s newsworthy enough that everyone’s talking about it. We started skiing on Sunday morning and we kept saying, “Dang! It’s cold! Is it super-cold, or are we just wimpy because it’s our first time out this year?” Everyone had a great time, but by the end of the day we were freezing. During our car ride home, I was singing about how our toes were ice cubes, and Cute W was moaning in pain as his feet thawed. So we were quite pleased to find that it was actually extra-cold, and it wasn’t just that we were wimps.

Oh, I also accidentally abandoned J, getting onto the chair lift and leaving her in the (snow) dust. She rode up all by herself like a champ, but my nickname was Katie-Quick-to-Leave-Her-Daughter-Behind. M was alternately called either “Mad Dog” or “Princess Snowy Pants” and J was “The Jet.”

Here’s what’s going on this week.

All Week:

• From the 17th to the 22nd it’s Take Your Daughter to Gore Week, with free tickets for girls with a paying adult.
• The Blue Roses Theatre at Schenectady High School is presenting Shakespeare in Hollywood from the 18th through the 21st.
• Kids up to 35 months and their caregivers can do Tiny Tots and kids ages 3 to 6 can do On My Own several different times throughout the week at Bethlehem Public Library.

Tuesday, January 17th:

• Albany Pine Bush has Pine Bush Pups: Hoot Like an Owl at 10:30 am. It’s free, and you can register online.

Wednesday, January 18th:

• A five-week session of My Parent & Me, a science program for preschoolers, begins at the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology today at 9:30 am. There’s also a Saturday morning session. The website isn’t updated, but it was $75/non-member the last time.
• At 10:30 am, it’s Alphabet Soup: R at the Children’s Museum at Saratoga. Free with museum admission, for ages 3 and up.
• Albany Pine Bush has Pine Bush Pups: Hoot Like an Owl at 10:30 am. It’s free, and you can register online.
• At 11 am it’s Baby Bookworms for babies from birth to 18 months at the East Greenbush Public Library. Pre-register.
• Capital Region Midwifery will host an open house from 6 to 9 pm at its new location at 2109 15th St. in Troy. The midwives will offer tours of the new facility and light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to the office at 326-1620.

Thursday, January 19th:

• From 10 am until 1 pm it’s a Moreau Lake and Mud Pond Snowshoe at Moreau Lake.
• At 10:30 am, it’s Silly Science: The Earth at the Children’s Museum at Saratoga. Free with museum admission, for ages 3 and up.
• From 3:30 to 4:30 pm, it’s a Rosey the Reading Dog Open House at the Troy Public Library.
• Go on an Owl Prowl from 6:30-8 pm at Albany Pine Bush. $3/person.

Friday, January 20th:

• At 9:30 am it’s Preschool Story Hour with Pam at the Open Door Bookstore.
• There are Preschool Movies at 10:15 am at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library. This is a drop-in program.
• From 11-11:45 am, have a Preschool Picnic at Bethlehem Public Library.
• It’s Art Night Schenectady from 5-9 pm.
• From 5:30-7 pm, there’s a Family Scavenger Hunt with Radio Disney at Colonie Center.
• Go on an Owl Prowl from 6:30-8 pm at Albany Pine Bush. $3/person.
• There’s Phantoms vs. Albany hockey at Glens Falls Civic Center at 7 pm.
• The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company is performing at The Egg at 8 pm. Tickets are $24.
• Debuts Theater Company is presenting Seussical the Musical at 8 pm today and through the weekend. Tickets are $10.

A surprise hit among the Christmas gifts was this Thames & Kosmos Electronics Workshop:

Cute W picked this out for M, and they’ve had fun doing the experiments together. Today was M’s favorite one yet: they made an electrical circuit that was only complete when they put the two ends of a wire in a cup full of water.

This has been a father-daughter venture, so I didn’t know much about it. I decided to interview M:

Me: “So, are the experiments easy or hard to do?”

M: “They’re pretty easy if you’re someone who know what they’re doing. Like me.”

Me: “Did I hear you guys reading a story or something?”

M: “Yes. It’s got a story about Robert the Robot who’s going into space. It teaches lots of technical science stuff, which sounds really boring, but it’s actually cool. Really cool.”

Score one for STEM promotion at our house!

Now the girls are settled in their pajamas and reading, but they’re going to be allowed to say up late to watch the Broncos with Daddy. Soon it’ll be time for some Buffalo Chicken Dip. Life is good.

First, one quick note: Deb from KidsOutAndAbout.com is going to be on Tuesday’s noon news on Channel 13, WNYT, and one of the things she’s planning on talking about is favorite sledding hills. She made a survey, and we’d love help with filling it out.

Even though I have the whole day to do it, I often don’t get to writing blog posts until the evening. After dinner, Cute W reads to both the girls together a while, and if the kitchen’s clean already, I start the post.

Tonight, I had no ideas. In fact, I was pondering doing the February break camps post, but it’s tedious, and I’m feeling lazy. (Hey, how many of you actually enroll your kids in multi-day camps? Just curious. . . .)

As I walked around the house, I kept chuckling over one thing or another, so I figured that I’d share the evening inventory. I try to maintain some order in our common living and dining areas, because it makes the time after they’re in bed feel more gloriously serene.  I thought we were on track tonight, but while they were brushing their teeth, I took a look around:

It’s rare that I don’t find discarded dirty socks by the couch. They have to tidy up before watching tv, but they always miss them and so do I. Parenting tip: it’s not worth threatening to throw away socks. The only one who actually cares about a sufficient supply of decent socks in the house is mom, anyway.

Also, what the hell? J likes her stylish new jeans jacket, and these hand-me-down shoes have high heels. She was wearing both at some point today, and she clearly decided that they were so fabulous that they should remain display in the middle of the living room with the help of M’s cello stand.

It’s wonderful that my children sneak carrots, but then I find discarded bags, often still containing overpriced produce  hither, thither, and yon. Why are they so good at taking items out of the fridge and so bad at putting items back in?

Of course, it’s tough to get annoyed when M cleaned the closet, unprompted, again. That girl rocks.

Isis the furry daughter has placed herself in the exact middle of the loveseat again. She’s not good at sharing. And earlier today she knocked my water glass all over my papers while I was typing (she likes to get between me and the monitor).

Meanwhile, upstairs it’s worse. The little room that we call “the schoolroom” apparently exploded when I wasn’t looking. This will be a weekend project. In the center of the floor is the silver tape dispenser that is never, not-ever, supposed to be removed from my desk. There’s blue tape on the floor because if we ever get our act together this will be a master bathroom instead of a giant paper-and-office-supply magnet.

And finally, look at cute little J! Her Christmas present leotard was too small, so at today’s class we got a replacement. She likes it so much she’s wearing it as pjs, too.

Good night and have a great weekend!

Hooray for snow! We made our first batch of snow ice cream today. The recipe, sledding hills, and more are on my Embrace Winter page.

It’s a three-day weekend, plus there are some great winter programs that could take a bit more planning, so I’ve gone beyond Sunday a bit for today’s post. There are also more events over at KidsOutAndAbout.com. So if you aren’t subscribed already, check out the KOA Capital District Family Newsletter for this week. And of course, I love additions in the comments.

Whoops, one more quick note, a reader from Voorheesville School District asked me to pass along a link to a survey re: full-day kindergarten in the district. It’s only available through Friday the 13th (yes, I was behind on my email), so if you’re in the district and care, go fill it out now before you forget.

All Weekend:

• It’s a live-action performance of Intergalactic Nemesis, a graphic novel, at Proctors. Tickets are $15 to $55.
• Steamer 10 Theatre is performing Hansel & Gretel all weekend.
• Just got this off of Twitter: Open House at the Albany Curling Club 1/14 10am-4pm and 1/15 12p-4pm- try out the sport all the cool kids are playing!

Evening of Friday, January 13th:

• I just didn’t find a darn thing. Sad, really. Suggestions?

Saturday, January 14th:

• Learn about Winter Birdlife at Five Rivers at 10 am. Binoculars helpful but not necessary.
• Take an Eagle Survey at Moreau Lake State Parkfrom 10 am until noon. Bring binoculars.
• At 1 pm it’s What Goes Up: a Lesson in Floating and Sinking at  the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology. $2/non-member, and pre-registration is required.
• They’re planning a Snowshoe Hike at Up Yonda Farm from 1-2 pm. $7/person includes snowshoe rental, or $4 if you have your own.

Sunday, January 15th:

• At 10 am, take a Snowshoe Walk at Thacher Nature Center. Snowshoes can be rented for $5, but call to reserve ahead of time.
• From 1-2 pm, go on a Snowshoe Adventure at Albany Pine Bush. Pre-registration is required, and you can do it online. $3/person, $5/family.
• It’s a Beat the Snow! Winter Concert Series concert at 2:30 pm at the Schenectady Public Library. It’s a guitar and voice Cabaret Concert.
• At 3:30pm, it’s Owls & an Owl Prowl at Thacher Nature Center. View owl mounts of several species, learn lots of cool facts about owls, listen to & learn various owl calls, dissect an owl pellet, and then go out on snowshoes to call & listen for owls. Dress in warm, QUIET layers for cold outdoor portion. Appropriate for ages 7 and up. This program is part of our Jr. Birder Series and is open to all. Materials fee of $3 includes use of snow shoes. Come 1/2 hour early to participate in Project FeederWatch. Call 872-0800 to register, space is limited.
• At 7 pm, there’s a premiere of the documentary Dark Girls, about dark-skinned women at Albany’s Palace Theatre. After the movie there’s a q & a session as well.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 16th:

• The official New York State observance of MLK Day is 10-11:30 am at Empire State Plaza.
• Kids ages 6 and up can do some Candy Science at 1 pm at the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology. Pre-register; it’s $2 for non-members.
• Breathing Room has a Family Nia class from 1-1:45 pm. It’s $20 for 2 family members, each additional member is $5.
• At 2:30 pm they’re showing Cars 2 at Bethlehem Public Library.

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

• My Parent & Me, a science program for preschoolers, begins at the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology.
• From the 17th to the 22nd it’s Take Your Daughter to Gore Week, with free tickets for girls with a paying adult.
• Just a reminder that Albany Pine Bush has its Pine Bush Pups program through January. You can register online, but it fills up, so plan ahead!

Oh, please don’t tell me that you’re so young that you don’t remember Stuart Smalley from back before Al was the US Senator from Minnesota. Seriously. I don’t need to hear that.

I said recently that I wasn’t coming up with any resolutions, but I’ve actually got one. I’ve decided that I’m going to try to have only positive thoughts about myself. For example, instead of thinking “I’m a dork,” I’ll try to think “I’m full of awesome” instead.

This has turned out to be more challenging than I anticipated. For a girl with kick-ass SAT scores and an advanced degree from an Ivy League school, you wouldn’t expect that I’d think, “Wow, I’m unbelievably stupid” too often. Alas, you’d be wrong. I’ve realized how critically I view myself. Like, all the time.  Once I became aware of this alarming tendency, I decided that this bullshit simply. must. stop.

And shortly after making this resolution, I did something like, oh, I don’t know. . . drive my car directly into my garage door.

No, I’m not kidding. I wish.

We’d put one of those cargo carriers on the roof of our car for our holiday trip, and we hadn’t taken it off the car. I generally forgot that it was even there, but my driveway’s so long that by the time I’d traveled from street to garage, the garage door was fully open and I was in the clear. Except last week, when I planned to park in the driveway. Except it was snowing. So to avoid clearing snow later, I changed my mind, hit the garage door opener, and drove right in. Until there was a loud and alarming crunch.

Okay, so it doesn’t look so bad. But the door was broken enough and sort of bowed in just enough that it couldn’t go entirely up or entirely down. With the cargo carrier on top, the car couldn’t even fit into the garage. Luckily only the door itself was damaged: the car was fine.

Anyway, Cute W was out of town when this happened, and I switched to parking on his side of the driveway. Then, the night he was due home, I thought, “Gosh, he’ll be home so late, and he’ll be tired, I don’t want to disorient him by parking in his usual space.” I’d forgotten entirely why I’d parked on his side to begin with. So the next time I came home, I pressed the garage door opener, waited an extra-long time to ensure that the door was finished going up, and I drove into the garage door again. (If you’re confused here, see the phrase in italics in the previous paragraph.)

I couldn’t write about this while it was still fresh, but it’s resolved now. The door was semi-functional, but semi-functional just doesn’t cut it where Cute W is concerned, so he’s replaced it. The job took him all weekend, and although I tried to help, it was a bit like when your 3-year-old tries to help unload the dishwasher.

Actually, I was tempted to take a picture of Cute W, because he was wearing these grease-stained jeans with a super-masculine tool belt over it and a bunch of tools hanging off of that except that one pocket held a pencil with pictures of fluffy puppies and pink roses on it. It was hilarious. But at the time he was cursing and muttering, and I was overcome with remorse. And feeling like an idiot dumbhead a$$h63 intelligent person who had made an two unfortunate errors.

So again, it’s more challenging than I anticipated. But that’s what makes me feel that it’s a worthy endeavor. If you generally don’t do resolutions, or if you just haven’t settled on one yet, what about this one? Try listening to yourself and your internal monologue. And if it’s mean, unhelpful, or depressing, just shut it off. Replace it with something a little more joy-affirming instead. And if you’re having a bad day when you’re feeling like you’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer, just think: “Hey, at least I didn’t just drive my car into my garage door twice.”

I’m not up for much today. I’ve had a series of technical difficulties, I still have a splitting headache, and in moments I plan to have a big slab of brie that’s softening on the coffee table. So, let’s throw this together quickly, shall we?

If you’re thinking about joining a CSA, here’s a post I wrote with links to help you find a CSA. Really popular ones fill up fast, but many will be available through March. The optimistic tone in that old post made me laugh. This year, I’m taking a break from the CSA and I’m just going to spend more freely at the farmer’s market.  With everything else going on, it was a bit too much for me last season.

January’s also Nursery School Shopping Season. In fact, if anyone has open houses or general nursery school plugs to share in the comments, please do!