April Fools

We've become a family who likes to celebrate the small things. Any chance to celebrate is a pretty big deal around here. Whether it's St. Paddy's. Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you), or April Fools.

Image Courtesy of Good Housekeeping

We have a few ground rules when it comes to April Fools that mainly centre around the concept that tricks must not be mean spirited. Last year I tricked Molly and Jack by playing a clip of The Ice Cream Truck Song on my cell phone from my pocket sporadically throughout the day, making them believe the Ice Cream Truck was on our street. They ran outside three times searching for the truck before they realized it was me.  One year I froze their breakfast cereal in milk and juice so they were confused at breakfast time, another I bought the classic snakes in a can of chips to shock them when I offered up a snack.  

Molly commented yesterday that my tricks usually involve food. I assured her I'd work on a trick that did not involve food...only that's just a deep fake. 

This year I am going to attempt two tricks that are a combination of things I found online thanks to some research sent to me by my friend C.

The first one starts tonight. I have asked Molly if she wants to paint our nails tonight and she has said yes. When she goes to bed I am going to create a fake nail polish spill (here's a video on how to to this) and placing my "spill" all over the coffee table. I'll ask Molly and Jack if they can put it away the nail supplies in the morning to watch their reactions.

Image Courtesy of Thrifty Fun

This will make her think I have completed my April Fool's prank for the year.

Later in the morning I am going to head out to Tim Hortons and return with a coffee and donuts. I will present the kids with new Tim's Brownie donuts, only It's just going to be an empty Tim's Donut Box (we saved one from a couple of weeks ago) filled with paper, Brown, Es.

Image courtesy of Pinterest

We'll see if they fall for it. Wish me luck, as I'm sure I have a couple of pranks headed my way care of them. What are your favourite April Fools tricks?

Treetop Trekking at Binbrook Conservation Area Hamilton

Now that both kids are double vaxxed and we're triple vaxxed and that spring is on the horizon we've decided to make a deliberate effort to be more social. This weekend we went out with the kids and a friend of theirs to a Treetop Trekking Playground at Binbrook Conservation Area in Hamilton.

While their aerial course doesn't open until April, there was still a lot for us to explore there and the kids and adults all had a blast.

The playground structure connects a bunch of treehouses to each other through a variety of nets, bridges, and tightropes.

There are various picnic areas for kids to take a break for water and snacks when needed, and to set down their coats and gloves when they get overheated from running around.

Since all courses are either completely netted in or low to the ground, the course is safe for preschoolers to big kids to adults. Since you book time blocks for the space there is no overcrowding. The course also operated on a red light green light path system which, as long as people are following the stickers, prevents kids from head on bottlenecks.

The Hamilton and Stouffville locations are open right now, for anyone looking to blow off some steam with their kids this March break, with additional locations in Brampton, Barrie, and beyond opening up beginning in April. Traffic was bad on the day we went, which meant we were over 30 minutes late for our 2 hour time block, that being said we had more than enough time for the kids to fully enjoy the experience without feeling shortchanged. I would recommend aiming to show up 10 to 15 minutes after your time block starts to avoid the lineups at the sign in centre and enjoy as much time as possible on the course, based on what I saw when we left. The cost to participate for Treewalk Village is $22 for kids and $10 for adults.

Both kids are excited to return later this spring with their three year old cousin.