Kidding Around Vancouver Island

Downtown Nanaimo will be transformed into the Island’s largest backyard barbeque on July 14th and 15th , thanks to the people behind the Nanaimo Barbeque Festival. Teams from around North America will descend on the city’s downtown core to compete in a Kansas City BBQ Society sanctioned event. Local residents will get a chance to [...]

This from a magazine article I wrote late last year for a column I did called Class Acts. BLYS Yoga is now part of our lives. Our 10 year old takes the pre-teen/teen yoga classes and LOVES it. 2nd time for it and ask when it starts. We have other young friends going with her [...]

Ella Rose learns the marimba from Fahlon We love the Craig Street Market in Parksville. So many great things to see, buy and eat! Also hear. We fell in love with the local youth group Kumbana Marimba, led by sisters Fahlon and Jasmine Smith from Errington. They play traditional African music along with some South [...]

We have a yearly excursion to Mount Washington to do a bit of snow tubing. It is a whole lot of winter fun – and a great family outing. We skip out of school and work for the day and head to the hill. We wear our warmest snow gear and eye up our favourite [...]

One of the awesome tree tapping experts at the Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan 5th Annual West Coast Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival It’s that time of year again – a whole day devoted to Maple Syrup.  Taste maple syrup from Vancouver Island at the Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival at The BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan. [...]

FREE Events with the VI Symphony Saturday, February 18, Port Theatre Musical Instrument Zoo (11 a.m. -12 noon) NoteworthyKids Music Club Family Event (11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.) Open Rehearsal (12:30-1:30 p.m.) Reserve your Complimentary Ticket: 250-754-8550 Info: www.vancouverislandsymphony.com

Our kids are Island kids through and through – always at the beach, going to farmer’s markets, exploring the parks, and travelling the back roads.  So when we told them we were going to visit another island, they were pretty ho-hum about it all.  But as we left the ferry and started driving around Salt [...]

Sometimes the kids just need to get away from it all.  You know, from the daily grind of eating, playing, more eating, more playing, but mostly they need a break from their parents.  So sitting around a room with your parents, or going swimming with your parents, no matter how nice the resort,  just doesn’t [...]

The kids have at least half a dozen hula hoops hanging in the carport, but none of us has been able get the hula part of it.  The only use the hoops get is a rare game of daddy toss – 10 points if you get it over his head and 5 points if it [...]

We signed up Ella for swimming lessons, but it turned out the lessons were really for us.  You see Ella thinks swimming is a contact sport – she has to be clinging to me in order to get into the water.  Her teacher  was very patient the first day.  No you can’t put a strangle [...]