Kidding Around Vancouver Island

Readers of this column know our family loves going to live theatre – pantomimes in particular. Well, all of that has given Grace the acting bug, for which we’ve found an excellent cure. It’s called Red Room Studio in Nanaimo and they offer year-round acting programs for kids 7 – 15. What we love in [...]

On our way back from Fanny Bay recently, we stopped in at Qualicum Beach to try the food at a new place called Rawthentic. Our daughters have some “food issues,” as people say these days, and we thought it would be good to try some dishes that didn’t use things like wheat or milk. The [...]

Need a relaxing spa getaway for an afternoon, where kids have plenty to do, but still taking it easy on your pocket book?  Look no further than the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre.  Ok, maybe “spa-like” would be a better term or “sort of spa-ish” – the point is, a few hours swimming with the kids can [...]

Looking back over all the years, wouldn’t it be nice to keep those memories alive in a scrapbook? Yes, I said slowly, wondering what prompted a seven year old to ask that, why don’t I look into it. And so it was that we met Jennifer at Scrapbookin’ Adventures in Parksville. She started Grace and [...]

Well, the snow may be fading away (at least til April), but it’s still the rainy season, and for our family that means one thing: indoor gardening. I’m referring of course to raising couch potatoes. With frequent channel-changing and plenty of snacking, you’ll soon have prize-winning potatoes all over your couch. Or… You can get [...]

I can’t count the number of times we’ve driven along Departure Bay Road in back of Brooks Landing heading to the ferry in Nanaimo. Did we ever notice that there was a park at that corner? Not that it’s easy to spot. The day we visited Beach Estates Park, we encountered two different couples on [...]

Hockey fans in the Central Island area are being treated to some world-class hockey right now, with the 2009 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge taking place at arenas in Port Alberni, Nanaimo, Campbell River, Courtenay, Cowichan, and Oceanside. View the entire schedule and get up to date scores here at the official website.

Having taken a break for Christmas, it’s time to continue our central island pantomime crawl: There’s Mother Goose at the Bailey Theatre in Nanaimo, from December 26 to January 3, with matinees most days. Then it’s on to Chemainus for Rumpelstiltskin at the Chemainus Theatre Festival. It runs now until January 3rd, with special Family [...]

After taking pottery classes as a family, our girls have become pottery fiends and recently at a gift shop they fell in love with some very fun pieces. The shop owner told us they were by a well known artist named Heather Goldminc and it turns out we pass by her studio every day and [...]

Our kids recently had a chance to try their hand at tying flies during the book launch for our friend Rick Passek’s book, The Freshman Flyfisher. They loved it, and they also liked the fact that Rick’s 13 year old son Ryan was the one teaching them the intricate winding and turning. Rick says a [...]