Kent Fun Day: Carousels, Butterflies and Rainbows

Sounds divine, doesn't it?!

Today was our fourth Kent Family Fun Day. Even though we didn't make it to Puddicombe Farms last week, we decided to maintain the schedule and go to the planned destinations for today.

Port Dalhousie

We got away from home around 11-11:30 am. I had neglected to plan for bagged lunches, so we decided to hit a grocery store and get those Snack pack lunches the kids beg for every time we go grocery shopping. By the time we got to St. Catherines however, we decided it would probably be just as cheap/expensive to get lunch for them all at Subway which is where James and I had planned to pick up our own food.
Or probably NOT!

Oh well, lesson learned. It was yummy anyways.

So we took our lunch to Port Dalhousie and ate under a bird nest infested covered patio. Yeah, that was kinda gross, but there weren't any other picnic tables nearby and we found a spot the birds seemed to have boycotted. We'd just gotten the food divied up when I realized we'd forgotten the drinks I'd bought for James and I at the Subway. Fortunately it wasn't far, so James went back for them.

After lunch we headed across the field for the Carousel and bought our tickets which came to a grand total of 60 cents. Love that!



The kids had a ball at this and thoroughly enjoyed it. After a quick romp on the playpark next to the carousel, we got back in the van to head to....

The Butterfly Conservatory

This stop had been in my plan, but not on our poster, so the kids didn't really know about it. They impatiently made the drive asking that classic question "Are we there yet?", about 37 times.
I was a little disappointed at how many people there were; I'd hoped that going on a weekday would make it less busy. Pushing a bulky stroller through the paths didn't help. But the kids didn't really seem to notice; they were pretty amazed at all the butterflies flitting about. At first it was a little creepy really! They might be beautiful, but you know what? They're still BUGS! Jairus was downright scared and I had to talk him through it. After a few minutes he was fine.



We didn't stay terribly long because it was really warm in there (James was pouring sweat) and we did still have one more stop....

Niagara Falls

I prepped the kids on the drive to the falls about what exactly they were seeing with talk about the seven wonders of the world and how amazing it was that we could go see the falls. We were a little shocked at the parking: twice what we had budgeted at 20$, and it meant a bit of a walk which I was annoyed at. I knew that at about 5pm, the kids were getting tired and wouldn't take the walking. I was also annoyed that we had to follow signs saying pedestrians had to follow a certain walkway to get to the railings--which conveniently led right through a large souvenir shop. ( I hate souvenir shops with small kids!). But once we got within view of the falls I forgot all about my petty annoyances. What a great thing to see with your family!



Honour was suitably excited to learn that she had been on the Maid of the Mist when she was 1 year old (on a trip with Auntie Lauren and Auntie Tatum). They begged to go on any form of transportation they could see (boats, buses, trams, ferris wheels, etc) but we were already over budget for the day.

Afton woke up just long enough for us to get pics of her admiring the water and then we hit the road. I was very proud of myself that I didn't try to talk James into stopping somewhere for supper....nope, we got home and I whipped something up as planned.

Another successful Kent Fun Day!