KidsOutAndAbout.com newsletter

Sent March 14, 2008

Click here to sign up for the newsletter if you are not yet subscribed.

Dear KOA readers:

2) Terrific Amerks Giveaway! April 5th is KidsOutAndAbout.com Night at the Amerks 7:05pm game. Tom Winslow over at the Amerks is offering this special promotion: The first person who calls Tom to order discounted tickets for the April 5 Amerks game will receive two FREE tickets -- you must say you're calling to take advantage of the special KidsOutAndAbout.com discount for the April 5 game. Even if you don't win by being the very first caller, you can get the tickets at a great price: 200 Premium, $12.00 (Reg. Price $21.00), or 100 End, $10.00 (Reg. Price $17.00). Call Tom at (585) 454-5335. It's ok to call "before hours," too -- just leave a voice mail message and the first person to do so will win the extra tickets. Thanks, Tom!

3) Gardenscape 2008 is this weekend at the Dome in Henrietta, Thursday through Sunday. I took my kids yesterday; they had their customary good time looking at the beautiful flower displays and I took my customary series of photos of them surrounded by beautiful flowers.

I also had my customary wistfulness regarding the length of a Rochester winter. Is it getting to you the way it's getting to me? I know it hasn't been a particularly severe winter, but boy, it seems long. The snowpile/sled run at the end of our driveway is as big and slick as ever, but even my snowman builders say they're looking forward to spring.

Speaking of Gardenscape, though, I should let you know they're doing something a bit different with the Children's Garden this year. It's in the same place as usual, the back left-hand corner of Minnett Hall. In past years, there has been an actual garden display for the kids to see, but not this year; it's mostly crafts. On the other hand, the crafts were very nice (decorate a flower pot and they'll put a baby marigold plant into it), and they had good supplies. (We met a KOA reader and her lovely 4-year-old daughter, too. Hi, Karen!) The Gardenscape web site says that kids can also make a "balloon terrarium." I had no idea what a balloon terrarium is, and I still don't, because they didn't have that out yet. So if anyone goes and wants to let me know what a balloon terrarium is, I'm all ears.

Oh, and as they are doing construction there, I found that the best entrance to Gardenscape is from East Henrietta Road, not Calkins. Parking is around the back this year.

4) Last year, reader Kim Schaff wrote a terrific article for us here at KOA on How to Host an Easter Egg Hunt. I followed her advice, and let me tell you, there is no party that provides a greater bang for the buck with a minimum of work than an Easter Egg Hunt. It may be more advisable this year to have a Post-Easter-Egg Hunt if you want to have it outside...but what's wrong with that? Not a thing! So I will leave this article up later than Easter. (Besides, that's when you'll want to stock up on the plastic eggs on sale.) The link is at: http://rochester.kidsoutandabout.com/main-articles/EasterEggHunt.html. Thanks, Kim!

5) Congratulations to Diane from Rochester, who won the Avon gift basket from Avon Representative Wendy Vitello. Wendy's web site is www.youravon.com/wvitello. Thanks, Wendy!

Congratulations to Kathleen from Rochester, who won the drawing for the Rochester-area hiking/biking books Take a Hike! and Take Your Bike! from Footprint Press.

6) The KOA giveaways up on the web right now at http://rochester.kidsoutandabout.com/city-articles/giveaways.html are for:

Director’s Row tickets for a family of four to the Thursday, March 27 performance of Peter Pan at the Athena Performing Art Center - drawing Monday March 17

"My Acrylix" stamp set for stampers and scrapbookers worth $22.95, from Leslie Tomanovich, a professional papercrafter and Close To My Heart Independent Consultant - drawing Monday, March 17

A family four-pack of tickets to the BCC's annual Gala, which will be held at the RIT Inn & Conference Center on April 5 at 6:30pm. - drawing Monday, March 24

7) Some advance information for our Organization of the Week, The American Lung Association of New York State. They will be holding a Dance-A-Thon on April 12, and a "Blow the Whistle on Asthma and Lung Disease Walk" on May 3. This is the time to sign up for either event; see more details at http://rochester.kidsoutandabout.com/organization-display.php?Org=1158 There will be a Kick Off Reception for this campaign this coming Wednesday, March 19th 2008, at Hawthorne's Restaurant at 3500 East Avenue in Rochester from 6:00-7:30 pm. Come enjoy something to eat with your friends and family and hear all about the "Blow the Whistle on Asthma and Lung Disease" Walk, Presented by PAETEC. There is no charge to attend, but reservations are required. Please RSVP to Jaime Anderson by March 14th at (585)442-4260 ext.101 or janderson@alanys.org.

8) The local cooking schools will be having some fun Easter classes:

Kids can cook up some tasty Easter treats and then have an Egg Hunt at Tops Cooking School. The class for ages 8 and up is Friday evening, March 21, from 6pm to 8pm, and the class for ages 4-7 is Saturday morning from 10am-12pm. Tops' holiday-themed classes fill up in advance (trust me) so don't wait until the last minute. Register by calling 585-663-5449.

And Wegmans in Pittsford is having a cooking class on Friday, March 21st as well, a parent-child class called Get Creative with Peeps. What fun! (I am famous around the Ross house for preferring stale peeps; I always puncture holes in the packaging and leave them for a week or so to get good and hard.) There are two classes, from 10am - 11:30am or 1pm - 2:30pm; register by calling 585-249-0278.

9) The March 8 performance of "Bunnicula: A Children's Mystery Musical" at the Penfield Community Center was canceled due to the weather; tickets will be honored at either the March 14 or March 15 show. Tickets for the shows (6:45 pm) are still available; they are $5.00/family for tonight's performance; $5.00/person at 3/15 performance includes ice cream with cast after the show. Call 585-340-8651.

Penfield Recreation also has a Spring Celebration today at the Penfield Community Center on Baird Road. Children ages 2 - 5 can come from 4:45 - 6:00 PM to visit Bunny Land. Take a walk through "Bunny Land" and meet the Spring Bunny. It is free, and there will be plenty of goodies for all!

10) The spring events are heating up! (Don't I wish that was literally true.) There isn't even a dominant theme for this weekend: It's St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Elmo, and flowers all rolled up into a weekend that has me desperately trying to schedule in all I can. Here are some highlights:

Today through Sunday is Sesame Street Live at the Auditorium Theatre. This year's theme is Elmo Makes Music. Are there still tickets available? Of course there are still tickets available. The cost is $11.50 - $26.50. Here is a Ticketmaster link for tickets: http://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/1031517.

Friday:

There's Irish Dancing at the Pittsford Community Library at 1:30 today and St. Patrick's Day Storytime tonight at 7pm at Barnes & Noble Webster.

And there will be an Egg Hunt tonight at the Webster Aquatic Center. In the pool? Floating eggs? Yes, and weighted eggs, too. An altogether different kind of Easter Egg Hunt. One only hopes the candy melts in the mouth, not in the pool.

Saturday:

The St. Patrick's Day Parade is Saturday. The Parade starts at 12:30 in downtown Rochester starting on East Avenue, going to Main Street and ending at Plymouth Avenue. And if it's too cold or yucky out to stand there for the whole parade, do what we have always done: Duck in to the Clarion Riverside Hotel for the Celtic Family Fair from 11am-4pm. It's free, it's warm, and it features all kinds of great events for the kids, like face painting and stories and dancing and bounce-house kind of structures. Oddly, I can't find mention of the Fair on the RochesterParade.com web site this year, but I talked with the organizers at the Clarion who assured me it was still on and going stronger than ever.

This weekend's theme at Strong Museum is Adventure and Survival. See the KOA calendar for details.

There are also various Easter Bunny Breakfasts and Pancake Breakfasts, please see the KOA calendar for more information, because there are a bunch of them.

JP Dance Academy will be having a special Easter Basket Drive/ Dance Camp on Saturday...the only cost of admission is a filled Easter basket which will be donated to those in need. The camp will be from 3pm-5:30pm. Please pre-register; see the KOA calendar for more information.

Sunday:

Speaking of Pancake Breakfasts, this is the first weekend of the Genesee Country Village's annual Sap, Syrup, and Sugar weekends. It starts this Sunday, March 16 and will also be open Saturday, March 22 and Sat/Sun March 29/30. They've taken their popular maple sugaring program (minus the Sugaring-Off party our family used to enjoy, unfortunately) and expanded it to all of the corners of the museum. In addition, you can enjoy a pancake breakfast at the Meeting Center from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. each day (additional fee required).

The Maple Sugaring events down at the RMSC's Cumming Nature Center in Naples don't start for another two weekends, March 29-30.

Okay, there is a lot more going on the calendar than you can see from just my highlights. You can check out events from this weekend all the way through next weekend at: http://rochester.kidsoutandabout.com/calendar-search-display.php?dr=tw&EventCity=1 Why not plan ahead?

Remember, we're all Irish this weekend. (Whatever that means. I'm sure it's something nice.)

Click here to sign up for the newsletter if you are not yet subscribed.