Adirondack Extreme!

Greatest. Father's Day. Experience. Ever. We'll be travelling on Father's Day proper so we celebrated a week early...
So, I loaded the boys and the husband into the car (husband had absolutely NO idea what we were doing thanks to massive amounts of misdirection and subterfuge) and we drove up to Adirondack Extreme in the pouring rain.  It's a tree-top, zip-line adventure course just off of exit 24 on the Northway - about an hour and a half north of the Capital Region. 


They're open pouring rain or shine.
Reservations are highly recommended.
Departures are every 1/2 hour. 
Arrive at least 1/2 hour before your departure.
They rent climbing gloves for $3.  Get them.
Bring food.  There is NOTHING nearby.
Bugspray.

Adirondack Extreme
518.494.7200

The Crossings

This has become my go-to playground as of late.  Especially since my older son has started riding a bike. (a bike!)

Great playground with a huge sandbox, bathrooms, lockers, picnic tables, a pond with ducks, geese and koi, a small hedge maze, nice smooth paved trails for walking or biking and a few terrible snack & drink machines if you're in a pinch.  If you're lucky, the cows on the bordering farm might be out...

The Crossings

Troy's Flag Day Parade 2010

The parade steps off at 1 PM on Sunday, June 13, 2010.
The 2 mile route runs along 4th Street beginning in South Troy at 4th & Main Street and ends at 4th & Federal Street.

Let the picking begin!

Apparently, strawberries are coming in pretty early on some farms... up to three weeks early!
Usually, we go to Samascott down in Kinderhook because they have soooooo many different things available to pick - peas, cukes, squash, cherries, peaches, onions, blueberries, strawberries, and on, and on, and on. Plus, they have something called a Razzle - soft serve whipped with either fresh strawberries or raspberries from their farm - Oh. My. Gosh. The best thing ever! Yesterday, we went to Altamont Orchards. We easily picked 13 pounds of strawberries. Nice place, but much smaller... kinda just a shack by some strawberry fields and apple orchards. No bathrooms. No Razzles. They did have a fun Bounce Castle.
The three year old has been pretty fascinated lately about farms, how things grow and where our food comes from. I use pickyourown.org to find places to pick our own fruits, veggies and christmas trees.

Bounce Around

We found a great place for a rainy day... Bounce Around in the Clifton Park Center mall. It's in a large-ish storefront right in the mall. They have a big Bounce Activity Center for little kids, about 4 or 5 huge Inflatables for older kids, a nice amount of token for ticket games, small token rides and a prize redemption counter. I believe they had a few snacks and beverages available - cheeze doodles and the like. They are open 7 days a week, host birthday parties and also rent and sell the Bounce Houses.
One difficult thing, though, when you're have younger or shy kids was their the policy that adults can't go in the Inflatables with the kids. Also, make sure everyone has socks.
The mall is typically quite quiet. I got in a few errands - there is a DMV and Time Warner Cable office in the mall - we had our lunch in the food court and I got a little window shopping done.
There's a coupon online that you can print for a weekday Buy One, Get One admission.

$7.00 for a single hour

$8.75 for 2 hours

$10.75 for a full day

Bounce Around
Clifton Park Center
518.668.0102

Free Ice Cream Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, June 5th, go get your free scoop in a cup or a cone at Friendly's! From Noon to 5:00 PM. Find the nearest Friendly's.

Free movies for the summer!

The arrival of Summer means Regal Cinemas Free Family Film Festival 2010.
Lots of fun, FREE, and a great way to spend a weekday morning in the summer! Starting June 29th, selected G or PG movies - not exactly new releases, but newish - start at 10:00am every Tuesday and Wednesday. Tickets are first-come, first-served, are limited to theater capacity and are only available at the theater's box office on the day of the show. Regal has offered this free summer fun since 1991.
Free Activity + Theater Full of Other Kids = Movie Theater Experience - Stress of Quieting Potentially Noisy Toddlers.
The participating theaters in our area are the Crossgates Stadium 18 and the Clifton Park Center 8.

Regal Free Family Film Festival

Happy National Doughnut Day!!

Get your free doughnut today at Dunkin' Donuts AND Krispy Kreme...