The Rudy A. Ciccotti Center

Holy Cow!! Did we hit the jackpot in the battle against the Winter Blahs!

Did you know that there was an indoor water park right in Albany? The Rudy A. Cicccotti Family Recreation Center is right off of the middle of Wolf Road. And, it's only a short walk to the Crossings. While it is a membership-based facility, they do offer day passes for $10 per person. The passes allow you to use the entire facility (basketball courts, jogging track, fitness equipment, pool, spa, exercise classes - if you are so inclined) and they are good for the entire day, so you can leave for lunch (or eat your packed lunch in the lobby) and go back for some more.

The Water Features were amazing! It starts off extremely shallow for the little waders and ends up a few feet deep in the leisure swim section. There's a Lazy River, a huge water slide, a bunch of assorted sprinklers ('sprinklers' doesn't really do it justice), dump buckets and a pretty big activity center with a smaller water slide. The Features are turned on at Noon on weekends and when school is out and at 4:15 on weekdays. However, they will turn them on between 11 AM and 12 PM on weekdays, if someone requests it. It can get pretty busy on the weekends, so the earlier time frame suits us better. You can play in the area regardless of the Features being on.

There are lockers available (bring your own lock) and family changing rooms. They have a few drink and snack vending machines and one of the vacuum-suction vending machines that my toddlers find so amusing (frozen pizza, hot dogs, hot pockets, ice cream sandwiches, popsicles, etc). And, they offer swim lessons for non-members ($75 per session).

Ciccotti Center Hours ............... Aquatic Center Hours ............... Water Features

Mon-Fri: 5am-9pm .............. Mon-Fri: 5:50am-8pm .............. Mon-Fri: 4:15pm-7:50pm

Sat-Sun: 7am-7pm .............. Sat-Sun: 7:30am-6pm ............... Sat-Sun: 12pm-5:50pm

Rudy A Ciccotti Family Recreation Center

30 Aviation Road, Albany, NY 12205

518.867.8920

Winter at Frear Park

We've spent a lot of time looking for good places to go sledding in the Capital Region...  Haven't found anything yet better than Frear Park in Troy. There are a few hills with varying "speeds" and a really large flat area for just playing in the snow. There's a parking lot just across the street.  Wish there was bathroom access, though.

Colonie Center Vending Machines

I just noticed that the vending machines at Colonie Center are stocked with a ton of healthier and organic selections. Health Valley granola bars, Pirate Booty, Cascadian Farms chocolate chip granola bars, Late July sandwich cookies, Smart Puffs, Terra vegetable chips... mmm... can't wait for snack time...

I'm not big on malls or shopping in general, but let's see...

good snacks if I'm in a pinch

a toddler play area

Barnes & Noble Kid's section, train table and story time (with in-store Starbucks)

Darn $5 and $7 toddler-bait firetruck carts

The Soup Man

a pet store

a family restroom & changing area

a snazzy newish movie theater

a very amusing Automatic Popcorn Machine for $1 (by the elevator)

...and I love multi-tasking, so any place with an attached post office is fine with me...

heck, I could make a day of this...

TreePaad

The main attraction (and well worth the trip on its own) is called Fort Ballocity. It's a "three-story, interactive, soft foam ball play arena and indoor playground featuring thousands of foam balls. Kids (and adults) become "action champions", cooperating as a team to move the foam balls through the system." Whatever...remember the show Double Dare? If you took away the horrible mess, this is it! There's an open area where you load balls into machines that blow them to the upper levels where people can load and fire them from simple air cannons. There are big foam rollers to squeeze through, tube slides, twisty stairways, tunnels of swinging punching bags, and on and on and on!

There are tons of other 'a la carte' activities like the Spider Zone, laser tag, rock climbing, Jump-Shot (trampoline + basketball), and a typical tokens for tickets arcade. They have a separate Toddler Zone for kids under age 4, but the 1-year-old got really bored and wanted to join the 3-year-old. Fine with me...can't be in two places at once anyway. When I went to the desk 'upgrade' his admission, the staff waived the difference!

We went during a weekday and almost had the place to ourselves so the kids had a blast. But, I imagine it gets pretty crazy when schools are out and they'd tend to get overrun.

Unfortunately, they don't allow outside food. They do have a fairly reasonable snack bar... burgers, hot dogs, soup, mozzarella sticks, etc.

TreePaad Fun Center
2381 Route 9 - Malta, NY 12118
518-289-5475 | 518-289-5478

Wednesday - Thursday 10am-7pm
Friday - Saturday 10am-9pm
Sunday 10am - 7pm

Models needed at iSmile... Free 8x10

From my Facebook account:

Saturday, February 27th is Facebook Training Day!!! Yay!!! We have two great ladies that need your help, as models, and in return we will give you a free 8x10. We have two different sessions, 10-3 and 4-8. Please call 435-1146 to make an appointment. Please join us in welcoming Katie & Rebekah.

iSmile Studios

Free Cuppycake Tomorrow

Coccadotts sells wedding cakes, birthday cakes, cupcakes, baked sweets, etc.

Tomorrow, they're having a funny little promotion in spite of the current tons o'snow: go in wearing snow boots and get a free Hot Chocolate Cuppycake.

Coccadotts.

1179 Central Ave. in Albany

Free Pancake Day

IHOP is giving away free short-stacks all day today!! Well, from 7 AM to 10 PM. That's all day for me.

They're collecting donations as well for the Children' Miracle Network.

IHOP's Pancake Day Website.

Did you know that today is really Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday?