Looking for ways to amuse the kids on the long weekend? Here are 15 suggestions.
Flickr/Creative Commons photo by RichardBH.
For locavores
The Ottawa Farmers’ Market at Lansdowne Park will help kids learn more about where their local food comes from via a scavenger hunt throughout the Aberdeen Pavilion on Sunday, April 5, from 10am to 3pm. They can enter contests to win goodies, too.
Down on the farm
In the heart of the city, kids can learn all about eggs, hunt for eggs, learn to cook with chocolate, and meet lambs, ducklings, chicks and rabbits at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum (April 3 to 6, 9:30am to 4pm). Meanwhile, the McMaze—at Cedar Fox Farm north of Cornwall (off Highway 138)—also has a busy weekend planned. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday (April 3 to 5), from 12pm to 4pm, there will be a continuous Easter egg hunt, wagon or sleigh rides, chances to meet farm animals and more.
On your mark…get set…go!
The Easter egg hunt in Stewart Park in Perth (April 4, 11am to 1pm) starts with a flourish: at 11am, a horn will blare and the kids will set off in search of 2,000 coloured eggs, which they can exchange at the end of the hunt for a treat. Musicians, fire fighters and clowns will be on hand to entertain the hunters after the search.
A maple-flavoured Easter
Photo courtesy of Wheeler’s and Lanark County Tourism.
At Wheeler’s Pancake House and Sugar Camp in McDonald’s Corners in Lanark County, families can drop in from Friday through Monday (April 3 to 6, 9am to 3pm) for a free Easter egg hunt along a 1km trail through the sugar bush. They’ll also get a free maple goodie and learn about maple syrup making. At Fulton’s Pancake House and Sugar Bush in Pakenham, Easter egg hunts take place on April 4 and 5, and activities like face painting and horse-drawn rides are available all weekend (April 3 to 6, 10am to 2pm). At both spots, you can check out other activities related to Ontario’s inaugural Maple Weekend.
Closer to Ottawa, Stanley’s Olde Maple Lane Farm in Metcalfe is also running a very popular Easter egg hunt (last day is Saturday, April 4) featuring wagon rides through the sugar bush and the chance to visit baby animals. Online reservations are required.
A Cold War Easter
At the Diefenbunker in Carp, kids can scramble through a 100,000-square-foot Cold War bunker in search of Easter goodies on a nut-free Easter egg hunt (Saturday, April 4, 11am to 4pm).
For skiers
Photo courtesy of Mont Tremblant.
Skiers can get in a last few runs on the slopes at Tremblant all weekend long, and on Easter Sunday kids can make Easter eggs and baskets, go on an Easter egg hunt, and hang their decorated egg on an “Easter tree.”
What the heck is “egg jarping”?
Learn the answer to that question and more during history-themed Easter activities at the Billings Estate in Alta Vista on Saturday, April 4. In fact, museums across Ottawa are offering family fun that day. You can decorate a garden pot and plant seeds at Pinhey’s Point in Dunrobin; weave paper baskets and colour eggs with all-natural dyes at Fairfields Heritage House in Nepean; take part in a scavenger hunt and make crafts at the Nepean Museum; or hunt for eggs and visit the petting zoo at the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum (check each website for times).
Bay of Quinte
Heading south? Promise Land Farm near Belleville has a full slate of activities on Saturday, April 4, including Easter egg hunts, a barbecue and face painting. The gates open at 9:30am and the hunting starts at 11am.
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