The Little Paper

February can seem like the longest 28 days of the year but, considering the array of family events and activities in the city this month, it may well disappear faster than marshmallows in cocoa. Actually, I’ve started to think of getting through February as a kind of board game complete with seasonal chutes and ladders and the odd get out of jail free card.

Here’s the gist of it – start the month at Puppets on Ice at Dufferin Grove or the Bunch Family Dance party on the 1st and keep rolling until the launch of the Maple Syrup season on the 28th. In between you’ll navigate Wintercity celebrations at the AGO, Nathan Phillip’s Square and the Bata Shoe, the Little Sweetheart Ball on the 8th and an array of icefests, carnivals and winter festivals. Work in a PA day, storytimes, skating, sledding; miss a few turns to zip up snowsuits, find matching mittens and finally get outside after another bathroom trip, and February will be half over before you know it. Actually, half way over lands you on Valentine’s Day – about which, perhaps the less said the better. Anyway... two more rolls and it’s Family Day.

I’ll confess to having been pretty sceptical about Family Day when it was parachuted onto the calendar last year. Many of the resources families depend upon were closed for the day, few communities had yet to organize celebrations and many families weren’t even able to spend the day together as one or both parents had to work. (Not letting all parents hang out with their children on Family Day stills strikes me as a pretty sizeable flaw.) Last year we worked around the absent spouses, shut libraries and closed community centres by collecting a gang of friends for skating, tobogganning and a big potluck – celebrating the neighbourhood that is our extended family. I still think that’s the best way to enjoy the day but, if 17 shrieking children holding footraces in the upstairs hallway isn’t your thing, there is a great deal planned at the ROM, in the Beach and at Toronto’s historical houses.

From the 16th to the 28th it’s the home stretch so, firm up your March Break plans, check out the Model Railroad Club’s Open House, take in Tinars for Tots and have a look inside one of those blue discovery boxes at the AGO. We’ll send a Weekend Tip Sheet to in your inbox every Friday after you sign up for the newsletter and will keep you posted as the game goes on. Have a great month!

– Vicki