19: Tenth Annual Community Fest - San Jose District 2:
Venue: George Page Park, Santa Teresa Blvd. at Miyuki Dr., south of Cottle Road
When: Saturday, September 19, 2009 - 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: Admission Free
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
Sword Fighting, Acrobatics, Multicultural Music & Dancers, Crafts, Freebies,
Mounted Police, Community Info,
Resources for Families, Kids, Teens, Adults, and Seniors
Food, Games, Dancing, Bounce House
Multicultural Entertainers and much more!
Entertainment Schedule
11:00 a.m. Bernal Jazz Band
12:00 p.m. Hawaiian Hula Halau O Kanela No Eau
12:30 p.m. Sandoshin Taiko Drummers
1:00 p.m. Bharatnatyam, Classical Dance of India
1:15 p.m. Highlander Warriors, Kingdom of the Gael
2:00 p.m. Aerial Tumbling & Acrobatics
2:30 p.m. Brenda Lopez Folklorico
3:00 p.m. Free Spirit band
3:30 p.m. Setareh, Middle Eastern Dance
4:00 p.m. Not 4 Sale band
~ Schedule subject to change ~19: Dandia - Stick-Dance:
Venue: Santa Clara Convention Center
Singers: Dimple Patel and Troupe
Time: 7 PM - 12: 30 AM
Cost: $13 per person / Kids under 5 - Free / parking free
www.giftofvision.org/events/Events.htm
Dandia events are always fun for the whole family & kids as well as singles. I have taken my girl friends to such events, been there with other friends, taken my wife, taken my kid to such events - and every time - it was a fun time of varying intensity. Though I would still say that the most memorable ones was the one held in Cal-State, Hayward few years back.19 & 20: Art & Wine Festival - Santa Clar:
Venue: Central Park (near Kiely Blvd. & HomeStead), Santa Clara
When: Saturday & Sunday, September 19 & 20, 2009 - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Cost: Admission Free
Live Entertainment, Kids Kingdom, Activities for parents, Petting Zoo, Food stalls for kids and parents & much more.25: Dandia - Stick-Dance:
Venue: Cubberley Auditorium, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA
Singers: Sharvari Dixit and Troupe (afaik)
Time: 7.00 PM to 11.30 PM
Cost: $15 per person / Kids under 10 - Free
Palo Alto www.vibhadandia.org
Dandia events are always fun for the whole family & kids as well as singles. I have taken my girl friends to such events, been there with other friends, taken my wife, taken my kid to such events - and every time - it was a fun time of varying intensity. Though I would still say that the most memorable ones was the one held in Cal-State, Hayward few years back.26: Lowe's Build & Grow Clinic:
Venue: Participating Lowe's locations
Time: 10 AM - 11 AM
Cost: Not sure (Free for first 50 kids ?)
https://www.lowesbuildandgrow.com/default.asp
On this date, kids make a Fire Truck. I did a quick check, the closest Lowe participating on this date is in Gilroy for my zip code - you can check for yours.26: Dandia - Stick-Dance:
Venue: Santa Clara Convention Center
Singers: PreetySha and Troupe
Time: 7 PM - 12: 30 AM
Cost: $13 per person / Kids under 5 - Free / parking free
www.giftofvision.org/events/Events.htm
Dandia events are always fun for the whole family & kids as well as singles. I have taken my girl friends to such events, been there with other friends, taken my wife, taken my kid to such events - and every time - it was a fun time of varying intensity. Though I would still say that the most memorable ones was the one held in Cal-State, Hayward few years back.26 & 27: Autumn Festival, Milpitas:
Venue: 279 S. Main St., Milpitas , CA 95035 (between Abel and Main Street)
Time: SAT-26th (11 AM - 10 PM); SUN-27th (11 AM - 6 PM)
Cost: Not Known
Lots of games and rides for kids & Chicken BBQ lunch & live entertainment.26 & 27: Spiderman's coming to SF Zoo:
Venue: SF Zoo
Time: 10 AM - 4 PM on SAT & SUN (26 & 27)
Cost: Normal SF Zoo entry fee
On the occasion of the anniversary of the "insect zoo" section, SF Zoo is celebrating by having Spiderman at the SF Zoo on this weekend. Kids can come & meet and get pictures taken with Spiderman.26 & 27: KidsFaire in Pleasanton:
Venue: Alameda County Fairground, Pleasanton
Time: 10 AM - 5 PM on SAT & SUN (26 & 27)
Cost: Under 2 (Free); 2-12 ($5); 12 & up ($8) (discount tickets online @ http://www.thekidsfaire.com/pub/pleasanton_tickets.htm
What to expect at the fair (afaik): Dorothy the Dinosaur, Barney, Spongebob, and Dora, wild west show, princess pavillion, camel rides, pirates treasure hunt, etc.Gymboree - Free Class Pass:
Venue: Participating Gymboree Locations
Cost: Says FREE (check-out to confirm)I have heard from some friends that these classes are fun - but never had any experience so far - plan to take my son to one of these one of these days.
Link to the pass is:
http://www.gymboreeclasses.com/b2c/customer/findLocation.jsp?action=PRVWThomas & Friends "Hero of the Rails" DVD give-away:
Venue: Website GiveawayGuys!!! Thomas time again....This time a free DVD!!! - Check out on:
http://energizerbunnysmommyreports.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post.html#comment-form
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Upcoming Activities/Events - 2009 September
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Recent Kids Activities - 2009 September
Just so that you know what kind of events you might see coming up in this blow, here is a variety of things that happenned in the last few months which we enjoyed with our son (at some of these events, we were accompanied by some of our friends, but as currently I do not have permission from any one of them to include references to their names, so I will better omit such information for now - but pls. leave me a comment if you are OK for me to include your/your kids names in this blog or later posts to this blog):
(Special month - Our anniversary + my brother's B'day)
5: Boating:
@Shoreline Park
Cost - $17 for 3 of us.
As we could not go out on the long weekend because of commitments at work, we decided to have day trips and make this long weekend still a memorable. So going to Shoreline park and boating was something we wanted to do since last year, but had been putting off - so we did it this weekend and Aakarsh enjoyed it very much. To make it more fun, we took his scooter alongwith, and after the boating he had fun time riding his scooter through the nice slightly hilly terrain of the shoreline park next to the bay.5: Bowling:
@AMF lines in Santa Clara
Cost - Free Games (I had found coupons for 1 free game per person) - we had to pay only for the shoe rentals - around $10 for me & my wife.
We went here after coming back from boating and resting at my bro (almost bro) Sid's place. Aakarsh enjoyed it much more than we had expected - and did he learn so quickly how to throw the heavy balls (even the lightest I could find him was still challenging his own body weight) - final score was: Me (119); Aakarsh (105); Bhavna (89) <<<.
6: Chuck-e-Cheese:
@Chuck-e-Cheese location (near Vallco Mall) in Cupertino
Aakarsh loves going to Chuck-e-Cheese, but recently (after his return from India in May), we had refrained from going there in consideration of swine flu threats. So, this was his first visit after a long time - and he did enjoy it quite a bit.6: Fireworks - Labor Day weekend Fireworks:
@Great America in Santa Clara
Cost - Free
Great America Park had special fireworks in consideration of the Labor Day Weekend - I discovered this just on Sep. 3 (just in time) - and needless to say, Aakarsh enjoyed it quite a bit.7: Surfing:
@Santa Cruz Beach, BoardWalk in Santa Cruz
Cost - Free surfing +$10 all day parking + 75c games at BoardWalk
It was the BEST WEATHER ever at the Santa Cruz beach since I came to US in 1997 - the water temperature was just perfect to get in till about 6 PM and the air temperature was above 80 till about same time - this gave us ample time to stay in water from around 3 PM all the way upto around 6 PM. As I had taken my boogy board alongwith, I decided to give Aakarsh some lessons in surfing - and he enjoyed sooooo much trying to balance on the boogy board - it was a great experience for him as he slipped into the water - full body - couple of times - first time that deep in ocean water. And Aakarsh's dad his field day doing "Devi-Darshan" with the temperatures soaring above 80 till late evening. This was followed by an open shower (must after surfing) and then hot crispy fish'n'chips at the Beach-Side Cafe (a must for me whenever I visit Santa Cruz). After that, Aakarsh enjoyed few kids rides at the BoardWalk before we headed home.12: Thomas Day @ Toys'R'Us:
@Any Toys'R'Us location - we personally went to the one on Winchester in Santa Clara
Cost - Free.
Aakarsh enjoyed playing with Thomas trains/etc. (which he usually does whenever he visits Toys'r'us - but on this special day, they had put some extra Thomas train pieces for kids to play with on the imaginarium tables) - they also had Thomas coloring papers and Thomas story books for reading out - Aakarsh did not indulge that much into them - he liked the Thomas paper hat and the Thomas trading cards set and trading cards holder which they were giving out for free.19 & 20: Santa Clara Art & Wine Festival:
Venue: Central Park, Santa Clara
Cost - Free admission & parking (pay for food and kids rides & other purchases)
Lot of things to enjoy - on day1 (19th), we reached around 4:30 PM and Aakarsh enjoyed couple of songs from the Band "Pop Fiction" playing live on the center stage, and then enjoyed few rides in the separate "Kids Kingdom" in the festival - BUT I have to remark - Prices for Kids rides were EXHORBITANT - each ride (except a jumper slide) was $3 to $4 per ride. The rides included the "Giant slide ($3)", "Chhoo-chooo train ($4)", "Jumper slide ($1), "Turtle Jumper ($2)", "Merry-go-round ($3)", plus couple of others. Further, on rides like the "Giant Slide", if a parent accompanies the kid, you have to pay full price for the parent too. Compare this with San Mateo county fair - you have to pay for parking ($8) + entrance ($10 per adult), but the kids rides were around $2 each PLUS, a parent accompanies their kid for free. Anyways, kids were enjoying a lot. On day2, Aakarsh enjoyed the Lime Snow-Cone, the live band, all the stalls (on day1 we were late and all the stalls had pretty much closed) - especially the South Bay Church stall who were giving away free stuff for getting onto their email list - Aakarsh got a balloon, a temporary tattoo, a water bottle and a fris-bee. Next I enjoyed spending around an hour with him in the kids play area - not the rides - but the normal kids obstacle area - we found this park has a very interesting kids obstacle play area which we have not seen in any other park in the bay area - check it out. Unfortunately we could not go to the Dandia this weekend - well next weekend for sure Dandia.25: Dandia - Stick-Dance:
Venue: Cubberley Auditorium, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA
Singers: Sharvari Dixit and Troupe
Time: 7.00 PM to 11.30 PM
Cost: This was the best part - we were able to get in for FREE:
(Normal admissions: $15 per person / Kids under 10 - Free)
Aakarsh was very excited in the beginning but soon became bored - but right then we spotted another of our very good friend's family there - after that - it was more than double the fun - Aakarsh and their son enjoyed dancing and frolicking together - my wife and my friend's wife got to dance too with the kids dancing on their own - this gave us more courage to take Aakarsh to the bigger Dandia event next week.26: Autumn Festival, Milpitas:
Venue: 279 S. Main St., Milpitas , CA 95035 (between Abel and Main Street)
Cost: Entrance FREE - Rides roughly $2.85 each
After the celebrations in the morning on the occassion of Ashtami Indian Festival, we decided to keep it low key on SAT - so decided against all other events including a wish to visit the beach again - as it was very hot - and went to this Autumn festival - but it turned out to be very good and we ended up staying there for almost couple of hours - they had some rides which very new to Aakarsh - including the mirror maze (concave/convex mirrors) - we also enjoyed a game of Bingo.27: KidsFaire in Pleasanton:
Venue: Alameda County Fairground, Pleasanton
Cost: Under 2 (Free); 2-12 ($5); 12 & up ($8) (I had $1 discount for kids entrance) + $8 parking
Already tired after the 4 1/2 hour cricket league game in the morning, I did not want to miss this and quickly got ready (after a quick) shower to take Aakarsh to a dreamland - had my lunch in the car while driving - munching on the parantha - AND this was SOOOO EXCITING for Aakarsh - as seen in the pictures here - he got to meet & greet all his favorite characters ('Xcuse me for my lack of knowledge about the kids character names) - ScoobyDoo, SpongeBob, Madagascar lion, Darth Vader's army, George monkey, penguins (?), etc. etc. - But now - as I write at night - I am T-O-T-A-L-L-Y EXASPERATED - running around in 104 degree trying to cover all the characters within 2.5 hours keft when we reached the fair - but it was thrilling - especially for Aakarsh.
Recent Kids Activities - 2009 August
Just so that you know what kind of events you might see coming up in this blow, here is a variety of things that happenned in the last few months which we enjoyed with our son (at some of these events, we were accompanied by some of our friends, but as currently I do not have permission from any one of them to include references to their names, so I will better omit such information for now - but pls. leave me a comment if you are OK for me to include your/your kids names in this blog or later posts to this blog):
1-2: Day out with Thomas:
@Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton (on way to Santa Cruz)
Cost - Around $65 for 3 of us + $7 parking.
Kids take a ride on "Real" Thomas train with open bogies and get a chance to meet Sir Topham Hat and lots of other fun activities including jumper, face painting, etc.
For Aakarsh, this was a dream come true event - he just loves Thomas and anything linked to it - no wonder we have the imaginarium train table + endless engines + cabooses + tracks and many other specific Thomas train sets for him.9: Kite Flying (like back home in India/Pak) with "manjha thread" and kites cutting "ai-bo" / "bo-kaata" competition on occassion of Pakistan Independence Day:
@Baylands Park in Sunnyvale.
Cost - $5 park entrance + $10 for kites (approximately).
This was more fun for Aakarsh's dad (myself) than Aakarsh himself.15: Swimming:
@Summerwood in Santa Clara
Cost - Free
One of those days when we (myself and couple of my friends) get together and put our kids into the pool and let them learn swimming while making them play chasing games (petty floaters thrown into the pool 5 - 6 ft. away from the kids). This is all-time hit - meaning, our kids always enjoy this - for us (I mean Dads) it is enjoyment time too - but depends on the "catch of the day" - well if you did not get this - either you are too young or too old for the topic.16: Indian Independence day parade and Fair:
@Fremont (near Walnut & Fremont)
Cost - $5
Meet Neha Dhupia upclose (well that's what I enjoyed - she looks so good in person compared to her appearances in movies - But Aakarsh had his part of fun dancing to the latest Bollywood songs being performed on stage, free give-aways and the different kulfis, thumbs-up, etc to eat.)
In addition to this, he also enjoyed the nice colorful parade itself.22: San Mateo County Fair:
@Event Center in San Mateo
Cost - $10 (sign-up for "more info" request from AAA to get 1 free entry for my wife + kids free anyways)
Aakarsh enjoyed the stage performances by acrobats and clowns, the kids rides, petting zoo (with baby deer, kangaroo, cock, mini pigs, goats, donkey AND Alpaca), the country band, free give-aways and corn.26: Movie in the park:
@Foster City
Cost - Free
Foster city organizes this every year - for 3 back-to-back weeks. We came to know about this only this year - and could not catch the first 2 Wed. when they showed the "Kung-fu Panda" and "Journey to the center of the Earth". But we were able to make it to the last one this summer - "Grease" - yes, it is an old movie - but the point was not to watch the movie - but to have a family outing and "something different" - Foster city is cold by night even in peak summer - so cuddling together in the park, with hot chocolate in hands and hot freshly popped corn - was an experience.29: Circus Bella:
@Fort Mason in SanFrancisco
Cost - Free
Aakarsh enjoyed the performers and thereafter the typical German/European stage performance for kids (held after the circus show was over). Later we took a walk down from Fort Mason all the way to Pier 39/Fisherman's wharf and on the way discovered some new areas of SanFrancisco we had never known before - the nice hiden vista point to take perfect pictures of Golden Gate Bridge and the nice warm and shallow beach. Aakarsh enjoyed the street performers near Fisherman's Wharf, the famous Bushman scaring the unwary passer-bys and above all, the Sea Lions.29: Fireworks - August Fireworks:
@Great America in Santa Clara
Cost - Free (yes, for fireworks, the entrance to Great America parking lot is also free)
Great America Park had restarted the Saturday night fireworks all through August this year and 29th August was the last of these - even though Aakarsh had slept while we were driving back from SanFrancisco (after watching the Circus Bella, etc. detailed above) he woke-up right at the sound of first firework and then enjoyed the rest 10 - 15 minutes - very nice.
Recent Kids Activities - 2009 July
Just so that you know what kind of events you might see coming up in this blow, here is a variety of things that happenned in July 2009 which we enjoyed with our son (at some of these events, we were accompanied by some of our friends, but as currently I do not have permission from any one of them to include references to their names, so I will better omit such information for now - but pls. leave me a comment if you are OK for me to include your/your kids names in this blog or later posts to this blog):
03: Bounce-A-Rama:
@Bounce-A-Rama in GreatMall, Milpitas
Cost - $8 (roughly) for kid entry (parents are free)
My son enjoyed lots of bouncers - the most interesting ones were the McQuuen Car and the Batman one - both his favorites - what was most interesting in this location is that unlike other bouncers location (in pumpkin patches, etc.) this one has a big bouncer of the size of an actual basketball court (with walls also bouncers) where even the parents can enter and bounce alike with the kids - Aakarsh had real fun time bouncing with me there - as Bhavna was busy shopping in the GM04: Independence day fair:
@Central Park in Santa Clara
Cost - Free Entry (you only pay for games and food)
My son enjoyed lots of 75c games with petty prizes, balloons, water dunk, jumper, ice-cream, free give-aways, etc., etc.04: Fireworks:
@ San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose / Santa Clara / ****
We personally went to the Central Park again as it is walking distance from our house.
Cost - Free
We try to go there every year, but this year we planned it ahead of time, reached there early & got ourselves very good place to view the fireworks right next to where they were being fired-off - the spectacular lights were just above our heads in the sky.18: Indian Laughter Challenge night:
@Sunnyvale temple, Sunnyvale
Cost - I got discounted tickets from a co-worker + kids free ($25 for $35 tickets).
All the performers from StarTV including Kapil Sharma, Pratap Faujdar, Lalli, Maski, etc., etc. performed for 3+ hours non-stop and we had an unforgettable experience.26: Camping:
@Big Basin Park on way to Santa Cruz
Cost - $5 (approximately)
Aakarsh enjoyed his first experience of camping when we did "Day Camping" at Big Basin park - putting up the tents, taking the walk down the short trail with a small bridge over the river and then attending the evening camp-fire while BBQing marshmallows - it was all a fun-filled experience for him.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Recent Kids Activities - 2009 June
Just so that you know what kind of events you might see coming up in this blow, here is a variety of things that happenned in June 2009 which we enjoyed with our son (at some of these events, we were accompanied by some of our friends, but as currently I do not have permission from any one of them to include references to their names, so I will better omit such information for now - but pls. leave me a comment if you are OK for me to include your/your kids names in this blog or later posts to this blog):
07: Cherry picking:
@Nuns Farm in Brentwood, CA (around 1 hour from San Jose)
Cost - Free to enter - you pay for the cherries you pick and take home - whatever you eat in farm is free.
Aakarsh enjoyed picking very good cherries hanging from trees as low as 2 feet from ground and collecting them in the white buckets provided by the farm. More than talking about price difference and all-different taste of fresh picked cherries compared to ones in grocery stores, the main point was enjoying the process of picking the fruit manually from the trees. We combined that with a picnic by taking puri and aloo from home with onions & pickles - mmmmmmm....14: Mini-Golf:
@Golfland in Sunnyvale
Cost - $8 (Kids free).
It was simply fun family time in the nice sprawling mini-golfland area - and Aakarsh enjoyed it - bottom line.14: Meet Shah Rukh Khan:
@Hotel W in SanFrancsco
Cost - One appetizer from Restaurant XYZ @ Hotel W while waiting for SRK.
Pls. note: XYZ & W are the ACTUAL names - not that I am hiding the real names.
We met Shah Rukh Khan in person and got pictures taken with him and Karan Johar - my son is a die hard fan of SRK.20: Helicopter Show:
@Hiller Aviation museum in San Carlos:
Cost - Free (you dont need to pay to get inside - you can stand in the "special" parking area which is equally close to the performance as the "ticket paid" area - "special area" known to me & maybe few others.
Aakarsh enjoyed the R/C helicopters, the real helicopters, the water drop by CA firefighters helicopters demo, the concept helicopters, etc., etc.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Blogging for Kids Activities
Recently I have gone into the mode of spending more quality time with my son Aakarsh and wife on weekends (and sometimes weekday evenings too).
The idea is to find some event/happening or something interesting - out of the ordinary - which may interest my son (and other kids of his age alike) and at the same time, provide me & my wife sometime away from my so called 2nd wife (the name given by my wife to my company laptop which perhaps spends more time with me day/night than anyone/anything else in this world at least for last few years).
And to make such outings even more interesting, we (my wife Bhavna & myself) try to inform our close friends also - even one more family makes the fun double/triple as the kids enjoy more if they have their friends (aged alike) around them rather than parents.
And recently I got suggestions from my friends (Haresh & Sajeev) to better put such info on a blog to make such events organizing simpler and more effective.
So, here I am - starting to blog about such upcoming events on my blog (which so far I used rarely - once every few months) - and I promise to keep updating on a very regular basis - at least once a week or whenever a new entry/event needs to be posted.
And as a starter - pls. mark your calendars for Oct 10 - 11 weekend - something I wait from the beginning of the year - the SF fleet week and Blue Angels Air Show.
More details to follow at this place in October blogs.
