forecasting

I confess: the Toronto weather forecast for this long weekend worries me. Worry because that is four days of activity, diversion and amusement I have to come up with. Worry because my mother-in-law, who can always be counted on in a crisis such as this, is off to Paris for ten days tomorrow. Worry because if the neighbourhood Egg Hunt is rained out there will be 20 pounds of unclaimed chocolate in my closet. It's not good.

So I jumped when a postcard arrived today from the Theater for Young People, offering $10 preview tickets for a show on Monday. Salvation. We saw Seussical there in January and it's a great venue for kids. Monday's show is called I Think I Can and it promises "a hi-octane show told through percussive dance and red-hot urban tap." I don't know what that means. But I ordered tickets on the spot. So that's one down.

The other ace in my pocket is a place I discovered on the weekend, Balls of Fun. Yes it's an indoor playground, a category of children's entertainment I generally avoid, but it's different. It's organized. It's clean. The equipment is in excellent repair. And it's a big space filled with nothing but balls. Huge four-foot high balls with oversized soccer nets and basketball hoops, climbers, slides and rope ladders for parents and kids. And, mercifully, bean bag chairs for tuckered-out parents. We had a, er, ball, and I'm actually looking forward to going back.

If there are any other no-cost, low-cost suggestions out there, pass them on!