What a great time we had Saturday at Highland Park. The smell of the fresh air, the sound of the crunching leaves, and the beautiful view of mountains in the distance brought me right back to being 8 years old running around at that same very park. I had not been back there since I was that goofy little kid running around with my Fisher Price Adventure People.
Over 50 kids and parents came out to play with us for our November Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! We had hill rolling, a great game of Sardines, Kick the Can and many, many forms of tag. We played in the true last-man-standing form, which meant all the parents were whooped, and the kids we ready to play on. One of the highlights of the first year of KIVA adventures would have to be the parents vs. the kids kick ball game. Seeing the kid’s wowed faces when the parents would kick the ball to the moon was fantastic. New friends were made and everyone seemed to have a good time. Thank you parents for making this possible.
We also read Possum’s Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter.
Check out the event gallery to the right for pictures.
Thanks again,
Chip and Ashley Donahue
Saturday, November 8th (1PM - 3:30PM). Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! will be meeting at Highland Park in Southwest Roanoke.
We will be celebrating games of old…the ones we played when we were kids: sardines, ghost in the graveyard, kick the can, tag, and more! Use the map link below if you need directions. We will meet at the old fountain across the street from Highland Park School.
http://www.mapquest.com/
Come prepared to make a memory with your child. Please remember, no childcare is provided.
Here is our proposed schedule for the day:
1:00 Meet and Greet
1:30 Kick the Can
1:50 Read story - Possum’s Harvest Moon
2:00 Breakout games: Hill Rolling, Hide and Seek, Leaf Piles, and more!
2:30 Team Letterboxing… bring your own supplies or we will have some for you.
3:00 Family Nature Zone
3:30 Clean up and thank you’s!
Thanks for spreading the word. Come out and bring some friends!
Chip and Ashley Donahue
Without a doubt, my favorite book to read to kids, besides James and the Giant Peach and The Quikpick Adventure Society has got to be…
Check it out! It’s a great read for the season! Happy tricking! Don’t forget All Saint’s Day tomorrow. Find a neighbor and “trick” them by raking their leaves! It’s one of our favorite adventures!
On a short run in the rain this morning (Yes, I was that guy…), I started thinking about all the times I have seen the elation on our children’s faces when we have allowed them to have an adventure. So many times, I have had to say no about something. However, in that moment when they can be a kid, when given the chance to get a little wet or dirty, they are truly learning and becoming their own self. Splashing in puddles is one of those activities.
Today, remember a time when you were a kid… and get out and let your children splash in a puddle. They will only get about 75% wet (I tested it this morning!), but they will be 100% guaranteed to remember the time when you said “Yes!”
A couple of dates to remember:
November 8th:
After, before, or instead of visiting the Taubman Museum of Art (on it’s opening day)
Come out and play with us! We will be hosting an outdoor game day at the lovely Highland Park. Check out the website for more details.
November 16th:
Not a KIVA event, but a KIVA inspiration is coming close to town. Roger Day is playing a concert for kids in Charlottesville, Virginia. Roger’s latest cd, Dream Big, has been chosen for the Parent’s Choice Gold Award. His song “Dream Big” was a huge inspiration for us when we decided to start the adventure club. A few years ago, his song “Mosquitoto Burrito” inspired us to… Well that’s another story for another day. But take our word for it, this is a show well worth the drive. Check out his website at www.rogerday.com More details to come…
Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. We are planning events for next year! Let us know if you have any ideas for events, community speakers, or event sponsors.
Chip and Ashley Donahue
Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday for the October KIVA meeting atop beautiful Mill Mountain. It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day featuring all the best Roanoke has to offer. Trees were showing off their change of season in brilliant reds and golds. Squirrels were extremely busy. And Paul Chapman at the Discovery Center was speaking that secret language to the KIVA Kids that they understand so well: predators, prey and camouflage. Oh, not to mention showing off a super slug exhibit complete with slug eggs. We also saw a huge American toad. Paul even treated us by feeding her some meal worms. Talk about a lightning quick tongue!
After such excitment, we took a sauntering hike down the curvy Star Trail. Every member of KIVA carried a reused grocery bag and we cleaned up trash, glass and bottles as we hiked. We also used some of the camouflage knowledge we had just learned from Paul to look a little closer and spy a few critters we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
After cleaning, we rejoined at The Discovery Center for snacks donated by LARAbars. 15 delicious flavors were on hand, and everyone enjoyed a few and we had to tell lots of member that they can find them at The Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op and at Kroger. While snacking, we all checked out the amazing new improvements at The Dicovery Center and played in the natural play space outside. We also had journals on hand for each KIVA Kid. The KIVA KIds sat on the back lawn of the Discovery Center and journaled and drew their favorite parts of our adventure. We also climbed a few trees!
We also discovered that Paul Chapman and The Discovery Center have 3 different, amazing Explorer Backpacks to be checked out for FREE. Inside is everything you need for an adventure of your own out in the wilds of Mill Mountain! You can check out a backpack filled with exploration tools and books for native trees, birds or insects! Along with special tools appropriate for each hunt! We encourage you to try one soon while the weather is beautiful, and then again each season to see how things have changed.
Thanks again to Paul Chapman, The Discovery Center and all the KIVA Parents and Kids for making it such a fun Saturday up on the mountain! And don’t forget to check out the Event Gallery to your right to see fantastic photos by Jon Beard and Jeff Culverhouse! Thanks, Guys!
The Wild Donahues
Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! returns to the home of its first meeting in January 2008. We will meet at the Mill Mountain Discovery Center to visit the center and hear from Mr. Paul Chapman. He will discuss all the great programs which are offered at the Discovery Center. We will then take a hike along the Star Trail. Bring a plastic grocery bag with you and some gloves. Along the way, we will clean up the trail.
After the hike, we will stay around the center to do a little volunteering for fall clean up. Join us if you can! We helped last fall and there is just something wonderful about helping out in the fresh air, surrounded by those beautiful changing leaves. Snacks will be provided by LARABAR! We will pick up a few other snacks if you or your little ones have nut allergies. Call a friend and ask them to come along. We’ll have a lot of fun.
Agenda for the day!
1:00 - Meet and Greet, newsletter signups
1:15 - Nature activity with Paul Chapman, director of Mill Mountain Park and Discovery Center
1:30 - Walk to the Star Trail, which is located behind the Mill Mountain Star. Participants will be asked to collect something interesting to bring back with them. We will gather the items at the natural playground at the Discovery Center and discuss what we found.
2:00 - 3:00 Volunteer activities around Mill Mountain Park. Stay and play, make a difference today!
Please remember, no childcare is provided. Stay and make a memory with your child(ren). Need more info: Call us 580-3015
The Donahues are very pleased to announce our part in the Family Fun Magazine/Disney Volunteer Families Contest. In March, we applied for the contest by listing our volunteer efforts as a family in the last year. We felt that these opportunities allowed us to prepare for creating Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! and certainly showed us how easy it is to get involved in Roanoke and how wonderful it is to help make a difference. Months went by, and we didn’t hear anything. Then one morning we got the phone call. References were asked and good friends provided them (Thanks R and M!). Within a month, our prize arrived. A thousand dollar check written to the charity of our choice. We met with the wonderful people at the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank, who provided us a tour of their facilities in Salem, Virginia. We left feeling that we had certainly made the right choice. We encourage you to discuss with your family a way that you might get involved. It has brought us closer together as a family and has certainly given us a different outlook on our responsibilities as citizens. Consider contacting the SV Second Harvest Food Bank, or choosing another wonderful cause. November is set aside for family volunteer efforts.
The November issue of Family Fun Magazine is on sale right now at Barnes and Noble Valley View. You can read some of the issue, including a list of all the winners at http://familyfun.go.com/parenting/learn/activities/feature/ff1108-families-that-give/
Thanks so much to the wonderful families and to the fantastic Team Starbucks that came out to play and clean with us today for Fall Waterways Clean Up. We were so proud to be a part of the wonderful work that Clean Valley Council is doing for Roanoke. You must check out the beautiful photographs of our merry crew! Check it out by clicking on the link to the right: Event Gallery.
Thanks again to all who came out. Especially to Jon Beard for capturing the moment!
The Donahues
We are very excited about our upcoming event for Fall Waterways Clean up at Green Hill Park - Saturday morning from 9 AM - 11 AM! We will be teaming up with a special team of Starbucks employees (17 of them!!!!) to work together to clean up the area by the picnic shelter along the Roanoke River. We helped clean in this area as a family last year and we (just the 5 of us) collected 6 bags of trash. We wanted to return this year to make an even bigger mark! This fantastic park has been home to so many Donahue family adventures. Help us give back Saturday by cleaning up with us. Consider giving us just one hour or maybe two! Every helpful hand will make it so much better!
The Starbucks team heard about the Kids In the Valley and the fantastic parents who had been coming out to the events. They felt challenged by the work you had done in the past, and gathered a team of volunteers to come out and help us! Plus, they will be bringing coffee!!! and we will be bringing doughnuts!
At 11AM, we will leave the park and head to Wasena Park to set up our first ever Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! sponsored free nature play zone for the families who have volunteered around the city that morning. The Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op will provide a wonderful lunch and the City of Roanoke will be grilling out lots of great foods. Please check out www.cleanvalley.org for more information about this. There will be games, music and lots of free samples and awesome Co-op food. We will go anywhere when the Co-op is cooking!
Please consider coming out to help. KIVA meetings have always been free! We want them to stay free! We do this because we love to see more and more families getting out and making memories together…outside. This is a perfect opportunity to do so. Make a memory and make a difference. Gloves and bags are provided. Wear long pants and sturdy shoes. If you don’t want to get in the water, you don’t have to! There is plenty to do along the shore.
Thank you for helping us make KIVA so much fun.
Chip and Ashley Donahue
Thank you to the families that came out for our wet and wonderful adventure at Virginia Western Community College Community Arboretum today. On this drizzly day, outdoor play was not dampened! In fact, I have to say that this was the most fun I have had in years!
We started with a self guided tour around the grounds on a hunt for the elusive bathroom! Graciously opened by the very kind staff at campus security! Thank you so much! Then we read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. The families then gathered nature stuff from around the garden and came back to create their own creatures and scenes. Check out the creations in the KIVA gallery! After another walk and a soaking rain, we headed back to listen to Ashley read Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin (a BIG hit with the crowd!). After the hilarious reading, we visited with some red wiggler worms from my classroom compost bin! There was even a worm race at some point in the day.
Next, we stopped for a picnic and to visit withour 25 or so attendees! With full bellies, we happily greeted two lovely Master Gardener tour guides and Mr. BeCraft who hosted a few walk and talk tours of the grounds. The kids asked so many great questions! My favorite was the discussion of tips for building a compost pile. Before we left, each kid was given a pack of sunflower seeds and a challenge to plan to plant their own garden next year. I even heard tale of a little guerrilla gardening going on by some of our little troopers.
For our “nature creators” and for those of you who could not make it out, Jon Beard has captured the spirit of our adventure today and it is available right now on our website at the KIVA gallery! Make sure you see the great leaf people our group made. One of my favorite pictures is the last one of the clean-up team who volunteered to sweep before we left. Please consider going out to the VWCC Community Arboretum very soon. It is a lovely place, certainly a Donahue favorite. They are open 365 days, from dawn til dusk. Check their website to see how to receive their newsletter and join their Friends program. We are proud members.
This day was a remarkable event! Hopefully they will consider having us back in May next year! Want to join us next time? Contact us to receive our free monthly newsletter at KIVAinfo at gmail.com .
****We are looking for a volunteer to help man or woman our nature adventure set up at Wasena Park for Fall Waterways Clean-Up, October 4th from 11:30 until 12 PM. We will be working with Team Starbucks for a KIVA event, cleaning up the Roanoke River at Green Hill Park. Contact us if you might be able to help. 540-580-3015
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