End of Summer Cottage Fun

(Tales of Mommyhood received the below mentioned products in exchange for being featured on the blog. Opinion belongs to Tales of Mommyhood, your experience/opinion may vary)

Every summer we try and make it to my aunt and uncles cottage in Golden Lake. We normally go up and spend the day, and come home after supper.  We did not have a chance to get there in June or July, and August was coming to an end. Last week, when we went to the beach, the kids were asking me about it, so I got in touch with my aunt to see if we could come for a visit.


My mom and I drove up with the boys. We made our normal pit stop at Tim Hortons half way for lunch and treats, and then continued to the cottage. My brother and his family met us up there a little later on. They played in the sand, my niece and nephew tried the stand up paddle board, chatted with my aunt and uncle, played cards and a dice game, and had a lot of fun together.

Mr. K spent almost the entire time on the beach

We also brought with us the Zoom Ball Hydro from Goliath Games and Pressman Toys. I was hoping to take the kids camping this summer, and pull this out then. Since that didn't happen, I brought it with us to the cottage. The kids were super excited to try it out - and hoped that the water balloon wouldn't pop on them!  It comes with the Zoom Ball Hydro and 10 water balloons. We had a little trouble with the balloons breaking - I'm not sure if the tap spout was wider than normal, but I would make sure to either have lots of extras on hand, or use a water balloon filling kit to make it a little easier.

Once the you load the balloon into the inside of the ball, you close it and then 2 people stand at opposite ends and hold 2 handles attached the strings (you need to have the strings stretched quite taut for it to work properly).  One person starts by widening their arms quickly, which sends the ball down to the other. When it gets close, the person at that end quickly widens their arms sending it  back. Eventually, the balloon will pop, and someone will get wet.

A bonus, when you run out of water balloons, you can still play with the zoom ball (or you can buy the Goliath Zoom Ball)

We also tested out the Jax Flip n' Chips game. Unfortunately I don't have photos of my kids playing it; it's a memory type game. You shake the tiles out and lay them all flat, then take turns matching shapes and colours (a great way to help little ones learn).

After we had dinner, the kids played 10,000 with my brother (it's a dice game), and then we packed up and headed home. No one was ready to leave, but with a 90 minute drive ahead of me, I knew we needed to be on the road by 830pm.  Mr. K fell asleep about half way home, and Mr. J wasn't far behind either.  It was an awesome way to spend the last Saturday before school starting back up.