a peek inside the fishbowl

Archive for the ‘Easy ways to make kids happy’ Category

When our daughters went away to university I discovered I liked making care packages for them. Here’s one package, and another, just to give you a sense of the kinds of things I sent. Of course, these were created and sent in the Before Times. It was a process. Building a care package took time, dare I say, […]

I thought I should share an update to this post. Our praying mantis babies actually hatched soon after I wrote it. It was all very exciting and there was much yelling and merriment by yours truly. After they emerged from their ootheca we kept them indoors, in the jar, for two days before releasing them […]

If you follow me on Twitter you may recall a thread I posted last year about a praying mantis egg case I bought at Costco, and the results of said egg case. Well I bought one again this year and I realized I never wrote about it here on the blog. What has prompted me to do […]

09 Jul, 2019

Diamonds and hot dogs

Posted by: andrea tomkins In: - Ottawa for kids|Easy ways to make kids happy|Ottawa

I am posting this from Thailand (!), reason being that I wanted to get it online before the bulk of summer gets away from us. If you are looking for something fun to do in Ottawa this summer, read on!  I’m not a very sporty person but I’ve certainly played my share of organized sports. […]

Who else is scouting out ideas for Christmas? I live in Westboro, and one of the things I really like to do is walk over to the main street and poke my head in the shops and see what’s shaking. I tend to spend a *lot* of time at Mrs. Tiggywinkle’s*. There’s always something fun and […]


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  • Gretchen Humphrey: I had a beautiful bee& birdbath filled with a solar fountain and dozens of antique marbles that were suddenly disappearing. At first I thought my
  • Jinjer: I am sobbing reading this post. And you're right, companion is not enough. Little furry treasured gifts that they are. Thanks for sharing cutie-pi
  • Karen: Dear Andrea, Mark and your daughters I am so very sad for your family xxx Piper was/is my favourite Instagram post. You shared with us so intimately
  • Christina Banuelos: Thank you for sharing Pipers life with us. Your posts of Piper brought me joy. Every time I see your post and see what kind of mischief Piper was gett
  • Carla Slocum: I am sitting here yet again crying at your loss. We have known that loss with Asta the WFT our first pup but now have the enormous gift of Stryker the
  • Janelle Brown: Dear Andrea Thank you for sharing Piper’s story with her followers. I empathise with your grief and emptiness as I lost my 14 year old Westie last
  • Natasha McReynolds-Nicholl: My god reading this is heartbreaking. December 1st was the as you describe longest day of my life, we lost out beautiful WFT hazel. Pipers final momen

The Obligatory Blurb

My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

If you'd like to contact me, please use this form. If you're so inclined, you can read more about me here. Thank you for visiting!

 


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