{"id":37626,"date":"2026-02-15T18:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37626"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:10:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:10:38","slug":"valentines-day-family-day-olympics-come-together-for-auroras-arctic-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/valentines-day-family-day-olympics-come-together-for-auroras-arctic-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Valentine\u2019s Day, Family Day, Olympics come together for Aurora\u2019s Arctic Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one as Valentine\u2019s Day lands on the Family Day weekend, coinciding with the Winter Olympics, but whether you\u2019re looking for something fun to do with your sweetheart, make new memories as a family, or break a sweat doing something sporty, Aurora\u2019s two-day Arctic Adventure has you covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Town\u2019s annual Family Day tradition will be spread over two days and two locations this year, with the fun beginning on Saturday, February 14, at Aurora Town Square and continuing Monday, February 16, with a day of outdoor activities at Town Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday at Town Square begins at 11 a.m. with live entertainment and workshops running through 3 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a focus on crochet, string art, and diamond art, workshops will take place throughout the day, often with Valentine\u2019s and Olympic themes, with registration being taken at aurora.ca\/arcticadventure, with a nominal fee for materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entertainment will unfold throughout the Aurora Town Square complex from a special interactive story time with your favourite characters from Disney\u2019s Frozen, presented by Marquee Theatrical Productions, wildlife and science demonstrations, crafts, games, and a showcase by the Pine Tree Potters Guild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving a program on Town Square on the Saturday and with a program at Town Park on Monday, it enables us to provide a completely different set of family experiences,\u201d says Shelley Ware, Special Events Coordinator for the Town of Aurora. \u201cWith the use of the Performance Hall [at Town Square], we\u2019re bringing in the Speaking of Wildlife show, we\u2019re fortunate Marquee Theatrical Productions is bringing in the show Frozen, and then we have that gorgeous bridge \u2013 the way it arcs between the two buildings, there\u2019s going to be ice carvings done below outside and the bridge is going to be full of activities such as balloon twisting, face painting, the Pine Tree Potters are going to be doing a pottery demonstration, which is really cool. There are some craft stations as well. Travelling back inside, we\u2019re going to have Mad Science that is going to be set up with a science activation. Moving around the building, there are a lot of activities which would be appealing for all families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family Day fun kicks off at Town Park on Monday at 10 a.m. with the Great Canadian Lumberjack Show at 10.15 a.m. and 1.45 p.m., two performances from juggler Kobbler Jay, a noontime Speaking of Wildlife Show, and a fire performance from Hoop You.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt helps to have this over two different days, and it helps that the activities are so different,\u201d says Ware. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be some families who want to sit back in a theatre where they\u2019re warm and take in one of those kinds of shows, and then there are going to be other families who want to take advantage of it still being winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve brought back some tried-and-true experiences with the Snow Valley Mini Snow Tubing run, as well as the Canadian Lumberjacks show \u2013 and those shows we can really only have in the wintertime, so we really have to celebrate them while the weather is on our side for those, but we\u2019ll also have bonfire stations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ware notes that there will be three ice carvings at both locations, with the theme for the Town Park sculptures being the 2026 Winter Olympics now unfolding in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be celebrating the Olympics at Town Park and have Olympic and Paralympic facts aligning with our A-frames down the walkway,\u201d says Ware. \u201cThere\u2019s going to also be a specialized activity where we\u2019ve frozen medals into water balloons, so kids can chip away at it to earn their medal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those looking to still celebrate, but on your own time, the Town is also encouraging residents to take part in their Community Scavenger Hunt, which is powered through the GooseChase platform. It features more than 50 different missions families can accomplish together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a full roster of Family Day activities, and to take part in the Scavenger Hunt, visit aurora.ca\/arcticadventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one as Valentine\u2019s Day lands on the Family Day weekend, coinciding with the Winter Olympics, but whether you\u2019re looking for something fun to do with your sweetheart, make new memories as a family, or break a sweat doing something sporty, Aurora\u2019s two-day Arctic Adventure has you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9MS","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 13:33:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37627,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37626\/revisions\/37627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}