The Eiffel Tower {Paris Day 3}

What a day.

Shortly after waking up, we decided we’d get ready and head out to the Eiffel Tower nice and early before the crowds made it there. We still hadn’t decided whether or not we’d go up, but we thought we’d play it by ear and decide once there. {When planning the trip, I knew I wanted to take Miss G to see the the tower, but going up didn’t seem that 3 year old friendly given the long queues and general crowdedness. That being said, after talking with a friend, I was wavering based on the fact that it may be a once in a lifetime for Miss G. Brad, on the other hand, wasn’t interested in the least. We went up during our trip in 2008, and though it is truly breathtaking up there, he figured it wouldn’t be as exciting for Grae. That and he figured that this was fairly certainly not going to be the only time she visits Paris in her lifetime.}

A Slow Morning & Jardins du Luxembourg {Paris Day 2}

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After a 4:30 a.m. wake up call from Miss G {and a couple of hours of quiet time thereafter}, we brushed our teeth, threw on some clothes, and headed to the little bakery on the corner for some fresh bread treats. While Gracen chose a baguette aux noix, Brad and I opted for a regular baguette (so good!) and we headed down the street to our local park. The blossoms were prettier than ever and we had the place to ourselves, which was a perfect way to start the day.

Bonjour, Paris!

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After 15 hours of travel and arriving into Paris late last night, we spent the night at a hotel pretty much right at the airport. Though sort of accidental, it worked out well. We all got a good night’s rest before making our way into the city and therefore had {slightly} more patience while tackling the not so stroller-friendly train system. We arrived at the flat Brad and I stayed at during our very first spring break abroad just before lunchtime, got somewhat settled, and then headed out on the day’s adventures – walking down cobblestone streets, soaking in the sunshine, admiring cherry blossom trees, eating baguettes wrapped in brown paper, and stopping at parks and playgrounds along the way. This was our day…

A bedroom with a view.

Are they organic?

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So we’re at our Crafty Kids class at Bright Minds this morning, when this happens…

Our Creative Space

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Some of my very favourite moments with Miss G happen when we’re sitting side-by-side creating. Whether we’re working on a collaborative project or each doing our own thing, I feel like we do some of our best bonding while creating beside one another. Sometimes we sit, hands busy, in silence, and other times we have in-depth conversations about serious / random / ridiculous things.

No-Sew Snake Sock Stuffie

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Miss G and I picked up these ridiculously awesome knee socks at Target during one of our cross-border shopping trips long ago… At the time, I didn’t really know what we’d make with them, but I did know that they were awesome and had a lot of potential, so into the cart {along with two other pairs} they went! Somehow, we didn’t get around to using them while still in Canada, so we packed them up in our Kuwait luggage and transported them to the other side of the planet {naturally}.

Healthier Penne Alfredo

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Each month my little sous chef and I team up with our good friends Tairalyn over at Little Miss Mama and Hillary over at Hillary with two Ls (please) for some friendly bake-off fun. Though I feel badly about it every round, Tairalyn takes on the recipes as we find them – full of butter, sugar, white grains, and processed ingredients {bless her heart}. Hillary, on the other hand, takes the original recipes and healthifies them somewhat, adding fruits, veggies, and her homemade touch where she can, while hanging onto just a little bit of the naughty deliciousness. And our task over here in the desert? Taking the ridiculously unhealthy recipes we find and full-on hipifying them {yup, hipifying… I said it}. That means we do our very best to use homemade / wholewheat / organic ingredients, we skip the sugar all together, and we add fresh produce and other nutrient-packed ingredients when possible. Fun, right?

Galaxy Play Dough

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One of the things I do for the Crafty Kids class i teach here in Kuwait is prepare some open-ended materials for the children to explore and create with after they’re done their main project for the day. Since this week’s theme Bright Minds was ‘bedtime’, I decided to prepare what I originally called ’sleepy time starry sky play dough’. My crafty kids loved it and it continued to bring all sorts of fun throughout the afternoon once we were home. It was a big hit again today, and Miss G actually chose it as one of the activities to have out during our weekly play date with her little buddy from downstairs.

A Birthday Party at the Beach

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Oh, how we’ve missed the Hilton… We were invited to a birthday party on the beach this afternoon and it was absolutely beautiful. Grae frolicked in the sand, dipped her toes in the ocean, and loved every minute. I had almost forgotten how much we enjoy our time there. Needless to say, my pangs for a ridiculously overpriced membership are stronger than ever. Ugh.

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Chicken Soup With Rice {a book activity}

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If you ask Gracen what she wants for dinner, 95% of the time she’ll say, ‘pasta!’ or ‘tofu!’, or some combination of the two. So this afternoon when I asked her what we should make for dinner, I was definitely not expecting, ‘Ummm… Chicken soup with rice – just like in the book!’

I must admit that I was especially pleased with this answer because I’ve been wanting to start doing activities based on our favourite books for what seems like forever now, but somehow I just haven’t made it happen yet. To get started, we read through each poem in Chicken Soup With Rice and then talked about what we’d like our chicken soup with rice to be like. G decided that it would have ‘some chicken and some rice – OF COURSE – and some veggies because they have lots of good vitamins’. With that, off to the fridge we went.

She scavenged through the crisper and decided that we’d use these vegetables for our soup, which was perfectly fine with me.

I worked on chopping them up…

While she worked on shredding some leftover chicken we had in the fridge from the night before.

We slowly cooked up our big pot of soup throughout the afternoon, and when dinner arrived, served it with some fresh bread and a reading of Chicken Soup With Rice by Miss G. ☺

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Flower Stamping With Celery and Potatoes

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Creating a flower stamp with the base of a celery stalk is one of those things that has gone around Pinterest multiple times {I think this may be the original post}, but because Miss G and I wanted to try it with a group of friends, I wanted to have several flower stamps on hand. The trouble is, I didn’t want to have to buy several heads of celery just to create stamps {partly because it’s wasteful and partly because celery costs 3 or 4 times more here in Kuwait than it does back home!}

I wasn’t sure if binding a bunch of stalks together with rubber bands would work, but it totally did. Just for fun, I created a couple of simple leaf stamps using the old-fashioned potato stamp method too.

We paired our veggie stamps with some washable tempera paints…

And got this!

At home we stamped several pieces of paper just to enjoy the process, but at Bright Minds, the kids’ artwork was turned into beautiful laminated placemats for them to take home and enjoy day after day. Pretty, right?

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Visiting the Horses at Messila Horse Stables

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This morning as my little love and I snuggled in bed as we always do, I asked her what she’d like to do today. Her response? ‘Go to a farm!!’ Oh dear. While I do know of one organic farm in Kuwait that I’d actually really like to visit, I wasn’t prepared for today being the day. After taking a moment to give it some thought, I remembered the horses I’ve seen at the 207 exit while travelling down the 30 recently… Luckily Miss G thought visiting horses on the side of a highway was close enough to a day spent at a farm, so that was that.

Khiran Beach

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Oh my word… We very possibly may have visited the most beautiful place in Kuwait today – Khiran Beach. We’d heard about it through several different friends, and today we finally made a point of going. After a family breakfast at The Early Bird and an early ‘rest time’ for Miss G, we packed up the vehicle and headed waaaay out towards Wafra. The drive itself was pretty interesting as there were literally hundreds of tents and bouncy castles set up in large pods along the highway, and as we got nearer, several different herds of camels, sheep, and goats.

We followed the directions we’d been given to a tee, but ended up at a point where we were 99% certain we were somewhere very wrong. We were in the middle of a new residential area, and the place was absolutely deserted. Several streets were lined with large sand embankments, fences, tractor tires, and ‘Construction Zone – KEEP OUT!’ signs. What we didn’t realize initially was that that was exactly where we needed to be. After Brad had been sent ahead to scope out what was on the other side of the embankments, we piled out of the vehicle, made our way through a mess of sand and tires, and found this. An absolutely gorgeous beach all to ourselves.

Despite the fact that it had been raining on the way out and we came dressed in hoodies and scarves, it wasn’t long until Grae was in the water. Lucky for us, the sun came out and completely made the day. We enjoyed a picnic, wrote ridiculous things in the sand upon the request of Miss G, and took her home salty, sandy, and exhausted. It was a good day.

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A Senses-Themed Play Date

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Since we already had a bunch of fun things leftover from this week’s classes at Bright Minds, Grae and I decided to put them to good use by creating a senses-themed play date for she and her little buddy from downstairs. Here’s a peek at our very simple materials…

Spice Painting

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I had actually planned spice painting as an open-ended activity for my Crafty Kids students today, but between making senses books, creating squishy sensory balls, and exploring the magic that is slime, we didn’t get to it. Not to worry though, between Gracen and a handful of friends, the paint got plenty of use down in the courtyard this afternoon.