This afternoon while walking along the river, Gracen noticed a man sitting down on the rocks fishing and was fascinated. The questions started rolling in and once we’d lost sight of him, all she wanted to know was when we’d see him again. Luckily, on our way back we found him just where we’d left him. Phew.
With a new interest in fishing and a stick worthy of taking home found along the way, this post from Mini-Eco immediately came to mind. I asked Miss G if she was interested in doing some indoor fishing when we got home, and she was more than game.
Grae and I rounded up a few things… Some plasticky sheets purchased on our last trip to Urban Source, a hole punch, and a handful of paperclips.
I cut out the fish shapes, and Grae helped punch holes and feed the paper clips through.
Next, Grae chose some baker’s twine from my collection. We tied one end to her beloved stick, and used a dab of hot glue to attach the other end to a round magnet (though if you had a u-shaped magnet, you could just tie it on).
Next, we got out a big bowl, filled it with water, added a drop of blue food colouring just for fun. Gently, we set the fish on the surface of the water.
Then it was time to fish!
Gracen held her rod steady, gently lowered into the bowl overtop of the fish of her choosing, and proudly lifted up fish after fish.
She was pretty pleased with herself.
And after a whole lot of fishing, some messy water play was inevitable. ☺
♥
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Today I was lucky enough to spend the morning with some blogger friends soaking up the photography wisdom of Justine from 
Though we aim for very little screen time in our house, this afternoon Grae asked me if she could spell some words on my computer. Because there was so much potential learning involved, I just couldn’t say no. She cozied up under the covers of our big bed, selected her font colours, and typed her name first. Since she already knows how to spell ‘Gracen’, she did it on her own, even though hunting for each letter was {painfully} slow. After completing her name, she asked to type other words. She selected a new font colour each time, told me her word, and I spelled them aloud while she searched for the letters. Needless to say, her newly found skills left her as proud as a peacock.
This photo reminds me of so many of the things we adore about Vancouver. The outdoors, art, blossoms, mountains, Queen E Park… It’s a lovely combination.
Miss G in a soft voice, almost to herself, while making our 
The other night, Brad went out for Saturday night movie treats after G was in bed. I requested a fudgesicle, and he came home with a box of 18. Oy. Several fudgesicles into the box, I decided we’d better come up with a healthier version, stat.
Here’s our line up of ingredients… Frozen banana chunks, cocoa powder, pure maple syrup, and pure vanilla. Plus a popsicle mould of course.
To get started, we basically turned out frozen bananas into 
Next, we added some cocoa, a little bit of pure maple syrup, and a little bit of pure vanilla, and blended everything up again to create thick, chocolatey soft serve.
And that’s it. We simply scooped the soft serve into our popsicle moulds and popped them in the freezer overnight. 
This was the end result. Thick chocolatey banana pops that are bound to satisfy a sweet tooth or chocolate craving.
What does Miss G think? Well, after finishing her first one, she turned to see mine still almost whole, and said, “Mine’s a little bit almost all gone, Mama, so I want to trade wif you.” as if she was doing me a favour – hah! Thanks for thinking of your mama, Miss G.
Growing up, my brother and I used to stay at my Baba’s (grandmother’s) house for a week or two or three each summer. Being the phenomenal lady she is, she’d bring us into the forest, chop down what seemed like huge trees, and have us help her haul them out to create outdoor teepees worthy of side tables and mattresses. Our summer teepees are one of my very favourite childhood memories now as an adult, and definitely something that I’d like Gracen to experience. While not nearly as grand, today we threw together a very quick little teepee after stumbling across some bamboo sticks. Gracen was in awe of our new structure and immediately went in the house to retrieve her pillow and a couple of blankets. It’s amazing how special a sheet and some sticks can be when put together isn’t it? There’s no doubt that there will be many more of these in the weeks ahead (tutorial to come, for those who asked) and I can’t wait.
I swear, I’m not a hoarder. In fact, with something like 49 moves under my belt in my 31 years, it’s quite the opposite. I’d much rather toss/recycle/give something away than have to lug it to a new location. Buuuuuuut, the other day after juicing a bunch of citrus fruit, I couldn’t help but think that there might be something we could do will all of the empty rinds (please tell me some of you do this too). Not knowing what it was at the moment, I tossed them all into a container in the fridge and decided I’d figure it out later. Sure enough, a couple of days later as I was grabbing something from the fridge, I remembered the 
First, we gathered a few things from around the house… The rinds, some baker’s twine (
After threading our needle and tying a knot at the end, we pushed our embroidery needle through one side of our citrus cup, straight through the other side. I thought we may need the tack to start our holes, but we totally didn’t (though you might if you had a particularly tough rind). I did the poking, and Miss G did the pulling through part.
With the twine pulled all the way through, we pulled up the centre to create a long loop for hanging.
Next, we did a quarter turn and fed the needle straight through the rind again, this time perpendicular to the first set of holes.
Then we pulled the second centre string up to meet the first and tied a knot on the outside of the citrus cup in order to secure everything.
While she helped me ‘sew’ the first couple of rinds, Gracen discovered that she could make some pretty interesting creations with the extra citrus cups and pushpins, so that’s what she did.
This little lemon went from having ‘pokey hair’ to being an octopus, to being a porcupine, and many other things along the way.
When our citrus rind cups were complete, we focused on the food portion of the process. 
All we did was take some bird seed (we used a wild bird variety), and mixed in a tablespoon of all-natural peanut butter for every half cup of seed in order to give it some ‘stick’.
Then Grae carefully filled the cups with the sticky seed mixture one scoop at a time.
We used 1 1/2 cups of seed with 3 tablespoons of peanut butter and it filled 2 grapefruit cups and 2 lemon cups until heaping.
With that, it was off to hang the new feeders in the backyard. 
Gracen was very specific and knew she wanted one in our apple-pear tree, one in our fig tree, and one in our plum tree… And the other one got hung in our rose bush. 
While we made 
Here’s what we used for the project… Eggshells (washed well), craft glue, googly eyes, quick sprouting seeds of some sort (we went with radishes), a couple of Sharpies, and some soil.
Gracen started off by gluing a pair of googly eyes to each eggshell using craft glue and a Q-tip.
After letting the eyes dry a little bit, she used Sharpies to add on little button noses and pink smiles.
Then we carefully set all of the little egg heads into an empty carton, making sure to be mindful of the still slightly wet eyes.
Using a small spoon, Miss G then filled each of the egg heads with potting soil.
Next up was the addition of seeds. While you should probably only plant a couple of seeds in the space an eggshell provides, one or two sprouts wouldn’t make for a very good head of hair. With that in mind, Gracen sprinkled them generously. 
Then she covered them with another sprinkling of soil and patted the surfaces down with her finger tips.
One of our last steps was finding them a good, safe spot with lots of sunlight, so on a crate in front of our living room window it was. Grae gave them a good misting, and we hoped for the best. (When having kids water seeds, I always opt for using a spray bottle. It’s fun, it’s great for motor skill development, and it’s nearly impossible to overwater.)
Counting the afternoon we planted as day one, here’s what we had on days 3 and 4. Not bad, right?
And here’s after a couple more days…
By day 7 (today), here’s what we have. Little egg heads with wild green hair. Before long, it’ll be time for a 
Another week, another 
Breakfast // Scrambled organic egg with fresh parmesan and basil rolled in a wholewheat flatbread. Strawberry slices and black grapes.
Breakfast // Yogurt parfait made with homemade granola, organic plain yogurt, fresh strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, and a tiny drizzle of pure maple syrup.
Breakfast // 
Breakfast // Wholewheat bagel with all-natural cream cheese and hemp hearts. Strawberry quarters and blackberries.
Breakfast // Wholewheat rye toast with all-natural cream cheese and avocado slices. Fresh pear.
Breakfast // Organic oatmeal topped with strawberry slices, freshly whipped cream (unsweetened), and chia seeds.
Snack // 
Lunch {and snacks on the go} // Banana berry muffin. Dill havarti slices. Raw almonds and kamut puffs. Seedy cranberry breakfast bar. Cucumber slices. Carrot sticks. Edamame beans. Alphabet pretzels.
Lunch // Wholewheat couscous with avocado, red and orange peppers, black beans, red onions, olive oil, and freshly squeezed lime.
Lunch {and snacks on the go} // Banana berry muffin. 
Lunch // Tuna and avocado in mini wholewheat pitas. Red pepper slices. Baby carrots. Cucumber slices.
Lunch {and snacks on the go} // Pear chunks. Strawberry halves. Kiwi slices. Mixed nuts. 
Lunch {and snacks on the go} // Apple slices. Strawberry halves. Red grapes. Red pear. ‘Gracen mix’. Orange pepper slices. Edamame beans. Chickpeas. Watermelon strawberry fruit chews. Avocado, hemp hearts, and all-natural cream cheese rolled in a wholewheat tortilla.
Dinner // Turkey zucchini spinach meatloaf. Pesto tortelini with fresh parmesan, spinach, garlic, and olive oil.
Dinner // Quinoa ‘mac n’ cheese’ with broccoli, red peppers, and leeks. 
Dinner // 
Dinner // Wholewheat fusili with zucchini turkey tomato sauce and fresh parmesan.
Dinner // Veggie soup with harvest grains and chickpeas. Avocado and all-natural cream cheese in an Ezekiel wrap.
Dinner // Squash and ricotta-filled pasta with 
Vancouver sunshine plus an impromptu dinner picnic at the beach and ocean-dipped toes makes for a very happy mama and babe.
Oh my goodness. After our morning cooking class at 
Here’s the line-up of ingredients… Pure maple syrup, coconut oil, dried apples (we dehydrated our own, but you can just as easily buy unsweetened, unsulphered ones at the store), popping corn, cinnamon, and sliced raw almonds (not pictured because ours were toasting in the oven).
To start off, we added our coconut oil, popping corn, and cinnamon into a pot (thanks to my lovely friend 
When the popping has finished, we had a delicious, slightly coconut-y popcorn, evenly coated in warm cinnamon.
Next, we chopped up our apples, put them in a bowl, and drizzled our maple syrup on top. 
Then my freshly bathed sous chef dumped the mixture on the popcorn and mixed it all up with her hands.
The last step was sprinkling the generously toasted almonds on top and giving the popcorn one final mix. 
Depending on how much will power you have, you can either eat it immediately, or lay it out on a baking sheet and let it lose some of its stickiness for a few minutes – both ways are delicious (though we definitely know how the ‘served immediately’ kind tastes like better than the ‘wait’ kind).
When I asked Grae what she thought of it, she replied with “Nummy!”, “Sweet!”, and “Delicious!” in between ‘mmmmmmmm’ sounds. My guess is that she liked it every bit as much as I did.
While Gracen is usually more than game for impromptu adventures, she is, without a doubt, a little girl who thrives on routine and structure. She very much enjoys being part of the process when it comes to selecting activities and outings and regularly asks me which day of the week it is so she can figure out our agenda for the day. “Tomorrow is Thursday, Mama? We have dance class on Thursday! What day it is today?” she’ll say. I find that when she has a clear picture of our days and knows what’s to come, she’s calmer, happier, and transitions more easily (as many kids do, I think). 
I actually made ours using Pages (an awesome word processing program for Macs), but a design-based program like Pixelmator or PhotoShop would obviously work perfectly too. Since Grae and I do quite a lot on our days at home on our own and weekends tend to include more downtime, I opted for full spaces for Monday to Friday and a shared space for Saturday and Sunday. 
After finishing up the calendar itself, I set off to create activity cards that would fit nicely onto the calendar’s columns. To start off, I made a long list of the activities we do regularly and searched for clipart to match. I popped the pictures into boxes and added in some text in along the bottoms, and they were done.
Because I wanted the calendar and activity cards printed in colour and as 11 x 17s, I paid the few dollars it cost to have the files printed professionally. Then I took everything home, cut the activity cards out, and trimmed the edges of the calendar.
With my pieces cut out, it was back to the store to have everything laminated. While I think I could have fit everything into 2 laminating pouches, the woman working there was worried the pieces were too close together, so 3 it was (which came to around $14).
Next, I cut all of the laminated pieces out, making sure to leave a substantial plastic border around the edges.
I went back and forth on whether to use magnets or velcro several times before finally settling on velcro. The determining factor was the realization that with velcro pieces, the calendar can still be used on a fridge or magnetic board, whereas the opposite isn’t true. Plus I had a giant roll of adhesive-backed velcro already on hand (if you don’t, you can find similar stuff at fabric, hardware, dollar, and teaching stores), which was nice. I simply cut out squares of velcro, put the scratchy pieces on the activity cards, and the fuzzy pieces on the calendar itself.
With everything ready to go, Gracen and I chose a spot for her brand new calendar (the excitement was uncontainable!) We thought about putting it in her room or in the hallway just outside of her room, but chose to put it in the kitchen instead, as it’s where we start most of our days. Now, while I make breakfast, she’ll be able to take a look at her calendar and see what we have planned for the day.
One thing we made sure to do when hanging it was to place it nice and low so that Miss G can see it and move pieces around easily (thigh height on me is perfect for Grae). I hung it up using painter’s tape rolls, but you could easily use poster mounting squares or something similar. (Teacher tip: If you use tape rolls, place them horizontally to avoid your calendar slowly slipping down the wall.) We’ve had the cool magnetic strip hanging below for a long while now and hadn’t yet found the perfect use for it until now. While a bag or pouch would do just fine, the magnetic strip holds all of the activity cards and allows them to be seen all at once which is a perk. 
We’ve only had it up and running for a few of days now, but so far, Gracen is loving her calendar. As soon as it was hung, she immediately wanted to plan out our week together. First we popped up things that needed to be done, like errands, a trip to the library to exchange our soon-to-be-due books, and our Thursday dance class, and then we chose some just-for-fun activities for the other days. She scheduled a hot drink date for her and Bradley on Saturday morning while I’m at a workshop (adorable!) and a family trip to Granville Island on Sunday (fun!)