Today Miss G and I trudged off the beaten path a little to check out somewhere that’s been on my mental list for a very long while now… Iona Beach. Nestled in a quiet area out beside the Vancouver Airport, Iona Beach is definitely unique. After you pass the farms lining the airport runway, you come to Iona Beach Regional Park, a piece of rural heaven just outside of the city.
Now I must admit that there were some very serious tears when we got out of the car and Miss G realized that this beach was not the awesome playground-having beach she’s used to visiting. Our saving grace, however, was this lookout tower that was cool enough to {at least semi} make up for the disappointment.
While there were tons of swampy beach areas to explore, we opted to head out for a walk on the park’s jetty.
We were definitely the odd ones out in a community of bird watchers and dog walkers (every single person we passed had a dog or binoculars and/or a camera with a giant zoom), but what we really loved was the plane watching! They were amazingly close and basically came one after the next.
The other fascination during our jetty walk was with potato bugs. I’m not sure if Grae has seen these much in the past, but they were plentiful and she certainly loved them.
What I didn’t realize when I suggested we check out the jetty was that it was 4.5 kms long! We made it a couple of kilometres out before Miss G called it quits and asked to turn around. On the way back, there were definitely a few bouts of carrying, several sitting breaks, and even an attempt to crawl ‘because it’s easier for tired legs’. (Note to self: bring the stroller next time!)
Next time the mood strikes to plane watch or take a long walk out into the ocean, we’ll definitely go back. If you’re in the area and want to visit, simply head to the airport, and before arriving to the terminal, take a right onto Templeton… You’ll run right into it!
♥
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In honour of Earth Day, Miss G and I took to the streets of our neighbourhood for a little spring-themed natured hunt today. It was the perfect way to spend our afternoon…soaking in some sunshine, taking in the fresh air, and observing the nature around us a little more closely than we usually do. 
Beforehand, while Grae was napping, I gathered up a few things… A muffin tin to serve as a collection receptacle, a print out of nature item tags sized to fit in the bottoms of muffin cups, some scissors, and some tape.
In order to create my tags (which were printed on paper from our recycling bin…hence the holes), I simply created 12 circles sized to fit in our muffin tin (4.5 centimetres in diameter for ours), found some clipart via Google Images, and added some text. 
Then I printed them off, cut them out, and stuck them into the bottoms of the muffin tin cups with small pieces of rolled tape.
When Gracen woke up, she was eager to get outside and get searching. We quickly went over the items we’d be on the lookout for and headed out. First stop? The backyard to see if there were seeds underneath our plum tree. Sure enough, there were!
Dandelions and grass were easily collected in our yard, and then it was off down the street to one of the few trees that still has blossoms on it.
After each new find, Grae would take inventory, decide on a couple of new things to focus on, and head in a particular direction.
This time she decided we’d better head back to the backyard to collect some flower buds, moss, and soil from the garden – success!
One of our last stops was to collect a few clovers from a little patch growing through some brickwork in the front of the house.
At this point, we had done pretty well, but as hard as we’d looked, we hadn’t yet found a mushroom or a feather.
We decided we’d take a little break in order to some sidewalk chalk art, and Gracen would ask Papa to take her out again once he returned from work for the evening. Low and behold, they returned with the entire tray full!
Gracen really enjoyed this activity and we’ll definitely be using the muffin tin method in games and hunts in the future. It gave a clear visual of what was needed and what had been found, our items stayed in place and were organized, and Grae really liked everything having its own spot and filling up the entire tray. 
Being the uber generous, community-focused company that they are, RMFC invited Miss G and I, along with a pile of our blogger mama and munchkin friends, down to the restaurant for a toddler cooking class this morning. Now while this could be a challenge given our crunchy ‘
Our morning began with Suzanne, the restaurant’s co-founder and owner, fearlessly leading our kiddos through the process of making their own mango guacamole. What I loved most is that Suz allowed the kids to do the prep work themselves… No watching an adult cook around here! She gave them the tools, modelled the process, and set them free to be the capable little chefs that they are.
Some avocado, mango, lime juice, and fresh herbs later, Gracen and her little friends had a delicious dip for their carrot sticks.
Next up was a simple and much better for you version of lemonade… A bunch of freshly-squeezed lemons, a little pour of pure maple syrup, and a lot of icy cold water and we had a drink that will be perfect for hot summer days.
After that, we made my personal favourite… Suz’s apple pie popcorn (you can see our slightly modified version 
Together, Portia (one of the sweet little ladies belonging to Jessica of 
The magic of bubbles.
A giant microphone for a little performer.
“Hello Goose! How you doing today? You wanna see my flower???”
Every few days, a newspaper bound in a long rubber band makes its way onto our porch. If it’s not already soaked through with early morning rain, I half-heartedly flip through the stories and flyers {that make up the majority of the paper} so I feel a tiny bit less guilty about recycling it almost immediately. This morning, however, when we found a bone dry paper on our porch, we decided to put it to use.
Gracen’s been helping me wash our produce and sort it into the different refrigerator sections for a long while now and often asks if things are fruits or vegetables, so I decided we’d use our grocery store flyers to play a little fruit and veggie sorting game. 
Next we had a little chat about how we know if something is a fruit or vegetable… While it’s kind of a complex subject filled with talk of flowers, ovaries, and plant accessory parts, I subscribe to the fruits have seeds theory when teaching kids (true story – avocados, peppers, and cucumbers are all fruits!) It’s not a perfect rule because wee ones often don’t realize that things like bananas and blueberries have seeds, but it works for most things.
After adding a few little seeds next to our fruit heading, I began cutting pictures out of the flyers. I’d pass one to Grae, ask her what it was, whether or not it had seeds, and if she thought it was a fruit or veggie, and she’d paste it in the correct box.
After a couple of times, she took things into her own hands… I’d pass her a picture and she’d say, “Dis is lettuce. It no have seeds, so it’s a vegetable!”
When we’d used up all of the flyer photos, she took a minute to admire her project. She was a very proud girl and immediately went to hang her poster on the fridge.
Later on in the day, after a big produce shop, Grae was helping me lay all of the freshly washed produce on the butcher block to dry. Right away, I could see that she was putting all of the fruits on one side and the veggies on the other, so I grabbed a wooden spoon to act as a divider {and she grabbed her poster to add to the display}. Instantly we had a real life sorting game.
These are her piles when she decided she was done playing. The Chinese eggplant on the right is what she chose this time for our 
This morning at 4 a.m. I awoke abruptly to hysterical cries coming from Gracen’s room. Though it happens rarely, if I do hear her during the night, I give her a bit of time to resettle and she does, but this was a different sort of cry. It was panicked. I scrambled out of bed to see what was wrong, and as soon as I neared her bed, she wrapped her arms around my neck, pulled me close, and said “Mama!” in a tone that was both desperate and relieved. I cuddled in beside her and asked her what she was sad about…
Sometimes, or better yet, many times, it’s the simple things. This afternoon, my freshly napped bubba woke up to discover a new package by our door. She excitedly asked to open it, not caring about which actual item may be inside, but rather which packing material was surrounding the item (both bubble wrap and packing peanuts are huge in our house). To her satisfaction, she found a fresh new sheet of bubble wrap inside, just waiting to be enjoyed.
After a good long time poking at it with her little fingers, I asked, “Are there any other ways we could pop the bubbles?” This is what she came up with…
First came stomping on it with her feet, then she moved to digging her elbows into it and stabbing it with a wooden block…
Next she tried rolling beads on it (which actually worked fabulously when a good amount of pressure was applied) and twisting it forcefully.
Lastly was placing a borrowed book (sorry library!) on top of the bubble wrap and standing on it. The good news is that this didn’t work very well at all, so it was short-lived. 
File all of these lovely things – cool sunshiny mornings, layers and boots, days with grandmas – under things we’ll miss once back in Kuwait.
Many days, Miss G wakes up from her nap (though it escaped us 
While a basic rectangular table with four corner legs would have probably lent itself more graciously to the project, our centre stand table provided an unexpected perk – two separate rooms. As soon as I mentioned this to Grae, she immediately deemed one of them a reading room and the other a music room. 
Setting up our fort couldn’t have been easier. We simply moved the chairs into the kitchen, threw a king-sized sheet on top, and moved in a few pillows and blankets to give it a cozy feel. In the reading room, we added a couple stacks of small books, and in the music room, we added a xylophone, a 
Whew! It’s been a while… A very long while since our last 
Breakfast // Cinnamon french toast made with wholewheat shepherd’s bread, stewed blueberries, and chia. Orange slices.
Breakfast // Coconut chia pudding with strawberry slices and raw sliced almonds.
Breakfast // Oatmeal with raw sliced almonds, chia, hemp hearts, and frozen blueberries. Orange pepper slices.
Breakfast // Organic brown rice cereal with sliced almonds, hemp hearts, loads of cinnamon (she’s obsessed!), and almond milk.
Breakfast // Toasted squarely bread, colby cheese, and a scrambled egg. 
Breakfast // Plain organic yogurt, 
Breakfast // Old-fashioned oats with granny smith apples, almond butter, and cinnamon.
Breakfast // Star-shpaed scrambled organic egg. All-natural peanut butter and old-fashioned oat banana bites.
Green smoothie // Banana, old-fashioned oats, all-natural peanut butter, coconut milk, vanilla, and spinach.
Green smoothie (though not actually green) // Banana, apple, avocado, kale, frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries, chia, and water.
Smoothie // Banana, pear, apple, frozen blueberries, steamed beets, chia seeds, and water.
Snack // 
Snack // 
Snacks & Lunch {on the go} // Baby carrots. Orange chunks. 
Lunch {on the go} // Mixed fruit. 
Lunch // Tuna and avocado on wholewheat rye. Baby carrots.
Lunch // Red lentil pasta and cheese. Baby peas and corn with dill.
Lunch // Grilled all-natural peanut butter and no-sugar-added jam sandwich (an oddly delicious favourite from my childhood).
Lunch // Curried tuna apple salad on a wholewheat croissant. Strawberry chunks. Grapes.
Lunch {on the go} // Red pepper slices. Cucumber slices. Grapes. Strawberries. Avocado. Edamame crackers with organic cheddar.
Dinner // Personal turkey meatloaf. Mashed potatoes. Roasted carrots. Roasted Brussels sprouts.
Dinner // Homemade chicken tenders. Steamed carrots and snap peas with fresh herbs. Roasted baby potatoes. Homemade honey mustard sauce.
Dinner // Wholewheat fusilli with fresh spinach and all-natural chicken sausage in a clear sauce.
Dinner // Harvest grains, edamame, steamed carrots and snap peas with grilled prawns.
Dinner // 
Dinner // Wholewheat couscous. Mini 
Dinner // Spinach tortellini with carrots, broccoli, edamame, onions, and fresh parmesan.
Dinner // 
Dinner // White bean chicken chili with colby jack, avocado, and fresh cilantro.
Though our little miss is normally a rockstar sleeper, Grandma Charlotte is staying with us right now and sleep is difficult when excitement levels are running this high. After a tough time getting to sleep last night, today’s nap didn’t happen. And a skipped nap in this house is not just an ‘oh well’… This little lady needs her naps. Desperately. Our coping mechanism to get through the afternoon as gracefully as possible? Getting outside and soaking in some fresh air and sunshine. It just so happens that today it was in the {yet to be planted} garden in pajamas. White ones.
