First off, did you know that it’s actually St. Paddy’s and not St. Patty’s?! I usually pride myself on using fairly decent spelling and grammar, but I’ll be the first to admit that I had no idea. In fact, I used St. Patty’s this morning… Gah. It wasn’t until I read this shared by the lovely Erin at Large that I found out the truth. Oops.
Anyways, enough with that. Here’s a little peek at our Sunday/St. Patricks Day…
A green breakfast {a lime refresher smoothie, veggie pancakes, kiwi slices, and avocado chunks}.
Girl in green.
A frozen treat.
Post-nap shamrock stamping.
Green pasta and cheese.
♥
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First ever juice box. Slightly baffled at first (juice?! orange juice?! in a box?!), but after the surprise wore off, she was pretty thrilled about it all.
Last month, Gracen and I were lucky enough to receive a discovery kit from 
Gracen was thrilled to receive a bright and beautiful package full of fun goodies and I was thrilled with how quickly it arrived and how professional the package looked.
Sparked discovery kits come with everything you need to complete several projects right there inside the box – markers, paper, pencils and instructions included! Our kit was pirate-themed and came with four easy activities… A folded paper pirate hat to make, a wooden treasure chest to decorate, a treasure map to create, and a popsicle stick parrot puppet to assemble.
Grae was super excited to get started and chose to make the paper pirate hat first (talk about taking me back to my childhood!)
Though the finished product wouldn’t quite stay on her head, for us, projects like these are all about the process. We spent time together, we worked as a team, and we had fun together, and that’s what’s important. If we wanted to, we could attach some sort of elastic easily enough and add the hat to her 
Next up, Gracen chose to decorate her treasure box. At first she began adding splashes of colour here and there and then she requested that I draw some shapes for her to colour in. She thought decorating a wooden box was a blast and I loved that Sparked had included high-quality crafting products for us to use.
While we haven’t had a chance to make our treasure map yet, there are already plenty of things I love about Sparked Kids Crafts…
One of the other places that has been on my list forever is 
And that’s just what Miss G and I did today. 
The beach was quiet… With a few teenagers practicing on the far court and two other moms with munchkins playing, Gracen and I had more space than we could ever want.
While we brought along a little bag of sand toys, 6 Pack already had all of the bases covered. From shovels to buckets, rakes, sand castle moulds, balls, frisbees, and tractors, it was all already there for us to play with. Or course laying and rolling around in the sand was just as much fun too.
As was burying ourselves.
We spent two and a half hours playing, and even then Gracen wasn’t ready to go. And I can’t blame her… She had just discovered this perfect jumping ledge and was working hard on her sand dives.
The nice thing about the indoor beach is that while you can get dirty to your heart’s content out on the sand, when you’re finished there is spacious foot washing ‘sink’ and full-on showers in the bathrooms. There’s also several picnic tables and comfy wooden loungers come lunch time. 
Ever since our recent 
Fruit lends itself to creating a rainbow so well that I could have easily made the entire thing just from one food group, but I decided to try and include at least a little bit of protein, dairy, and veg too. I ended up with strawberry chunks, all-natural sharp cheddar cubes, low-sodium chickpeas, edamame beans, fresh blueberries, and banana coins for the clouds (sorry indigo and violet – skipped you this time!)
The chickpeas were scooped up by my hungry little monkey before I had a chance to assemble the rainbow, so they were replaced with chunks of yellow pepper (just as well – she loves those too). Using a small plate and following its arc made shaping the rainbow really easy.
And you should have seen the eyes on my little rainbow loving girl when I set the plate down in front of her… She loved it so much that we had a great brainstorming session about all of the foods that could be used to create a rainbow snack (and she of course had way more ideas than I did). 
A couple of weekends ago, at our local farmer’s market, we came across a Abbotsford-based farmer selling my favourite fruit… kiwi. While I had no idea that kiwi fruit was grown locally, I did know that kiwi is delicious and lasts a long time when properly kept, so I stocked up. When we got home, the kiwi went into the back of the crisper and I forgot about them for a while. Oops.
Upon rediscovering a stash of over a dozen kiwis, I decided we had to put {at least some of} them to good use asap. I ran a few ideas past my sous chef and she very confidently decided on popsicles. As you do. We gathered up a few simple ingredients – the kiwi, some plain yogurt, a little bit of honey, and some pure apple juice, and got started. 
While I’m sure they would have been yummy given the original line up of ingredients, at the last minute I decided to add in an avocado… Extra creaminess and extra nutrients equals a win-win, right?
My little helper threw everything into the food processor…
Stopping to sample her first ever taste of apple juice. When the measuring cup was four fifths empty she asked, “Dump it in now, Mama?” Hmmm… you think she enjoyed it?
After replacing our missing apple juice, we processed everything until smooth.
This was the result. A super smooth, super creamy mixture that Miss G wanted to drink then and there.
We transferred the mixture into our makeshift popsicle moulds, which are still some of my very favourites despite the fact that we now have several proper sets.
Grae happily placed the lids on top and inserted the wooden popsicle sticks…
And it was time for the freezer.
Several hours later, we had delicious, healthy popsicles Miss G couldn’t wait to get her little hands on.
Mama’s little helper proudly putting away her new treats.
Last weekend, while tidying up the backyard a little bit, I came across a random 2×4 shoved in a corner along the fence. I don’t know if everyone thinks this way, but when I come across an item, the first place my mind goes is how could we use this for play? Of course a long flat wooden board almost begs to be used as a balance beam, so why complicate things, right?
Before we got to using it too much, we pulled out our sidewalk chalk and decorated it a bit. And by ‘we’ I basically mean that I drew while Miss G gave instructions. ☺
To start off, we placed it flat on the ground and Grae carefully walked back and forth a few times.
Then I thought it would be fun to add a little incline. I brought out a thin cement block and propped up one side of the 2×4, but Miss G automatically said, “No – TWO blocks! Then we can make a bridge!” So a bridge it was.
This little set-up is so, so simple, but it’s a lot of fun and it’s great for balance and motor skill development too.
Spinach and baby kale salad, barbecued chicken, parmesan cauliflower mash, Israeli couscous and avocado salad.
Filthy, hungry, and happy.
Backyard barbecue season is on its way back. Yay for that.
While we have many favourite playgrounds around Vancouver (like 
Upon arriving, I realized that although the park was new to us, I’d been there countless times before with the children I nannied throughout my university (and beginning teaching) days. I guess I should have made the realization based on the area and park address, but whole ‘West Point Grey Park’ title threw me off. I, and everyone I’ve ever heard speak of the park, have always called it Trimble Park. Who knew its actual name was something different?! 
Name confusion aside, this park was a lot of fun back in the day, and is even better due to some recent (or at least semi-recent) additions. 
Included are three separate play structures (2 big ones and a teeny tiny one for very little ones), 6 slides, 2 sets of swings (baby, toddler, and regular included), a tire swing, hanging bars, a teeter-totter, and lots of space for playing in the sand and rocks.
A fun addition since my last visit is this rock climbing wall. Though still needing a tiny bit of assistance, Gracen loved climbing up and liked hanging out on top with all of the big kids even more.
The other thing I love about this park is the natural play areas. This little cove of trees was a favourite of the kids I nannied, and Grae loves it too. She’s hiding here. Can’t you tell?
To top it all off, the park has basketball courts, soccer fields, and baseball diamonds, plus public washrooms (warm water and soap included!)
Is there anything more fun than receiving a surprise package with your name on it? Probably not.