After this morning’s mud soup fun down at the beach, I decided it would be fun to set up a little mud kitchen for Miss G to play with in the backyard. Now I don’t know if you too have seen the beautiful and elaborate mud kitchens that often pass through my Pinterest feed, but ours was nothing like those. A few items from the kitchen, some dirt from the garden, and a water source all squished onto a second hand plastic table and Miss G was pleased as punch. After all, playing with mud is supposed to be simple, right?
Gracen poured water, added greens, and gently stirred hot soup. She scooped soil, packed it down, and added pebble sprinkles to dirt cupcakes. She tended to gooey mud pancakes, flipping them every now and again.
And lucky for me, I was the chosen taste tester.
We woke up to an absolutely gorgeous sunny day today and immediately packed up a lunch and headed down to our favourite beach-front playground. As always, Grae spent tons of time climbing ladders, sliding through tunnels, riding the swings, and spinning on the merry-go-round, but during this visit, she spent just as much time climbing on and off this log, adding bits and pieces, and tending to her delicious-looking mud soup.
After our recent 
What I just learned about Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company, and didn’t know before is that they do all kinds of fun special events. Some, like their family nights, date nights, and pizza making nights happen on a weekly basis, and others, like the 
This morning I was beckoned by the usual “Mama, Mama – bum wiiiipe!” call from the bathroom, and arrived to find this. My little lady, perched up on the toilet, sporting self-drawn Papa eyebrows just as I had drawn on her yesterday during our 
Earlier this week, Miss G and I were invited to one of our neighbourhood grocery stores to find out more about a new online resource recently launched by 
During our tour, Melodie shared many of these useful tips with us, and though they weren’t completely new, they were great reminders. Here are some of my favourites: 
Melodie also introduced us to one of my favourite parts of 
While I found the whole event very interesting, I must admit this little monkey was slightly less enthused… I managed to keep her happy for most of the trip with a mini colouring pad, healthy snacks (avocado! clementines! tofu cubes! 
I thought of putting this little station together for Gracen to explore months and months ago, but only got to it today. Perhaps today just felt like a face painting sort of day? I don’t know…
Either way, I set out her 
And when she did, was she ever excited! She didn’t quite know what it was all about, but she was excited none the less. I stood back and watched her take off her tights. Then she turned to me and asked, “Mama helps Grae Grae paint her toes?” Hah!
Once I explained that they were face painting crayons, she was even more pleased. And off she went, decorating her face.
She went through several changes during the process… First, she announced that she was a raccoon, and after adding a few more lines here and there, she decided that she was a kitty cat.
Here she is with her first finished look. ☺
When it was time to remove it, she tried using the damp cloth I’d provided, but it was quite tricky. Face paint is stubborn, but I knew just what would do the trick…. One of our very favourite body/household/cooking products – organic coconut oil! She dipped her fingers into it, started rubbing it on her face, and the paint literally melted off. Afterwards she was able to use her cloth and wipe her face clean – easily!
Miss G decorated herself for a while longer, then let me have the final turn… The natural choice? Papa eyebrows, of course! ☺ I don’t know who found it more hysterical – her or me.
Yesterday, while shopping for fresh produce, Miss G asked if we could take home a starfruit. It got me thinking. I didn’t know if Grae had ever even seen a starfruit, let alone tasted one. I said sure, let her select the one she wanted, and carry it throughout the store for the remainder of our trip.
Today, after nap time, we pulled it out to investigate. We started by smelling it…
Then moved on to running our fingers over it to feel its texture…
And then to gently pinching it to see how soft or hard it was.
When we were done investigating the outside of the fruit, we decided to cut it open.
Of course the first thing Miss G wanted to do was taste it. This particular starfruit was still a little too green, but you can’t investigate a fun new fruit without tasting it!
Starfruit got her seal of approval, and while munching away, Grae was pleased to discover seeds inside the fruit.
This was such a fun and easy little activity that I think I’m going to let Grae choose one new item during our produce shopping trip each week. While we eat a TON of produce, there are still many fruits and veggies we haven’t tried (especially in our local market’s extensive Asian section). It’ll be fun to branch out a little bit and try new things, and I truly believe that when kids are involved in the shopping and cooking aspects of food, they’re much more open-minded about tasting their selections and creations.
Unlike 
An indoor picnic! It was special enough that Miss G wasn’t completely crushed about not making it out the door to play gym, but kept our daily routine moving along and neared us to nap time, which was desperately needed. We laid a blanket out in the living room, gathered a few cushions, and turned on some happy music in hopes of a reset.
Miss G requested a “special picnic lunch” and chose a random assortment of foods cut into small pieces, in true toddler fashion. Her lunch included orange pepper slices, baby carrots, grilled chicken cubes, chunks of aged cheddar, a multigrain mini bun with hummus, kiwi slices and some fruit water.
This mama, on the other hand, needed something more meal-ish, especially after the morning we’d had. For me, baby kale and baby spinach topped with fresh veggies, feta, cilantro dressing, and a few mini 
Grae thought the entire set up was very special and went back to being my happy little sidekick almost as soon as we began putting it together.
And thank goodness for that. 
Okay, okay, okay…. So I know I first declared 
Erin hit the nail on the head when she explained that adding blueberries into the mix to prevents the green veggies from mixing with the brown cocoa and turning into a grey sludge. Brilliant, really.
Each morning I give this to Grae she has the exact same response. “It’s a CHOCOLATEY smoozie!! But not yucky sugary chocolate, right Mama? Just Gracen chocolate.” As soon as I give her the confirmation that it’s chocolately because we’ve added cocoa to it, but it’s still filled with all kinds of healthy ingredients, she chugs it back. Silly little munchkin.
Do you ever set up an activity that you think will be a total hit and it just kind of flops? Or if it doesn’t flop, it just doesn’t take off the way you thought it would? That was the case with this sensory tray.
After a 
I kept it very simple and filled a tray with raspberry-scented shaving foam, sprinkled glitter on top of it, and set out a warm bucket of water with a hand towel.
Grae dove in.
She definitely had fun mixing up the different colours of glitter and squishing the foam between her fingers…
And she even thought it was funny that it stuck to her hands at first, but after a while, the fact that she couldn’t properly clean the foam off of her hands and arms, even with the bucket of water and towel, started to bother her.
She decided to gather some sandbox tools and played for a while longer, but the activity never really took off the way I thought it would. In the end, there was a giant tray of semi-played with foam just left there and she was done.
If anything, this was a great way to get messy. ☺
Something I absolutely love doing on weekends is going on little family adventures. Driving to a part of the city we don’t frequent often, parking the car, and exploring. Add in a sunny gorgeous day after a long run of rainy ones, and it’s that much better.
Back when we were living in Kuwait, I remember desperately longing for rain. The kind that lasts days and days and lends itself to cozy hoodies, movie afternoons, and pots of soup simmering on the stove. Well, I’m happy to say, I think I’ve officially had my fix. It’s been raining for several days in a row now, and though lazy afternoons on the couch watching documentaries and romantic comedies don’t exactly fit well with our current life, we’ve enjoyed the rain nonetheless. 
The project started off as a 
Grae decorated her coffee filters independently for a while, and then asked me to join her to finish them off. 
Afterwards, Miss G used an easy-to-squeeze spray bottle to soak the filters pretty thoroughly.
While waiting for them to dry, we began to work on our butterfly bodies. Using Sharpies, we drew little faces on the tops of the bamboo pins.
Here they are when done.
Next, Grae chose some pipe cleaners from our stash, we cut them in half, and bent them into little antennae shapes.
When we got back to our filters, they weren’t quite dry yet, so we took a blowdryer to them. 10 seconds each was all they needed.
To assemble the butterflies, we simply pinched them across the middle (Miss G did this job) and fanned the wings out nicely (my job).
Then Grae carefully selected a clothespin body and a set of sparkly antennae and we clipped everything together.
Here are are the two butterflies Miss G declared her favourites.
At the last minute, we decided to add magnets to the backs of the clothespins with hot glue (I also popped a little squeeze of glue into the tops of the clothespins too, just to hold everything together more permanently).
And here’s my proud little girl with her finished project.