One of my favourite memories is the many family movie nights that filled the weekends of my childhood. They often involved treats (um, hello blue fish, shoestring licorice, and pink popcorn!), floor beds, and cheesy feel good movies, which landed them firmly in the extra special category as far as family activities were concerned.
Since having Grae, the idea of starting a little family movie tradition of our own has always been something I’ve looked forward to. While Grae doesn’t have a whole lot of experience watching television and is still a little young for movies, our dreary Vancouver weather brought about a spontaneous first family movie afternoon today. (Okay, it was more like a first movie 30 minutes…but who’s counting, right?)
With a couch-turned-bed, heaps of pillows and blankets, a ridiculous amount of stove popped popcorn, we settled in to the original Toy Story (which was the Pixar movie I found with the lowest age rating on www.commonsensemedia.com). It was Grae’s first ever movie, my first ever Pixar film, and our very first attempt at a movie afternoon as a family of 3. It lasted for as long as it took Grae to fill her belly with popcorn, but I’d say it was a perfect beginning to a tradition in the making.
♥
Basically, all we do is toss a pillow back and forth. Seriously, that’s it. A pillow is easier to catch than a ball, it’s as soft as can be (even when you get whacked in the head repeatedly), and apparently throwing a pillow around is hilarious. 
Oh my word – this just kills me.
I’ve seen 
This afternoon we took out our crate, opened it up, and found all of the materials needed to put together a window garden. Needless to say, my little gardening enthusiast was thrilled.
Included was a clearly laid out instruction card complete with diagrams, and a sweet little observation booklet for Miss G to draw in. 
We carefully set up the garden, referring back to the instruction card after each step. Gracen, Miss ‘Let’s Do a Project!’, loved it and took her work very seriously.
With the exception of really making sure the suction cups were stuck to the window and printing the words “mint” and “basil”, Grae was able to do everything on her own, which was lovely.
We now have a sweet little garden set up right in our living room and I can’t wait to help Grae water it each day and watch as our fresh herbs grow. ☺
Today Gracen and I headed downtown to pick up our photo order from 
Here are our ingredients… Whole wheat flour, plain organic yogurt, baking soda, baking powder, organic butter, honey, frozen raspberries, vanilla, and a lemon.
We started by combining the dry ingredients.
Then we added the butter and cut it into the flour mixture with a fork because I could not for the life of me find my pastry cutter (perhaps I owned one in Kuwait, but not in Canada? Hmmm…)
Next, we added the frozen raspberries and lemon zest into the dry mixture and gently stirred them in. 
Then, in a separate bowl, we mixed the yogurt, honey, lemon juice, and vanilla together.
Grae then poured the wet mixture into the dry mixture and gently stirred it until just combined.
Afterwards, we plopped in onto a piece of parchment paper, kneaded the dough a few times, and shaped it into a circle about an inch thick.
Our dough was pretty sticky at this point, and probably could have used a little extra flour, but we just went with it and cut it up into triangles.
Then we carefully moved the scones onto a parchment-lined sheet, and popped them in the oven to bake.
Voila! A delicious homemade snack or breakfast.
Okay, so we didn’t actually mean to do it in the dark, but then again, we didn’t plan on making a leaf maze in the first place. We had actually headed outside so that Gracen could play and I could rake up and compost our mounds of leaves and tidy up the yard, but meh – making a leave maze just seemed like more fun.
I’ve seen this idea on 
Grae found her way through several times and then asked, “Make maze more tricky, Mama?”
So with a few minor adjustments, we had a new, trickier maze for her to try. 
It met her approval and then she decided she’d try driving her tractors through for something different… A fantastic idea if you ask me!
I’m happy to say, our experiment was a success. Not only do we have trees sprinkled with pretty bird feeders (thus some very happy birds), but Gracen was able to do almost all of the steps on her own at our butcher block and there was no stove required.
Here’s what we used for the project… Bird seed, gelatine, boiling water, straws cut into 2 inch pieces, some baker’s twine, and some cookie cutters and pancake moulds.
We started off by emptying two packets (not boxes – the above photo is misleading) of plain gelatine into a very large mixing bowl.
Then I carefully poured in a little bit of boiling water (this is one of the only jobs I did for the project).
Gracen then stirred the mixture very gently until all of the gelatine was dissolved.
Next, we measured out our bird seed. We used a “wild bird” variety, but I think pretty much any type would work as long as the seeds and bits are not too big – I think a finer blend works best in this case.
Then Grae poured the bird seed into our gelatine/water mixture.
We stirred it for a few minutes, making sure that all of the seeds were evenly coated and that there was no longer excess water at the bottom of the bowl.
Next, we covered a tray in parchment paper and laid out our cookie cutters and moulds.
Using a teaspoon, Grae filled each cookie cutter with seed, one by one.
You want to make sure that they’re a little bit overfull, so be generous with the seed. (This recipe made these five feeders, plus a large bird seed “cupcake” too).
Because the mixture gets really sticky, we covered the cookie cutters with a layer of parchment and Grae pressed the seeds down into the moulds.
You want to make sure the seeds are packed very tightly – it’s part of what makes the feeders stay together well.
Next, we took our straws and carefully inserted them into the cookie cutters, making sure to not place them too close to the edges. Once the straws were in the seed, we pressed the seeds down around them to make sure everything stayed tight.
Next, we popped the entire tray into the fridge and let them set for a couple of hours before taking them out and letting them dry out on the counter. We left them for most of the evening, and before I went to bed for the night, I flipped them over so that the bottoms could dry out too. (It’s a bit awkward to flip them with the straw sticking out the way it is, but you could trim the straw if you liked.)
The next morning, we gently popped the shapes out of their moulds.
Then we plucked out the straws and made sure that the holes were clear all the way through.
For the last step, we took some baker’s twine (ribbon or jute would be perfect too), put it through the holes, and knotted the tops. Voila! Pretty little feeders for the hungry birds in our yard.
Parmesan and walnut encrusted chicken, roasted brussel sprouts, steam golden beets with feta, cheese ravioli with herbs and spices from Italy.
This is how I found Miss G this morning. I was getting ready for the day while she played independently when she came to me and asked for a bowl of o’s. I retrieved her one and went to deliver them to her room to find that she had laid out a blanket, circled it with books, and was needing the o’s in order to read her Cheerio book.
Just recently, we found another way celebrate Grae’s love of reading. Through the 
At our location, the lady who runs story time (Erin) is absolutely amazing! She’s soft and gentle and makes a purpose to get to know each child and call them by name. She’s just one of those people who is meant to be around kids, you know? She’s got this way about her that makes you drawn to listen to her every word, and it totally works. Gracen enjoys each moment and then asks if we can go again the following week. 
We normally arrive a little bit early so we can explore and take in the beauty that is PBK, and then we stay for a little bit afterwards so that Grae can play. We never feel like we’re overstaying our welcome – in fact, the staff members are very sweet and invite Gracen to play and explore for as long as she likes.
Toque: Joe / Rain jacket: Baby Gap / Chandelier tee: Joe / Blush shorts: Baby Gap / Tights: Unknown / Glittered flats: Payless
Sweater: Joe / Striped baby doll dress: Old Navy / Coral tights: Joe / Brown boots: Joe
Wool jacket: Joe / Heart tee: Baby Gap / Black leggings: H&M / Knee socks: Joe / Grey Boots: H&M / “Who’s dat?” face: Courtesy of Grae
Pink jacket: Next / Heart hoodie: Unknown / Long sleeve tee: joe / Denim skinnies: H&M / Neon sneakers: H&M / Vintage Kermit: Used to be Papa’s when he was little
Scarf: // Handmade by a friend’s mom / Quilted jacket: Baby Gap / Red tutu: Baby Gap / Polka dotted leggings: Baby Gap / Glittered flats: Payless
Rain jacket: Baby Gap / Floral ruffled vest: Baby Gap / Long sleeved tee: H&M / Leopard print leggings: Joe / Gumboots: SportTek
Flower headband: Zuzuii / Peacoat: Baby Gap / Floral tee: Old navy / Blue leggings: Joe / Brown boots: Joe 
Once it was dry, Grae used some clear glue and sequins to give the lantern a little bit more sparkle.
Then we let it dry again.
