After telling her that I was going to go out to see my friends and Papa would be with her for dinner and bedtime…
“Dat’s a sad fing. Grae Grae want to keep Mama. Dat Mama is da best mama.”
On the day it was time to compost her beloved polka dotted pumpkin…
“Dat’s a very sad fing, Mama… Frowing da punkin in da compost. Grae Grae no like dat.”
Talking about the Apple onesie Bradley bought her in Cupertino…
“Dat one’s from Canaforna. Papa bought it dere. Grae Grae loves Canaforna. Grae Grae wants to drive to her.”
During a post-nap cuddle with Mama…
“Dis is da best Mama. Dis is Grae Grae’s mama. Grae Grae loves only dis mama.”
Goodness gracious… When she says things like this I could just eat her up.
♥
Getting family photos done is something I’ve wanted to do for the last two years. Yet somehow, I just haven’t made it happen. There was excuse after excuse after excuse… It started with we’ve got way too much to do before returning back to Kuwait with a 20 day old baby, to it’d probably be really hard to find our kind of photographer here in the desert, to let’s just wait until we’re more settled back here in Vancouver. The problem with the whole situation is that before long, you have a 2 year old {who is going on 5} and a 
Somehow, amidst a rain-filled week, our shoot landed on a gorgeously sunny afternoon with not a rain cloud in sight. We met with Bethany, she immediately made friends with Grae, and we got started. 
On the night of our viewing session, Brad and I made our way downtown to Bethany’s beautiful little studio. She greeted us with hot tea and world’s most amazing organic doughnuts (made of locally-sourced ingredients no less!), and turned on a slideshow of our images. They were stunning. 
The photos spewed Gracen’s little personality and made the simplest of things – walking hand in hand, collecting leaves, marching, and buying bread – look beautiful.
We’re so very grateful to have our very first set of family photos and I’m beyond excited to share that Bethany is generously offering one lucky 
Today Miss G and I tried making and playing with the ridiculously fun {and equally messy} substance called Oobleck. It’s made out of only 2 ingredients (or 3 if you want to add a little colour), and it isn’t quite a liquid and it isn’t really a solid… In fact, it behaves like both. 
All you need in order to make Oobleck is water and cornstarch, plus food colouring if you wish.
I like to start by adding the colouring to the water first because it’s a lot easier to stir colouring into water than into the finished Oobleck.
Plus, this way you get to watch the colouring disperse into the water, which is always kind of neat.
Start by giving your water a little stir to make sure the colouring is evenly dispersed.
Then add your cornstarch a cup at a time, stirring it into the water as you go.
When the mixture is nice and thick and you’re not able to pour off any excess water, your Oobleck is ready.
Gracen is normally pretty much a Mama’s girl, but on days like today, she wants nothing more than to be with her Papa. (All.day.long.)
To set up a simple pomegranate play station for her, I sliced the pomegranate in half, cut a cross about an inch deep on the flat surface of one of the halves, and popped it in a big bowl of cool water for her. (Removing the seeds of a pomegranate in water is by far the best way to do it. Keeping the fruit submerged in water seems to loosen everything up a little, plus it prevents nasty pomegranate stains from occurring. )
I also set out a little tray of “tools” which included a small bowl, a teaspoon, and a large slotted spoon.
Without any direction or modelling, I asked her, “Do you want to play?” She of course let out an immediate “YES!” and jumped right in.
Right away, she began pulling apart the peel and pulp, digging out the seeds (which are actually called ‘arils’, but who says that?) by scraping her finger along the membranes, and adding them to the small yellow bowl. (Keep in mind that she has watched me do this before.)
And before long, she requested another small bowl for the “white yucky parts”. 
The other neat thing about taking apart pomegranates while they’re in water is that the seeds sink down to the bottom and the white membrane bits float to the top, making sorting the two very easy.
After she’d realized this, Grae worked on removing the white bits with her slotted spoon for quite some time, but eventually retired the spoon and went straight to using her hands.
And in the end, not only did we have a very happy {and speckled} little lady, but we also had a big bowl of pomegranate seeds just waiting to be eaten up. ☺
Gather the ingredients. 
Place the pecans on a baking sheet and pop them into the oven to toast for about 10 minutes.
In the meantime, put some of the oats into a blender or food processor and turn them into oat flour.
Pour the oat flour into a large mixing bowl.
Add your regular old-fashioned oats.
Then the ground flax and hemp hearts…
Plus the salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
Give all of the dry ingredients a good stir.
Next, pour in the pure maple syrup.
Coax the coconut oil into coming out of its bowl…
Add the honey…
And vanilla.
Stir the sticky mixture well.
At this point, it’ll be crumbly and sticky all at once and you’ll wonder how on earth it’ll ever become cookies. Don’t fret.
By now, your roasting pecans will smell lovely and will be ready to come out of the oven.
Allow them to cool a moment and pop them into a blender or food processor, pulsing them just a handful of times to create small bits.
Then add them to your cookie mixture.
Next up, the add-ins. Dump in your raisins…
Plus the sunflower seeds and almond slices…
And stir everything up really well.
Now for the tricky part… With a bowl of warm water nearby, wet you hands, scoop out a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough, and shape into a ball, pressing firmly. Repeat for the remainder of the dough, rewetting your hands every couple of cookies. 
And take them out approximately 10 – 13 minutes later, when the outsides are golden and crispy, but the centre is still very soft to the touch. Let the cookies cool completely before removing from the pan.
Serve with a glass of cold milk, or if you prefer ‘the Gracen special’, with a small bowl of plain yogurt (she plops the cookie in, then smashes it into the yogurt with her spoon – I think they remind her of granola ☺).
Breakfast // Wholewheat flax spiderweb pancakes. (Just put your pancake batter into a squeeze bottle, use it to draw an asterisk, then connect the points with swooped lines.)
Snack // Jack-o-lantern oranges. (G seriously couldn’t get enough of these. Simply draw a face on a room temperature orange with black Sharpie. I did mine just before giving them to her – I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m not especially keen on the possibility of the marker fumes seeping through the peel.)
Lunch // {A slightly scary-looking} Jack-o-lantern quesadilla. (Just 2 red or orange tortilla shells cut by hand – think kitchen scissors – some cheese, black beans, and veggies.)
Snack // Home roasted pumpkin seeds.
Dinner // Roasted pumpkin soup with goat cheese, fresh parsley, and a grilled cheese on the side. (Not overly Halloween-ish, but you see what I’m going for, right?)
Sometimes you’ve just got to throw your rain jacket and gumboots over you footie jammies, get outside, and enjoy the pouring rain.
Where have I been and why does my girl suddenly look so grown-up?
♥
But onto the recipe. Here’s what we use to make our overnight mango coconut chia pudding… Your choice of milk (coconut milk is especially delicious in this recipe), pure maple syrup, chia seeds, pure vanilla, unsweetened coconut, and a mango (not pictured because it isn’t needed until morning).
I like to make this recipe in a mason jar because it seals well and I can give the jar a little shake every now and then, but any sort of bowl or container that has a lid will do. 
Then add the coconut…
The maple syrup…
And the vanilla.
Give everything a stir…
Pop the lid on and put the jar in the fridge. If you come back to the fridge again that night, give the jar a gentle shake to prevent clumping. If not, it’s not a big deal.
When you wake up in the morning, retrieve your mason jar of pudding. It’ll be thick and creamy by now and will resemble the insides of a passionfruit. Grab a mango too. (Though mango / coconut is one of our favourite combinations, strawberries, bananas, and blueberries pair well with the coconut too.)
Now peel and chop up your mango into small pieces…
And add them to the jar.
Mix everything together well.
Breakfast is ready!
Breakfast // 
Breakfast // Spinach, sun-dried tomato, and garlic organic eggs. Kiwi slices. Avocado spears. Omega seed toast.
Breakfast // All-natural peanut butter banana bites topped with freeze-dried raspberries, raisins, organic o’s, and freeze-dried blueberries.
Breakfast // 
Breakfast // Peanut butter banana oatmeal.
Breakfast // Poached organic egg on omega seed toast. Green grapes. Berry kale smoothie.
Lunch // Quinoa veggie soup. Grilled cheddar sandwich on multigrain flax.
Lunch // Pasta with green beans, toasted pine nuts, and feta.
Snacks & Lunch {on the go} // Raw almonds. Organic egg salad roll up. Banana. Apple. Red grapes. Homemade cinnamon crisps. Carrot sticks. Purple pepper slices.
Lunch // All-natural low-sodium turkey, cheddar, and spinach on omega flax bread. Orange segments.
Lunch // Wholewheat couscous and black bean salad with cheddar, avocado, and fresh cilantro.
Lunch // Black bean veggie quesadilla with sour cream and tomatillo salsa. Avocado chunks.
Lunch // 
Dinner // Chicken and veggie stir fry on brown rice.
Dinner // Creamy turkey tortellini and fresh feb soup. Grilled cheddar on omega seed bread.
Dinner // Spicy veggie laksa.
Dinner // 
Dinner // Smashed garden potatoes. All-natural spinach and feta chicken sausage. Edamame and carrot coins. Steamed broccoli with feta.
Dinner // Salsa baked chicken. Steamed garden carrots. Orzo with feta and toasted pine nuts.
Dinner // Roasted halibut. Beet walnut salad. Herbed harvest grains.
Dinner // Amita’s Indian curry on brown rice, black barley, and daikon radish seeds.
