This morning Grae and I ventured out for some more Earth Day fun, but this time in Grandview Park, just off of Commercial Drive. Our day was filled with playground fun, parade watching, live music, speeches, sunshine, and fresh air.
♥
This morning Grae and I ventured out for some more Earth Day fun, but this time in Grandview Park, just off of Commercial Drive. Our day was filled with playground fun, parade watching, live music, speeches, sunshine, and fresh air.
♥
Yay for Brad’s first sunshiny day off in a long time! We soaked up every minute we could and filled our day with a morning trip to Granville island, seawall walking, cherry blossoms, and an afternoon trip to the park. Of course I celebrated by taking way too many photos {as usual}. Here are some of my favourites…
The usual Granville Island treat (a Terra Breads cheese flute), a mosaic bench, and a view of the river.
Off to see the cherry blossoms.
Papa and his little lady.
Strolling.
Perched in a tree.
Exploring.
Covered by blossoms.
Mama and her girl.
Sniff sniff.
Merry-go-round.
Spinning cup.
On top of the world.
Mini marathon runner?
Climbing.
First time on a big kid swing alone.
We really couldn’t have asked for a better day.
Today Gracen and I got to go on a long overdue date with an old friend of mine and her adorable little girl, Jaiden. We met up at the aquarium and spent our morning visiting with creatures of the ocean and tropics. The highlights included being some of few who got to watch a seal training and feeding session, seeing a freshly-born monkey, and watching our little girls walk from tank to tank holding hands (melt my heart). Here are a few shots from our day:
♥
There’s something wonderful about downtown Vancouver on a sunshiny day. The crowds seem more laid-back, the people are friendlier, and the sidewalks are lined with performers, artists, and vendors, making it perfectly okay to saunter along leisurely. So, with yet another gorgeous Vancouver day upon us, Gracen and I packed up our stroller, jumped on the Canada Line, and made our way downtown. Despite Grae’s surprisely long 3 hour nap, we were lucky enough to make it in time to spend most of Bradley’s lunch hour with him. We walked along the sidewalks, sat on the art gallery steps, watched an amazing percussion group, and visited Grae’s favourite place – the kids’ section of Chapters.
Gracen enjoyed every minute and was such a little gem all afternoon that we ended up pushing it a little late, eating dinner on the train, skipping bath time, and arriving home to read a couple of stories and crawl into bed. ♥
This morning we visited an adorable little playground at our local YMCA and I’m not sure who enjoyed themselves more… Gracen or Bradley! The highlight was definitely when Brad toppled off his tiny perch on the digger into the bark mulch. Thanks to my cat-like reflexes and stealthy camera skills, it was caught on film – enjoy!
We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful Easter Saturday. The weather was gorgeous and Grae and I took full advantage of it by spending the majority of the day outside. We spent the morning at a really fun Easter egg hunt and carnival, and the afternoon at our favourite outdoor spot – Kits Beach. Here’s our day in photos…
Getting ready for the ‘3 and under’ egg hunt.
Basket in hand and ready to search!
Waiting patiently…
Go!
Like an old pro…
Found another one!
Checking out the loot.
Grae’s first ever face painting experience.
Gracen, the bunny.
Ring “tossing”.
Bouncy castle!
Playground time.
Bunny-eared baby.
Admiring her findings once again after a nap.
Beach time!
Sand box fun.
Collecting.
Beach-loving baby.
‘Can we collect seaweed too, Mama?’
Telling me that she wants to kiss the dog passing by.
So lucky to live where we do.
On a side note, can you believe that the little dress Grae wore today is last year’s Easter dress?! When I originally found it, I thought KD 15 (nearly $60 at the time) was a little pricey, but I ended up going back to get it a few weeks later after not being able to stop thinking about how beautiful it was. I’m so glad I did because she’s been wearing it for a full year now and will probably be able to wear it several more times this spring. Also, you can check out Grae’s first ever Easter egg hunt at seven months old here.
♥ Happy Easter Saturday! ♥
Today we headed back to the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park, but this time with friends! Gracen and Ava had a great time together and Jordan was the most wonderful helper and role model. How cute is this? Melt my heart. ♥
This afternoon was GORGEOUS, so as soon as Miss G woke up from her nap, we jumped in the car and headed down to the beach. We soaked up some vitamin D while puppy watching, and left with sand-filled shoes and daisy-filled pockets.
Doesn’t get much better than this. ♥
Today we headed back to our regular Sunday play gym session after a short good weather hiatus. Since our last visit, they’ve decorated the upstairs windows with paper grass, flowers, and rabbits in preparation for Easter. Strangely enough, Grae loved the decorations so much that she preferred spending her time walking back and forth along the hallway windows rather than in the gym filled with toys, kids, and play equipment. We eventually settled on a compromise of some gym time first, followed by lunch in front of the windows. Our silly little doodle was happy enough with that.
This weekend was GORGEOUS and today was no exception. Wanting to take full advantage of the weather, Gracen and I got ready and headed down to Granville Island just after breakfast. Our morning was filled with all of the usual Granville Island treats… Good coffee, delicious bread, quality time with the birds, playground fun, boat watching, and sunshine! It doesn’t get much better than this…
‘Hello, birdies!’
Boat watching.
Chilling out waterfront.
‘Why don’t the birds want to play with me?’
‘Wheeeeee!’
Getting dirty.
Tunnel walking.
Checking things out.
Captain Gracen.
Cool girl.
My little animal lover in action…
Today Little G and I had the most wonderful visit to Maplewood Farm, a little piece of rural paradise tucked at the base of Mount Seymour in North Vancouver. The sun was shining, the temperature was just right, and although it was a busy day due to Spring Break, we never felt crowded or rushed. Gracen had the freedom to roam and explore, but always stayed near. We slowly made our from paddock to paddock, visiting the animals and taking in the nature along the way. It was perfect. Here’s a very small sampling of photos from the hundreds I managed to take during our 2 hour visit…
First stop – visiting this colourful feathery friend.
Visiting the turkeys.
An adorable miniature donkey.
Hanging out with the hens.
Roaming with the roosters.
Taking in the garden and its visitors.
One of Gracen’s favourites.
She wanted to come back to visit this beautiful peacock again and again.
A new friend.
These Belgian draft horses, Tom and Prince, were another favourite. Gracen watched them very closely as they lowered their heads and exhaled deeply while letting their lips flap together and then mimicked this behaviour during the remainder of our visit.
Enamoured with the horses. I think she would have stayed here all morning if I hadn’t convinced her to move on.
Taking a break and watching the ducks on the pond.
Exploring.
Collecting bits of nature, as usual.
Offering the ducks a twig. For some reason, they weren’t all that enthused. Weird.
Getting a sneak peak of the farm’s jersey cow.
Watching the sheep.
In the forest paddock. So amazing that this is part of the city.
Grae thought this goat was pretty funny and giggled at him again and again while calling him “Papa”… Not sure what that’s about other than we have a non-fiction book about goats that explains that male goats have beards and when we read it, I call them ‘papa goats’. Maybe she was making the connection?
The highlight of the trip was being able to go into the goat visiting area and actually touch the goats.
Miss G was brave!
I showed her how to hold her hand out flat for the goats to smell first, and that’s exactly what she did.
This teeny tiny baby goat was experiencing his first day outside with the public and was a hit with all of the visitors.
Waving goodbye.
These little guys were just roaming around as we made our way over to the hand washing station.
Checking out Sofie and Judy III, the giant hereford cows. Of course Gracen moo-ed at them as she tried to wedge her little wrist through the wire fence to pet their fur.
Visiting the rabbits. Gracen stood up and signed ‘Rabbit sleeping’ after seeing this chubby bunny.
Stopping to see Gus the goose.
Inside the cement duck pond visiting area.
Getting a close up view of Lima, the jersey cow.
Lunch break!
We loved the goat visiting area so much that we had to go back to visit once more before leaving the farm.
Lucky for us, it was much less busy the second time around and Grae got to put it some quality time with her goat friends.
Saying goodbye for real this time.
After this visit, we may just have a little future farmer on our hands.
Last stop, the Maplewood Farm playground.
A perfect way to end a lovely morning outdoors!
Our trip ended with a very content little lady falling asleep in her car seat as we drove back into Vancouver. When we arrived at home, I transferred her into her crib, where she lays now, still sleeping, over two hours later. I’d say the fresh air, sunshine, and farm life tired her right out… Yay for that.
Today Grae and I had a busy day filled with all things green. It started out with a happy little munchkin waking up extra early and extra hungry, so we got to it and prepared a green breakfast.
Finding something green to wear was a bit of a challenge as this little lady has very little green in her closet, but it was nothing a ridiculously big green bow couldn’t fix. It was so adorable in fact, that we ended up having a little impromptu St. Patty’s Day photo shoot.
The weather forecast called for a rainy, snowy morning, but by 9:30, neither had made an appearance so we packed up our things and headed down to Granville Island to get some fresh air and do some exploring. We picked up our usual Granville Island treats (Terra Bread cheese flutes for G and a coffee for Mama) and headed to the playground where Gracen played in sand, slid on repeat, and made some friends.
Afterwards we headed back to the Public Market area and visited the birds, boats, and performers like usual. Apparently Grae was pooped after a crisp morning outdoors because she was out like a light after just a minute in the car.
After a great nap, I prepared lunch while Gracen begged for pieces of green onion below me. I ended up giving her a whole green onion and the little monkey was pleased as punch, headed to the living room with it, and chowed down. Luckily she saved enough room for our green lunch.
The afternoon turned out to be beautiful too, so we took advantage of it and headed outside to do some art. Grae was beyond excited to use bingo dabbers (sadly, we didn’t have green, so we ended up with blue and rainbow coloured shamrocks, but oh well…) and dug the sidewalk chalk as usual.
By late afternoon, G had worked up an appetite, so we whipped up a quick green smoothie to hit the spot.
Shortly after, it was time for our last green meal of the day. Of course this little monkey carefully picked out and ate each pine nut and avocado chunk before eating anything else.
Gracen’s second St. Patrick’s Day… Whew! How things have changed in a quick year. Just take a look at my chubby-cheeked, spiky-haired little munchkin last year.
It’s Friday, and true to our old routine, we headed up to Sunset Community Centre’s play gym. It was a bit of an interesting day (a father decided to inform a mother nursing her 6 month old baby – with a cover no less – that it was inappropriate to breastfeed her child in public…yikes…poor guy sure knows how to get a group of predominately stay-at-home-mamas riled up!), but Grae had a wonderful time none the less. Here are a few photos from our visit:
Baby jail.
Teetering.
Dancing and twirling in the centre circle.
Stacking.
Visiting her pony friend (this was taken just after she planted a kiss on his nose).
Today Gracen and I ventured out to Port Coquitlam to meet up with a bunch of other mommies and munchkins at Kinder Cafe, an indoor playground geared towards preschool-aged children and their coffee-loving mamas. It was a bit of an adventure getting there (we missed our exit amidst the construction and ended up having to go into Surrey, loop around, and come back over the Port Mann Bridge with rush hour traffic), but it was well worth it. The play structures were engaging, the coffee was delish, and the company was wonderful, as always. Gracen had a great time playing and hanging out with her friends and was still talking about it tonight during dinner. Overall, I’d say that it was a hit. Here are a few photos from our visit:
Thrilled to be in a bouncy castle just for little kids.
She went absolutely nuts in here. There was a lot of shrieking, running, clapping, jumping, and ball throwing involved.
Who knew that 10:30 a.m. = bubble time at Kinder Cafe?! The munchkins LOVED it.
Little mommy in the playhouse.
Swinging.
Hanging out with her little friend, Keagan while Baby Tate snoozes on Auntie Steffie.
Tunnel crawling.
Apparently she thinks she’s a little smaller than she actually is.
Firefighter Grae taking a little break.