If only jumping in place always brought us this much unbridled joy…
♥
Tag Archives: indoor fun
Kerrisdale Play Palace
This morning, as we stepped foot into a little old arena on the westside, I was transported back in time. A time in the late 80’s / early 90’s where I spent hours and hours in little old arenas, freezing my tush off while watching my brother’s countless hockey games. Only this was Kerrisdale. And it’s quite obviously 2012.
But despite the dingy smell, yellow lights, and chilly temperature, the Kerrisdale arena, which is transformed into the Kerrisdale Play Place each spring, is truly a hidden gem for those of us who live in a city that gets as much rain as we do. It’s filled with inflatable slides, obstacle courses, and bouncy castles, gym equipment, musical instruments, and ride-on cars and toys, making it much more than just your usual play gym drop in session. And let me tell you, Gracen LOVED it. I don’t think she stopped squealing for more than 5 seconds during our entire visit. Here our some photos from our visit…
On the pirate-themed ocean inflatable in the preschooler area:
Playing with floor toys and equipment in the preschooler area:
In the preschooler bouncy castle:
Riding plasma cars in the main area:
Shooting some hoops in the main area:
A couple of hours of squealing-good fun for a few bucks? You really can’t go wrong. My only advice if you plan to visit.. Firstly, dress warm (it’s chilly in there!) Second, wear or bring socks (they’re mandatory in all areas for children and in the preschool play area for adults). And lastly, don’t be fooled by the jumping jack/push up/karate choppin’ sit up-doing attendant… He’s surprisingly on his game and will catch and scold you if you sneak up the giant inflatable slide with your munchkin. ☺
We ♥ IKEA
I can hear the voices of my dad and brother already… Sure, the furniture probably isn’t the highest of quality, but seriously? We love IKEA. Grae and I headed to our giant, shiny new store this afternoon, just for fun. She adores the new kids’ play area so much that I think she’d stand and watch children play through the glass all afternoon long. Of course, she’d rather be on the other side of the glass, so after her countless requests to go “Nin!”, we put her up against the height chart just to see… 3 inches to go. (Sadly, those 3 inches will probably be gained much faster than I’ll want them to.) With that, we headed up to the showroom and made our way straight to the kids’ area. Gracen hugged stuffies, laid on beds, and touched/tried every toy available. 
Of course, we stopped in at the Swedish food market on the way out too. Although we still have plenty of elk-shaped pasta, we did take home some of the most delicious-smelling blueberry tea and a package of multigrain crispbread that Miss G picked out herself.
♥
Port Moody Play Date
This morning Grae and I headed out of the city to visit my old friend Cheri and her sweet little girl, Jaiden. The girls were amazing together. Jaiden showed Grae around, shared her toys, and was a gracious little host. Gracen read every book in the house, shared the tea set she chose to bring along, and happily followed Jaiden’s lead. And as Cheri and I sat at the table sipping hot coffee and catching up, I may have said, “You know, part of me thinks having two would be easier…” Oops.
Jaiden helping Gracen with her first ever fairy princess experience.
Trail strolling and snacking.
Departure hugs and kisses.
♥
Keeping Busy
As I was preparing dinner late this afternoon, Grae came into the kitchen and sweetly asked for hangers. I immediately knew what she wanted to do – she wanted to hang them on her crib railing as I do when setting out her outfit choices in the morning. I retrieved a great big handful of hangers from the top of her closet, handed them over, and she was pleased as punch. I was back at my cooking when she came in a requested more hangers, to which I suggested she take down the ones she had and put them back up afterwards. Off she went. A couple of minutes later, I sneakily poked my head around the corner to find this…
My little work bee always has to keep busy, even if it involves creating jobs for herself, undoing them, and redoing them again. ♥
An Afternoon Ritual
This has become an after nap time ritual in our house… These three wooden puzzles perfectly in line, the pieces strewn upon the floor, some chill music, and a very determined little puzzle master at work. Oh ya – some serious bed head is also necessary.
Toddler Painting
After a long string of beautiful days spent outdoors, today’s rain brought on a welcomed change – a day indoors filled with hide-and-seek, books, baking, and arts and crafts. Gracen LOVES painting, so while she napped, I gathered a few materials in preparation for a messy paint-filled afternoon.
We started out by using straws. (Have I mentioned that this girl has a thing for straws? Naturally, it was her first choice.) I plopped a few little drops of paint on the paper and demonstrated moving the paint by blowing through the straw. You should have seen her gorgeous little eyes light up! Although she was able to do it, I would definitely try to have a much longer, larger straw next time as it took a lot of effort and aim to really be effective. (Do they still have those giant Slurpee straws at 7-11? Because if so, they would be perfect!) 
Eventually, she moved to just dragging her straw through the paint, which gave a just as good (if not better) result. As you can see, she was pretty thrilled with it all:
With our straw painting up on the drying rack, we moved on to using Q-tips. I dropped little splots of paint on her paper, handed over the Q-tips, and let her go. She set to work without a moment’s hesitation, and announced, “More!” as soon as each paint blob had been smeared.
Next, we tried sponges. This one was especially fun because she ‘jumped’ her duck and rabbit-shaped sponges from one paint splot to the next, leaving a rainbow-coloured trail behind them.
After A LOT of jumping, we moved on to painting with a golf ball (marbles work well too!) I trimmed our paper slightly so that it could fit into a deep baking pan, splattered some paint on top, and placed the ball inside.
With just a couple of instructions, Grae figured out just what to do. She gently tilted the pan back and forth, running the ball through the paint splots. The result was really cool – little multicoloured tracks all over the page.
With our paper fully covered in tracks, I decided to grab a pinecone (a rare case when having little bowls filled with collections of things stored in your kitchen is actually convenient) to use as a brush of sorts. Since we were nearing the end of our painting afternoon and we’d already used a lot of the paint, I handed over the entire tray and let Gracen go to town. She dipped and stamped and dipped and drug her pinecone until there wasn’t much left of it. 
Haha! I know that this would be some parents’ worst nightmare, but I’m a fan of getting messy once and a while. Plus, what are you going to do? Let all that leftover paint go to waste?! With the go ahead from Mama, Gracen cautiously tipped the tray of paint over onto the brown packaging paper we were using to protect the table. 
No painting afternoon is complete without finger painting, is it?
And here are the finished masterpieces:
I’d say it was a successful rainy afternoon. ☺
Anyone Need a Ride?
Gracen at your service!
A Hoola Hoop… At Last!
Weeks ago, little Miss G fell in love with a mini hoola hoop that was sitting in our backyard (a toy-littered lawn has become a regular thing recently, courtesy of the 5 very lovely, but highly unsupervised children that live in our basement suite). Each time we were outside, she’d play with it for a few minutes and then we’d carefully place it next to the stairwell, only to find it back in the middle of the lawn ready to be played with the next time we were heading out.
But here’s the silly part. Because she loved it so much and because Easter was just around the corner, I may have told Grae that the Easter Bunny would bring her a mini hoola hoop of her own. Big mistake. Before one makes promises on behalf of the Easter Bunny, they should really check out the local stock first. Long story short, there were no mini hoola hoops to be found, and although she was more than spoiled on Easter Sunday, I felt bad for not fulfilling the promise I had made.
Well lo and behold, guess what we found today while we were at the dollar store of all places?! The most perfect little hoola hoop ever! And in aqua no less! Grae was thrilled.
And more than anything, I was thrilled that I had finally followed through on my silly little promise. Lesson learned.
Shopping Date
I must admit, I’ve been terrible about sticking with Gracen’s regular bedtime lately. There’s really no excuse, but the extra sunlight at the end of the day, paired with the beautiful weather we’ve had lately, has made it tempting to stay outdoors a little later. The result is a late dinner, a late bath, and a late bedtime. Which wouldn’t be terrible if she made up the extra time by sleeping in a little the next day, but that doesn’t happen. Our little early bird wakes up at 6:30 a.m. regardless, and if she hasn’t gotten her full 12 hours of sleep, she can be a little off for the remainder of the day. Such was the case today. By 9:30, she was ready for a nap on the way out to South Surrey for our shopping date with Steph and Baby Tate.
She woke up a short 15 minutes later when we arrived at our destination and was a bit of a grumpypants. Luckily, visiting with Baby Tate and playing in the kids section of Indigo! are immediate mood lifters.
The four of us grabbed coffee (steamed milk for Miss G of course), visited, and did some shopping. Together, Grae and I picked out this sweet little dress for one of the upcoming weddings we have planned for this summer. I loved the colours and she loved the pockets {that can be filled with nuts}, so it was an easy pick. She also got to pick out a pair of on-sale flip flops and this heart-covered pair was the natural choice. She was so excited about her new goodies that she insisted she try them on as soon as we walked in the door.
Is there anything cuter than ten tiny toes in a pair of flip flops? I doubt it. ☺
Gracen’s Favourite “Game”
I swear Grae could do this all day long everyday. A cozy spot + a good book + someone to ask questions = one very content little lady.
Highlights
A few highlights from Miss G’s day…
Learning what a piggy bank is for and begging Mama for more and more and MORE! coins.
A trip to our mail lady.
Gracen taking a rock from her pocket, placing it carefully on each piece of equipment at the playground, and giving it “rides”.
The other highlight of our day was attending our first of several Stroller Fitness classes in Queen Elizabeth Park. Gracen was a go-with-the-flow gal and loved that her baby friend Tate was able to join us. Sadly, there are no pictures of the adorableness that was our babies all lined up in strollers… We were much too busy running up hills and lunging around the park for that!
Lazy Sunday
We had a very lazy day today. Other than getting out to our fruit and veggie market, we pretty much did a whole lot of nothing all day long.
Taking care of her bear family. Notice she’s wrapped them in a blanket, given them a “book” (her singing Easter card), and made sure that the baby has a pacifier. What more could they need?
Stamping mess. A current favourite.
Taking photos for the shop.
Smelling our backyard blossoms.
Dropping pennies into the mall fountain.
Being silly in the kids’ play area.
Driving Noah’s Ark.
♥
Afternoon Activities
A few photos from our afternoon at home…
Special delivery for Grae! A sweet little package from her cousins, Auntie, and Uncle.
In love with her new birdie dress.
Very carefully carrying around her cousin Korbin’s picture.
Tea for two in a basket.
My favourite photo I’ve taken of Miss G in a while. Makes my heart happy.
Teeny tiny french braids.
Headed out for a special sushi night with Mama.
Taking Care of Baby
This morning as I was cooking up a pot of spicy black bean soup and Grae was playing, I heard an unusually loud sucking noise coming from the living room. I thought for sure that there was a tea party in full swing happening in the living room, but carefully poked my head around the corner to find this…
Our sweet and nurturing little lady nestled in the corner of the couch nursing her baby doll. I don’t know why, but this just kills me every time. Melt my mama heart.