Brrrrr! This morning we bundled up and headed down to Second Beach in Stanley Park to enjoy the sunshine. It was absolutely freezing and the wind was so strong that my ears felt like they were on fire from the cold, but Miss G didn’t mind one bit. She had two new playgrounds to explore and discover, plus many, many warm layers, so the cold was the last of her worries.
Here’s our morning in photographs…
Bundled up for the cold.
Super excited.
‘I thought we were just having a leisurely swing, Papa?’
‘Everyone hold on!’
Mama and G.
Slide race!
The perfect hiding spot.
Moccasin feet.
‘Uh, Papa? What are you doing?’
Wheeeee!
♥
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Who says you can’t spend gloomy, cold days at the beach?
After a morning downtown and a nap at home, we headed down to the River District to finish off the day with one last dose of fresh air. Tricycle riding, dog watching, playground jumping ensued, and quacking at ducks ensued.
Some days are just too beautiful to spend indoors, even if it is at school… (Shhh… Don’t tell.)
The perfect way to cap off a Sunday. ☺
Though it feels like we’ve had a good, long winter vacation already (because we have), we’re lucky enough to have one more week to spend in the Okanagan before Bradley’s return to work. And while we’ve been doing more than our fair share of relaxing (and indulging – oy!), we’ve also been trying to make the most of our time with the snow, because before you know it, we’ll be back to our city of rain, rain, rain. 
Today we tried something new – snow spray painting!
In order to make the paint, all I did was pick up a couple of cheap spray bottles (I made sure to give the triggers a little squeeze in store first – some are little hand-friendly, and others are not) and filled them with some cold water and food colouring.
Then we headed outside {in pajamas} to decorate the freshly fallen snow.
We played with the nozzle on our spray bottles to get the flow just how Miss G liked it – in a steady stream in order to achieve maximum distance. ☺
Her goal? Covering as much of the snow in snow spray paint as possible.
“A new spot now!”
Though using a fine mist is a little trickier (because you need to be quite close to the snow for it to show up well), it makes pretty cool results…. Pink snow anyone?
Of course when you’ve painted your little heart out and you’re ready for a break, you can always topple over in a snowbank and have a rest. ☺
Making a bonfire with wet wood in freezing temps isn’t easy.
Four excited little munchkins.
Chay Belly and Miss G having a good laugh together.
Fire success!
Auntie Roz made sure we were a noisy bunch.
Someone went to bed for the last time in 2012 with a noisemaker in hand. ☺ 
Meet Tess. A mama snowman (snowlady?) who is 2 years old.
Gracen loves her so.
And despite how it may appear, this is a kiss and not a nose nibble.
Tess’ plastic hat just wasn’t working for her. Time to switch it up. This one has Grae’s stamp of approval.
Meet Yess. Mama’s baby boy snowman who is 1 year old.
I’d say she had a great first snowman experience… Now what to tell her when her beloved Tess and Yess begin melting away…
Perfect snowball making snow.
“Yook, Mama! Yook what Grae Grae has.”
Snowballs.
A collection.
Attempted snow angel.
For the freezer.
Beautiful light displays.
Through the tunnel.
Chillin’ with Frosty.
Firefighter Grae.
The happiest little girl.
Magical.
“Mama, take Grae Grae’s picture!”
Warm milk to end a lovely {and chilly} night.
I was raking leaves like a mad woman when I noticed that Grae had invented her own little game in the pile of leaves she was playing in. She played round after round as I sat back quietly chuckling to myself as I watched. First, she’d toss her little rake into the pile somewhere, then burry it with leaves and call out “Where’s Grae Grae’s rake? Hmmm… I don’t know!” while holding her hands out up to the sky wandering through the pile…
Then she’d sort through the leaves, eventually find it, and retrieve it.
Then proudly stand up and announce “There it is! There’s Grae Grae’s rake!!!” 
We had plans to attend a morning story time today, but when we woke up to no rain, I knew we had to make the most of it and get outside. Grae agreed without hesitation and immediately suggested going to the beach. In particular, the beach with the “biiiiiiig ladder and biiiiiig slide”. 
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!
Sometimes you’ve just got to throw your rain jacket and gumboots over you footie jammies, get outside, and enjoy the pouring rain.