April 2014
Love the longer days
Gulf of Georgia Cannery
We had arranged a "play date" on Sunday
afternoon but it turned out to be pouring rain. Steveson is
about half way between my sisters house and ours so we decided to
visit the Gulf of Georgia Cannery for the afternoon.
I was a little concerned that the museum wouldn't but child
safe. Turns out I was quite wrong - many of the exhibits
have activities at very low heights and lots of displays where
kids can interact. I was quite impressed by the mixing of
kids and industrial equipment, but they never found a sharp corner
or snagged a jacket. There was a "kids activity area" that
had a large scale child friendly fishing boat model that you could
outfit with the different kinds of fishing rig we see on the
coast. Even I wanted to play with that toy.
Thanks for meeting us half way!
Easter on Vancouver Island
My Aunt generously offered to host an
Easter event at her farm. Just having the crowd over would
be an accomplishment, but she also cooked (with some dishes
brought) brunch and dinner! My mother really likes hot cross
buns so she pulled me over to make sure I got a photo of the
treats.
We don't have a dog so it's always uncertain how our kids will act
around a dog. Smudge is easily twice Claira's size so Claira
was understandably a little hesitant to come over and pet.
With enough coaxing (and Kayla holding Smudge to prevent an errant
lick) both Claira and Nara got to give Smudge some
affection.
After brunch Claira went for a nap and
Nara and I went for a walk. It was a bit of windy and rainy
day but not so bad we couldn't walk down to the tree
line. It's still early spring but the Trillium was in
full flower and other shrubs were blooming. We spent some
time looking for frogs but mid day doesn't really seem to be the
time to find them. Lots of deer prints to see though!
After Claira's nap, we went to visit the chickens. The farm
usually has both laying and roasting birds but the laying birds
are the only birds they keep over the winter.
The day after we went to my grandparents house for lunch.
My mom brought an introductory set of
magformers for the kids to play with. These plastic squares
and triangles have magnets in them that allow you to snap edges
together. Nara could quickly build structures and just as
quickly reduce them to pile of components. Claira didn't
have as much luck - she could pull them apart but couldn't make
things.
Nara's 4th Birthday
Nara's first birthday was at the airport
waiting for a flight to Hong Kong. Her second birthday we
were in Seattle. Last year we had a
house party.
Nara is now four so she is starting to have opinions about what
she wants in her party. We again had a house party and
invited friends and family. She likes hotdogs (and they
scale well) and she asked for the type of cake.
We would up with three kinds of hot dogs -
chicken, beef and veggie so there was something for
everyone. We don't have seating for 20 so a lot of people
wound up eating sitting on the couch or floor - no one seemed to
mind.
We have no shortage of toys in our house,
but we decided to have a planned activity as well. Helen
purchased plain cookies and lots of decorating supplies -
sprinkles, coloured icing pens and chocolate. The kids could
take some time to decorate a cookie (or three) and bring them home
after the party. We should have seen it coming, but not all
cookies were saved to be "take home items" - a number of
ingredients were "sampled" to ensure quality before usage.
The kids had fun though.
Nara wanted a blueberry cake. Helen
put on her bakers hat and made up a pair of blueberry cake sheet
cakes. We whipped two liters of whip creme. Pro Tip:
Don't try to whip two liters in yours mixer in one batch - it
splatters everywhere. The cakes were covered and put in the
fridge overnight and then dressed up and stacked just before the
party. We were worries there wasn't going to be enough cake,
but it turns we had about 200% of the cake we needed - kids just
don't eat that much.
Claira (who is now 22 months old) doesn't normally like sweet stuff
- her favorites are salty and savory. As a baby, she wouldn't
eat peaches or yam baby food - generally a favorite food for
babies. She normally won't eat pancakes or other sweets.
Turns out, she really likes cake.
The original plan was two hours - 11 until
1. It was 2 by the time people started heading home (Claira
needs a nap so we try to make sure it's quiet for her).
Thanks everyone for coming!
We try hard to not make it about the
gifts, but we do exchange gifts with family. After the party
(the house was covered in toys) Nara took some time to open (and
try on) some gifts from my sisters family. Nara likes art
projects so these supplies will be put to good use.
Tags: birthday cake(4), decorating(3), candlelight(2), bird(1), triptych(1)
People: Nara(11), Claira(8), James(6), Marcus(6), Noelle(3), Abby(3)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > April 2014
Last Modified Saturday, January 28th, 2023 at 23:15:53 Edit
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