Vancouver's Aquarium

ONE OF SPUD'S FAVOURITE MUSEUMS | VANCOUVER

SO MANY EXHIBITS, SO LITTLE TIME
This last trip to the Aquarium we barely even found the time to see the otters, the dolphin show, or the baby beluga! There's so much to take in.

The interactive kids area is great fun.

Here Dr. Spud is carefully examining a harbour seal [stuffed of course].

OTHER STUFF TO CHECK OUT
Within a 10 minute walk you'll also find a water park [in the warm months], a Children's Farm (604 257 8530) and the Miniature Railway (604 257 8531) on which you can ride through the woods [all year round].

LUNCH / DINNER
The obvious choice is to hit one of the many concession stands in the park itself. This can be expensive and of terribly average quality, however. For a proper sit down meal, the Banana Leaf on Denman Street serves delicious Malaysian food. But there's no end of good food on Denman. There's a unique, fantastic sweet and savoury fillo pastry bar, Greek, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Japanese cuisine, 2 very good hamburger joints, gelato and cupcakes. And a café every 10–15 feet.

Wow, check out that line up. It's best to show up before noon.

Wee Caccoon

Today a very special person to Spud, read him a story about a caterpillar and then gave him [us!] a caccoon. No pressure to make this thing blossom or anything. Ack! Any tips?



It's the brown oval nestled in the leaf.


And it comes with a bonus snail.

New Bento Boxes

Hubs surprised me with these tonight. And they come all tricked out. I call this one the 'executive' with its conservative blue striping.



This is my first bento box with a moveable separater. That's going to come in handy.



They are stackable but in a different configuration they nest, for easy storage.





It also comes with its own carrier bag.



And this one is cheerfully spring-like. I love the colour. And it's handy with its 3 removeable containers.





Can't wait to fill them with cute, nutritious goodness for little guy. And to use some of my wee bento accompaniments with them.

RELATED POSTS
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Deck Day

Hubs pressure-washed the deck last week and that inspired us to get a move on in the gardening department. Made some headway today.

Our strawberries-to-be.

Tomatoes-in-waiting.

Some apple-wannabes.

Some general prettiness.

A bit of a shade garden outside Spud's window.

Oh, and the crazy pineapple pool of course.

Homemade Play Stove

CRAFTING OUT OF SCRAPS



My kid has a load of cute plastic food that he loves to play with. He also has an adorable Curious George tea set. When I'm in the toy store I have to resist buying a cute little range and pot set to add to his little kitchen scenario. We just don't need more STUFF. And besides, isn't he going to grow out of it in a year or something? So, instead, I decided to challenge myself to make a stove from scraps found around the house. Five minutes of searching and this is what I found:

· Shoebox
· Coroplast, scrap
· Paper, for wrapping shoebox
· Electrician's Tape, white
· Marker, metallic silver
· Cutter and metal ruler for coroplast

And then 10 minutes to throw it together. This is what it turned out like.





It's not gorgeous but it's an old lesson learned, it's all in the imagination. He loves it and I found it an interesting exercise. How different would it be if I'd found different materials? Perhaps I could have made a 'stainless' stove with tin foil ...

The other thing that I found interesting is that the imaginary play went from "playing kitchen" to "playing restaurant" very quickly. He seated us. He took our orders. He told us the specials. He showed us where the loos were. Do you think we eat out too much?



And after all that, I still want to buy a mini pot and pan set. I can't help it. We'll see.

It's Time for Blackout Blinds

BED IN SUMMER, ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON



In Winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

Roof Top Tent

DRAWING A LOT OF ATTENTION IN THE CAMPGROUND
This is us waiting in the ferry line up last July long weekend. It folds down to a nice neat package on top. I love.



This is Hubs surfing the tent. It brings out the silliness in all of us.



And little bub can't wait until bedtime. Okay, that never happens but he loves it nonetheless.



We tried the front configuration on our last trip.



Here is the side configuration.



And the side configuration with our 'foyer' attached. My fave so far.



I may not actually be the camping type. I'm still testing it out. But I have to say I love our tent. It's nice being up high away from the damp, chilly ground. I love the foamie inside. And I love how dark and dry it is inside. Other makers of these types of tents are here and here.

A Year in the Life of Spud

15 seconds of video per day times 365 days equals 1 hour of tape.



I can't believe it but we actually pulled it off. We video'd spud everyday of his first year and then I spent about a year's worth of spare time editing it together. Okay, some days had better footage than others and so some days got 30 secs and some none.

In the end, we have 60 minutes of the little guy gradually growing, seconds at a time. The first time he rolled over. His first solid food. You know the drill. I'm not going to lie to you, it's not super riveting for the average person. It's really a video only a parent could love and it wouldn't be fair to show it to anyone other than perhaps highly doting grandparents. But I enjoy it a lot. It's fun to relive those days. I miss them. I hope spud will enjoy it one day too.