Garlic Festival 2012 @ The Sharing Farm

Yesterday morning we parked the car at Spul'u'kwuk's Elementary School.  Isaac checked out the school playground (he loves exploring new places) and had a lot of fun.  After we walked over to the Sharing Farm in Terra Nova Park to attend the Garlic Festival.

There were some booths set up in the front, a vegetable/garlic/plant market, garlic ice cream, some cooking demonstrations, and some music performances.  Isaac made a bee-line for the garden in the sharing farm and walked to the end.  Daddy and Isaac walked on through a field to watch airplanes take-off and land.  There were picnic tables and benches in the "viewing area".  He also had a chance to pet a grasshopper.  I walked back to check out the market and picked up some bok choy plants and a gai lan.

Daddy and Isaac tried out the garlic ice cream.  Isaac exclaimed that it was "Delicious", but Daddy wasn't so keen on the flavour.

Today, I picked up a couple of planters/pots for the vegetable plants.  We potted the avocado seed and transplanted the vegetables into a planter and pot.  Isaac helped to water the plants.  I think it's too chilly for the avocado to stay outside, so we're keeping them inside, but the vegetables are staying out on our balcony.  I damaged some of the bok choy roots when I was trying to transplant them, so we'll have to see if they'll survive.

Update: August 25th - One of the gai lag leaves look like it's withering.  And some of the bok choy leaves are flopping over/ going limp.  I have them on the balcony under the sun.  I've been watering them about every other day.  I don't know if they need more or less water or something else.

3rd Birthday Party

We had Isaac's 3rd birthday party this morning.  We packed up all the food (and a friend picked up the cake from the grocery store for us).  Our friend arrived early with the cake.  Everyone else started arriving around 10:15am or so.  There were some nets and hockey sticks, a slide, some bikes and a party assistant who helped to do some face painting, setup and cleanup.

We had the food laid out on a couple of tables: croissants, cinnamon buns, cookies, fruit platter, vegetable platter, proscuitto, salami, crackers, veggie chips, juice and water.  Snacking was "buffet style".  Some kids started out having a snack then running around the room for a bit.

We brought 2 bag of books and set them up on the bookshelf.  At first I had everyone take turns picking a book, but it was slow (and we were running out of time).  We served the cake at around 11:15am.  After, I got the parents and kids to pick out more books to bring home.  We came home with one bag of books.  I will see if there are any that Isaac likes.  The rest will be donated to the Animal Protection Society's Thrift Store.

After, lots of people helped us clean up the food.  M. moved everything to the car and we went out to the playground so that Isaac could play there for a bit.  The weather was excellent today (sunny, high 12 celsius, with a mild breeze).  We drove to meet up with one of the friends for lunch by the docks at Pajos for some fish and chips.  Isaac liked looking at the boats, water and sea gulls.

He fell asleep on the way home (2:40pm) and I had a nap when we got home.

Birthday Party Planning

It's that time of year again.  (We've already received 3 birthday invitations and attended 1 party so far.)  Birthday Party Season...

Isaac's turning 3 in March and I've been slack on starting the birthday party planning thus far.  However, I was able to book his Twos Time classroom for his birthday party.  It's set for March 24th (at the same time as a swap meet at the community centre and I'm hoping to take a peek if I have a chance to sneak away).

To Do:
Guest list and email invitations [check - invitations emailed!]
Decide on theme (if any) - Decorations and loot bag [check - Theme: Books]
Food and Utensils
Cake / Cupcakes [check - ordered a cake from Safeway (Isaac picked a dinosaur themed cake)]
Make a CD with background music
Maybe think up possible game ideas though it's highly unlikely we would be able to do anything really structured.  Free play is probably the most I can expect from a group this age.

I've decided to organize a book swap with the other parents we're inviting to the party.  I'm not sure if other people will bring books or not... but I hope we'll be able to trade some books.  I just sent out the invitations on February 23rd and we have one RSVP attending.

Tiny Tots - Holiday Hooray

This morning I took Isaac to a music performance.  It's an educational music series for kids 0-5 to introduce children to musical instruments and singing.  It was a lot of fun.  We got to hear a trumpet, trombone, tuba, bells, a base drum, wooden blocks, and another instrument (which I missed hearing the name of).  They performed holiday sing-along songs and various bits from the Nutcracker.

I asked Isaac which instrument he liked and he said "The big one." :)

We stopped by the Library and I picked up a few children's books from the VPL Book Sale.  I got Isaac a small frog magnet from Bookmark, The Library Store (run by the Friends of the Vancouver Public Library).  The last time we went to the downtown library I picked up other magnets for Isaac, so Froggy will have friends on the fridge.

We stopped for some crepes before heading to the sky train.  Isaac had some bites of my ham and egg crepe, and bits of banana bread we packed for a snack.  I offered him an apple sauce crepe, but he didn't like it at all and refused to eat it after trying a bite.

Isaac napped on the way to the train station.  I picked up some seaweed, tofu and spinach then stopped by Value Village.  I picked up a few more books and a few duplo minifigures.  When we got home and checked the mail, I was happy to discover an envelope from Lego with our missing pieces from the Fire Brigade!

All-in-all we had a great day.

Lego Modular Sets

Ah!!  I'm so excited.  After staring at the pictures of the Pet Shop (10218), Grand Emporium (10211) and Fire Brigade (10197) on the Lego web site for awhile (well, since the Pet shop was released and I found out about the modular sets)... DH just bought me all three sets!

I can't wait for them to arrive.  I don't know which I want to build first.  When Daddy said he was buying me Lego, Isaac said he wanted Lego too.  I think I will let him play with the finished sets.  Of the three, he'll probably enjoy the Fire Brigade most.

I guess I should give an update about the boy too.  He is currently sick.  He has a runny nose and a cough with phlegm.  He's been sick since Saturday evening.  We ended up skipping out on the Wall-E screening at the planetarium on Sunday.  He also missed his cooking class and Twos Time this week.  We did end up going trick-or-treating at the mall.  I figured it would be ok since we were just staying indoors.

This morning Isaac and I woke up later than usual (8am instead of 6:30-7am).  We stayed home all day.  We spent the morning watching Cars and playing with Lego Duplo and K'nex.  After lunch, we tidied up all the toys and moved some stuff around to make space for the Christmas tree.  I put the tree up in the afternoon.   We spent the rest of the afternoon making "presents" to put under the tree.  I made 4 Lego boxes with lego ribbons.  Isaac made 2 Duplo "presents" that look like rockets.  One is for Mommy and one is for Daddy.  He skipped his nap today and started falling asleep on the carpet at around 5:30pm while playing with his Duplo trains and track.  I kept him up because it really was too late for a nap and he either would've missed dinner or wouldn't sleep until late.  We ended up putting him to bed at around 6:45pm with mommy milk and a story.  He was out as soon as we turned off the lights.  His nose is raw from me trying to remove/clear his mucus.  Poor boy.  I hope he'll sleep well tonight and feels better soon.  I really want him to be able to go to school tomorrow.

Update: Isaac is staying home today.  Mucous is still yellow.   Playgroup tomorrow, I'll have to see how he's doing tomorrow morning before we decide if he gets to go.  Swimming lessons start Saturday... and that's also up in the air.  Sunday we're meeting up with a friend from our birth group.

Catching up.

I finally got around to sorting some of the photos from the past few months.

Isaac had a fantastic time at the Vancouver MusicFest at VanDusen Garden.  We bumped into one of Isaac's playgroup friends and one of the families from our birthing group there.  I also met up with one of my friends from grad school there with her baby.  Lots of kids seemed to love the Bobs and LoLo concert but Isaac didn't seem to enjoy it so we had to leave that a bit early.  He cheered up after he got a blue helium balloon and jumped around in a bouncy castle for a bit.  Then we moved onto the tent with a bunch of chairs and drums layer out.  Isaac especially loved playing with the drums!  We spent a lot of time there participating in the drumming circle session.  The kids started off playing and stopping when signalled (and Isaac stopped only when he noticed everyone else wasn't playing).  Then they were asked to playback beats.  During one part of the workshop, the facilitator asked individual kids to play solos (and have everyone else echo back what was played).  Isaac got to play a solo.  After what seemed like a long time, Isaac wandered off his drum and left the tent.  There was also another tent set up to let people try all sorts of instruments (a musical petting zoo).  He fell asleep in his stroller as we walked around the garden.

Today we had a creative movements class today.  I didn't really like the class so I ended up withdrawing from it.

We got a letter from the preschool with our September schedule.  The kids have a gradual entry into the program.  During the first two weeks, some kids go during the first half, and some kids go during the second half.  There's a parent orientation on the first day and I think we need to schedule in our parental volunteer duty days.  I've been reading Isaac "Llama Llama misses mama" in preparation for the Twos Time program.

Weekend Events

Yesterday we went to the Maritime Festival at the Britannia Shipyard.  Isaac boarded a few boats.  He got to ring some bells and listened to a music and dancing performance.  The event started at 11am (which is a bit late for Isaac since he typically naps late morning/early afternoon).  We stayed for an hour, then went to pick up some lunch.  Isaac fell asleep in the car in our way to buy lunch.

When we got home, he woke up briefly as I brought him up from the garage.  However, when we got home, I asked if he wanted to sleep more.  He responded "sleep", so I told him to go to bed.  He crawled into bed himself and took his nap.  I had lunch with Daddy.

The boy woke up and I went to have a short nap.  I fed him lunch, then we went to get Isaac's hair cut.  We went to a regular hair cutting place that didn't specialize in children's cuts - so he sat on a booster on a regular chair.  He sat quietly and watched as a lady quickly cut his hair and praised him for being good.  He squirmed a little when she tried to cut the hair near the nape of his neck.  When she was finished and about to blow the hair off his head with a hair dryer, I told her he was scared of hair dryers so she brushed his hair with a powdered brush.

Today we're heading to the Family Farm Fair.  It runs from 10am - 4pm.  Isaac fell asleep in the car on our way there, so I woke him up.  There was a train table set up and Isaac was captivated by it.  He jumped briefly in a bouncy castle, but I called him away to check out the petting zoo.  I tried to encourage Isaac to pet the goats, donkeys, ponies, and bunnies... (which he did try but wasn't very interested in), instead, he wanted to spin the toy windmill or check out metal models of farm machinery.  He sat in a fire engine.

Miscellaneous updates

Here are just some random updates about our ongoings.

Last week Isaac had his first nose bleed.  He was acting up, then throwing a tantrum so we put him in his crib.  Then if it's possible, he got even more upset and at some point his nose started bleeding.  He smeared it on his hands and got some blood stains on his crib sheets, but it wasn't anything serious (the nose bleed, that is).

We've been enjoying some nice sunny weather.  We went to the Steveston Salmon Festival to celebrate Canada Day.  Isaac had fun watching the parade (and we had a nice surprise seeing one of his friends in the parade).  Over the weekend, we went to Kits beach.  Enjoyed a walk there.  Isaac explored the beach with Daddy while I attempted to build a sandcastle.  They later came back and Isaac helped me decorate my mound of sand with sea shells and seaweed.  We've also been going to parks the last few days.

The weather forecast seems to be nice, so I might take Isaac to play at a splash park "tomorrow" (which is really later today).  We have a playdate with N. on Wednesday.

Potty training: I recently bought a pair of training pants (underwear lined with water-resistant covering).  When we're home, I try to offer him the choice between diapers or the trainers and he's picked the trainers a few times (and has stayed dry in them).  One time we forgot he had his trainers on and went out to pick up some dinner.  I only remembered that he had that on while we were out and we didn't stay too long, but all was well and he had stayed dry.  He's still mostly in diapers and he doesn't ask to go potty unless he needs to poop.  Potty training is still a work-in-progress.

He's started eating raisins and craisins.  There was a long period when he didn't like them, but after a grocery store clerk gave him a box... he's enjoyed them since.  I pack that as a snack when we go out.  He still gets the Dole Squish'ems apple/berry/strawberry sauce blends, PC organics cookies, and sometimes a pack of seaweed.

I curtailed my ebay/online shopping during the postal strike and I think we're done buying duplo.  Isaac is getting more interested in my little lego and occasionally I let him have some play time with them when he's strapped into his booster seat at the table.  I'm also building up a nice knex collection.  Now I just look for regular lego and knex when I go to Value Village or garage sales.  I picked up some clothes for me and some for Isaac at the last 50% sale at VV.  The only problem is trying to get the yucky smell out of some of the clothes.

Visiting the Grandparents

The last few days have been busy.  Friday night after putting Isaac to bed, we packed our bags and booked a taxi for 6am.  We were up around 5:30am Saturday morning packing the rest of the things we think we'd need on our trip.

We got to the airport and checked in our luggage and Isaac's car seat.  The security check went smoothly (though Isaac didn't want to go through the scanner by himself so I had to carry him).  When we got to our gate, Isaac watched some tv on the big screen while daddy picked up some breakfast.  Isaac had some bites of a chocolate chip muffin.  We let him run around for a bit.  We boarded the plane and Isaac seemed to be excited about the experience at first.  We got blankets and pillows complementary on the plane (maybe because they had to switch to a smaller plane so people's seatings got switched around and some people were offered earlier flights out).  We were still taxiing around the runway preparing for take-off when Isaac fell asleep.

He napped for the first hour of the plane ride.  Then he watched some Ponyo and snacked for a bit.  After, he started getting restless and had figured out how to take off the seatbelt.  Isaac wanted some water so I opened my water bottle...  I had a little incident with some water spouting out like a fountain.... I'm guessing it was from the pressure in the plane.  My pants, a blanket and my seat got drenched.  It eventually dried, but I was scared to open my water bottle again afterwards.  The only other mishap is that Isaac poured juice down the front of his shirt and pants.  We had to strip him and change him into some spare clothes I had packed.  Part way through the plane ride, Isaac started running up and down the aisle.  He was upset at having to stay seated and buckled in during the landing.

Grandpa B met us at the airport and drove us to my parent's house.  Isaac check out the house and went from room to room, then checked out the toys.  Lots of duplo and some baby toys.  I think his favourite "toy" is the kitchen timer.  He discovered that he didn't have to wait for it to go off to hear it ding if he turned the knob the other direction.  We went out for dinner, but Isaac didn't make it through the entire dinner (he was going crazy).  Aunty A drove me and the boy back early and he fell asleep almost immediately.  I transferred him onto the crib mattress (which we left on the floor).  He woke up an hour later and was ready to play again.  I think we got him down for the night at around 10:30pm.

This morning Isaac was up at 6:30am.  He wanted to eat breakfast so I gave him oatmeal and a fruit cup. He went out to play with Grandma.  We had brunch at Cora's but Isaac fell asleep and slumped against me before our order arrived.  Midway through our meal, he stirred and seemed to want to switch positions so we layed him across three chairs (his head on my lap, his body on a chair and his legs on Daddy's lap).  We finished our breakfast and went home.  When we got back, I wasn't able to take him out of the car without waking him.  I'm guessing the nap was about an hour long.

He snacked on a few bites of ham and cheese.  Then we went to Value Village.  There was no lego, but I picked up some books and a couple of puzzles.   After we headed to my in-law's house.  Traffic was a bit slower than expected.  The boy said he needed to potty while we were in the car.  I was a little worried that he would poop, but it was just pee (and he had a diaper on).  We took him to the potty when we got home.  Then he went up and down the stairs by himself (using the bum slide method going down).  After he looked around each of the rooms, then went to look for Grandpa.

Daddy went to Fortinos to pick up a few things we needed plus some dinner for Isaac.  Grandpa steamed some sticky rice and dim sum to augment our dinner.  Isaac pooped on the potty, had his bath, then played for a little.  Daddy and Grandpa went to meet up with Aunty J and pick up Grandma from the airport.  I stayed home with the boy.  He fell asleep at 7:30pm.  I'm not sure if this is just a nap or if he's down for the night...

[update: He woke up at 8:37pm but I was in the room with him and was able to get him back to sleep.]

Birthday Party Madness!

I went to bed at 4am - tired but could not fall asleep easily.  We got up at 7:30am.  I took a shower while Daddy fed the boy breakfast - applesauce.

We put on some shows for the boy to watch and worked in the kitchen trying to prepare the lunch for the kids and the veggie platter.  Daddy started moving things down to the party room.  We were running behind schedule!

At 9:14am, we were expecting our friend to come at 9am to help... BUT...

The buzzer for our front door was replaced during the week.  I didn't test it out yesterday... turns out our number was deleted from the system.  I had to go downstairs to let my friend in.  We go test the buzzer in the parking lot.  At least that works.

9:50am. I'm still in the kitchen cooking.  M&L buzz us from the parking.  They come up.  Michael brings stuff down and get M&L to help us set up the room.  Daddy goes to pick up a mango cake.

A bit after 10am, our first toddler guest arrives.  I'm still upstairs cooking - but I have to run down to let them in.  I turn off the stove and let the food continue to cook in the pot.

10:18am.  I'm done cooking... but there are still lots of stuff to bring downstairs.  I grab a load and head down but I left my cellphone in our unit.  UH OH!  When I went back up to our unit, I found I missed 2 calls.  Someone is buzzing us a 3rd time from the parking and someone is calling our home phone at the same time.  I try to let our parking guests in but for some reason, it's NOT working.  At the same time, I'm trying to talk on the phone with our guest waiting outside the front lobby doors.  People are confused as I try to sort out both calls at the same time.  I end up going down to the lobby, then dashing to the parking lot (to find Daddy letting our parking guests in).  Thanks Daddy!!

I bring our guests up to the party room, then continue to move stuff down from our unit.

Things finally settle down for a bit for me.  Daddy goes back up a few more times to get stuff we've forgotten.  I spend some time watching Isaac play and chatting a little with some of the other kids and parents.  We set up the juice and tupperwares of fruits and veggies.  Daddy orders some pizza.

The kids start snacking.  Watermelon seems to be a big hit with all the kids (except Isaac).

Daddy comes back with the pizza and I make a couple of trips to bring down the macaroni and sauce in our big pots.

Our final guests arrive.  Isaac looks ready to conk out and when I ask him if he wants to nap - he says yes.  I decide that we do the cake part before he falls asleep...

Isaac smiles and waits when he sees his cake.  He is incredibly happy as everyone sings "Happy Birthday" to him.  He has a huge grin on his face.  It melts my heart watching him.  He attempts to blow out his candle.  (I help him on his second attempt.)  We give him some cake.  It tastes like a chocolate brownie.  His lips are smeared with chocolate and blue fondant.  After that, his energy levels go up and he's ready to play again.

Guests start leaving.

M and L bring up Isaac's birthday present and he seems to LOVE it - a tricycle.  He spends a lot of time playing with it, sitting on it, dumping things from the basket out.  Me: I'm undecided about it. It's really cute, but the tires are plastic so it'll probably break pretty fast if we take it outside. Still deciding if we should keep it or switch it for something else.  A minor scuffle breaks out over the tricycle.

At around 2:30pm - Isaac has a meltdown as I am changing his diaper.  Daddy, M and L clean up the room and bring all our stuff up while I take him up for a nap but he would not sleep.  Potty time.  Then he wanted to eat more food.  He kept asking for more ham.  After we had some mango cake.  Isaac kept asking for and eating pieces of L's slice of cake.

I go to take a nap, but Isaac hangs out with Daddy, M and L.  M&L leave and Isaac comes to look for me.  I try to put him down for a nap, but as soon as I try to transfer him to his crib, he's up and screaming.  I think he's over-stimulated and over-tired.  Not a great combination.  We let Isaac open one present.

Daddy gives Isaac a bath.  Then we go down to look over the party room and do some spot cleaning.

We put the boy down for bed at around 8:30pm.

I still need to return the keys for the lounge before 9am.

Birthday Cake!

Up 'til 2am decorating the cake for the boy.  The kitchen floor has a dusting of icing sugar.  My fingers are stained with blue food colouring.  I used the Rolled Buttercream Fondant recipe from allrecipes..  At least I can go to bed knowing that my Lego cake is done.

Still have lots to do tomorrow morning.
- Cut up vegetables for a veggie platter
- Bring down toys: Lego (house, bricks, track, figures, vehicles), gears, blocks, fake food
- Arts and crafts: marshmallows, toothpicks, paper bags, crayons and maybe markers
- Prepare lunch for the kids (chopping veggies, cooking macaroni, heating up cream of mushroom soup)
- Decorate and label loot bags and write note on cards
- Inflate balloons

- Bring down washroom supplies: portable toddler potty, spare change mat, wipes, a few spare diapers
- Bring down cake, fruit platter, veggie platter, plates, cups, and utensils, water, juice, etc.

Hope we don't sleep in!

Visiting the Aquarium

This morning we went to the Aquarium with our play group friends to celebrate a birthday.  The kids ran excitedly from tank to tank, peered at many interesting fishes and marine animals and climbed on rock structures around the displays,

We watched the Beluga show.  Isaac clapped enthusiastically after seeing the whale jump up, make clicking noises, and eat fish.

The parking rates for Stanley park go up to the summer rates starting April, so it might be worth trying to make one more visit if we can (though it'll be difficult since all are weekends for this month are booked).

Birthday Party Planning

I just sent out invitations to Isaac's Birthday Party.  This year we want to have a (primarily) kids party.  I've invited friends from our play group and prenatal group.  Hopefully most of our friends will be able to come.

I'm planning to host a Lego Duplo themed party.  I'm going to attempt to make a Lego cake.  So far I'm planning to set up several different activity stations: 1) Lego construction area, 2) Lego train/tracks area, 3) Lego house and mini figures area, 4) Play kitchen - fake food, pots and pans, 5) Arts and Crafts area - I need to think of some not too messy arts & crafts (this means: no glue, no paint, no playdough, no glitter) - still deciding if crayons will be problematic or not with a bunch of toddlers loose.

I have 2 "games" planned, though I have extremely low expectations that the kids will play (even with parental assistance).

To do:
- Try NOT to get sick. (Not successful - but I am recovering and have one more day to get completely better)
- Test out fondant recipe. (Did not test... will make it tomorrow anyways.)
- Order a backup cake - maybe a yummy mango cake from Michelle's. (Done.)
- Assemble loot bags for kids. I've got everything in a box. (Done.)
- Wash kid cups. (Done.)
- Pick up water, juice, pop. (Done.) Do we want to serve coffee/tea with cake!?
- Decide on what lunch and snacks to serve adults and kids and pre-order if necessary.
- Think about what clothes to dress Isaac in - will have to be something he can play in but would look nice in for pictures.
- Check that we have enough plates (for lunch and cake), napkins, cups, utensils.
- Get extra rolls of paper towels (for spills, etc).
- Decide on some music.
- Plan arts & craft activities.

- Bake cakes (two days in advance). (Done.)
- Decorate cakes (one day in advance). (Done.)

- Pick up keys for the lounge (one day in advance). (Done.)

- Charge camera batteries and make sure camera has lots of space for pictures (one day in advance).

On Party Day:
- Inflate balloons and decorate room.
- Set up table (from storage room). (Done.)
- Make sure cake and food are ready.
- Set up play stations.
- Put a box of wipes, spare diapers and kleenex in lounge washroom and check that there is soap and toilet paper.
- Get changed.
- Have fun!
- Clean up.
- Return keys.
- Write thank-yous.

If I remember anything else I should do, I'll add it to this list.
We have 4 toddlers + Isaac, one baby, and 12 adults.