Beluga Grads

When I was a kid, Raffi was one of the children’s singers we listened to a lot. And when we had J, she got to listen to a lot of Raffi too. For a long time she would not watch anything on TV…and then we borrowed a DVD of a Raffi concert from the early 80s from the library. And what do you know? She would sit through the whole thing! Eventually she added the songs from The Sound of Music to her TV watching repertoire and making dinner became much easier for me!

So, when we heard Raffi was coming to town, we decided we better get ourselves some tickets. So that we would not have an overtired little lady, we didn’t tell her she was going until after nap time the day of the concert.



Seated two rows in front of us were Alex’s brother, niece and dad…it turned into a real family day out (we did know they were coming too, we just didn’t know how close our seats were to each other)




J had a blast – she loved singing along and we kept losing her in the crowd of groupies pushing up against the stage and dancing in the aisles.



J's only complaints about the concert were that it wasn’t long enough and that something happened to Raffi – he was older than in her DVD! Oh, and he had a chair on stage, but he stood for the whole concert. Apparently he should have taken a seat or removed the chair!

The concert was awesome for the parents too – many of the adults in the audience were raised on Raffi and there were at least as many grown ups singing as kids (possibly more)! Raffi even played a special extra verse for the Beluga Grads…“Grown-up beluga, oh, grown-up beluga, sing a song of peace, sing with all your friends, we need to hear you”…it is a beautiful addition to an old favourite!

Why we need a yard

I could come up with a million reason why I want a yard and so could J – somewhere to play outside without having to get all sorted out and walk four or five blocks, a place to make mud, a place to plant fruit and veggies and flowers, a green space right outside our door to enjoy coffee in the spring and summer mornings…I could go on and on. (Can you guess which things J wants to do??)

At the end of our little trip to Victoria, J and I caught a plane from Victoria to Kelowna for a family thing and Alex, who had to work, drove home to Vancouver. J and I stayed for a few days and she was a big helper for my mom and dad.



She discovered my mom had two rakes, so that she could have one (HA!) and she spent the entire afternoon outside with my mom raking the yard.



She wasn’t too impressed on our last morning there though. It had been windy the night before and all her hard work raking was gone – the trees had dropped even more leaves!
And now, she has one more reason why we need a yard – she needs to rake!

Weekend Escape - Victoria

19.8 Go on 10 "adventures"

Our world has been a bit crazy lately. And by a bit, I mean it's insane. So Alex and I decided that we'd take a few days off work and daycare and get out of Vancouver and have a little adventure and some rest. Well, we managed to have some adventures...and we did get a little rest too!

Early Thanksgiving Monday we drove out to the ferry terminal to start our little vacation. While we waited for our ferry to arrive so we could board, we did a little browsing in the terminal building.

J is a true Vancouver girl with her morning "coffee"

We checked out the awesome candied apples - Thanksgiving turkeys and spooky Hallowe'en creatures. J and Alex would have had them as their second breakfast...



We had a reservation and because there was very little traffic, we were one of the first cars on the ferry. We had an awesome view from the car deck!


We did go up to the passenger decks and took J outside to see the view.


We waved at the ferry going in the opposite direction - can you see J's Auntie K. on the ferry? We waved hard because she's there (maybe...she was in Victoria for the weekend, running in the marathon)


Once we docked in Swartz Bay, we decided we were hungry, so we made a stop in Sidney-by-the-Sea for a lunch of, what else, fish and chips. We also picked up a few postcards for J's penpal. Then it was off to Victoria and Beacon Hill Park. J slept most of the way and was quite excited when we got out of the car and we were at the petting zoo.

What's that???

Llama Llama no pyjamas

Hangin' out

Miniature Pigs

Petting the goats

"I'll brush you and make you beautiful" (and if she had hair accessories, I'm sure the goats would be wearing those too!!!)

After a long time at the petting zoo (and some very thorough hand washing) we decided that we should find the playground and burn off some energy. J had a great time at the playground, racing around like crazy. We went to our hotel, dropped our things off and went in search of some dinner. J was a trooper and walked 1.5 kilometres to dinner at a yummy Italian place called Fiamo.


We arrived early, before the dinner rush, and had a lovely meal. It was so good. J was thrilled with her spaghetti and meatballs and the waiter couldn't believe how good J was and that we'd brought our own entertainment for her while we were waiting for food (colouring stuff and little Robert Munsch books).


We loved the atmosphere and decoration in Fiamo almost as much as we loved our soup and pasta. Check out the bike on the wall...just a taste of the decor.


After we stuffed ourselves, we went in search of ice cream (fine, gelato) because J declared it wasn't a "real" adventure if we didn't eat ice cream. We ended up having gelato both evenings and J had ice cream at lunch the second day and she just couldn't believe her luck because she "already had ice cream the day before." It didn't take much to convince her that we could have some special treats when we were on vacation!


Alex loves gelato, so he had no argument with gelato on consecutive days. Alex ate gelato at least twice a day when we were in Rome for our honeymoon! Not sure how this compares....


The "Christmas" building...aka the Parliament building. Apparently any kind of light display automatically means Christmas lights...


The next day we left the camera at home, but we managed to take in an IMAX movie, J did every gallery of the Royal BC Museum (her favourites were the special map exhibit and the old street) and we went for a long walk. We picked out books at Munro's Books, because what trip to Victoria is complete without a visit to Munro's? We capped day number two off with dinner with my friend Andrea at Rebar. YUM! More good food and some excellent company.

It was a great little break for us - and yes, there was some rest...when you have a four year old who you make walk 4+ km a day, a daddy used to working the morning shift, and pregnant mommy, everyone is ready to fall into bed by 8:00!

Thailand - Eastern Yellow Robin

Postcard from amileygirl from Thailand

USA - Tennessee - Mailbox

Postcard from ShinyPenny from Tennessee

Description: This is her mailbox where she sends and receives all of her postcards!

Pippi, bunnies and a train: Germany, Belarus and Belgium

Postcard from BirgitLay from Germany

Description: Inger Nilsson als Pippi Langstrumpf vor der Villa Kunterbunt, 1969
Translation: Inger Nilsson as Pippi Longstocking before Villa Kunterbunt, 1969

Postcard from AppleMe from Belarus.

We just got another card like this one two days ago - they're cute!

Postcard from Fairy11 from Belgium

Description: A German steam train made in 1917

Finland and Russia: Artifacts

Postcard from leejanns from Finland

Description: Benz 1894
1-Cylinder engince, 2 l. cap. Mounted horizontal. Two-speed gear box with belts and pulleys.

Postcard from Tasie from Russia

Description: Peterhof. The Lower Park. The Danald Fountain. Architect A. Stakenschneider (1854). Scultptor I. Vitali (after Ch. Rauch's original)

Russia and Belarus: Bunnies

Postcard from Flowers05 from Russia

Description: Small Hare in the Bag/ Photo by Victoriya May

Postcard from Oase from Belarus

USA and Italy: works of art

Postcard from carolreader from Ohio, USA

Description: Tiffany Studios. Window; "Landscape with a Greek Temple," c. 1900
Glass, h 227.3 cm (89 1/2 in.), w. 114.3 xm (45 in.) unframed
The Cleveland Museum of Art,
Gift of Mrs. Robert M. Fallon, 1966.432

Postcard from LIMC from Italy

Description: Princesse Sheherazade
d'après l'album Princesses du monde de Misstigri et Katell Goyer
Éditions Auzou

Russian Cat Cuddles

Postcard from Daphna_from_Edem from Russia

Description: Sleeping Hour