Science World

Last weekend we took Amanda to Science World (oops, sorry, Telus World of Science) for the first time. I'd heard that they had a good toddler section and we figured Amanda might enjoy it. The weather was lousy and it was also Chinese New Year, so the crowds were a little thinner than usual - perfect!!

She had a great time running around and keeping us on our toes! We could hardly keep up with her, especially in the Eureka! gallery (the one with the huge waterfall that you throw balls onto). She kept picking up balls and randomly hucking them around, then zipping over and sticking her arms in the water.

The toddler area was good, although I didn't think quite as good as the one at the Aquarium (or maybe Amanda just likes the Aquarium one better). Come to think of it, the biggest problem with it may have been the several obnoxious kids (some older than 6) who were running all over the place without a parent to be seen, stealing the balls from the younger kids and climbing all over the little ones on the way up the slide. Um, yeah, maybe that was the problem. (Insert rolling eyes here).

Anyway, we did have a great time and Amanda had a GREAT nap afterwards! Here are a few pictures (there are more in this Flickr set):



Fun with trick mirrors:


Mmmm...giant chocolates! (These were in the Purdy's Anniversary exhibition):


A cool Year of the Pig craft we made there (two egg carton cups with pipe cleaners):


And this photo could have been taken anywhere - totally non-Science World-specific - but I just love it so I decided to share anyway. :)

Gone Fishin'

It's been awhile since we've posted...life's been crazy as always! I had to post about a cool idea Jeff came up with last weekend. Amanda has seemed very interested in fishing recently (her daycare must have some kind of fishing set)...she's always hanging off the back of the couch pretending to fish. Jeff looked at some fishing sets in the stores, but they weren't too great. So he figured out how to make our own!

He attached a ribbon with a magnet at the end to a fancy stick (actually a juggling stick) we had around the house. Then I found a couple dozen colourful pictures of fish and other sea creatures on the internet and printed them on card stock, and we attached washers with scotch tape (this was a good job for Amanda). And tada - her own fishing rod and fish!

For a 10 minute project that cost nothing, this has been an incredible source of endless amusement. Amanda catches each fish one at a time, then puts them in her Fisher Price Aquarium (her "fish bucket"). Once she's done, she dumps them all out and starts again. It's fun to watch how excited she gets - we have to stay close by because with every catch she yells it out and wants to show us ("Look Dad! I caught a shark! Wow!").

Check it out (more photos on Flickr):

Back of a fish, showing how the washer is attached:


Such a proud fisher!


Such concentration:


The day's catch:

Good Day for a Swim

good day for a swim
Originally uploaded by dro!d.

Killer Jellyfish!!

Just a Few More...

Welcome to our home town!
Originally uploaded by roly poly fish heads.

Just because I've been sitting here for the last 10 minutes laughing until I'm crying at the Stick Figures in Peril pool on Flickr...

I sure hope Diane & Richard don't encounter any of these signs on their Hawaiian trip...

Valentine's Fun

This was the first Valentine's Day that Amanda really seemed to "get"...they did a lot of special crafts and activities at daycare, and she was pretty excited by the time the big day finally arrived. Of course, the day before, she learned it was "only one more sleep"...when I got her up the next morning and said "Happy Valentine's Day", she told me it wasn't "Ballentine's Day" yet, that there was still one more sleep. So it's obvious she didn't QUITE get the whole time thing, but it was cute nonetheless.

The evening before, we made some heart-shaped Rice Krispie treats for her to take to her daycare friends. It was interesting...I used gel food colouring, which I haven't used much before, and I guess I used too much. I was anticipating a nice pretty pastel pink, but ended up with dayglo neon! Hopefully the other kids didn't have too much diaper fallout from all that food colouring!!

A few pictures of us making the treats:

I love how Jeff always takes kitchen pictures when the kitchen is a mess...




Jeff playing with the "macro" settings...looks kind of cool!