We had a very very busy Saturday with Amelia and Cedric. It should have been a swimming lesson day, but I signed them up for the Mud Kitchen workshop hosted by the CCRR through the YMCA of Northern British Columbia (see end of blog for more CCRR). I was a bit worried looking at the weather over the last few days, but Mr. Sun gave us plenty of sunshine this morning. Throughout the week it was threatening thunderstorms all day today. The staff were worried about rain, so instead of starting with edible mud (chocolate playdough) we started off going straight outside.

Not that I am going to complain about having a small group of children, but it was too bad more people did not attend. I hope in the future more people sign up so they continue these awesome activities. Cedric and Amelia had a little kitchen stand to themselves, but also shared nicely with another two children at another station. The children were very keen on making soup and having everyone ‘taste’ it. The teachers had a huge variety of pots, pans, spoons, buckets and textured elements to use. Amelia added flower petals to her mud soup. Speaking of flowers Neil was also able to acquire a tiger lily for our garden. Part of the workshop was the option to plant flowers.

Cedric spent as much time wandering around touching everything as he did actually playing. He adores water, so once he saw me playing with the hose he hightailed it over and stayed put. Once the little ones were playing well on their own I made them up a batch of edible playdough. They used cocoa powered to make it mud like. . . . however my husband thought it was a cup of real mud and dumped it out into the grass . . . .whoops. So we came home without playdough. After some snacks that the Y provided we headed home; the kids had long naps, then we headed over to Gramma’s house for a BBQ.

Amelia and Cedric were delighted to find out that Gramma had bought a sandbox for her house, and it did not take long for both of them to really get into digging. Amelia also remembered there had been a boat attached to our truck yesterday, so she was also excited to see the boat parked next to the sandbox. She asked to be put in the boat, and pretended to drive it around the yard The other tried and true BBQ activity was bubbles! They had so much fun with Dad blowing bubbles on the front deck. 

In other news, I added some filler to my latest tattoo (I love tattoos and have two sleeves, and some large leg pieces, and a little one on my foot). I went with birth flowers to represent my little family. Cedric and I are both Daisies, Amelia is Larkspur and Neil is Snowdrops. I have one more sitting to add a peony in my elbow ditch, then it will be complete. Hard to get a good photo of my lower arm, but you can see the work in process:

Back to the first part of my blog today. The CCRR is a fabulous resource that doesn’t seem to be very well known by non-daycare providers. I rented their climbing structures multiple times before buying my own. They also have dress up, sensory bins, puppets, games, construction, puzzles, active play and so much more. These items can be rented for two weeks at a time, and are absolutely perfect to use as a toy rotation without having to pay anything. So if you didn’t know about it before, now you do and I recommend checking out their website that has their entire catalogue.