Stanley Park Water Park - Lumbermen's Arch (video)

It was a really hot day today and we wanted to spend time outside before the weather got cold. Where can we go? To the water park of course! Inside Stanley Park, there is a free kids water park. I didn't even know that this water park existed until the other day, when we went on the train ride and we walked by it.

We suited them into their UV swim gear, large sun hats, rubbed sunblock on the legs and arms, and we are set to go. Both girls LOVE playing in water. They had an awesome time running and splashing around in the water... until Jasmine slipped and fell on the ground. With a scraped knee and elbow, and no bandaids, we had to leave promptly. Even though we didn't play in the water, it was fun just watching them.

Burnaby Village Museum

We visited the Burnaby Village Museum today, as they were having a free admission day so we checked it out. We were lucky to find a parking spot in the shade, a quick walk from the entrance of the museum. It was boiling hot. By the time we got to the entrance gate (a 2 minute walk), everyone was sweating.

This museum is quite special. It's basically a tiny village of shops, from the early 1900s. There were maybe 20 little shops, some of them with people dressed up and greeting you inside. There was a bank, a theatre, music piano shop, bakery, Chinese medicine shop, blacksmith, barbar... quite interesting. Too bad it was so hot outside, we were all burning so we had to leave after an hour.


Theatre ticket office, MuiMui doing gymnastics (click on pics)

Meow Meow, Bong Bong and 1-2-3 (videos)

The 3 videos below show a typical day in our household, with 2 kiddies running around. These were filmed in June/July but I didn't have time to convert them til now.

Video 1 - Julia loves animals, especially stuffed animals that she can mush her head into. The first video shows Julia saying one of her beginning words, "Meow, meow, meow". That cat is a neck pillow which is meant to be used in the car when the kids fall asleep. It's supposed to hold their heads up so it doesn't flop down. But I guess that pillow is just another toy now.




Video 2 - this one is kinda hard to decipher what they are doing. You may need to watch this video twice, only watch one child the entire video.
- Julia is practicing her new wrestling move that Richard taught her to do... Bong Bong! onto the ground. Notice how she tripped Jasmine with the balloon string?

- Jasmine just watched "The Magic School Bus" in chinese so that is why she is running around with a video in her hand. She is speaking both English and Chinese. She says these: "Hoy dung, san dung" (turn light on, turn light off) "Hey...I'm coming!" "Ooops, sorry. Dui um jui." "Weee, weeee. A balloon!"




Video 3 - Julia trying to say 1-2-3 for the first time. She basically copies what everyone says.

Learning Moments

After a couple of recent incidents, I truly believe that kids learn by watching others. Here are some examples:

We turn on the TV using a remote control. The other day when the TV was on, I suddenly decided to turn it off. Then Julia ran over to the couch, grabbed the remote control, pointed it to the TV and started pushing on all the buttons! I was like - what the? She must have learned that from Richard.

(I still remember when Jasmine turned on the TV once, by using the button located on the TV. Except that the TV turned on but not the PVR so when the TV came on, it was a blank black white screen with a LOUD SHEHHSHSSHHEHHSS sound. Jasmnine was so freaked out. From that day onwards, Jasmine never turned on the TV again. Jasmine still gets scared when the TV turns blank).

Another example is after grocery shopping, we were at home putting all the food away. We have this toy grocery cart for them to play with. Julia started pushing the grocery cart around the kitchen and put all the "real" food into the toy cart. How funny. It's amazing how kids follow what the adults do.

Round and Round We Go

Something funny happened at the park yesterday with Jasmine. We went to the park, just me and Jasmine, and she rode her 3-wheel bike (gotta get her to burn off some energy). There's this pole thingy that has a small platform for you to stand and you twirl around this stick. Jasmine was on it and twirling around while 2 older kids were waiting for their turn. The other kids got impatient and decided to help her twirl faster. So she was going around and around on this thing, 2 kids pushing it. I don't know, it went around like 20 times? When it stopped, Jasmine stood up, stepped off and started walking. But BAM! She fell flat on her face. I picked her up... woodchips all over her clothes, her face, hair... I had to laugh. It was the funniest thing to watch. She wasn't hurt. And Jasmine had this smile on her face too and you can see her head going around in circles (you know in cartoons, with birds flying around the head). That was a moment!

Jasmine's First Concert - The Wiggles

Jasmine has been watching this program called The Wiggles for the past year. It’s a kiddie show with singing, dancing and music. And they just so happen to have a concert in Vancouver! I finally bought tickets when they had a buy-one-get-one free deal. We were so lucky to find seats in row 9!

We went to the Wiggles concert last night at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. What a blast. Jasmine knew everyone on stage and she was pointing at them, looking at me, smiling, dancing in the aisle, waving her blinking LED baton around while eating her cookies and candy. We had terrific seats, in the 9th row next to the aisle. There were parts of the show where the actors ran off stage so we felt right in the action.

During the last song when they were waving good bye to everyone, because we were near the front of the stage, Anthony (guy in blue) was standing next to us so I lifted Jasmine up and he gave her a high-five! Wow! Jasmine’s eyes were so big in amazement. Now, if only the pictures that I took will turn out (the guys on stage were constantly moving so all the pics were blurry). Nevertheless, this was Jasmine’ first concert and it was awesome.

Spirit Catcher Train Ride at Stanley Park (video)

We've been hearing about this train ride at the Stanley Park that showcased an Aboriginal theme and decided to give it a try, since there was a coupon for half price that week. We arrived at the park, found parking and strolled to the ticket booth. I was shocked to see how much it cost to get in (it would cost $28 regularly), but with the coupon, it was only $14. But we had an option to get an all season pass for $36 so we thought, well, if we did the train ride twice, it would cost us $28 already, so why not get the all season pass? We bought the all season pass.

Inside the park, there was a stage with 2 shows shown each day. There were exhibits about Aboriginals and little stands where kids could make crafts. There were food stands offering Aboriginal affair (burgers and salmon). And there was the train ride which runs every 15 minutes. Because we’ve been talking about the train to the kids all day, the first thing we rode on was the train. The train ride was about 10 minutes long and it went through a tunnel and over a pond. The kids loved looking at all the birds, sculptures and plants as the train chugged along.

It was a tiny park so we walked through it all in less than an hour. Before we left the park, we decided to go on the train ride again (make use of the pass). All in all, a nice relaxing day.

New Condo - Lisa

We finally had time to visit Lisa at her new condo. I think she moved in in May? The building looked very new. As soon as we drove into the parking lot, I really liked the feel of the place. There was lots of parking and seemed quite quiet. Maybe all the kids were at the park that day.

Momo was very excited to see the girls, unitl he realized that he couldn't get away from them. Jasmine and Julia were both chasing him here and there. He soon realized how much trouble he was in. Good thing, the girls got tired of running around and lost interest in Momo.