supersunday

Yesterday we went to supersunday at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It is an excellent program the VAG puts on for kids on the 3rd Sunday of each month. Throughout the gallery, there are art projects and workshops related to the current exhibits.

Krazy! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art is the big new exhibit so we made a superhero cape, took a modern dance workshop, and created a cartoon flip book.

Kathryn Ricketts the dancer/choreographer who ran the workshop was fantastic. She had a huge group of little girls totally engaged and having fun while learning about modern dance, art from the exhibit, and onomatopoeia: Wham! Bam! Crash!

Kiera also enjoyed various video installations including a 5 screen display of an Anime style world, Dumbo, and a HUGE version of Gerald McBoing Boing.

The Kutlug Ataman exhibit upstairs is a video installation with individual interviews each on their own TV. We got to design our own TVs with our picture on the main channel. Check out Kiera's supermodel pose on her TV and notice it is permanently tuned to channel 56.

We ended our super Sunday with the first BBQ of the season on my parents deck. Riley's rolling is really starting to get him places - like across the deck! He's been rolling and creeping around for a while; but now, with repeated rolling, he can clear a big blanket or cross a room and quickly!

Suddenly Summer

I didn't really believe that the weather was going to be so nice and so warm until it was actually here. Friday morning after our last Snippets class, a bunch of us slathered the kids up with sunscreen, searched for sunhats and headed off to Mill Lake to enjoy the sun. Kiera and the other kids had a great time, climbing the equipment, pretending to be monsters and chasing each other, playing pirate in their pirate cave under the play structure, running together, having an impromptu picnic and looking at the ducks. (Kiera is in the yellow t-shirt.)I'm looking forward to more summer weather and getting out to the park a lot more.

Saturday morning, we ventured out to the Cloverdale Rodeo parade. Later, we took Ken's Dad out for his birthday dinner. Kiera was worn out from the heat of the day and flaked out at dinner so on the way back to Grandma and Grandpa's we stopped by her favorite restaurant to pick up something for her. As an extra treat, we got to see more horses. Look who was going through the drive through ahead of us.

FOOD!

Riley started solids last week. It is a little before 6 months, but he was very ready. He's been reaching for our food for a while now and had started waking up frequently and hungry at night. Once he had a taste of food, he was shaking and crying he wanted more so badly. He has taken to it much more quickly than Kiera did at first. He is already eating 3 meals a day and a good amount of cereal and fruits/veggies at each meal. Like his sister, before him, he wants to grab the spoon and help feed himself, which means meal time is pretty messy! A few nights ago, we tried peas for the first time.
I think he likes them!

Little Gym

Kiera's been going to Little Gym since February. It's the first class she has been in without me and it took some adjusting. At first, Kiera wanted me inside the room to watch, later she would go in on her own but would only watch from the sidelines for the warm up activities. It drove me nuts to see all the kids running in a circle, something Kiera ordinarily loves to do, and Kiera only watching! Kiera is an observer though; when something is new, she watches. Now she goes in on her own and joins in the fun right from the beginning. One of Kiera's favorite activities at Little Gym is the 'train'. They use the train during transitions to travel from station to station. (Kiera is in an orange top, second from the end of the train with Melissa behind her as the caboose.)





A few weeks ago it was bring a friend day and Kiera invited Melissa. Donna is more diligent than I am at making sure to take lots of photos and updating her blog, so here are some links to her blog with Melissa and Kiera playing at the Little Gym and in Melissa's backyard.



http://littlemissyt.blogspot.com/2008/05/little-gym.html

http://littlemissyt.blogspot.com/2008/05/backyard-fun.html

desifest

The first Saturday in May, we headed down to Gastown to the first annual Vancouver desifest. Ken and I first saw bhangra dancing at Folklorama in Winnipeg. It is fun to watch because it is so high energey and the dancers always look like they are having so much fun. These young dancers were a prime example. Here Kiera is learning a dance move - 'the lightbulb'.

A very serious spectator, her favorite act was the 'girl' dancers wearing the sparkly outfits. It is only recently that females have been able to do Bhangra and there were a few all female groups at the festival.
Riley's favorite were the drummers - The Dhol Nation Academy. He was facing away from me in the stroller when they came in. At first, I saw his legs kicking and I thought the noise was upsetting him as we were up at the front and it was LOUD. When I checked on him, he was happily kicking along to the beat (well kicking happily anyway).

Here is the whole gang. Riley is asleep in the sling and Kiera is enjoying the novelty of being in the stroller as she's not used one for ages now.