spring break catch up

Okay, so I'm a little behind on the spring break diary. I blame it completely on the fact that on Thursday evening the opportunity to go away for a couple days with my husband came up, and we grabbed it, hopped a ferry to Vancouver Island and just got back last night...meanwhile, back to reality.
So since I am now way behind, I will summarize spring break to this point. When I last left you, we had spend a lovely day out in Steveston eating oysters etc. The following day was supposed to be sunny, but the weatherman was playing a cruel trick and it was in fact pouring rain. While trying to figure out what to do to keep everyone entertained a friend emailed with an invite to play, so off we went. Spent the afternoon at her house, eating popcorn and attempting adult conversation while 5 little girls rampaged through the house. Most excellent, thank you Michelle! Another day checked off the calendar. Tuesday the weatherman was still insisting it was sunny while outside the rain continued...Kate suggested I google things to do on a rainy day - what a great idea - so I did, and within a few minutes we were getting organized to head downtown for an afternoon at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Their website said they were hosting spring break activities all afternoon each day for kids, and best of all, their admission etc was free - my kind of scene! So we invited my mother in law to join us, and hopped the sky train for downtown. Which of course is an adventure all of it's own. Once at the gallery, we had a quick picnic in the lobby, then headed inside, where the girls were handed clipboards and sent off on a scavenger hunt. Not sure what non spring break down adults thought of this, but the kids sure had fun. We worked our way gradually up each floor of the gallery, until we reached the top floor where they had converted their outdoor patio into an enclosed space called "the making place". Great view of the downtown area while the kids got busy creating structures to add to the already very large cityscape that the gallery had requested the visiting kids help to build. Elizabeth contributed a fire hall with fire truck, Emily built a suspension bridge complete with boats and a whale underneath, and Kate constructed the largest tower in the city out of rolls of newspaper. I am definitely not the world's most crafty person - thank goodness my mother in law was there to lend a hand, as she definitely IS a very crafty person - but I had a great time helping the kids with their projects. Then across the street to get much needed coffees for me and grammy, and then a walk back to the sky train station. Along the way we were entertained by buskers, one in particular who was quite fascinating - he was dressed as a satyr and playing a bagpipe while dancing around quite madly on his cloven feet, tres cool I have to say. Anyway, made it home again on the train, Em got to sit in the "driver's seat" so to speak, looked like she was driving, which naturally she thought was great. And ta da, another successful day in the books.More to follow....