Fun Family Time!
The summer time is when we get the most out of family time. The kids are out of school, and there’s plenty to do. Of course, planning and coordinating with kids is a bit hard even so. Because kids are out of school, but the parents still have to work. And it’s a bit of a juggle balancing both.
Although Areeb and I have pretty flexible hours and we don’t work most of the day, we do need to work. Areeb especially works on 2 different time zones, and with the kids summer sleeping habits, it’s not easy. Most nights, Haytham gets to sleep at 10pm and Omera at 11pm- which greatly cuts down the time to work. But this just means we get more time to spend with the kids.
There are some night though, we need to do something that burns their energy, but also is quality time spent together. Not just us standing and watching them as they run around the playground.
What better solution than the Illumination Night Market in Richmond. There are 2 night markets in the summertime in Richmond BC. We call it the ‘Old Night Market’, since this one has been around since forever.
It’s fun, the kids get to walk around eat delicious treats, see cute toys and play around. There are the water balls like the New Night Market, but this one isn’t as busy. You can actually get to the food pretty easily, and you’re not fighting a sea of people. Which is nice because I don’t have to put Haytham on a baby leash (which he calls his jet pack LOL)
This was our first visit since the summer started to this night market. The kids were hoping that the bouncy castle would be there again this year, only to be disappointed. When we went on opening night, it seemed disorganized, and the bouncy castle was still in it’s deflated state. Many of the stalls weren’t open or closed too soon, and the performance didn’t start on time.
It was a bit of a let down, but that’s okay, we still had fun though!
The food was a great deal. Our favorite stall is the Uighur BBQ, it’s been there for years and it’s our favorite! We always order the chicken and lamb skewers! It’s a must if you go there! You can’t miss it, it’s the only one blowing smoke into people as they walk to get food.
This year we decided to try the Taiwanese ice cream. And wow let me tell you, you get a lot. It’s shaved ice on the bottom with strawberry syrup, then vanilla ice cream with strawberry syrup and fresh cut strawberries on top. It’s a freaking bucket basically. Haytham got mango so his was mango syrup and mango slices and Omera got strawberry. Both were incredible and a lot to finish off for the 4 of us.
A bonus this year was the mascots! There was a random horse, a cute teddy bear- who were both the most hilarious mascots ever! Haytham went nuts! He basically thought they were giant living stuffies and attacked them both. They horse and teddy took it in good sport. Watch the video.
Oh and grover from sesame street showed up too! The kids really loved it and got to take pictures with him!
We played some games! Ate some food. Looked at some toys, walked around and had a great time! The kids were both tired and asleep by the time we got home. Which means, that the night was a success.
I want to end this blog post by thanking you very much for reading and also for watching our youtube videos!
See you next time!
~ ~ Lazina ~ ~