Happy Easter - Giving to each other

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you are having a fun filled weekend and eating lots of chocolate!

The grandkids slept over Friday night and we were up and out of the house early Saturday to go into the city to the Stanley Park Easter Train.
 55 minutes to drive to the Park...35 minutes in a lineup to pay for parking! Poor DH and a huge queue of others couldn't get the parking ticket machines to work. After eating his money and refusing to take any other form of payment, he had to leave the lineup to walk back to the truck to get more cash from his jacket.
Luckily he did, as a woman was ticketing the vehicles of all those who were stuck in the lineup!!! After he got sorted out with her, it was back to the queue to get tickets again.

The train itself was nice. I remember going every Christmas to ride that miniature train. In those days, there was so much more at the park. There were pony rides, a free Zoo and also a petting Zoo. You could row a boat at Lost Lagoon. The ponds and man made lakes were bursting with ducks and geese...there were peacocks and tons of wildlife. The police had stables there  for the horses they rode to patrol the park. You could go and pet the horses and get a little talk from the policemen all about brushing or riding them...

I will slide in a warning for my British readers. Canadians just do not know how to do miniature train rides like you do! I have been on many of yours and they are all superb. That said...here is a little peek into our ride....you will see that my photography skills have not improved much!

I couldn't get the engine...or engineer...there was a swell of people trying for photos and we were near the back. Amazingly I managed to get in and out of the train without assistance...there were sort of pipe horizontal rails just under the red roofs...I hoisted myself in and out with them...Little Miss C took my poles!
There were a few little woodland scenes...

Both children quite liked the mechanical aspect of the water wheel and turned their heads to see it  till it was gone.

 Here is a glimpse of a Sasquatch and his camp.

The kids enjoyed the train ride itself and the little views of  "nature".

 There was a free easter egg hunt included and to my utter joy it was located in the old petting zoo. It was so much fun to walk around, through all the old areas I used to love to visit as a kid.

Afterwards we walked over to the Aquarium and had a great time looking through all the exhibits and seeing the Beluga whales, otters and small dolphins.  The otters were so busy playing, you just had to smile...all the faces around me were full of smiles at their antics.
I wanted to walk down to Lumberman's Arch and show the kids where DH and I learned to swim...well...in all honesty, where DH learned to swim...I learned to dog paddle at best!!! The lessons were held in the man made  tidal pool created within the park. You could always find it by the big log framed "arch". I think most  kids in Vancouver and even perhaps Burnaby learned to swim there. I was so hoping to get a picture of the arch but  my back couldn't keep up and after the Aquarium we staggered back to the truck. It was just as well as the kids were so tired too...poor Little Miss C was falling asleep at our late lunch and both fell asleep on the long drive home. Little Mr P was chattering away in the truck and suddenly there was silence...he fell asleep in mid sentence!!!

We carried them into the house and laid them down to have a wee rest...I knew my daughter would be here to pick them up shortly and Little Miss C so wanted to give her brother an Easter card and get one from him as well!!!  I ran down to the craft room and grabbed the leftover DP from the other day and some of my baggies of pre cut spellbinder dies. I put together 2 very quick cards and popped them into envelopes with their initial pencilled on  the front. When they woke up, I gave them each the others person card to address and sign...Poor Little Mr P...he couldn't figure out that the pencilled C was just there so I knew who to give them to...he carefully write her name...leaving off the C and writing in pen beside it, the rest of her name!

 

Here is the one she gave to him.

And a quick peek at the inside.

Not the best sentiment stamping in the world but I only had 30 or 40 minutes tops to make both cards so no times to pencil the bare spots back in!

No recipe as these are pretty basic and all the bits were listed the other day.

I am entering these cards in the following challenges:

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1.Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets.

2. Simon says Stamp - Anything goes