Baby Talk Open House at the Roundhouse Community Centre on Apr. 14

We are going to be at the BABY TALK OPEN HOUSE at the Roundhouse Community Centre on Apr. 14 from 11AM to 3PM, it is an event for Parents & Parents-to-Be! Drop by and say, "hi"!

Join your community to share experiences and expertise on parenthood, from conception and pregnancy to mom, baby, infants and health. There will be vendors from goods and services organizations in the Downtown/West End/False Creek areas, as well as various educational and interactive workshops throughout the day (a listing of vendors and a workshop schedule will be posted on www.roundhouse.ca in mid-April). There will also be door prizes... you could win a portrait package from us, ToyBox Studio!

Event takes place at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre Exhibition Hall at 181 Roundhouse Mews. This event is drop-in - please pay at the door. The media sponsors for the event are Urbanbaby Magazine and Mommymap.com!

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Spring Break Activities & Chance to Win $200 Shopping Spree

The daffodils and rodos are all coming up, it must be spring break! As usual, there are fun activities planned for the Spring Break week(s) here at Granville Island and at the Kids Market.

At the Kids Market, we have a Nursery Rhyme Contest for a chance to win $200 gift certificate to use in any of the stores here, including our ToyBox Studio! The contest is designed to be a game you can do with your children, simply visit all the stores to discover the "hidden" Nursery Rhyme and fill out the information on the form. For example, "Hush A Bye Baby" might be found in our studio... "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" might be found in a certain store here that sells, you guessed it, shoes! The draw takes place on March 25

If you want to polish up on your Nursery Rhymes, there is a children's book store here too. Or the classic, My Very First Mother Goose, is available online from Amazon. There are also CDs of the classic rhymes too! My Very First Mother Goose

Also for the kids, there is the Kids Market Recycle Craft Workshop - March 17 to 25, come on up to the 2nd floor, from 11AM to 3PM you can create some fun and interesting craft projects using recycled materials.

Colour or Black & White Baby/Children Photography

I occasionally get asked if we offer our backgrounds in black & white or sepia. Our backgrounds were designed to be in colour and does not convert that well into black & white or sepia. The reason being black & white photography is really different shades of grey and when we turn our backgrounds into black & white, the rich detail we have becomes too many various shades of grey. Black & white photography, in my opinion, looks best with simple backgrounds.

Whether you opt for colour or black & white photography, consider the mood you wish to envoke and how you would like to capture and remember the moment. We are fortunate to be able to have a mixture of both styles in our memory books. Colour portraits let capture the beautiful colour of their baby soft skin or big eyes or hair colour while a simple black & white photograph lets you focus on the drama of a great smile or shape of their face. Now, if we could only have portraits with scratch and sniff so we can remember their "baby" smell.