Going to the pool on Friday evenings has become a Friday night ritual for us. We tend to order fries and burgers from the concession stand, but when I compare the prices (the Whole Foods meal costs $10 less), the variety of menu options and the healthy nature of the meals themselves, it’s no contest: the Whole Foods meal wins hands down. It just requires a tiny bit of planning and foresight – a small price if you’re hell bent on not making dinner.

Checking out the Celebration of Light with the family? Here’s your chance to cross making dinner off your list: enter to win a special picnic dinner for eight courtesy of Whole Foods valued at $72. Whole Foods has created a healthy family-friendly menu designed specifically to enjoy before watching the fireworks. With this much food, you can bring your family and the grandparents and a couple of cousins too!

My husband and I are huge Vietnamese food fans. We don’t like the restaurants too fancy and generally prefer hidden neighbourhood gems. Hasting-Sunrise’s Bau Chau Vietnamese hits the mark on all counts – and is a great option for young families like ours.

Campagnolo has been on our list for some time – ever since we moved back to Vancouver nine months ago. There’s something appealing about being able to get what’s rumoured to be fabulous Italian food in somewhat dodgy location – albeit a gentrifying dodgy location – near the Ivanhoe Hotel on Main Street.

I’ve had a killer week this week, with lots of evening business events as well as some socializing time with my sister. Having missed the bedroom routine a few too many times, I was starting to feel a bit out of touch from my kids. So I picked them up early one afternoon and took them for a cone at Gelateria Dolce Amore on Commercial Drive.

When I lived in Toronto, I used to pine for a Legendary Burger, oozing with Triple O sauce. I imagined a time when I could pull up to a White Spot drive-in, flick on my lights for service and wait happily for my car tray to arrive at my door – something I used to do with my parents at the Lougheed location in Burnaby when I was a kid. Thinking of bringing your kids to the White Spot drive-in? Check out our experience.

Vancouver parents, like parents in any major metropolitan area, have a multitude of dining options. Although dining out with a preschooler in Vancouver may seem intimidating, there are several steps parents can take that will ensure a positive experience for everyone. Believe it or not, it is possible for parents to enjoy a relaxing conversation, preschoolers to enjoy a good meal, and restaurant staff to being “family-friendly.”

From the outside, Havana looks like one of those artsy, intellectual places where patrons would frown upon anyone in the five and under set who might possibly ruin their evening. But once you walk through the sizable patio perfect for people watching and arrive in the main dining area with graffiti scrawled all over it, look closely at the guests: kids are aplenty.

I’ll credit Felicia Lee for letting me in on this little gem. A few weeks ago, I met her for a business meeting at Whole Foods, centrally located at Cambie and 8th Ave in Vancouver. At first, I thought it was a bit unusual to meet in a grocery store’s cafe, but as soon as I arrived, I understood why. Whole Foods on Cambie is the perfect spot for moms. It’s great to meet other moms socially or to get out of your home office for a few hours – and get a few things errands done at the same time.