On our recent family vacation to Vancouver Island, we didn’t go alone. My girls brought along a couple of new friends to share all the sights and experiences. Please meet the two newest members of our crew, Léonie and Charlsea!
Léonie Belanger-Leblanc hails from Québec City, a place steeped in more than 400 years of history. According to her bio, she loves all of the activities in Québec, like dressing up in her Pioneer Québécoise costume for a visit to the cabane à sucre in the spring, or exploring historic Old Québec city. Léonie loves music and plays hockey at the Atom level at the local arena. She has a pet cockatiel named Piccolo.
Our other new friend is Charlsea who lives on Salt Spring Island, the biggest Gulf Island on the “Wet Coast” of British Columbia. She loves going on adventures like kayaking to Carlos Island, searching for sea otters and sea stars on Vancouver Island, or visiting Whistler. She’s just as happy at home though, gathering produce from her garden or taking care of The Empress, her mischievous goat. One day she wants to be an architect, but for now she’s happy building an eco-friendly treehouse.
Here we are on the ferry travelling to Vancouver Island early one morning. We kept a sharp eye out for whales on our sail across the Georgia Strait, but even though we didn’t have any luck on this trip, we still enjoyed watching the light dancing on the waves and the little islands come and go along the way.
Once we arrived on the Island, we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Tofino. It was totally worth it though. After some fish tacos and a good night’s sleep, we headed out to the beach in the morning. It was a perfect day for kayaking and exploring the tide pools!
This was Léonie’s first time tide pooling, and she was especially excited about discovering all the sea life thriving along the intertidal zone. We saw sea stars, mussels, little crabs, lots of barnacles, sea anenomes, and a few baby sea urchins hanging out waiting for the water to come back in.
We couldn’t go all the way to the edge of the Pacific Ocean without spending some time in Pacific Rim National Park, part of the traditional territories of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. Some of the trees we saw were hundreds of years old!
The next day saw us back in the car and driving down to Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. The girls and their Maplelea dolls enjoyed people-watching down at the harbour, visiting with family friends, and taking in some of the touristy attractions downtown.
Victoria is also the location of our Parliament buildings so we took the opportunity to tour the buildings and watch the Speaker’s Procession into the Chamber. We even sat in the public gallery to watch our Legislative Assembly in action.
Before we headed home from our West Coast vacation, Kay and Léonie found the giant Canada 150 sign down at the Victoria Harbour and couldn’t resist a little photo opp. C is for Canada!
About Maplelea Girls
These truly Canadian Maplelea Girls are high quality 18″ dolls that capture our Canadian values of friendship and inclusiveness. My girls love their soft, huggable bodies, poseable arms and legs, and eyes that really open and close.
Each Maplelea Girl represents a province or region of Canada: the West Coast, the Rockies, rural prairies, urban Ontario, the East Coast, Quebec, and northern Canada. Each doll has her own unique story, personality, and interests and comes with a starter outfit, keepsake box, and 64-page journal detailing her life story and information about Canada’s culture, heritage, and geography. The journals come in both French and English (Saila’s also comes in Inuktitut) and can be easily expanded with extra sheets that come with other Maplelea accessories.
Maplelea doll clothes and accessories are all extremely well-made and interchangeable between dolls. Maplelea also offer girls’ clothing so your daughter can match her doll! We were glad to have a Maplelea doll tote for each kid (#KM110) to carry their dolls and keep everything organized on our trip. Charlsea and Léonie even had little doll-sized tote bags to match!
We love how the seven Maplelea Girls represent the different regions of Canada, but we’re also really excited about the Maplelea friends line. With 20 more doll designs in varying skin tones, eye colours, hair colours and styles, your child can find a doll that looks like her and create her own unique story journal using provided questions, prompts, and blanks.
Win a Maplelea Doll
I’m really excited to have the chance to give one of my readers their very own Maplelea doll! Enter to win in the giveaway widget below. This giveaway is open to Canadian residents, 18+. All the winner’s entries will be verified.
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Disclosure: This is a sponsored conversation. All opinions expressed are completely honest and my own. Your experience may differ.
My favorite is Jenna because she looks exactly like a little girl I know!
I visited Maplelea Dolls and a doll i like is Leonie because she looks like my granddaughter
I like Léonie because she looks like my granddaughter
I would probably end up getting Jenna she looks so much like my daughter when she was younger, but then KMF28 looks so much like my granddaughter, so it’s between those two!
Jenna is my favorite because she has a nice smile!
I like Jenna. She is from the East Coast in Nova Scotia like my granddaughter.
The KMF28 Maplelea Friends doll is my favourite. She looks like my niece.
They are all so beautiful but I would have to say my favorite would be Léonie because she reminds me of my youngest daughter…from the way she looks and dresses it is my Sofia to a T
I love them all, but Alexi is the one I gravitate to. She is from my backyard; Toronto and she looks a bit like my granddaughter. Alexi is also a girl on the go just like my granddaughter, and her clothing is so adorable and fashionable.
I like Charlsea because she is an outdoor girl and from the westcoast.
It’s so difficult to choose a favourite, we’re in the Prairies and close to the Rockies so both Brianne and Taryn have special appeal. Hmm, Brinne is my choice and I believe that any of my grandchildren would love her.
Jenna is my favourite as she has the same beautiful hair as my granddaughter!
Leonie looks most like my daughter, so I think that’s the one she’d love. I like her very Canadian outfit!
Charlsea is my favourite! She’s from the West and has the same hair and eyes colour as my granddaughter. She’s also so pretty.
Taryn Brady looks a lot like my granddaughter and she loves the outdoors and is from the Rockies so I know they would both get along very well.
I like Alexi because she’s a city girl like me! I love her name, she’s so cute, and from Toronto!!
I like Charlsea because she looks similar to my niece and I know she would love her fashion style.
I love Charlsea, mainly because we live on the Sunshine Coast, which is super similar to Salt Spring where she’s from! We have friends with goats, and love kayaking as well. We kindred spirits!
My favourite Maplelea Girl is Charlsea. I like her as she represents Canada’s West Coast.
Brianne
A dancer from the Prairies would be my choice as I live in Sask..
I was looking for one with short hair, but there are none! Closest would be KMF26, but I might give her a hair cut like in the old days. LOL
My favourite was Saila the Inuit doll.
I would pick Leonie, as she most closely resembles my eldest.
I love the Charlsea doll, reminds me of my niece.
I like Taryn mostly bc it’s the one my neice has and I know lots about her lol.
I like the Taryn doll, because she’s a brunette. I’m thinking of this for my three year old niece, who’s a brunette middle child with two blonde sisters. They have an abundance of blonde dolls, so I think she’d really like a doll that looks like her.
I always loved Léonie – she has the prettiest face and clothes.
I like Jenna because she represents the East Coast which is where I am.
I like Jenna, she reminds me of our family in Nova Scotia.
Jenna is my favourite because she’s a redhead like my oldest daughter!
Leonie looks most like my oldest granddaughter and that’s why it’s my favourite.
I like Brianne
My favourite is Jenna, because I just love her red hair!
I like the Brianne doll because her hair looks sort strawberry blonde, the same as my daughter’s!
I love Charlsea as she is outdoorsy and i love her fun colours!
My favorite is Jenna because I love her red hair
i like Taryn,the best.She looks like myy youngest,Tarilynn.
My favourite is Leonie because she looks like my daughter!
My favourite is Alexi because she is from my home province and she looks like my daughter. I also love that her favourite colour is orange, as is mine.
http://maplelea.com/scrapbook/product/view/id/654 Charlsea is my daughters favourite! Totally loving all the Canadian Inspried outfits!
Léonie. Je suis québécoise! ?
I love Charlsea because she lives by the water as I do and I think any one of my grand daughters would love her as a keepsake and a reminder of visiting Nana & Grandpa’s house! ?
I visited Maplelea dolls and like Leonie the most because she has such a sweet face and smile.
My daughter’s fave Maplelea doll is Leonie because she plays hockey
Brianne is my favourite because she’s from the prairie
My favorite is Brianne. She has the same color hair as my granddaughter.
I like Charlsea because I like adventures too but can stay at home and work too
I think Taryn is cute and has such great accessories!
My favourite is Leonie! With her French background, she is just like my 2 girls.
Brianne is my favorite as our family has a lot of blond hair and she is from the Prairies as we are.