Beef Stew

Today was another amazing day in Vancouver!  The sun was shining and the air was lovely and fresh.  I am so enjoying the fall leaves this year with this unusual bout of nice autumn weather!  The leaves on the maple trees have turned bright red and are absolutely stunning!  It seems hard to believe that it is almost mid-November!

Sydney had preschool this morning and it was the first time that I left her with absolutely no tears at all!  She is getting to be so comfortable in the classroom and with the kids and teachers, it's wonderful!  I am enjoying having a few hours a week to shop, picked up a few things at the mall today and then sat down for a leisurely lunch and my first peppermint mocha of the season from Starbucks.  It was lovely!

With it being such a nice day and all, it didn't exactly seem fitting to be making a big, hearty stew for dinner but I had bought a package of stewing beef and it had to be used up, so I pulled out the crockpot this morning and with Sydney's help in filling the crock, assembled the stew in record time!

I found this great and easy recipe on the Canadian Living website, click here for the recipe if you want to give it a try!

We have officially opened all of Sydney's birthday gifts.  She opened the last two today, her friend Alexis got her this great Boon bug pod, it is, of course, a ladybug!!  The bug pod is a scoop and storage bin for bath toys, perfect for us as the holder we currently have is overflowing!  Alexis also gave Sydney this awesome ladybug card, I just love how much she got our theme!!

Sydney's friends Aaro and Hattan once again spoiled her with a few very cool gifts.  This set from Melissa and Doug is a felt food 'Create Your Own Cookie' set.  Sydney really loves being in the kitchen with me, I have the feeling she is going to love using this pretend cookie making set!

She also got this Usborne book, we have a few in this series, was excited to get another title in our collection to add to our library:

We also got this Playfully Creative Dough which will be put to good use for sure, Sydney is really into play dough these days, we get it out at least once a day around here so this gift couldn't have been more timely!

I lined up all of Sydney's birthday cards in the window seat in our kitchen so that she can have a look at them, I caught her reading them a few times today, it was very cute.  She seems quite tickled that there are so many cards with ladybugs on them.  I love all things thematic and was so thrilled to get all of her lovely gifts, especially those in keeping with our theme!

We are looking forward to a lovely long weekend with Daddy home tomorrow for the Remembrance Day holiday!