Thankful

I spent some time today reflecting on being thankful and having an attitude of gratitude.  I think about this often when it comes to raising Sydney.  I so want to her to a grateful person, to not take for granted the wonderful life that she has, or the opportunities that she's been given.  I feel as though I am forever prompting her to say 'thank you' in one way or another, or reminding her about how lucky we are to have the things that we do.

I am thankful for so many things in my life, most importantly the fact that I, and my family, are healthy!  Health is something that we often aren't grateful for until it's gone, and I never want to take for granted the fact that I can get out of bed every morning healthy and well and live out my day any way I see fit!  I am so grateful for Paul and Sydney and the gift that they both are to me.  I am thankful for the gift of time these past few years at home, together with Sydney, have been and for the wonderful life that I have because Paul works so hard for us.

I am also thankful for my amazing friends and extended family that love me to death and bring so much joy to my life! 

So many things to be thankful for on this day of Thanksgiving!  And speaking of thankful....we couldn't be happier to have had this incredibly unusual stretch of amazing sunny weather in Vancouver!  Today was yet another sunny, gorgeous blue sky day!

After filling up on Thanksgiving dinner last night, Paul decided that he wanted to continue on with the theme and asked me if I could make pumpkin pancakes for breakfast this morning.  I jumped online to allrecipes.com and found a great recipe and whipped up a batch!

They are so delicious, I love that they are bright orange from the pumpkin and the combination of spices is just amazing!

I pulled out the teddy bear pancake shaper that my sister got me for my birthday and made a plain teddy bear shaped pancake for Sydney as she wasn't too keen on trying the pumpkin ones!  She loved it!

Click Here for the recipe if you're looking for a little fall fare for breakfast!


We spent a lazy few hours at home this morning before heading off to Southlands Farm to their pumpkin patch with Sydney.  Syd had been dying to get a pumpkin for the last week and I had promised her I would take her to the pumpkin patch so we were thrilled to do it today!

Southlands Farm is so amazing, five minutes from our home, and yet feels like a trip to the country!  There were chickens roaming around, horses grazing, pumpkins everywhere and a straw pile for the kids to jump around in!

They even had a little campfire burning, it was so awesome!

Sydney came home with a nice round pumpkin that she and Daddy searched high and low for to accompany her baby pumpkin that we got yesterday.

She couldn't leave without a little swing on the old tire swing!

After our time at the farm, we went to our favourite Wicked Cafe for a coffee and treat and then wandered up to South Granville to check out the shops for a while.  Sydney has a new love for Pottery Barn Kids, she loved checking out their Halloween costumes today:

Late this afternoon, Sydney and I had a playdate with our friends Sally and Oliver.  We met at Kidsbooks on Broadway and let the kids roam around and play with toys and read books while we chatted and visited for a while.  Sydney chose a book to take home at the end of our time there:

It was a great visit with our friends and the kids had fun cruising around the store.  I could spend a small fortune in there, they have amazing books and toys...we were lucky to leave with just one thing!

It was a nice end to a relaxing and wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend together!