Cozy Long Weekend

I can literally hear the rain bouncing off the roof right now, it is cold and miserable outside and we are hunkered down, dry and warm inside.  It's perfect.  Over the past several weeks while I've been running about like a mad woman, I've been dreaming about this long weekend, three whole days together to do whatever we want, no plans, no schedule, just family time and catch up.  It's been a lot of that, exactly what we all needed!  Here's a snapshot of the past few days:


Santa's Workshop:

While Sydney was at school on Friday morning, I hit the stores with a vengeance and made a good dint in my Christmas shopping list.  I came home and literally dumped it all in my upstairs office, to be sorted out and distributed later.  As a result my office is looking a little like Santa's Workshop these days and I am loving it a little too.

Shabbat

This past Friday the parents at Sydney's preschool were invited to join the class for Shabbat.  I always love sharing this very special time with Sydney and her friends in class.  We also happened to be celebrating one of the teacher's birthdays and sang a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday" to Carmen and presented her with a huge, beautiful bouquet of flowers from all of the parents.  We all feel so blessed to have her and her teaching partner in our children's lives!

Craftastic

I hit up my favourite consignment store the other day, Macgillycuddy's.  I always come away with great things there, and this was no exception.  I found this brand new craft kit for making six super cute trinket boxes that came complete with it's own stand!  Sydney and I spent late Friday afternoon decorating boxes and setting them up to display them.  She had such fun with the glue and beads and little bits and admiring the finished result!

Birthday Presents Galore

Sydney decided that this weekend was the best opportunity to finally open the last remaining presents from her birthday.  She has been giddy with excitement playing with all her new toys!

Her friend Sophie gave her this cutest sweater from Gymboree with a faux fur collar, love it!

And Allegra, one of Sydney's preschool buddies, gave her this Snow White doll.  It came with an extra outfit which Sydney wasted no time in trying on the doll!  Super cute!

Bea gave Sydney the Candyland game, which is just perfect for Sydney's age, no reading required and super simple and easy to play.   She and I have already played a couple of rounds this weekend!

Syd's bestie Emma gave her some cupcake jammies, which we wore the night of her birthday party, and a beautiful tutu and headband which will make wonderful additions to our Tickle Trunk.  Sydney and Emma are taking dance classes together in the new year so I thought it was so fitting that she got a tutu from Emma for her birthday!

Levi, also from Sydney's preschool, got two of Sydney's favourite things, a Dora the Explorer matching game and a Hello Kitty sticker book.  Syd and I played the Dora game yesterday morning too, she is quite good at catching on to games, I love that she is at a stage where we can do something structured, like a game, together!

Leo from preschool also got Sydney a fabulous present, a package of Hello Kitty pop-up books, a Decorate your own Princess craft kit and some Hello Kitty elastics!

Zach and Miriam always find amazing things for Syd, this year they gave her a giant dance floor puzzle, which we assembled together yesterday and an Olivia the Fairy Princess book along with two Winnie the Pooh books.

Sydney's favourite gift, by far, came from her friend Ollie, a Hello Kitty roll away suitcase of her own!  I tried to get a decent picture of it, but she was so excited to have it that she instantly wheeled it off to show Daddy!  She gasped that she was going to take it to Hawaii with her when she opened it up, it was priceless!

Syd and I love doing crafty things together, so her friend Meera gave her her very own teeny tiny Singer sewing machine!  I love it!  I have tucked it away for a bit down the line when I'm sure that Syd won't sew her fingers together or anything but am so looking forward to using it!

More Hello Kitty!  Alexis gave Syd this fabulous Hello Kitty Dreamhouse with lego bits that can put it together just like a doll house, it's fantastic!

Jack gave Sydney a Disney Princess scooter, oh my goodness, Sydney wanted to take it outside immediately!  It took some convincing to talk her into keeping it indoors and not taking it out into the torrential downpour today!  So cute!

Check out the awesome handmade card Jack made for Syd too!

Sydney's friend Aaro was sick with the flu for her birthday party this year, but just yesterday we saw them and he gave her his gift, this amazing personalized princess pillow and a new Princess Smartypants book!  Sydney was absolutely thrilled to have her own pillow, asked to sleep on it in bed last night and was lounging on it while watching Sesame Street and eating popcorn this morning!  Love it!

How blessed we are to have such wonderful, generous family and friends!  I am so blown away by the love shown to Sydney around her birthday and am so grateful that she has such wonderful people in her life who love her so much and will show up to celebrate her milestones with her!

More Hannukah Crafts

Sydney and I spent some time yesterday afternoon making another Hannukah craft.  We glued popsicle sticks together to make the Star of David and re-purposed our autumn branches to hang the ornaments in the window.  It looked so cool along with some metallic cut-outs that we stuck to the window.

We pulled out the menorah as a centrepiece for our kitchen table too.  I love having some fun things out for Hannukah this year and having Sydney help me get them together!

Happy Birthday Michelle

Friday was my friend Michelle's 37th birthday, so the group of Dunbar Moms got together at Kits Daily Kitchen for a fantastic meal for her birthday.  We had such fun visiting and drinking great wine and celebrating our amazing friend!  It was a great night!

Happy Birthday Alexis

Saturday afternoon Sydney and I headed to the Kerrisdale Community Centre's mini play palace to celebrate Sydney's buddy Alexis' 3rd birthday.  Her Mom did the cutest Curious George theme party, it was great!  The kids had full run of the gym with bouncy castle, plasma cars, slides and tunnels and ran around like mad working up an appetite for the great snacks and delicious chocolate birthday cake!

We came home with a loot bag filled with yummy treats for the kids and a Curious George book and box of Curious George bandaids which was most popular!!  Sydney had to put one on in the car on the way home, it was very cute!

New Piano

My parents sent Sydney a cheque for her birthday some time ago.  I took advantage of an amazing sale at Toys R Us and got Sydney quite a few things with the money!  One of her presents was this new keyboard which we opened today.

Sydney loved it, especially the microphone part!  She sang song after song into the mike while playing her piano, it was awesome!

So that's been it for the past couple of days at home!  Looking forward to one more bonus day together tomorrow!