Today was a poignant reminder of how much I cherish my oldest and dearest friends. This morning I got together with my friend Karen for brunch at the Sunshine Diner, a fun 50's style cafe. Karen was the first close friend that I made when I moved to Vancouver almost twenty years ago. She is kind and friendly, loyal and fun-loving, with a heart of gold. She works as a nurse and has spent the last ten years of her life living in South Sudan, Africa, doing relief work with Samaritan's Purse.
Since Karen has moved to Africa, our visits have understandably, been few and far between, but I love how much we can pick right back up where we left off and chat and visit like no time has passed at all. I always find that the measure of a tried and true friend. We had a lovely visit and about a million cups of coffee together and caught up on what life has been like for us both for the past year. It was such precious time together!
After school today Sydney and I came home to a very special surprise, a heaping pile of parcels that my best friend Brandie had sent us for the new year! Sydney and I both share a love of getting mail, and parcels are the best yet, so it completely made our day to find all of these fun packages waiting for us!
Brandie and I have been friends since we were four years old. She truly is my oldest and most treasured friend on earth. She and her two sweet boys live in the town where we both grew up and we have remained friends through every season of our lives!
Brandie and her boys completely spoiled us today! She sent Sydney three amazing toys, a brand new ballerina Barbie, a Sock Monkey and a My Little Pony! I can't tell you how excited Syd was to get these new toys. It always amazes me how intuitive Brandie is about what Syd loves even though she doesn't get to see her on a regular basis! Syd spent the better part of the afternoon enjoying her new gifts!
I got two amazing cookbooks from Brandie, one of which I had literally been looking at this morning while I was out shopping and was about two seconds away from buying for myself! I love cookbooks and haven't had a new one in so long, I am thrilled to dive into these and try some new recipes! I love that one is a cookbook for cooking with kids. Syd and I spend a tremendous amount of time in the kitchen together and we are always looking for recipes that are kid-friendly to make!
There was love oozing out of every package that we opened from Brandie today. She has wrapped each one so beautifully in wrapping paper and enclosed a hand written card on each gift. She went out of her way to make it a special surprise for us and it truly was!
Sydney is at such an incredibly cute stage right now. The things that come out of her mouth are so hilarious sometimes! This morning she asked me how old I was. I answered that I was 37. "Wow!" she exclaimed, "that's old!" "Don't worry Mom, I'll take care of you!" Literally brought tears to my eyes!
She has this very cute thing that she does every night just as I'm starting to prepare dinner, she climbs up onto the bar stool at the end of our island in the kitchen and says, "So Mom, what's new to you?" She is checking in with me to see what's new, how stinking cute! I have no idea where she even got that phrase but it has started some great conversations together. Sometimes I ask her back, "What's new with you?" and she always answers "not much." Too funny!
Tonight while she was getting ready for bed, I found her lying on our bed with all of her babies lined up and she was reading them a bedtime story. It was awesome to hear her repeat a book that we have read a million times word for word to her babes!
I am just loving how interactive and sweet Syd is at this age and am trying my best to savour every second of her being little even during the challenging moments.
It was Syd's first day back to preschool for 2013 today, she was unbelievably excited to go to school and she all her friend and her beloved Jen and Carmen! She had a great day!
It was a wonderful day all around, I felt very blessed to have such wonderful lifelong friends touch my life today and to have have some precious time with my sweet girl!
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