Three Day's Worth

We are officially back into the swing of things around here!  It's been a full and busy week back to school full time and starting all of Sydney's activities for the winter term.  Both Paul and I have come down with our first cold of the season and have been feeling pretty rough.  Thankfully, Sydney has managed to stay healthy so far and is her usual energetic self!


Here's what we've been up to over the past few days:

Activities

Sydney started a new round of swimming lessons this week along with her buddy Emma.  She was thrilled to have the same instructor, Kaori, at Aquaventures as she had last term.  She loves the water, had a super fun class! Love this picture of her kicking water in the instructor's face!!

We also had Syd's first dance class at Arts Umbrella this afternoon.  Syd decided to don her new tutu and headband for today's class, it was super cute! This class is meant to be a drop off class, meaning no Moms allowed.  I thought that I had prepped Syd enough for having me leave her there, but two minutes after I disappeared out the door, her instructor was out looking for me to come and settle her down as she was sobbing and asking for me!  Poor girl!  The teacher graciously let me sit in on the class today and half way through Syd was up and participating so I'm sure she'll be okay being left after a few weeks when she's more comfortable!

Meal Planning

I was feeling inspired at the beginning of the new year to start meal planning again to simplify both grocery shopping and the actual cooking of daily meals.  Had a fantastic week of delicious dishes this week, it really worked out well!

Made a sensational Chicken Mushroom Risotto:

And some very savoury Chicken Biryani:

I'm loving not having to scramble throughout the day to get an idea and all of the ingredients together for dinner!

Treats from Sarah

My friend Sarah brought us a couple of treats this week, a delicious apple pie and some homemade gluten-free chocolate nut muffins.

So nice to have a few freshly baked treats in the house!

Playdate with Jack

Our friends Jack and Christina came over for a play date this week, we were so happy to see them after about a month of both of us being away for holidays!

Christina brought me a box of the most delicious homemade tea biscuits made with Earl Grey tea, so yummy!

The kids had great fun playing and Christina and I were so happy to catch up over a cup of tea!

Little Chef

Sydney is really into making her own concoctions in the kitchen these days.  She loves to add ingredients of all sorts into a bowl and mix it and then always wants to put it in the oven!

She made a real doozie this week that included margarine, salt, pepper, water, parmesan cheese, chili powder, one raspberry and a slice of mandarin orange!  She was quite proud of herself!

Shabbat

This morning Sydney's preschool shared Shabbat with a group of seniors in the library at her school.  All of the kids went up in pairs to sing a different song, Sydney and her friend Julia sang a rousing chorus of "ABC".  It was very sweet!

Granville Island

This afternoon after school Sydney and I went over to her friend Allegra's house for a play date.  Allegra lives on Granville Island, which is handy seeing our dance class was on the island too later in the afternoon.

We so enjoyed sharing some time with Allegra and her family!

Sydney and I got some bird seed from the market at Granville Island and spent some time feeding the birds after our play date.

Yoga

My friend Sarah and I went to a yoga class at a new studio this week, the Y Yoga studio that has recently opened up at 4th and Cypress.  It is beautiful!  It was fun doing a class together and I really enjoyed the lovely new studio and space!  Will look forward to doing more classes together in the weeks to come!

Sydney's New Ergo

I made a mad dash to Point Roberts this morning while Syd was in school to pick up some parcels that I had ordered.  One of them included a baby doll Ergo carrier that I knew Sydney would love!  It is an exact replica of the actual baby Ergo carrier that I had for Sydney when she was a babe and I can't tell you how excited she was to be able to pack her babies around strapped to the front of her!

So, so cute!

I also got this very cool journal called Q&A a Day for Kids.  It's a journal that has one question for each day printed in it and you are meant to ask your child the question and journal their answer.  It's an awesome way to start conversations and so funny to hear the answers that Sydney gives me!

I am hoping to hop into bed early tonight to sleep off this wretched cold that seems to be taking hold of me!  Here's hoping you've had a happy and healthy week!