Sunny Sunday

For as long as I can remember, since I've lived in Vancouver, I can't ever recall a more glorious Easter Sunday!  It was like a summer day today, absolutely beautiful!

Sydney decided that she wanted pancakes for breakfast this morning but before she would get busy helping me mix the batter, she insisted that both she and her baby wear their matching aprons.  She propped her babe up on the counter to watch her and set about merrily mixing, singing all the while.  Every day should start this well...

We wasted no time in heading down to Granville Island so that Sydney could feed the birds.  She had been dying to use up a bag of birdseed that we had sitting around and she happily dumped the contents out so that the birds could feast!

One of Sydney's favourite dinners is the Sunrise Raviolini from Duso's Pasta on Granville Island.  These baby sized raviolis come in three colours, orange, red and white.  Sydney, of course, loves the red and one of the guys who works there now recognizes us and will pick out literally all of the red ones they have specially for Syd.  It's very sweet!

We had a little lunch at the island then headed up to see Paul's Mom.  The street she lives on is lined with the most beautiful Magnolia trees which are in perfect, full bloom right now.  They are amazing, huge blooms, I literally had to jump out of the car to take pictures to capture them, as I know their beauty is fleeting.

Late this afternoon Sydney cracked out the cupcake liners and decorations that Auntie Liane gave her and we decided to whip up a batch of cupcakes.

They turned out so cute, we boxed a bunch up and delivered them to a few friends' houses for dessert tonight.

It has been such a fantastic weekend together.  We have another week of Spring Break ahead of us and some fun things planned over the next few days so be sure to check back and see what we've been up to!

Easter Weekend

The weather in Vancouver this weekend has been record breaking.  Clear, blue skies, temperatures of at least 18 degrees Celcius and nothing but three whole days off to soak it all up!  And soak it up we have!

The cherry blossoms are out in full bloom on our street, it is gorgeous!  Couldn't resist getting outside to get some shots of them this weekend.

Sydney has managed to find every single flower that is blooming within a square block of our house and has been picking me some pretty lovely bouquets these days.

Last year on Good Friday, I took Sydney next door to the neighbors garden, which was in full bloom, to do a little photo shoot.  Tried to do the same this year under brilliant blue skies but couldn't quite get her to pose, she was too busy trying to pick this Heather bush!

I am loving my new slate cheeseboard from Crate and Barrel.  I love setting it out for Paul with absolutely everything on the platter labelled with chalk, always makes me smile!

On Friday night we celebrated the birthday of three of my very good Mom friends, Lori, Sally and Erin.

Christina opened up her home and we had a lovely dinner catered by Cioffi's Italian Deli.  We dined on an antipasto platter, bruschetta, meat tray, chicken parmigana, caesar salad and beautiful breads!

I love how Christina decorated the table with foil covered Easter eggs!

Dessert was by far the best course, homemade tiramisu along with a lovely chocolate fondue that our friend Liz put together!

What a lovely celebration and an evening to remember!

Early this morning we all rolled out of bed and met at Dunbar park to do our first annual Easter Egg Hunt!

Each of the parents brought a pile of eggs for the kids to hunt for, in the end we had a giant ice bucket full of treats!

My friend Erin even hand dipped hard boiled eggs for everyone!

I love how Syd's buddy Kaitlyn showed up for the event, bunny ears and all!

The kids played at the playground while a few adults hid eggs in the trees beside and then we let them loose to fill their buckets!

Not only did we have eggs to find, but there were toys and bottle of bubbles and pinwheels and stickers....it was fantastic!

Sydney took her job of filling her bucket quite seriously and had a blast doing it!

In the end all of the children dumped their buckets back into the giant one and we divided the loot up evenly.  All in all a great success and we could not have asked for a more beautiful day for it!

Sydney had great fun sorting everything out when she got home!

She even lined up all of her chocolate Easter eggs to see how many she had.

Once she was done emptying out all of her plastic eggs she put them in the decorative bowl I keep on our coffee table for a little festive decoration, gotta love it!

Sydney spent the evening at Jack's house tonight while Paul and I went for a walk and some dinner.  I love that we got so much time outdoors today, I think I'm going to sleep well tonight!  

A Day with Auntie

This morning Sydney and I woke up to another bright and sunny day.  We really could not have asked for better weather for her first week off for Spring Break!

We climbed into the car and drove around early this morning to our friend's houses in the neighborhood, dropping off Easter bags and baskets stuffed with treats.  It was a fun way to start the day!

Then we drove out to Coquitlam to meet up with my sister for the day.  We met at Bouclair Home, a new store that opened last month.

It is such a neat store, filled with fun and colourful items, very reasonably priced and great for wandering through if you're needing a little inspiration for decorating a room!

I ended up coming home with a sectioned serving dish for myself and an organizer for Sydney to keep her own scrapbooking and craft supplies in.

She was quite thrilled to have this, as soon as we got home she immediately started filling it with things!  My girl loves to organize, just like her Momma!

After shopping we went for lunch at Cora.  I had heard such great things about this restaurant but had never had the chance to try it before.  It was so good!

I had the most delicious asparagus and Swiss cheese eggs benedict which came accompanied with a pile of fruit that was cut in the most amazing patterns!  Loved it!

My sister brought along an Easter present for Sydney, a bucket stuffed with stickers, colouring books, crayons, a stuffed bunny and some craft projects.

Sydney had great fun painting the ceramic chick that was in the bucket, later that day!

On the way home we stopped at the park to enjoy the sunshine for a while.

Sydney and Daddy spent some time in the backyard together while I was making dinner.  Syd collected a leaf bouquet for me along with a big rock for the middle.

It was a fun day for Easter gifts.  When we got home from Coquitlam we found a bag on the front porch from Sydney's friend Weston filled with all sorts of fun things:

And her friend Emma gave her the cutest trio of decadent chocolate bunnies from Thomas Haas:

Ollie popped by tonight with his Mom to bring Sydney a treat from Purdy's, a bunch of chocolate treats and some Playdough Easter eggs.

Such a fun time of year!