My Day

Today is my 38th birthday.  I feel as though I have already had a birthday week with cards and texts and e-mails arriving over the past few days from friends and family thinking of me.  I love that my birthday seems to extend over a period of weeks as I mark my day with different people in special ways.

My friend Michelle popped by last night and brought me a little something from my favourite store, Crate and Barrel, two beautiful linen tea towels along with the most gorgeous Papyrus card.

Sydney had so much fun unwrapping my gift which then prompted a ten minute conversation on what sorts of gifts she thinks she is going to get from her friends for her birthday coming up in a few weeks.

My day started on such a special note.  I love how Sydney is so aware of the date and whose birthday is when.  She woke up first thing this morning, gave me a kiss on the cheek and said: "Happy Birthday Mommy!" completely unprompted!  She then ran to grab a stack of cards that she has been working on for days for me to give to me.  So precious!

I especially love the envelope where she wrote "Mommy" and "Daddy" and the number 37 and 38. 

A few days ago Syd was playing with my phone and handed it to me and I saw this:

She had typed the entire message all on her own, it was so sweet and I was so proud of her for getting the spelling and sentiment bang on!

Paul gave me the most gorgeous bouquet of coral coloured roses for my birthday.  I absolutely love them and love the fact that they are in the colour that I have been so into lately!  Beautiful!

Paul is also giving me a very special gift this year, a custom made cocktail ring with the most beautiful blue topaz stone in it.  It is at the jewellers being created as we speak, I simply can't wait to see it!

It was a love-filled day today with cards, e-mails, texts and phone calls from friends and family alike.

And lots of special treats too!  My friend Christina gave me a yummy box of Purdy's chocolates:

And Lori popped by with a bag filled with David's tea and Godiva chocolate truffles!

Then at the very end of the day I found a very special present waiting on my front porch from Liz, a beautiful purple Calla Lily plant along with an amazing masterpiece painted by Kaitlyn.

I felt so loved and so spoiled!  

One of the most special things that happened today was reconnecting with an old friend from high school that I had lost touch with over the past while and catching up with her.  It was a memorable way to start a new year!


I always feel a little reflective on my birthday, thinking back to the year that has passed and looking ahead to what this new year will bring.  And at the end of this day, September 30th, each year my heart feels so full of love that it just might burst knowing how many amazing friends and family members I have in my life who enrich my existence in more ways than I can articulate!

It truly was a wonderful day and I am excited to see what amazing things the year ahead holds for me!

Stormy Weekend

Early Saturday morning a crazy rain storm moved it's way into Vancouver and settled for the weekend.  We could literally hear sheets of rain hitting the roof for hours at a time without letting up.  Water was pouring in the streets and it felt like it was perpetually ten o'clock at night.  It was the kind of weekend that makes you want to snuggle up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate and a good movie!

But duty called and, like all good soccer Moms, at 9am on Saturday morning I had my girl out on the field ready for this week's practice in the middle of the monsoon.  She insisted upon wearing a raincoat that's a bit too small for her and her running shoes and within five minutes on the field she was howling "Mommy, I'm cold!"  "Daddy, hold me!"  Truthfully, both Paul and I were drenched too and I was secretly happy to pull the plug forty minutes into her hour long practice to take my babe home to warm up.

I was so proud of her though.  She kicked and practiced all the while shivering and looking more and more like a drowned rat.  She was trying to be tough and she did her Momma proud!

Later Saturday afternoon we snuggled up at Christianne's Lyceum for our first book club of the season.  We sipped hot tea while the kids played and Christianne read books and told stories to the children all around this semester's theme, change.

After a snack and a quick circle time the kids did a craft inspired by one of the books we read and we promptly headed home to hibernate!

By the time Sunday morning came along all three of us were feeling quite content to just hang at home and get a few things done around here.  I actually really love Sunday mornings like today.  No schedule, no rush about anything, just do whatever you want and get things back into some sense of reasonable order.  It feels good.

We decided to take Syd out midday to go for a swim just to blow off some steam and get a little exercise.  It was a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.

I made a couple of pumpkin loaves and a pot of butternut squash soup this weekend too, it's the start of comfort food season and I plan on embracing it whole heartedly!

Bring on the week!

Little Things

Little things make me ridiculously happy.  Like a walk through Pier 1 Imports today.  They have the most amazing things for your home in fall motif.  I could have bought a thousand things but settled for a couple of fun things to complete decking our house out for autumn's arrival.


These leaf placemats are so cool, love them!

And of course a bowl full of sparkly wire and glass balls in fall colours brightens up our formal living room.

Couple these additions with the existing decorations and we're fully into Autumnal Bliss around here!

Some other little things that are making me smile this week:

Soccer

Sydney started soccer for the first time this past weekend.  She has been really challenging with her scheduled activities since they've started again this fall.  Things that she previously loved and participated in, swimming, gymnastics and yoga have been an struggle week after week to get her to participate.  I was fully anticipating the same attitude with soccer but she pleasantly surprised me when she participated for almost the entire hour.

She and I got matching t-shirts and one for Daddy too to wear when we're on the field with her, it's super cute!

When she got home she drew this and told me it was the kids on the soccer teams in their different coloured t-shirts!

Zucchini

My sister gave me this enormous zucchini from her garden the other day, it is seriously the size of my arm!  I have been gathering numerous recipes thinking of ways to use it up and started with one of my all time favourites on the weekend, zucchini pancakes.

Artwork

Oh the artwork...everyday Sydney comes home from school with another stack of beauties.  Here's a few of her latest including some pretty good practice writing that she did today!  She just learned about exclamation marks at school this morning so she had the best time using them in her writing.

Daddy

Sydney is becoming such a Daddy's girl lately.  It's so fun to see her bonding so much with Dad or "Daddy-O-Gabba" as she likes to call him.  She has this very funny routine everyday where she sends Paul a text while he's at work from my phone that reads much like this:

sdinongnsgionsgk
soifdnng
sydney
sdidiey
mom
ssoigqe[poem
yoga
xo  sydney

Then she waits with the phone in her hand for a reply from Paul which often looks like this:

xo  Daddy

Precious!

600

Today marks my 600th blog entry!  Amazing!  Thank you for reading and sharing our lives in this space.


Loving the little things today!

Treasure Chest

Every so often (okay more than every so often but we'll talk about that later) when I'm out and about, I see something that I know that Sydney will absolutely love.  Today was one of those times.

With the recent addition of a new storage room to our house, I have been in a perpetual purge around here lately getting rid of heaps of things and feeling as though our space is becoming a little less cluttered and overrun with things.

The challenge with keeping it this way is that I love to shop.  I have been practicing great restraint lately trying not to replace the things that I have gotten rid of with new things, but today as I was wandering through Winners I couldn't resist getting a little something for Miss Syd.

I found this treasure chest in the toy area and knew that Syd would love it right away.  From the time she was a baby she has always loved putting things into containers and I knew that this chest would house many an item and store them neatly away all the while bringing her great joy.

She was very excited to get it and when she opened it up she found another little surprise.

A box of brightly coloured and fruit scented nail polish so that we could paint her toenails in the rainbow colours that she loves.

She asked if she could sit out on the front porch for a while in the sun this afternoon with her new items.  It was pretty cute watching her line up the nail polish in the chest and bring other items from the house out to fill it up.

Such a fun way to surprise and delight my girl!

High Tea

This afternoon Sydney and I spent a very special time together doing something that I had promised her we'd do way back at the beginning of summer, go for high tea.

Sydney loves having little tea parties with her toy tea sets and I knew that she'd love having the real experience.  We invited her friend Kaitlyn and her Mommy Liz to come along with us to Butter Tea Room on Dunbar.

The girls got dressed up in sweet dresses and each got their own tea pot filled with water or milk along with a tray stacked with specially made sandwiches and treats for them to enjoy.

Sydney loved the little cucumber sandwiches and especially devoured the sweets at the top of her tray!

Liz and I got a beautiful assortment of sandwiches, scones and desserts as well and so enjoyed the amazing tea and service.

It was such a magical time with the girls.  They were both so well behaved and such little ladies at our very own tea party.

Liz brought a special present for each of the girls, a beautifully jewelled butterfly hair clip.  So sweet!

I left thinking 'May this the first of many, many times I have high tea with my sweet girl!'