Wrapping up the Week

Here we are at the last day of February.  I have just merrily flipped all our of calendars to March, anxious for some warmer weather and fun times ahead, but a wee bit wistful at how quickly the weeks and months are flying by.  Ready or not we are headed into the last quarter of preschool for Sydney and the countdown's on until Kindergarten starts in the fall.  It all feels a little surreal.

We've had a great couple of days.  Sydney has had some good play time with a couple of friends.

Jack spent the afternoon with us yesterday while his Mom was working.  I picked Jack up from preschool and brought him to Sydney's school to pick her up a bit later.  Syd saw Jack through the door and yelled out "Jack!" in the happiest voice ever as she bounced around loudly announcing that her buddy was here to play with her for the afternoon!

(Photo courtesy of Sydney who routinely hijacks my camera and takes pictures without me knowing!  I never know what I might find when I upload my shots!)

Christina brought Syd and I the most gorgeous bouquet of purple tulips to thank us for watching Jack, Sydney trimmed each one and placed them in a vase all on her own!

This afternoon we had Sydney's class mate Sophie over for a play.  The girls had a great time working on various activities but all roads lead to the nail polish and the girls took turns painting each other's toes!  It was pretty precious.

Syd and I had such a lovely late afternoon today working together getting things set for Shabbat dinner.  We made homemade challah and Sydney did the entire egg wash herself, beat the egg and then brushed it on with great precision, I didn't even need to touch up after she was done!

I love how excited Syd gets for Shabbat dinner, it is slowly becoming a precious part of our family tradition.

Sydney has been busy as ever making some beautiful works of art both at school and home.  Here's some of her latest:

Bingo Blotter Art

Template for her Self Portrait at Art Class

New Set of Paints at Home

Reminds me of Cherry Blossoms

If you look closely you'll see the title and first line of Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom, one of her favourite books!

A happy end to a happy week!

Pajamas and A Parcel

Today was Pajama Day at preschool for Sydney.  All of the kids showed up to school wearing their PJ's and had a special waffle breakfast together.  Sydney absolutely loves PJ day.  The last one happened in December when we happened to be in Hawaii on vacation and she has been talking about this upcoming day ever since!

Last night we excitedly laid out the Hello Kitty nightgown that she wanted to wear because, and I quote, "Carmen is going to freak out when she sees this!"  Her preschool teacher Carmen loves Hello Kitty just about as much as Sydney so she was super excited to have the chance to show this beloved nightie to her.

So this morning we got up, did our usual thing and then when it was time to get dressed she toddled off to her room and, much to my surprise, came back wearing regular clothes announcing that she didn't feel like wearing pajamas today.

After a lengthy discussion about it she reluctantly agreed to put her Brave nightie on over top of her outfit and head off to school after I told her that she could wear her bathrobe as a jacket.  It's a fickle age, four!

She looked super cute heading out the door this morning and it was so precious seeing all the kids wandering around in class in their jammies and slippers and bathrobes!

While Syd was at school this morning I got together with my friend Mandy for coffee at Thomas Haas.  We had such a great visit, good conversation and lots of fun stories to share.

Mandy is always so incredibly thoughtful and every time we get together she brings a gift for Sydney.

Talk about making an ordinary day extraordinary, Sydney was overjoyed to get a little present today!

Especially when the contents were Hello Kitty stickers, doodle pad and bubbles that you can blow and actually catch in your hand without popping.  Amazing!

Sydney had art class this afternoon, she put the finishing touches on her self portrait in the style of Tamara DeLempicka.  I love the red hair and green eyebrows!

Happy Hump Day!

A Science Experiment

Sydney and I have so been enjoying our Kiwi Crate subscription.  Every month a box laden with art supplies arrives on our doorstep with instructions on how to do two or three different projects.

We made these Weebly Wobblers a while back with the contents of January's science themed kit.

And this afternoon we pulled out the other half of the kit which was a science experiment using test tubes, vegetable oil, water and food colouring.

We filled the test tubes three quarters full with water then topped them off with oil.  Then Sydney dropped in both blue and yellow food colouring to see what happened.

She thought it was very cool that the oil sat on top of the water and that the food colouring drops were suspended in the oil.

After making a few observations we tilted the test tube side to side to see what would happen.

And then shook it like crazy!  It turned a beautiful, bright green!

What a fun experiment, can't wait to see what next month's Kiwi Crate holds!

Snow Day

Well did we ever wake up to a surprise this morning!  Not only did we hear first thing that the Canadian Olympic hockey team won the gold medal in the wee hours of the night, we also looked outside our window to see a good six or eight inches of snow covering everything!

Many of our friends and family patriotically dragged themselves out of bed at 4:00am this morning to watch the game, what an amazing show of Canadian spirit and love of sport!

Growing up in Northern BC, with it's harsh climates and plethora of snow, I can't say that I'm too fond of snow but there was something about waking up on a quiet Sunday morning, not having to rush anywhere, and seeing a fresh, white blanket of snow beckoning us to come out and play in it.

And play we did!

Sydney and I made a Momma and baby snowman, the first snowman she's ever made!

Then I dug out the snow shovel and let Syd shovel to her heart's content.

She loved filling up her sand pail with snow too.  It was quite delightful seeing her enjoying the snow so much.  Made me feel homesick for a split second...until I remembered that snow is a novelty when you only have to deal with it for a day or two a year, not for months on end!

What a great morning we had outside enjoying this late winter treat!

A Day in the Life

I woke up this morning with an assignment.  I wanted to capture Sydney's day on film, to really get a sense of what she's into these days.  Reading back over past blog entries my favourite ones are those that have the little details about small things that she did in a day that I've long forgotten about.  I love remembering them in this space so without further ado, here's a day in the life of Sydney, aged 4 years 4 months.

Breakfast

Almost every morning when I wake up the first words I hear are: "Mom, I'm hungry!"  Sydney likes to have breakfast minutes after waking up and she has chocolate chip pancakes every single solitary morning along with some sort of fruit.

Syd is obsessed with watching the reality show "19 Kids and Counting" right now, so every morning while eating said pancakes she chooses a recorded episode to watch.  Her morning ritual!

Snow

We woke up to a light dusting of snow all over the grass this morning and it pretty much snowed all throughout the day!  Syd was pretty excited and asked me to take pictures of it right after breakfast.

Luckily the weather stayed warm enough that all that snow that fell melted as soon as it hit the ground.  If it hadn't I'm pretty sure we'd be trapped indoors right now!

Laundry

Sydney is Mommy's right hand gal right now.  Whatever I'm doing, be it cleaning, cooking, laundry or working on the computer she wants to be right by my side helping me in any way she can.

Saturday has become laundry day around here so this morning she and I sorted and washed load after load of laundry together.  Sydney can fully sort the laundry into darks, whites, gentle cycle and Daddy's work shirts.  She actually is a really big help to me on laundry day!

Crafts

Syd loves doing art and crafts more than anything!  This morning over her mid morning snack of apple slices and banana bread she pulled out some boxes of Valentine's that we got on sale for 20 cents each at the drug store.  I had intended to tuck them away to save for next year but Sydney was having so much fun writing the names of each of her friends on them I just let her go nuts!

'Dadurday'

Sydney and Daddy spent some special time together today at Paul's barber shop, he took her along for his haircut.  She packed herself a little backpack filled with markers and paper and toys and snacks and sat like such a good girl waiting for Daddy to get his hair cut.

Coincidentally, Zach was at the barber at the exact same time so she got a little bonus visit with her brother while she was there!

The three of us popped across the street for a quick coffee and snack together at Bean Around the World before heading home for lunch.

Building

Sydney is really into building things lately.  She absolutely loves her Magformers, today she built a huge skyscraper with them that was almost as tall as she is!

Bea's Birthday

This afternoon Sydney and I were invited to share in her friend Bea's 4th birthday party.  Bea requested that everyone dress up in costume for the party so Syd donned her Abby Caddaby costume from last Halloween and gave it a few embellishments.  I especially love the tutu on her head as a hat!

The kids had such fun at the party playing with toys and visiting and enjoying treats and cake. 

There were extra costumes around for the kids to use, Sydney really seemed to love this sombrero!

Rugby

Sydney definitely gets the Sister of the Day award today, she braved the snow and cool temperatures with Daddy and I to watch Zach play rugby at Jericho field.  Wow was it cold!  We only lasted for about a quarter of the game before having to head home to warm up.

Bath

And warm up we did!  We both jumped in the bath and soaked and played until we were toasty warm again.

Hairband

Then Syd set out to do her hair on her own.  She loves doing her own hair, drying it with the hairdryer (upside down no less!), brushing it and putting accessories of one sort on another in it.  Today she found my black hairband and decided that this was the look she was going for.

Appetizer

Sydney is always in the kitchen with me while I'm making dinner and often wants to create her own dishes to serve.  So today she got a giant green bowl, chopped up some cucumber and pickles and threw them in, poured some lemonade on top and added dollops of yogurt and then sprinkled bread crumbs on top.  She usually tells me that she's making an appetizer but today she informed me that this was the main course.

Bedtime

Sydney and I have a very set bedtime routine that involves bath, snack, games, books, brushing teeth and singing to sleep.  She loves to choose what she'll have for her snack and which games we'll play and books we'll read.  Tonight it was Candyland and Go Fish along with several books that we hadn't read before which was neat!

She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, what a full day for a little girl!