May Days

I am really loving the rhythm of our days lately.  It has been pleasantly busy, not run off our feet, not sitting around wondering what to do, but just enough of everything going on in a week to make it hum by smoothly.

Paul and I have been loving having an evening together at least once a week while Alexa, our summer nanny, has been watching Syd.  Sydney and Alexa are enjoying their usual summer fare, painting shirts with fabric paint, having picnics in the backyard, riding Syd's bike to the park to play.  It feels like summer with a little bit of school left.

And speaking of which, the countdown is on for the last few precious weeks of preschool for Sydney.  I am largely in denial that Syd will no longer be going to this magical place on a daily basis to see her beloved classmates and teachers, Jen and Carmen.

Plans are busily being made for the month of June, one last brunch, let's squeeze in a parent dinner, can we do a sports day again?, what about graduation?  Maybe if I stay busy enough I won't notice that my heart is slowly breaking over having to say goodbye to this chapter of Sydney (and my!) life.  I wish these last few weeks together could last forever!

The other day when I arrived at school to pick Sydney up I found her and her classmates cuddled up on a blanket outside having a picnic lunch in the sun!  Syd is, of course, sitting right next to her sweet Jen. Love it!

Syd and I took a little trip to the Lego store the other day where she merrily filled her own bin with Lego bricks of all shapes and colours to take home.

I love watching her build and create with it!


Sydney's preschool class went on a field trip this week to the Louis Brier seniors home to share Shabbat together.  It was such a special time for the seniors and the kids alike.  Each of the children took turns sharing a special song before we lit the candles and did the blessings.

This past weekend we had the pleasure of joining in two birthday celebrations.  Sydney's buddy Kaitlyn turned 4 and had all of her Dunbar buddies to the Rocky Mountain Pizza Co. for a 'make your own pizza' party.

The kids so enjoyed being able to roll their own dough and put whatever toppings they wanted on their pizza before it went into the big oven!


Then we had the pleasure of celebrating both Weston and Gwendolyn's birthdays together at the Kerrisdale Community Centre for a playtime and lunch!

We enjoyed a beautiful, sunny afternoon with Sydney's friend Emma on Monday.  The girls decided that they wanted to take their babies for a walk down the street in their strollers:

Stopping to smell the roses of course!

Then we headed off to riding lessons.  Sydney enjoyed a road walk atop of Teddy.

We stopped at Menchie's for a little treat after riding.

Sydney and I took a little walk through the neighborhood this afternoon.  She decided she was going to collect both branches and flower blossoms today and brought them home.  I love that she quickly set about scotch taping each flower blossom to her branch on the front porch!

I have been trying to stretch myself with cooking these days and try some new recipes and some old ones that haven't seen my kitchen in years!

I made a delicious batch of crispy oven baked zucchini chips today, they were both healthy and tasted amazing!

Click here for the recipe.


We will bid adieu to May in a few short days.  I am willing the time to slow down!!  Happy May Days!

Flower Girl

I have posted several times before, in one way or another, about how much Sydney loves flowers.  From the time she was a little girl she always loved wandering the neighborhood looking at all of the beautiful blooming gardens and picking bouquets of wild flowers to bring home to display.

Lately Syd has been so into knowing how she can go about earning money.  She has asked me several times how she can "get more bills for her collection."  We have chatted about chores and allowance but she seems much more interested in selling things to make money rather than earning it from the sweat off her brow.

The other day she was roaming around the front yard with a pair of scissors in hand and cut and arranged a pile of flowers on the grass by the sidewalk in front of our house. 

Then she came inside and asked me if I could write a sign for her.  She dictated:  "Flowers for sale, $5.  Please leave money for flowers on the front porch or in the mailbox.  Thank you."

Then she carefully placed her note beside the flowers she had laid out.

We left to go to swimming lessons and when we returned I had all but forgotten about the flowers and note, but not Sydney.  She bolted for the front door and flew outside to see if anyone had bought any of her flowers for sale.  She was truly disappointed when she saw them all still laying there.

So later that night, after she had gone to bed, I heard a sound akin to Santa's sleigh on our front lawn and in the morning Sydney awoke to find all of the flowers had been purchased and in the mailbox was a card just for her with $5 taped inside.

The satisfied and content look on her face just made my day!  She merrily put her $5 treasure in her jewellery box which now doubles as a piggy bank and asked me if she could cut more flowers to sell.

Here's hoping Santa has a stack of fivers ready for her!

May Long

We have had a chill May long weekend around here.  What was meant to be a rainy and cool weekend actually turned out pretty great weather-wise.  We've enjoyed some time outdoors and have gotten lots done around the house.

Here's a glimpse of what our week looked like:

Riding Lesson

Sydney's sunny Monday afternoon riding lessons continue to be such a source of joy for her.  This week she decided that she wanted to spend her entire lesson in the pen working on specific skills riding sweet Bailey.  It meant that she had an audience of me, Sarah and Emma cheering her on.

She was thrilled to go trotting for the first time this week, it was so cute watching her bounce up and down in the saddle as the horse moved along.  She was a natural, it was as though she'd done it a million times before!

Handprints

Every year Sydney's preschool does a fund raiser where they create ceramic tiles with the children's handprints on them.  For the second year running I volunteered to help the children do their handprints and spent nearly every morning this week at the preschool making sure I'd gotten everyone!

Nico's Birthday

We celebrated Sydney's preschool buddy Nico's birthday in class this week.  His Mom made a 'cake' for him using cut watermelon to share with the class.  It was so cool!  She even carved a watermelon into a shark for the kids, they loved it!

Last of the Lilacs

We have, once again, so enjoyed our lilac bush blooming this year.  Before the fleeting blossoms were gone for the season we cut ourselves a huge bouquet for our kitchen and one for the preschool which they kept in a giant Mason jar vase.  Loved it!

Flower Arranging

Sydney has always loved flowers, from the time she was just a wee girl, and this year is no different.  She and I have been doing many a walk around the neighborhood collecting wild flowers and Syd has had so much fun arranging them in vases to display in the window seat in our kitchen.

Field Trip to Airport

This week was a special one indeed at preschool for Sydney and her classmates as they took their very first field trip to the airport!

We rode the bus to the Canada Line skytrain station, then rode the skytrain all the way to the airport where we looked around and then headed up to the observation area in the domestic terminal.

The kids so enjoyed watching the planes take off and land and watching luggage being loaded onto the planes.

We sat and had lunch together before piling on the skytrain to head back to school.

En route we stopped at Oakridge mall to celebrate Shabbat on the steps outside!  It was a very special time indeed!

Playdate with Jen and Emmy

Sydney was absolutely thrilled this week to have her beloved preschool teacher Jen and her daughter Emmy over for a playdate.

Jen and Emmy brought Sydney and I each a bouquet of coloured daisies, orange for me and purple for Sydney which made the most beautiful bouquet when put together!

Jen also brought Sydney a special treat, three varieties of Pocky as a treat!

Sydney and Emmy had such fun playing together, bouncing in the bouncy castle, dressing up in costume and playing in the playroom.

We can't wait to have them back again, we so enjoyed their company!  Sydney is already planning a tea party with Emmy!

Planting

We finally got around to planting our seeds this weekend, pumpkin, watermelon, sweet basil, sunflowers and lettuce.

Can't wait to see the seeds sprout really soon!

Kiwi Crate

During our quiet moments at home we dug out our latest Kiwi Crate which was a rainforest theme this month.

We made a flipping frog game which Sydney had so much fun playing!

Symphony

We spent Sunday afternoon with our friends Emma and Sarah taking in the VSO's Kids Koncert series.  It was Mother Goose themed this time and the girls really enjoyed the music, dancing and acting.

They especially enjoyed getting all dressed up for the event!

Welcome Back Alexa!

Our summer nanny from last year, Alexa, is back in town for the summer and has been coming over to watch Sydney a few times a week so that Paul and I can spend some time together.  It has been wonderful having some concentrated time together to go for walks, dinner, run errands and have uninterrupted conversation!

Sydney loves her time with Alexa, they do crafts, play games and toys, hang out outside, go to the park and have picnics together.

Looking forward to a great summer filled with lots of great time for Sydney and Alexa to spend together!