Summer Days

The weather has been perfect summer fare these days.  I can feel myself gently settling into full on summer mode as every day passes.  I am loving getting up in the morning and not rushing anywhere, just hanging out in the backyard in our jammies and enjoying the slower pace.

This Saturday Paul's Mom, Sydney's Bubbie, is turning 98.  I love that Paul has such great longevity in his genes!  Sydney and I went out to buy her some new nailpolish as a gift and Sydney made Bubbie the most special card as well.  We are so looking forward to celebrating this great milestone with her on Saturday!

I made my annual batch of raspberry jam the other day using the berries that Sydney and I picked at Emma Lea farms.

Got seven full jars of jam from one batch with a bunch of raspberries left over to freeze for other treats later.  Yum!

My sister brought Sydney and I some special things when she came to visit earlier this week.  She has been on the lookout at garage sales for any china and crystal that Sydney and I can use for tea parties and found some amazing china tea cups and crystal for us!

We've been using a few of the crystal goblets as vases for the many bouquets of wild flowers that Sydney picks for me!

Sydney and I picked up a very special package the other day, a personalized story book with Syd's name woven throughout and pictures of the two of us inside.  It is so precious and we are enjoying reading it at bedtime together.

Sydney has been spending a lot of time with Alexa, her summertime babysitter, in the backyard working on various crafts.  She painted some beautiful flower pots with patio paint the other day, can't wait to find some plants to fill them!

As is always the case with my little artist, she didn't stop at just painting the pots, she found a huge leaf and painted it so beautifully as well!

Yesterday we met up with some of the families from preschool at the Chaldecott Spray Park to play and have a visit.  It was so lovely to see everyone and catch up on the happenings from the first couple of weeks of summer.

We had a picnic lunch and relaxed in the sun while the kids played.  It was great!

Love this shot of Syd and her buddy Sophie holding some fake flowers that Sydney brought to the park with her!

After all that sun and fun I decided that a takeaway dinner was in order so we grabbed some sushi and dined al fresco together in the back yard.  Summer pleasures!

Sydney found a bunch of photographs of flowers at Urban Source the last time we were there.  She decided to glue popsicle sticks to the back of them and 'plant' them in our garden, it was very cute!

Syd is still adjusting to life without preschool.  She literally talks about the kids and teachers from school every day, I think she's really missing them!  Last night while she was in the bath she wrote "To Carmey" in foam letters on the shower door.  She wanted me to take a picture of it to send to her preschool teacher Carmen, love it!

This morning we broke out something I've had tucked away in a closet for a few months waiting for a summer day to use it.  It's an instamatic camera that prints out pictures right away and this afternoon Syd and I are going on a hunt for things to take pictures of.  Stay tuned for the final result!

We are enjoying summer days.