Forty Things

In exactly 24 hours it will be 2015, the year I turn 40.  I have spent some time over the past couple of months thinking about his monumental year and how I would like to make it one to remember.  I decided that I would make a list: "Forty Things to Accomplish in My 40th Year" to inspire me to live a year with passion and purpose with a hearty serving of fun on the side.

Many things on my list are little, they could be accomplished in an afternoon or within a few hours, some are bigger goals.  I hope to share many of the experiences with friends and family along the way as I usher in a new decade of life.

So now, without further ado, my list.

Forty Things to Accomplish in my 40th Year

1)  Run a 10K Race
2)  Take Adult Swimming lessons
3)  Re-Read a Childhood Favourite Novel
4)  Try Hot Yoga
5)  Go to Palm Springs
6)  Overnight trip to the states for no other reason than to shop!
7)  Sign up for classes at the synagogue
8)  Find a new housekeeper and relinquish cleaning duties
9)  Learn to Knit
10) Find an Evening Babysitter so Paul and I can get some time alone!
11) Plant a veggie container garden
12) Ride a Horse
13) Build a Terrarium
14) Take Sydney back to Disneyland
15) Spend a Saturday morning garage sailing
16) Make Sydney a '10 Things I Love about You' Book
17) Learn how to properly apply eye makeup
18) Buy myself a huge bouquet of flowers for no reason
19) Take an ipad class at the Apple Store
20) Buy a case of wine at the liquor store, 12 different bottles I've never tried before
21) Stay overnight at a hotel in downtown Vancouver with a girlfriend just for fun
22) Get a facial
23) Get a mammogram
24) Upgrade my iphone at long last!
25) Paint a complete canvas
26) Make bread from scratch without the help of my breadmaker
27) Redecorate my home office
28) Read Psalms from beginning to end
29) Take Syd on a road trip
30) Write a letter to someone who positively impacted my life
31) Do the Grouse Grind
32) Take my Mom out for an amazing dinner
33) Go away overnight just me and Paul (for the first time since Syd's been born I might add!)
34) Read a hand written letter from my Grandma that have been tucked away since she passed away
35) Splurge on 5 tins of David's Tea that I've never tried before
36) Write a poem
37) Spend a special time at the spa with a girlfriend
38) Buy a designer handbag that's not from the outlets
39) Hand write and mail cards to five of my favourite friends to tell them how much I love them
40) Get my hair done at Blo on a random weekday for no reason followed by lunch out

So there it is!  I had every intention of keeping this list to myself, tucked quietly away as I independently worked on checking items off my list but then I realized how much greater it would be to share it with those who love me so that they could participate in the joy of my year too.

Welcome 2015, may you be one of the greatest years I've had yet!

Celebrations

This time of year is filled with one celebration after another, so much so that I can barely keep up with uploading pictures after each one and updating this space!  We have had so many wonderful occasions and memories since the beginning of this month so without further ado, here's the 'Coles Notes' version of our fun times!

Suncadia

The first weekend of December I spent away in Washington state with my precious Dunbar Momma friends on our annual getaway together.  We spent an entire day shopping at the outlets and Target and Trader Joe's on our way down and then enjoyed having some desperately needed down time together.

My friend Liz is turning forty this month so we took the time away as an opportunity to treat her (and ourselves!) to a day at the spa and had a beautiful 40th birthday celebration dinner on Saturday evening.

This weekend away has become a beloved tradition and such precious time together!

Hanukkah

We are well into our Hanukkah celebrations around here, tonight is the third night.  Sydney and I were asked by her class and the Kindergarten class downstairs to give a little Hanukkah presentation so we took the opportunity to make a batch of latkes for the girls to try and made some beautiful takeaway bags for each of them with a dreidel, gelt and homemade Hanukkah chocolates.  Sydney and I had lots of fun putting the treats together for her friends.

We celebrated the first night of Hanukkah at Zach's house, had a beautiful dinner and visit with everyone and so enjoyed the celebration!

Sydney is lighting the candles all by herself after the shammash has been lit this year and says the blessing without missing a beat, it's pretty awesome!  She has gotten some great gifts so far both from Mom and Dad and friends and family.  We feel so blessed!

Gifts

And speaking of blessed we have a steady stream of beautiful gifts coming into our home these days from friends and colleagues alike.  Paul brought home a beautiful Edible Arrangement the other day, we had such fun eating all of that delicious fruit!

My friend Sarah and I had a gift exchange for ourselves and our girls last week, Sydney was thrilled to get some Frozen panties, hairclips and headbands.

Sydney's friends Weston and Gwendolyn got her a very special set of Disney princess slippers for Hanukkah, Syd was quite thrilled with them!

 

Happy Birthday Julia

We were so happy to celebrate with Sydney's best buddy Julia as she welcomed in her 5th year.  She had a beautiful party with all things pink and purple.  The kids got to make homemade snow globes and Elsa even made an appearance.  It was such a lovely time!

Celebration of Community


Sydney's school had their annual Celebration of Community this week at the beautiful Chan Centre at UBC.  While the Kindergarteners don't do a performance at the event, Sydney and I decided to go and watch all of the kids perform.  It was a wonderful time, we enjoyed ourselves so much!

Party with Bare Fit Moms


I love that five years after I had my baby some of the closest friends in our lives are the Moms that I met at my prenatal fitness class.  Yesterday night Sydney and I went to Saskia and Myrtle's house along with Sarah and Emma, Andrea, Aaro and Hattan, Tracy and Alexis and Rachel and Declan to have a little Christmas celebration.

Saskia served dinner and made homemade gingerbread cookies for the kids to decorate, it was fantastic.

We left with so many beautiful gifts from our friends.  Andrea gave us the cutest little grinch tree plant along with a lovely letter 's' ornament made in Nepal for Syd.

Tracy gave Sydney some really cool pencil crayons and the yummiest granola and jam from Sweet Obsession.

Saskia gave Sydney a package of Shrinky Dinks and a lovely package of chocolates.

It's feeling festive around here!  Happy Holidays!

Birthday Memories

I am just now feeling as though I am somewhat catching up on life two full weeks into December!  Posting here has taken a back seat for way too long, I am hoping this will change in the coming days. 

I was just wistfully looking over pictures of Sydney's birthday in November.  The month was such a whirlwind that I hadn't really had the time to savour all of the precious moments from her various celebrations. 

Sydney and her classmate and friend Kristin have birthdays a month apart so Kristin's Mom and I decided that we would throw the girls a joint birthday party and invite all the girls in their class.

What a fun time the girls had together outside of the classroom!  We had a yoga party at Yogabuttons studio and the girls decided that they wanted the party to have all things rainbow.

The girls made dancing ribbons as a craft to start off.

Then had a fun yoga class together.

Followed by lunch and cake.

It was such a great day!

Sydney was only too thrilled to wade through another mountain of presents from her amazingly generous friends from school.

Rose gave her the most beautiful Stella and Dot bracelets, I could have scooped them for myself!

Leah gave her a Melissa and Doug stamp set, markers and a doodle pad, perfect for a girl who loves anything artistic!

Emma gave her a Chapters gift card, something that Sydney had, coincidentally, specifically asked for on her birthday wish list.  Just loved the card that Emma wrote for her "I Love you Sydney" written on the front!

Ailish gave her a 'Make your own Travel Buddies' kit which I'm hoping to break out before we leave for vacation next week.

Kristin gave Sydney a horse activity book along with a very cool little journal which Sydney adores!

Sophie gave Syd a boxed set of Frozen books and some Frog and Toad first readers, always love getting new books!

Ryan gave Sydney a fantastic activity book.

And Olivia gave her a 'Make your own Bath Fizzies' kit, such fun!

Elizabeth G. gave Sydney the most beautiful pop up fairy book ever, a beautiful addition to our ever growing book collection!

Grace gave Sydney Hama beads which I could barely get a picture of because Syd was so busy playing with them, loved them so much she actually stopped opening presents to break the set open to play with it!

Hailey gave Sydney a Bugs and Slugs game and Hello Kitty puzzle.

Elizabeth Y gave her a 'Make Your Own Necklace' kit, another great rainy day activity!

Izzie gave Sydney a beautiful world puzzle and a book.

And Jamie gave Sydney a gel pen art kit.

We were overwhelmed by the generosity of her friends and it has been such a pleasure to watch Syd enjoy each and every one of these gifts over the past few weeks.


What a fun time we had celebrating Syd's 5th!