New Keyboard

Today's photo of the day is brought to you by the word 'soft'.  As soon as I read the word, I instantly knew what I was going to photograph.

This huge, snuggly teddy bear is the softest thing ever!  Sydney loves him and so do I to be honest!  I often find Syd snuggled up on the couch with her beloved Seymour as she has a snack or watches Sesame Street, or I find him sitting in random chairs throughout the house.  Like now, for example, he's perched ever so comfortably in the giant leather reading chair in my bedroom.

Today while Syd was at school I had a little special time out for myself and had a lovely two hour facial!  It was so relaxing and my skin felt so soft and hydrated afterwards, I seriously looked five years younger!

On the way home from school Sydney asked me if she could stop at the toy store to spend the rest of her Christmas money that was clearly burning a hole in her pocket!  We stopped at Cowboys and Angels in Kerrisdale and she chose two more things, a new purple train named Charlie for her train set and a wooden sushi kit made by Melissa and Doug.

She was so cute playing with the sushi set this afternoon, chopping each roll with the giant wooden cleaver!

Syd had swimming lessons this afternoon.  She has been so not fond of having to wear goggles while she swims so I had held off on buying her her own pair until today.  She had been asking me for a couple of weeks if I could get her a pair to wear in the bathtub to practice for swimming lessons, so I broke down today and got her some.  She wore them in the bath and loved every mintue of it!

On the way home from swimming lessons we stopped by our friend Michelle's house to pick up a keyboard and stand that we will be borrowing from them over the next short while to get Sydney started while she takes piano lessons.  I am so excited to finally have a keyboard to practice on!

It's all set up and ready to surprise Sydney tomorrow morning when she wakes up, can't wait!

Visits Times Two

Today we had two unexpected visits with friends, it was great!  Right after school Sydney and I popped over to her friend Ollie's house to hang out with him and his nanny Amy, who has graciously offered to babysit for Paul and I this weekend while we are at a friend's wedding.  Sydney knows Amy, but we haven't seen her in quite some time, so I thought that it would be best to go over today and hang out to give Syd a chance to get comfortable with her before she comes to babysit.


While were were at Ollie's house my friend Sarah called to let me know that our music class this afternoon had been cancelled because our teacher was sick, and to see if Syd and I wanted to come over to their place to play instead.  So we packed up and headed off to visit with Sarah and Emma to finish off our afternoon.

Two lovely playdates on one very dreary Tuesday afternoon in Vancouver!

Today at school Sydney got a very special little treat from her buddy Dale, a red Hello Kitty envelope filled with chocolate coins and some real money too to celebrate Chinese New Year which happens this Sunday.

Syd was thrilled to get the Hello Kitty envelope and especially when it was filled with two of her favourite things, money and chocolate!

I got a special treat today too, my friend Amanda dropped off some crayons and heart shaped silicone moulds so that I can make some homemade heart shaped crayons for our Valentine's bags.  Can't wait to start this project! Will be so fun!

While Syd was at school today I did a bit of shopping and decided to, at long last, spend my Christmas money from my Mom and Dad.  I got myself a very cool looking ring from Coach, I really love how chunky and fun it is and that it's yellow gold which I've been wearing a lot of lately.

Sydney's art file at school was overflowing today and she brought home some real beauties:

The photo for today is 'Something you Smelled':

I have been hunting around for a new signature scent for myself after years of wearing the same perfume.  I got this Orange Canteloupe scent from Fruits and Passion and love how fresh and citrusy it is!  It is one of the first things I smell in the morning when I put it on and I love it!

Hope Tuesday was good to you!

Hope

So today's photo for the day is inspired by the word 'hope'.  I chuckled when I read this, as a few days ago I was asking Syd her daily question from the new question-a-day journal that I got for her.  The question was "What do you hope for?"  Sydney cocked her little head and hummed and hawed for a couple of seconds before she said, "Well there's this little crack in the sink and I really hope that it gets better soon."

It was too funny!  Such a simple thing to hope for and yet so meaningful in her world!

Today was a great day!  I spent the morning running errands, did a huge grocery shop, spent some time at Paul's office with our new receptionist, and got myself a little early Valentine's present:

There are so many great, easy drinking wines out right now that I haven't had the chance to try, so today I treated myself to a case of wine to stock up our pantry.  It was so fun wandering up and down the aisles looking at all the new and interesting bottles and choosing some based on nothing more than what I felt like tossing into my basket!  Can't wait to try some!

This afternoon our friends Michelle and William came over for a visit.  It was so nice seeing them!  We realized that it had been almost two months since our last visit, no wonder I've been missing them so much!

Sydney was so excited that they were coming and helped me get all our snacks out and organized.  I had all the platters of food out when Syd ran to the living room and got her little vase with wilting tulips and her African Violet to decorate where the food was.  I love that she wants to be such a good hostess!

Syd and William had great fun playing together in the playroom and Michelle and I had a lovely chat and caught up over tea.  It was such a good, relaxing way to spend an afternoon!

Michelle brought me the most beautiful bouquet of tulips in two gorgeous shades of pink and a Morning Glory loaf from Kokopelli which we enjoyed tonight with our tea after dinner. 

Who could hope for anything more?

Our Weekend

This morning started with spreading ourselves out on the floor of my office upstairs and making Valentine's cards with the foam stickers and cards that we recently bought.  I was marvelling at Sydney's dexterity, her fine motor skills have come along so much in the past few months, she was peeling the backs off those stickers at record speed!  It wasn't too long ago that I had to do it for her and hand them to her to stick on, gone are the days!

Sydney spent some good time this weekend just chilling at home and doing some of her favourite things.

Painted a bit...

She and I both went to see our hairdresser Amy, for haircuts this weekend so as a reward for sitting so nicely for her haircut, we hit up the dollar store and I let Syd pick out a craft to do.  She chose a wooden birdhouse and some new bottles of paint and meticulously painted every last inch of that birdhouse, both inside and out!

The end result was pretty great, she even painted a giant letter 'S' on the roof to sign her masterpiece!

I love this shot of her taking a picture of her birdhouse with her own little camera at the same time as I am!

Syd spent some time chilling on the couch with her new best friend, the giant stuffed teddy Seymour, eating popcorn and watching Sesame Street.

We popped out to Macgillicuddy's, a favourite consignment store of ours close to our house, and picked up a few fantastic things.

A winter coat and hat for next year, love the 'fur' lined cuffs and collar!

And a couple of new dresses:

We also spent some time hanging out in the playroom building towers with Duplo.  Syd is getting pretty good at building towers that are almost as tall as she is!

We did a couple of other fun things together this weekend too, went out for dinner at the Thai House last night and this afternoon we went to a Mom and Kids Superbowl party at our friend Laura's house while the Dads were watching the game.  It was fun!

The photo a day for today is 'Something Beginning with 'E'':

Yup, that's my new easel that my sister gave me for Christmas, all set up and ready to go, just waiting for a little inspiration to get started.  I'm hoping to actually get some paint on the canvas this week when I can find some time for myself!  Wish me luck!

Photo a Day

I had been feeling as though I needed a little motivation to update my blog on a daily basis for the month of February, so I visited one of the Mommy Blogs that I read, FatMumSlim, and downloaded her Photo a Day challenge for the month of February.


This challenge gives you a daily word which is meant to inspire a photo which I will be sharing with you every day.  I'm off to a running start, was up way too late last night as we were out at our friend Christina and Ryan's house for dinner, so I didn't upload yesterday's picture which is inspired by the word 'Fork'.

This antique silver fork is my absolute favourite.  It belonged to my Grandma, I think it may have even come from her childhood home, so it likely is well over 100 years old.  I love how the tines are twisted and bent from years of use!


Today's photo of the day is inspired by the word pattern.  I love this damask pattern that is on my new laundry hamper and clothes basket, it makes me happy every time I look at it!

Here's what the past couple of days looked like for us:


Friends for Lunch


This past Thursday we had one of the families from preschool over for lunch after school.  It was so nice for Sydney to visit with her little friend Addison outside of the classroom and Amanda and I had a great time chatting and visiting together!

The girls enjoyed doing some splatter painting together!

Amanda brought me the most delicious blueberry tea loaf from Cobs Bakery!  We enjoyed it for days with our tea in the evening!

Art Work


Sydney and I finally got around to picking up her artwork from the fall term at 4 Cats.  She did an amazing splatter canvas and another canvas painting of a snowman along with a clay snowman figurine.  We are looking forward to picking up art classes again in the spring.

Christmas Money


Sydney has been asking me non-stop when she can spend her Christmas money that Grandma and Grandpa sent her!  I was mindfully waiting a few weeks so that she could enjoy all of the gifts that we got in December but decided that the toy sale at our local toy shop was good enough reason to let her pick out a few things.

She chose a new Wow toy, Bumpety Bump Bernie and a Playmobil bath toy along with a few bottles of paint!


New Wardrobe


I have been shopping like a maniac at the post-Christmas sales the past few weeks.  I have bought scads of clothes for Sydney from all of our favourite stores, she is all set for the next season and beyond!

This week I hit up the sale rack at the Gap and got her the cutest sparkly skirt, rhinestone shirt and canvas shoes:

Tickle Day


Ever since Sydney was a baby Paul has loved to tickle her.  I love hearing her hearty belly laugh as Daddy tickles her every day.  Paul was so sad the other day when Sydney announced, out of nowhere, "Daddy, I don't want you to tickle me anymore!"  After much discussion, Paul negotiated that he could have one day a week that we would designate as tickle day, Saturday.


On Friday morning when Sydney and I came down for breakfast we found this on her chalkboard:

A little message from Daddy.....


Special Parcel


Sydney got another surprise parcel in the mail this week from my friend Brandie.  She sent her the cutest kitten apron, something she had had for her boys but had never used.  Syd was thrilled to get something in the mail for herself and will definitely get great use out of the apron!

Will keep you posted with the photo a day each day this month, keep your eye out!