Kelle

 

What a full and fun Monday Sydney and I had together today!  We went to her gymnastics class this morning which is always so much fun.  I love seeing how much more capable Syd gets every week at all of the different skills.  This week she was so much better about following along with the circuit instead of just running off and playing on her favourite pieces of equipment!

After gymnastics, we went to have lunch with some new friends that we met at art class, Mara and Alexa.  Mara and her husband just bought a new house just a few blocks from ours about six months ago and did a major renovation.  It was so fun to go over and see the beautiful new space!  They have the most beautiful backyard with a huge swimming pool in it!  Sydney was quite taken with it! 

Mara made the coolest thing for lunch for the girls called Monkey Puddles.  Basically you take a flour tortilla, spread it with peanut butter and Nutella or honey and then lay a whole banana in the middle.  Then you roll the tortilla round the banana like a burrito and then cut them into bit sized pieces like you would with a sushi roll.  It was an awesome idea and the kids thought it was so fun to participate in making them!

We had such a nice visit getting to know them better.  I love getting to know more of our neighbors, makes me feel more and more at home in our neighborhood all the time!  We will definitely be getting together with them again so that the girls can play more and Mara and I can have more time to chat!

Mara had planted a bunch of vegetable seeds and put them in her kitchen window to grow, they were doing amazingly well!  I gushed so much about them that she sent me home with the extra seeds!  I'm going to have to round up some dirt and containers and plant some with Sydney.  I'm especially excited about the pumpkin seeds, wouldn't it be great to have a pumpkin of our own by Halloween?

Today's photo of the day is meant to be 'someone who inspires me'.  I spent some time thinking about this, there are many people in my life who inspire me in one way or another.  But when I really got to thinking about it, I realized that the person that I draw the most inspiration from on a daily basis these days, is Kelle Hampton.  I've written about Kelle a couple of times before.  She and I have never met.  She is a Mommy blogger, just like me.  Her blog, Enjoying the Small Things, is my favourite one to read, hands down.

Kelle has two daughters.  Her second daughter, who is just a few months younger than Syd, was born with Down Syndrome.  Kelle has honestly and graciously shared her experience in the shock of dealing with Nella's birth on her blog and in her recently published book, Bloom.  Kelle has taken what could have been a devastating experience for most people and turned it into one of the best things that has ever happened to her in her life.  She is, in a word, amazing.

Kelle inspires me on a daily basis in finding joy around every corner even when she's having a rough day with her kids or feeling overwhelmed by life.  There have been many, many, days where I have been sitting like a limp rag at the computer at the end of my day, exhausted and drained, and have felt my spirits lifted when I've read Kelle's blog.  She inspires me to find joy everyday, really enjoy the small things in life, and to take better and more pictures of my girl!

So thank you Kelle!  Even though we have never met, you have had an incredibly positive impact on my life and who I am as a mother.  You truly are an inspiration!

**All photos of Kelle and her girls were borrowed from Google Images

Happy Birthday Weston & Ollie!

 
This afternoon Sydney, Paul and I went to a joint birthday party for two of Sydney's buddies, Weston and Oliver.  These boys were born just a couple of weeks apart from each other and both love trains and, more specifically, Thomas, so their Moms did a full blown Thomas theme party for the kids today!

The party was at the Creekside Community Centre which is in the new Olympic Village on False Creek.  It is such a great venue, so spacious and with beautiful huge windows overlooking the water.  The kids played so nicely in the gym on the equipment together, it was almost a calm and serene time, not exactly how you envision a two year old's party!

Piece of Cake Creations, who made Sydney's ladybug birthday cake last November, made the cakes for Ollie and Weston's party.  She did two Thomas trains, they were super cute!!

Weston's Mom, Lori, made some very sweet train cookies too, each hand decorated with the number 2!

The food was amazing!  Sally and Allan, Ollie's parents, hit up Costco today and put out a delicious spread of food for everyone!  It was so cute seeing the kids reach up over the table to help themselves to whatever was in the bowls!  Syd had more than her fair share of Cheetos!

Weston decided that he wanted to have a few snacks off of Sydney's plate today so he sneaked by to get a few bites....so cute!

We came home from the party with a huge helium Thomas balloon and a loot bag filled with all Thomas fare, stickers, a stamp, a ring and a Thomas car for our train table!  Sydney got Jack the front loader, we are so looking forward to playing with him and our other trains, he is our first official Thomas train!

We also got a beautifully decorated cookie by Sonia at Sugary Sweet Things, a train with both of the boys names on it, it was not only beautiful but delicious!

What a fun afternoon it was!  It was such a beautiful day today that after the party was over, Paul, Syd and I walked along the seawall for a while and enjoyed the weather and the view!  What a great area!

Today's word for the Photo a Day for the Month of May is "Me".  By the time I thought to get a picture of myself for the blog today, I was looking rather wilted from my day and wasn't feeling too photogenic, so I thought I'd take a picture of a 30+ year old photo of myself with my brother and sister that I discovered the other day when I was going through some old papers.

I'm the sweet little thing on the right hand side, good memories!

Bird

 
Today's word, for the photo of the day, is bird.  I thought about this word all morning, wondering how I was going to get a picture of a bird today.  Maybe I'd take Sydney to the park and hope that I'd see a bird who would stay still enough for me to get a cool picture.  Maybe I could drive out to UBC and hope to spot a bald eagle.  Well, the day got away on me and neither of these things happened.

So I started wandering around the house with my camera trying to think if I had anything significant with a bird on it for today's picture.  Then it came to me.....and I snapped this picture of the two yellow canaries in the antique bird cage in Sydney's bedroom.

Before Syd was born, I spent a great deal of time shopping for things for her and her nursery.  I have no natural talent when it comes to interior design, so I literally just bought things that I liked and didn't worry so much about them working together in the space.  In the end, I had everything I needed, but her room looked a bit like a kid's swap meet, filled with mix-matched things that were ill-placed and didn't go together so well.  When she turned a year old, after spending literally hours and hours in her room nursing her and was sick of the cacophony that was her room, I decided that enough was enough and I was going to have to hire some professional help to give her a proper little girl's room.

So I had a consult with Daniel from Lord Twig Design.  I instantly loved Daniel, he had such an easy going and likeable way about him.  I knew that I would enjoy working with him on this project.  And I truly did!  It was such fun having him come by with samples and pictures and fabrics and being able to choose what I loved, knowing that he was going to pull it all together in a cohesive fashion to create the room of my dreams.

He spent three days in Sydney's room transforming it into a lovely space that she will grow into and loves so much!  He really went out of his way to delight and surprise me, even went so far as to put police tape over the door so that I wouldn't peek at night once he'd gone home and at the end of day three, he did the big reveal!  I had chosen most of the items in the room, so had seen them all independently, but was amazed at the final result when they were all put together!

Daniel likes to add something to every project to surprise his client, and his surprise for me was this beautiful antique birdcage which he strung two yellow canaries in, and hung beautifully on Sydney's wall.  It is one of my favourite things in her room and Syd loves when I blow lightly on the birds and they "fly" around their cage. 

I love these little birds and am so glad to have thought to taken their picture today!

Fun!

 
Today's photo of the day is meant to be all about fun.  It was as though the word was prophetic, as Sydney and I really did end up having a super fun day today!

This morning we headed to our Music Together class.  We have been doing this class together for quite some time now, and Sydney has mostly just been observational during class.  She often comes home and does what we were doing in class, but rarely does she fully participate.  Today a light really seemed to go off for Syd, she was dancing and clapping and participating more than I've ever seen her participate!  It was great, and so much fun to watch!

Today started out cold and super rainy, but by mid-afternoon the clouds had parted and the sun came out and it felt like a beautiful spring day!  We took full advantage of the break in the wet weather and went for a walk with Daddy up to Dunbar.  We, of course, had to stop at Syd's favourite grocery store, Stongs for some treats and a giant balloon for Syd.

We came home and chased that balloon around the backyard for the longest time before breaking out the bubbles and filling the entire backyard with them.  Sydney was indeed having so much fun, it is such a pleasure to watch her enjoy herself so much at this tender age!  I just love today's photo of her crazily blowing her bubble maker into the air!

We finished our day off with a visit to Zach's new apartment and then headed to Thai House for dinner together.  All in all a great, fun Friday!

Not My Day...

 
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.  From the moment the day started, I felt tired and irritable.  I was chirping at Sydney, impatiently running around the house trying to get ready for our day, and in no mood to deal with anything that didn't go as it was meant to.  Sydney decided that today wasn't the day that she was going to practice her skills in co-operation, and fought me at every step along the way on the way out the door.  We headed to preschool, where I had a rather awkward, unexpected confrontation with one of the parents and then off to Oakridge where a lady almost took my head off for accidentally cutting in front of her in the line at the till.  Sigh....it was not my day!

Throughout the day I searched for little bits of inspiration.  The Photo a Day for the Month of May for today was meant to be 'something you wore today', so I took a picture of my bright red Campers which I wear almost everyday but make me smile most every time I put them on.  Not only does the cheery colour and whimsical mismatched pattern on the shoes make me grin, but thinking about my dear friend Sally, who gave them to me, always makes me happy too.

Sally is a friend of mine that I met while working at Mackenzie Financial years ago.  She and her husband had moved to Vancouver from Sydney, Australia for a few years and she came to cover a mat leave for one of my colleagues.  She and I instantly hit it off, she is such a sweet and kind soul!  During her seven years in Canada she and I stayed in touch and had the great fortune of having babies within three weeks of each other!  She has since moved back to Sydney but I think of, and miss her, often. 

Our friends Jack and Christina came over for a playdate this afternoon which literally saved my day!  We had such a fun visit with them, it was so nice to spend some time with friends on a day when the world really seemed to be getting on my nerves!

Christina brought me one of her favourite bottles of wine from Washington state,14 Hands Hot to Trot.  It's from a winery that is not far from their vacation home in Suncadia.  I can't wait to try it!

I am happy to see today behind me.  Hoping for a wonderfully uneventful Friday tomorrow!

Skyline

Today's photo of the day is meant to be inspired by the word skyline.  I smiled when I saw the word this morning, as Vancouver's skyline is one of my favourite things in the city!  I started thinking about all of my most favourite spots where one can get a fabulous view of the downtown skyline and where I would visit today to get some great pictures.

So this morning after Syd's art class, I took a drive down to Spanish Banks and jumped quickly out of the car in between rain showers to get a few shots of downtown over the beautiful beach and ocean.  It is one of the best spots in Vancouver for a backdrop for photos, if it was a nicer day I would have taken Syd out of the car and done a mini photo shoot with her!

Sydney got to bring home another completed canvas from art class today.  It was supposed to be a bunny for spring time, but ended up looking like a fluffy fat cat, I love it!  I think I may get it framed to match the bumblebee masterpiece already hanging in her playroom!

This past weekend we had our friends Mike and Sarah over for dinner with their little girl Emma, Sydney's best friend.  We love spending time with Mike and Sarah, they are a fun couple to hang out with!  Sarah brought me some lovely gourmet salts from the Sea to Sky Salt Company along with a beautiful bottle of Cotes du Rhone!

Syd got a special present from Emma too, a Dora the Explorer ring.  Syd is a big Dora fan.  In fact, while we were in the states on the weekend, we had to buy two boxes of Dora bandaids at Target just for Syd!  She decided that she couldn't leave without a box of Hello Kitty ones too.  We are so stocked up for any boo-boos that happen over the next while.  Sydney still has yet to figure out the difference between a bandaid and a sticker, so we may be through all three boxes before she ever gets the chance to legitimately need one!

I unpacked all of Sydney's new summer clothes from our shopping trip to Seattle this morning and she helped me put them away in her dresser and closet.  Here are a few of our favourite things.  I can't help but buy cupcake themed things these days as I am planning a cupcake theme party for her 3rd birthday in November and have been brainstorming about it for months already!

My little girl is exactly two and a half years old today.  It's amazing how quickly the time has gone and yet I can hardly remember what life was like before I had her.  Happy 30 month birthday Syd!  Love you!

That's it for this Wednesday, hope you had a great one!

Photo a Day for the Month of May

I have been remiss about updating my blog lately.  I have chosen an extra hour of sleep over uploading photos and stringing my thoughts together here too many days in a row!  I promise this will stop and have committed to doing my best to update my blog every single day for the month of May.....we'll see how it goes!

This month marks a full year since I started this blog.  I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed sharing my days with you here and reading back and remembering all of the amazing days that Sydney and I have shared together.  I feel truly blessed to be her Mom and to have such a wonderful life!

As motivation to update this space every day in May, I am participating, along with a few other Moms who blog, in the Photo a Day for the Month of May.  Each day in May has an appointed word that is meant to be the theme for the photo captured that day.

Today's word was peace.  My day actually started off very peacefully.  Early this morning, after we had finished breakfast, Sydney and I wandered out into the backyard into the cool morning air and discovered a patch of bluebells growing just outside our back gate.  We each picked a bouquet and brought them inside and put them in vases on the kitchen counter.  I love how Sydney's included some dandelions, she just couldn't resist the bright yellow colour!  It was a serene and peaceful moment with my girl and a wonderful way to start the day!

I continued on with the shopping momentum from the weekend in Seattle and hit up the Banana Republic at Oakridge Centre today while Syd was in preschool.  They had just marked down scads of clothes at final sale prices and I pounced on those racks like a cheetah.  I came away with another bulging bag of mostly shirts and sweaters, felt so great to continue building out my wardrobe after having it be so lean for so long!!

Welcome May!  I look forward to putting away all my sweaters and jackets and boots and ushering in summer sometime in the next few weeks.  Bring it on!!