Victoria Day

A short little entry today just to fulfill my photo a day which, for today, is 'where I stand'. 

Unfortunately, this is where I spent most of my day, not so much standing, as kneeling in front of it, as it seems that both Paul and I ate something that didn't quite agree with us and we were both sick for pretty much the whole day.  Sigh....

Made for a mellow day which was likely for the best considering the monsoon-like conditions outside today! 

My Mom came back to be with us tonight after spending the weekend with my sister and her family.  It is so nice to have here here, we snuck out for a quick walk after dinner tonight and enjoyed looking at all of the amazing flowers in bloom in our neighbor's gardens.  My lilac bush is in full bloom right now, am loving it!

Here's hoping tomorrow is a sunnier and cheerier day than today!!

Planting Day

 

 
What a lovely day together we had today!  The weather took a turn for the worse this morning, we woke up to grey skies and it smelled like rain.  Early this morning, while it was still dry, we threw our clothes on and headed outside to plant the geraniums that we bought at the nursery yesterday.

Sydney was so cute helping us get them planted, she pulled all of the pots out of their plastic carry case and laid them in a row along the fence all the while muttering to herself about 'Sydney planting flowers here, and one there...."

She was so excited to see them all get planted in our pots and for her pinwheels to have a little company for the summer! 

I finally got around to getting some extra dirt for us so that we could plant our seeds that our friends Mara and Alexa gave us.  We planted garlic chives, pumpkins and cucumbers in bowls in the kitchen window.  Can't wait to see them sprout!

My friend Lori stopped by with a treat for us today.  She and I whipped up a lemon cheesecake together while we were at their house for dinner last night and it wasn't quite set by the end of the evening, so she brought a couple of pieces over for us today.  It is so delicious!  Lemony and sweet with a bit of tartness!  I typically don't love cheesecake, but I have to say that this one may swing me in the other direction as it was so yummy and easy to make!

This evening we headed to our friend Mike and Sarah's house for dinner, another lovely barbecue, albeit in the rain!  Emma and Sydney were being such monkeys today, I have never seen them act up so much around each other!  Not sure what was going on for them, maybe the rain was getting to them after spending so much time outdoors in the sun for the past few weeks!  We had a lovely visit either way, enjoyed some great wine and chatted with our friend Maryna who joined us for dinner too!

The photo a day for today is 'something I can't live without':

The first thing I thought of when I read the caption was my iphone. It is literally at my side 24/7 and serves as my way to keep in touch with the world, help me find directions, capture pictures of my sweet babe and play tunes for me when I need them, I literally could not live without it!!

BBQ

 
A gorgeous day today to start off our long weekend!  Sydney had one of the best sleeps of her life last night!  Slept for 8 hours straight, woke up briefly in the morning and then kept right on sleeping until 9:00am!  It was unbelievable!  It was one of the first times I can remember getting up before her, felt very strange!

Her little sleep in meant that we got a later start to our day than we usually do.  We ran some errands today and went to get our geraniums for the back yard, can't wait to plant them tomorrow!

Late this afternoon we headed off to our friend Lori and Marcus' house for a barbecue.  It was such a beautiful, sunny day, it was so nice sitting in the backyard in the sun!  Lori just bought a ton of outdoor toys so Weston and Syd had a great time playing with them all! 

We had an amazing dinner of barbecued chicken breasts and salmon along with roasted asparagus and a fresh, lovely salad.  It was the perfect summer fare!

I love that we are taking advantage of every beautiful day right from the get-go this summer!  Here's hoping this weather lasts a bit longer throughout this long weekend!

The photo a day for today is 'a favourite place'

Maui is one of my absolute favourite places on earth.  I dream about it all winter long.  Paul and I have many, many wonderful memories there!

Hope you're having a fabulous long weekend wherever you are!

Charlotte's Housewarming

 

What a full and fabulous Friday it was today!  Sydney was so excited to wake up and find Grandma here!  We spent a quiet couple of hours at home having breakfast and getting ready for our day before heading off to music class with Grandma in tow!  It was so fun having her there, she jumped right in and participated with the best of them, it was great!

After music class we played with Syd for a bit at the park and then went to KJM Country Gardens in Southlands.  This nursery is one of my favourite hidden places in the city.  It is a lovely oasis just minutes from our home, feels like a trip to the country to head there!  They have chickens and goats, ponies and horses and a cat that Sydney adores.  We had such fun looking at the animals and plants!

We topped our afternoon off with lunch at Wild Sushi, introduced Grandma to one of my favourite Japanese dishes, Oyako Donburi.  She loved it!

Grandma is spending the long weekend with my sister and her family so we drove her out to meet up with them this afternoon.  Looking forward to having her back for a few more days of fun on Monday!

This evening I sneaked out for a few hours to my friend Charlotte's fabulous new apartment for her housewarming party.  What a fantastic space she has, light and bright and overlooking a beautiful swimming pool!  Charlotte and I worked together at Mackenzie Financial and she invited several of the girls from the office over to christen her new apartment.  It was so fun to see everyone and have a visit and catch up!  I miss hanging out with those girls on a daily basis!

The photo for the day is 'something I made'.  I made a very nice fruit and cheese platter to take to Charlotte's house tonight, and alas, forgot to take a picture of it before I left, so the only other thing that I actually made on this very busy day was this:

That's right, good old Kraft Dinner.  Sydney's staple dinner on nights when Mom's going out! 

Grandma brought some more great treats for us, some board books for Sydney and a new selection of Joe Fresh clothes:

Grandma never forgets to bring a few treats for Paul and I too and got us some yummy pistachios and chocolate covered cranberries along with some socks for Paul.  I love getting little treats when my Mom comes!

She also brought a stack of vintage kids LP records that her friend Helen gave her for Syd's playroom.  They will fit perfectly in the frames that we have hanging in the playroom right now and will complete the room!  I am so excited to get them up and framed, they are just too cute!

I also hit up the Gap this week and found some amazing deals on their designer line by Diane Von Furstenberg.  Just love the little skirted bathing suit and dress and cardigan along with the Bermuda shorts!
 

Will leave you for the day with a picture of Sydney's latest creation from art class:

Hope you all have a lovely long weekend!

Grandma's Here!

What a special day today was as my Mom arrived today to stay for a week's visit.  Syd was so excited to have Grandma come, we'd been talking about it for a week and it was too cute watching her run around the house excitedly telling Daddy that she was going to the airport to get Grandma!

I took Mom's visit as an opportunity to freshen up the linens in our guest room.  Sydney and I unpacked all the new stuff this morning and put it together on the bed, I really liked the end result!  Even put a few fresh matching red tulips in her room just to add a little bit of spring to the space!

We headed straight out for dinner at the Whitespot after getting Mom from the airport.  Sydney insisted on going there as she has decided they have the best macaroni.  It was cute to see her sitting in her little booster seat across the table from Grandma, I think she loved having dinner with the girls!

Grandma always brings such great gifts for Sydney when she visits.  Today she totally hit the nail on the head and brought Sydney a ladybug pinwheel!!  Sydney loves both ladybugs and pinwheels so this was a doubly good gift for her!  She had such fun playing with it in the backyard and deciding where she was going to stick it!  Very cute!

It is so lovely to have my Mom here, I wish she was here all the time.  I love her company and having someone around who loves Syd as much, if not more, than I do!  Makes everyone feel good all around!

The photo of the day for today is snack.  Here was our afternoon snack today:

We love popcorn around here and often, late in the afternoon if Syd isn't wanting to nap, we'll make a bowl of popcorn and turn on Sesame Street and have a little snuggle on the couch.  It's awesome!

Looking forward to a great visit with my Mom!

Beefing up the Backyard

What a fabulous day Syd and I had together today!  After art class this morning, we headed off to Kits Beach to meet up with Sarah and Emma to have a picnic.  The kids had so much fun playing together and it was so awesome having our first picnic of the season.  I was so excited, packed enough food to feed the entire beach and spread out our blanket ready to spend the afternoon parked in one spot.  The girls, however, wanted to run and play so we spent most of our time chasing after them!

On our way home from the picnic, Sydney and I stopped off to do a little shoe shopping for her.  It seems that all of her shoes are getting a little on the small side these days and so I thought I'd better get her a couple of pairs to get us through the summer.  Picked up a super cute pair of pink, sparkly Toms which I had been eyeing for a while:

And got her this great pair of Geox runners, they light up when she walks, she loves them!

We spent the rest of the afternoon assembling our brand new barbecue!  I am so excited to have a new grill this season!  It looks fantastic in our backyard!

I have really been on a roll in wanting to get our backyard summer ready these days.  Yesterday when I was at IKEA, I picked up a play tent for Sydney.  Early this morning, we snuck outside in our jammies and set it up in the backyard.  Sydney loved it!  She decided to take her breakfast outside and eat it sitting in the tent, so cute!

She has been loving her little swimming pool these days too!  She literally throws everything she can find into it and then plants herself in the middle of the pool happily playing with it all.  So funny!

I even had to pick up a few more sand toys today for some sunny days at the beach that are hopefully in our future!  Am ridiculously excited for summer this year!!

The photo for the day for today is 'what I'm reading'.

I have three books on the go right now, a light, medium and heavy read.  It's nice to find a few quiet moments at the end of my day to read a bit, it's a luxury I haven't had for quite some time since my babe's arrival but I sure do enjoy reading a good book!

An Impromptu Afternoon at the Beach

Wow, today totally flew by!  Another gorgeous day in Vancouver!  Early this morning I took Syd outside to shoot some pictures of her in front of the lilac bush that is almost in full bloom.  The summer before Syd was born, Paul and I planted this lilac bush in our front yard and every year, like Sydney, it has grown more and more beautiful.  I always think of it as being Syd's lilac bush, she even calls it "Sydney's lilacs!"

This year is no exception, we have the most blooms we've ever had, it is gorgeous and fragrant and I want to soak up every second of it being in bloom while I can because it lasts for such a short time!  I feel the same way about Syd these days, I quite literally want to soak up all the time that I can with her because I know that before I know it, I'll turn around and she'll be all grown up!!

This afternoon my friend Christina called me up to see if Syd and I were up for a spur-of-the-moment trip to the beach with her and Jack.  Being that it was such a gorgeous afternoon, and that Syd and I were just lounging around, we gladly accepted the offer, packed our beach bag and headed off to Jericho Beach for the afternoon. 

It was so beautiful there, the sun was shining, the kids were running and digging happily in the sand and Christina and I had a lovely visit.  Throw in a glass of wine and it would have been pure perfection! 

When we got home from the beach, Syd decided that she was in a swimming sort of mood so she stripped off her clothes and went for her first swim of the season in her little plastic swimming pool in the back yard.  She had so much fun splashing and playing in the water, I love that it feels like summer has arrived!

Syd dropped into bed super early today after all that fresh air so I took advantage of having a few extra hours this evening and drove out to the brand new IKEA store in Richmond to get a few things.  It is a huge, huge store filled with some very fun things for the house!  Worth checking out for sure!

The photo of the day for today is love.  I have a million photos that I could share that capture this word, all of them include my precious babe.  Here is one of my favourite ones that my friend Sarah took of Syd and I when she was about six months old.  All I see on my face is sheer love, I think that's why I love the picture so much!