My Birthday

Today is my 37th birthday, and what a lovely day it was!  From the moment I got up this morning, I felt so loved by everyone.  All day I received texts and e-mails and phone calls from friends and family.  It was so heartwarming to know that so many people were thinking of me today!

Our morning started slow and easy.  Sydney had a particularly restless night last night, waking up about 15 times!  She decided that she was ready to start her day at 5:00am so I was up with the birds, bright and early.

We decided to dig through the bag of art supplies that we picked up yesterday at Urban Source and spent a while making a collage with all of the interesting bits and pieces that Sydney had collected.

Once we were up and dressed and ready to start our day we went out to find a strong cup of coffee that both Paul and I seemed to desperately need this morning!  We ended up at Wicked Cafe, just steps from Zach's house so we had our coffee and then popped by his place for a quick visit.

This afternoon my Dunbar Moms took me out to Sandbar for an amazing lunch!  I can't tell you how much this group of women has enriched my life!  I feel so fortunate to have gotten to know them and to call them my friends!  We had such a fun visit over lunch, laughed and made plans for future get togethers and drank more than a few bottles of wine!

All of the girls chipped in to get me a lovely gift, a $100 gift certificate to Sephora and a gift card to Blo so that I can get my hair done as well.  What a lovely and thoughtful gift, I will have so much fun using them both!

Sandbar is such a great restaurant, we so enjoyed our meal!  For dessert, the server brought out a bunch of plates of her favourite desserts all with candles in them for us to share.  It was fantastic!

My friend Lori brought me a little gift today too, a Foodie Collection of David's tea, which is a kit that includes recipes for cooking with tea, and a package of the Rooibos Birthday tea.  I absolutely loved it and can't wait to try some of the teas!

Paul's sister, Elaine stopped by today to wish me a happy birthday and brought me a lovely Chrysanthemum plant and birthday card.  I'm loving how many gorgeous fall flowers I have around the house these days!

This evening Paul, Syd, Zach, Miriam and I went to the club for dinner, the Prime Rib buffet.  It was so delicious!  What an indulgent day of amazing food I've had!

Zach and Miriam brought me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers as well.  I truly do adore fresh flowers and it makes it all the sweeter when someone you love gives them to you!

What a wonderful, wonderful day it was today.  I felt so loved and encouraged and so enjoyed the day of pampering and lovely meals out!

This past year has been amazing.  I have made so many incredible memories, I can only wish that the year ahead will be filled with just as many!  Looking forward to seeing what the year ahead brings!

Happy Birthday Marcus

 
I have been dying to dig out my knits and boots for the entire month of September.  This morning, I could stand it no longer, even though the weather still feels like summer in many ways, I pulled on my skinny jeans, ripped the tag off a sweater I bought on clearance at the end of last winter, pulled on some new boots that I had tucked away, and loved every minute of it!

Paul went to have his hair cut this morning so Sydney and I tagged along and decided to hit up our favourite art supply store, Urban Source, on Main Street and got another bag filled with fun art supplies which we will use over the weeks to come for many an art project.  Sydney just loves going to this store, filling her little basket with whatever she wants, and paying one flat fee!  It's fantastic!

When we got home there was a surprise waiting for me on the front porch, a gorgeous bouquet of fall flowers from my friend Janice for my birthday.  They are so beautiful and completely go with all of the fall decor that I've got going on at home these days!  What a lovely surprise it was!

We got Sydney another little something from the Splash Toy Store sale, the sweetest little purse.  She is so adorable carrying it around and hooks it on the handle of her baby stroller and pushes it all around the house!

Inside she tucked this challah cover that she made at school yesterday:

This afternoon Paul surprised me with an unexpected trip to Tiffany & Co to get a birthday gift for me!  I had such fun trying on a bunch of different beautiful pieces before settling on a gorgeous sterling silver bead bracelet that I've long loved!  It was such a special and meaningful gift!

Even though my birthday isn't technically until tomorrow, I feel so spoiled and loved already by everyone!  I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who make me feel so special at this time of year and the whole year through!

Late this afternoon Sydney and I headed to Westside Family Place for her friend Marcus' 3rd birthday party.  It was such a fun time of seeing lots of friends that we haven't seen in a few months and the kids had so much fun playing outdoors together!

Marcus' Grandma is here visiting from Denmark, and made all of the food for the party, including some amazing breads and a lovely, healthy birthday cake too!

It was a fun way to end our day!  Sydney was pooped after all the excitement of the party and our day and hit the sack early tonight so Paul and I ordered sushi in and had a few hours together to chill and unwind.  It was a lovely end to the day!

Looking forward to spending my birthday day with Paul and Syd and my Moms tomorrow!  

A Facial, Shabbat & Macaroons

 
Friday!  What a great end to the week!  My morning started on a lovely note as I finally got around to using a gift certificate that my friend Lori had given me months ago for a facial at Le Petit Spa.

This little spa, tucked away in Point Grey, not far from our home, is a lovely space to get away for some relaxation.  The spa is filled with all things lavender, they even send every client home with a little lavender sachet!  I had a lovely Dermalogica facial this morning, it was so relaxing, at one point I even drifted off for a few minutes!

I left looking all aglow and radiant!  I love how having a facial literally shaves years off your face!

After my time at the spa, I joined Sydney's preschool class for a family Shabbat in her classroom.  It was a lovely time of songs, lighting candles, eating challah and visiting with all of the parents and kids!

After school Sydney and I hit up the semi-annual toy sale at her favourite toy shop, Splash.  Sydney had had her eye on a few things for the past several weeks so we took advantage of the sale today and got her some great things:

Hello Kitty!  I can't tell you how many times she has asked me to buy this for her!

Ladybug umbrella, looks super cute with her ladybug raincoat and boots!

New jammies!

When we got home there was a parcel waiting in the mail for me, a present from my friend Brandie.  She sent me a lovely handmade purse and some hand knit socks for Sydney.  I love how she couldn't resist tucking something for Sydney into the parcel!

Tonight my friend Michelle and I went to a Macaroon making class that we had signed up together at the Simply French Cafe.  It was such a wonderful time!  We learned to how to make authentic French macaroons with several different fillings, tried our hand at piping the cookies and filling them, and sat and drank champagne and ate truffles while we waited for them to bake!

Our instructor, Sarah, gave us tons of great tips on making these rather technique sensitive treats!  Can't wait to try them out myself at home!

We each got to take home a few wrapped up, they are absolutely delicious!

It was such a fun way to spend an evening together!  I'm determined to do more things like this in the future, so nice to learn something new!

Michelle brought me a little birthday gift today too, some beautiful organic Russian garlic and a bottle of gourmet chopped garlic as well!  Such a thoughtful gift as she knew I had been looking for this specific garlic that I love to cook with!

Looking forward to a fun weekend celebrating my birthday and spending some time together as a family! 

Autumn Days

Today was another absolutely fantastic autumn day in Vancouver!  We are apparently breaking weather records all over the place with the longest stretch of dry weather that we've had since 1907!  It hasn't rained since August 1st, seems hard to believe that it's ever going to be wet again with these gorgeous, sunny, blue-sky fall days!

Late last night while I was packing Sydney's lunch, I decided to leave a special note inside her lunch kit to surprise her.

She laughed like crazy when she saw it and then asked me why I used her Hello Kitty sticker.  It was pretty funny!

While Sydney was at school, I got my fill of big box shopping.  I headed out to Richmond, hit up Dollarama, Michaels and Costco. 

Got a few Halloween treats for Sydney's friends for some special treat bags that we'll be dropping off to them closer to the end of October.  Sydney and I had fun putting them together this afternoon.

I got Sydney this very cool art caddy at Michael's today for her to store and organize some of her most frequently used art supplies.  I gave her the task of filling it up today, so we sorted through her art basket and pulled out everything that we thought would be best stored in the caddy.

In the end, this is what it looked like.  She loves having everything so accessible!

We even discovered a few things deep in the art basket that we had forgotten about, like a giant bottle of glitter glue, which Sydney had a blast playing with this afternoon!

I am feeling most inspired to make a few more autumn crafts, so this afternoon while Sydney was napping, I pulled out one of the dozens of Mason jars that my friend Michelle had given me, sat outside in the sun, and covered it with leaves and modge podge glue to make an autumn hurricane lantern.

It looked so cool with a tealight lit up inside of it!

Sydney and I took full advantage of the beautiful day and went out for another walk and tricycle ride late this afternoon.

I am loving the beautiful fall colours everywhere!

 
We stopped for a little play time at the park at the end of the street:

And came home to a surprise on our front porch, my friend Christina left us a still warm, home baked apple cranberry pie!  It was so delicious and such a nice treat for dessert tonight!

I am loving these last few days of September, the beauty of fall, settling into our new schedule and finding time for plenty of fun things!