One more to go...

It was awesome. It was fantastic. It was the best! I got to spend 10 days with my daughter and it was the best. I got some new ornaments for the tree:

There were presents.

Things to see.

And extra cuddles.

There was also a lot of food. More to come for the Orthodox Christmas.

Getting ready for Christmas

Fall has flown by. Between Halloween costumes, walks in the park, purchase of the new phone and of course working full time I have completely forgotten to update my little blog. We still cooked, baked and read books all through the fall. Sophia's new favorite thing to do on our weekend if the carousel. We first found it in October and got maybe three weeks of Saturday entertainment, but then it was closed till the Christmas season. Now it's back and I plan to take my little cowgirl to ride those horsies until it closes again. Christmas party at work has come and gone, leaving us witht he first ever Santa picture. Although Mama had to sit on Santa's lap and Sophia only agreed to sit on his lap by proxy - on my lap :)) Once Santa was gone Sophia gladly climbed into his chair herself.

My Christmas shopping is nearly done, and I'm happy to say that only maybe 20% of it was done in the mall. Thank you, online stores. With a few additions for the stockings my gift list will be completed. On the To Do list we have:

- Send greeting cards to our friends and relatives

- Take the kids to Bright Lights in Stanley Park to ride a train

- Visit baby beluga (because we love her)

- Go to Science World (because we've never been)

I am hoping to have some time to see my friends and bake some cookies :)

Birthdays, fall and love

Today is my husband's birthday. I love you, You are so very special and close to me, You are my heart and soul, and I hope that I can always show that to you.

In other news, my daughter has a curious new habit - every day she asks me if I have a baby inside me and seems disappointed when I say no. Where did that come from? :)

In just four days we will officially have a teenager in our house. We might celebrate that by setting up a new aquarium :)

Fall is here... After just getting a taste of summer in the end of August we are now in a typical autumn in Vanouver - it rained three days in a row (although thankfully not without some sunny breaks).

I want to paint with water colors, write a poem, bake an apple pie and hug and kiss my kids until they know forever and ever how much I love them.

Accomplishments... or not?

It takes so little and so much to be a good mother, wife, homemaker... It also takes a lot to compromise and settle, challenge yourself and push yourself. Yesterday evening, after we got home from work and had a little reconnecting time with my little one I managed to make dinner, bake a loaf of banana chocolate chip bread, unload and load dishwasher, clean up the kitchen, put a kiddo to sleep, make lunches, unload dishwasher yet again... I also accomplished a shower and some *just us* time with my better half. All in all - I must be a superwoman, as this is a lot of work. And yet - tonight I'll get to do most of it all over again.... How do people manage? I'd rather curl up with a book and not make the lunches, but then my morning will be rushed, crumpled and nervous. Choices are to be made - every night.

Summer Musings

I haven't had a real vacation since September 2002. This year we were planning on finally going for it and renting a cabin on Vancouver island. Real life had its own plans - and I am heading for another staycation this year. While it is fun to imagine taking just my baby (okay, I know she doesn't qualify as a baby really, but she is still *my* baby) and hopping on a plane - I'm not really that adventurous. Although my trip to Ukraine last year with her definitely counts as an experience in travel with kids, but inflicting this upon myself again is not my choice of vacation time. So, since for the first week of my vacation it will be just girlie and me at home we plan to

- go to the park/playground/water park every day depending on the weather;
- go visit friends that we see once a year (you know who you are)
- eat icecream
- visit library
- go to Starbucks
- *maybe* brave the nearby beach (I am not a good swimmer and am afraid to be alone with the kids near the water)
- bake some mini cupcakes :)

What else should we do? Other than spontaneously buying a plane ticket to NY and visiting a friend I haven't seen in 16 years? :))

P.S. Still no pictures, as I still have no phone :S

On Karma and Long Weekend

We had a wonderful long weekend here. We started off with going to the playground with my daughter and spending Saturday morning sliding down multiple slides, swinging on the swings and running through the sprinklers in the water park. Once my toddler settled down for a nap, it was time to sneak out with my son and go watch Harry Potter in 3D. And it was absolutely awesome. I cried. Twice. Thanks to the 3D glasses that had not been noticed ny my almost 13-year old as I would never hear the end of it :))

Saturday started with sour cream pancakes from my Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook. I needed to do some shopping and my husband volunteered to take the kids to the park. We drove out within minutes from each other only to be caught in a downpour of epic proportions. After a short phone call it's been decided that Starbucks should substitute for the absence of the walk in the park. We met in our favorite spot inside a bookstore and had some drinks and pastries. It was lovely :) Once the kids migrated towards the play area in the book store I decided to and attempt some shopping. The result was somewhat more expensive than expected. Although I got some excellent deals, I also had my iPhone stolen. That put a massive dumper on my weekend, but it is what it is...

On Monday we made another trip to the playground, and later bought some fresh fruits and veggies from a little farm. It was a mellow and pleasant weekend, and aside from the stolen phone I wish all our weekends were like that. Now I just need to figure out whether to cancel my contract and pay the fees or just brave a new phone....

P.S. Reference to Karma in the title - 1) My iPhones have bad karma - first one had a hardware issue, so this was replacement phone. 2) Whomever took my phone better be getting some good slapping from karma...

P.P.S. All the pictures from the playground were on the phone, so I have no pics to show for this weekend....

Mid-summer recap

Wow, it's been over two month since my last post on here. Must have something to do with summer :) My daughter's 3rd birthday has come and gone. She is growing up into a beautiful and clever girl making her mama so very proud.


I celebrated my own birthday and my favorite thing about it was my flower tea.




In other news my first strawberries are a huge hit. One little girl checks on them every day to see if there are any red ones. I think I'll be doing this every year from now on.




Just to give you an update - fish tanks are doing pretty good. My betta is in good health and looking pretty, and cories are active and hungry as always.

On my summer's reading list I still have Divergent, Water for Elephants and enormous amount of fanfic ;) My newest obsession is with a TV show called Rookie Blue. I haven't been so excited about a show since Veronica Mars (yes, I know very immature of me, but oh well). Summer is short - we are enjoying it to the best of our ability - light books, summer shows and ice cream....