Thursday, June 30, 2011

the day the duke & duchess of cambridge came to town

I love royalty. I love to read about them and see how they dress and mix with public. Maybe that's all part of me being British. That being said, it's not just British Royalty, I also enjoy reading and keeping up with some European Royalty too - it's just so fascinating!

However, as much as I adore William & Kate, I would not stand out for hours and hours to see them walk by. They arrived in Ottawa today as part of their 10-day visit to Canada and placed a wreath and bouquet at the War Memorial. Lilah and I took a little bike ride downtown about half an hour after their visit was over, to check out the craziness!

I had to laugh at Lilah, after a few minutes of standing staring at the motionless guard, she turned to me and asked: "Is he just pretend?" In the last photo below of her standing next to the guard, the way she is holding her dress leads me to believe she was feeling a wee tad nervous standing next to him! Also, when we got back home she was telling her Baba all about our time and very randomly announced: "We saw these guards, and they were keeping stuff safe!"

She is just too cute and funny!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

look mum ... standing up!

If the neighbourhood 'big girls' can pedal their bikes standing up, then so can I!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

a bubble blizzard

Blowing bubbles on a hot summer day. Is there anything better?
Yes. Having a contraption that actually blows them for you!

Ooh la la, bubbles! Ooh la la, bubbles! Ooh la la, bubbles!

[ the flickr set is here ]

Monday, June 27, 2011

lovin' the paddling pool

It was another hot day and what better thing to do (after our Monday routine of grocery shopping, house cleaning and gardening) than pull out the paddling pool and fill it up with some icy cold water. The first thing Lilah did was jump in and lay on her belly!

Sitting on the bench and sticking my feet in was good enough for me! As you can see, my funny girl had other ideas, she decided to throw a few buckets of water my way! And she thought she was hilarious!

Her smile and laugh are priceless.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

a saturday walk

A walk in Gatineau Park...

We've had a few weeks of incredibly beautiful weather, with hardly even a spit of rain. Then on Friday the heavens pretty much opened and the rain didn't take time to come down. Then on Saturday we got some rain showers on and off, along with lots of sunshine in between.

Yesterday, amid the sunshine and showers, we decided to take a drive to Gatineau Park, get some ice-cream and walk one of the trails there. It was so nice, the trees sheltered us from both the sun and rain and the warm humid air made for some hungry mosquitoes! Let's just say we walked briskly through some parts - stopping for photos wasn't happening so much!

In a couple of these photos you can see the little gullies where parts of the trails were washed away in Friday's crazy rainstorm. Lilah enjoyed jumping over them. And there were puddles galore, much to Lilah's satisfaction - I guess rain boots would have worked better!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

shopping saturday : mani-mina on etsy

I'm going to start blogging about some of my favourite places to shop. More especially, my favourite Etsy shops. Maybe I'll even try to make it my Saturday routine! Because I simply love children's handmade clothes.

Mani-Mina - Brooklyn, New York - "Casual Elegance for Extraordinary Kids!"

The lady that runs this shop is fabulous. It's one of my all time favourite shops. Her clothes are simple and chic, the prices are affordable, they're very wearable and the sewing is excellent! And if you want to make it yourself, she also sells the patterns! You do need to check in with her often though, because she's constantly adding new designs to her little shop. Also, she's had over 10,000 sales, so that tells you that she's a busy bee and her clients just keep coming back for more!

I've bought Lilah three dresses and a shirt from this shop. And as a side note, these dresses are the kind that grow with your child, they can later be worn as shirts over leggings or jeans. And just look at how tiny my little girl used to be. So sweet!

lilah wearing mani-mina (on etsy) dress lilah wearing mani-mina (on etsy) dress lilah wearing mani-mina (on etsy) dress lilah wearing mani-mina (on etsy) shirt lilah wearing mani-mina (on etsy) dress lilah wearing mani-mina (on etsy) dress mani-mina on etsy

Friday, June 24, 2011

ornamental gardens

ornamental gardens, ottawa

Yesterday we took a little drive over to the Ornamental Gardens, that adjoins the Experimental Farm in the city.

For two summers in a row we spent a lot of time here, but this summer we've been busy doing other things! The weather has been so incredible that we've been hanging out at the splash pad at least twice, three, even four times a week! Because of that, we missed the lilacs, the lily of the valley, the irises, the flowering cherry trees, etc. However, we didn't miss the roses this year. Oh my, the smell of the gardens is amazing at the moment. There are roses bushes, upon roses bushes, upon roses bushes - maybe I should have planted a rose bush in our little front yard garden!

Lilah was thrilled to see the fishpond back in action again - she rather enamoured with the two frog statues that sit and "Spit out water!" - her words! She watched the Gnomeo and Juliet movie a few weeks ago - her first movie! And since that, she has decided that we need 'Gnomeo and Juliet' statues for our little front yard garden! Somehow, they remind me a little too much of those tacky Irish Leprechauns! Heh!