We went to the Expo 150 yesterday.
Lilah had the time of her life, with 7 hours of action packed kiddie fun and lots of sun...what's not to love?!
There were all sorts of activities, here's a few she enjoyed:
: Five different kinds of bouncy castle/slides!
: A little lesson in white water rafting (without the 'white water' thankfully!) and how to hold the paddle.
: A ride on the 'Giant Tiger' train.
: An air show with lots of military aircraft that she could get on and play in!
: Face painting. (She's a rabbit!)
: An animal farm. Including Lilah's favourite - the baby pigs.
: The SkyHawks parachute team.
: And lots more!
And the icing on the cake, or the sugar on the hot and crispy donuts in our case, it was all free! Including the parking and admission. We were pleasantly surprised. Most of the fairs here are definitely not free!
I can't believe she jumped and bounced and giggled for almost two hours on the bouncy castles! Is it any wonder she had already fallen asleep in the five minutes it took us to drive out of the parking lot.
It was a fantastic family day.
: "Why does that sharpener take the skin off the pencil?"
: After finding something she deemed to have lost, she cried out, "Oh THERE it is. I've been looking for that for a year now!"
: "It's TOTALLY summer today!"
: Talking about the sun going behind the cloud and coming back out again. "Oh. The dark came on and off."
: "Why did God make mothers? ...to have little babies in her little belly?"
: I hear this almost every day: "Okay. So I'm the Mama and you're the wee daughter. Okay?"
: After telling her I was going out to brush up the debris after a very windy day, she said: "Oh. Well sometimes I wear capris!"
: "Love you Mama - the most amazing Mama in the whole wide world."
: She saw a dwarf lady in the dollar store one day and she said "Ohhhh, look at that wee tiny Mama. I think she's older than us."
: After asking Lilah if she is a sinner, she said... "Well sometimes I cry after I give attitude and that's a sin. But sometimes I cry when I hurt myself and God doesn't mind that!"
: She, without fail, points our bare chested men and asks why they aren't wearing shirts. Usually in her loudest voice!
: She uses the term 'all day' even though she means 'every day'.
: She says 'Wook' instead of 'Look'.
After the hard work of gardening yesterday, today we enjoyed a day of hot summer sun at the local splash pad.
Lilah was in her glory, making lots of new friends and playing in the water! Is there anything better?
I learned something today. Gardening. Is not for wimps.
We live downtown, so our front yard is what I best descibe as a postage stamp! The extent of my gardening skills is walking around the grass on a weekly basis with our (very eco-friendly) push lawnmower. And digging out the dandelions, which I tell you, is a full-time job in itself every spring! On top of that, I normally even go all out and buy three hanging baskets, two for the top porch and one for the bottom porch.
But this year I decided it was time for a 'real' garden!
Today, yes, even though it was 32 degrees (celsius) of blistering heat, sweat and humidity, I dug up the grass/sod, put in some landscape edging, planted a couple of spirea shrubs, a dicentra - otherwise known as bleeding hearts and some other tree-kinda-thing that my Granny Brown used to have - I remember this, because my cousins and I used to pull off the blooms and play with them, as if they were little ballerinas! It's obvious at this stage that I'm not a gardener, right?! (Mum, or anyone else, if you know the name of this plant, let me know! It's the one behind Lilah in the second photo!)
We then added some mulch and watered the plants like mad. It took us 4 hours. But I have to say, it was rather therapeutic and I'm quite proud of myself! Maybe I'll eventually get onto this gardening thing after all!
Lilah, who was (supposed to be) my right hand woman, spend the best part of those 4 hours eating ice pops and torturing worms! Dear love them. I actually caught her with a pile of them in a flower pot and they were all wet - she confessed to me that she'd just given them a bath, because they were, in her words, muddy! I wish I had my camera handy and my hands weren't caked in soil. It was priceless.
Our baby girl turned four today - Happy Birthday Lilah Grace!
On the way to bed this evening she asked me: "Will I still be 4 tomorrow?"
We love our Lilah girl dearly, with all our hearts. Each night her Baba and I lay in bed and just wonder and amaze over her, talking and laughing over the little things she's said and done. Every evening we always come back to the fact that she's such a sweet girl and how blessed we are. I simply can't find the words that express just how blessed we are to have this opportunity to raise her as our daughter. Parenting is such an incredible experience, watching our girl grow and learn and enjoy life...
We adore you Lilah Grace. You might think we're the ones doing all the teaching and showing you what life is all about. But quite honestly, it's the opposite way around. You've taught us so much over the last two and a half years. You have a shining personality, a heart full of gratitude and you're always so tender, compassionate and loving. You've taught us about love, the love that a parent has for their child, it's such a strong, deep, selfless, unconditional love - we'd do absolutely anything for you.
The day before your birthday your Baba and I talked about your birth parents and how they might be feeling on the day you were born. Were they thinking about you? Were they wondering if you were cared for? Did they take note of the day and date you were born? Or was it too much for their hearts to bear? We have no answers to these questions. We know nothing of the circumstances that led them to the point of leaving you in a special place where someone would find you. But there's one thing we do know, we know you were loved, truly loved. And now we get to have a part in that same wonderful love for you.
I found this quote today and something about it made me think of your birth parents... “Just because somebody doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with everything they got.” ~Anonoymous
We love you baby girl. I know you're four and you're not a baby, but you'll always and forever be our baby girl, because that's what you tell us, all the time. And we couldn't be happier.
We celebrated Lilah's birthday (as a family) today.
We went out for a delicious breakfast together, came home and she tore into all the cards and presents! She was thrilled, absolutely thrilled with all her presents. I am always in awe with everyone's generosity to Lilah, she is blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends in her life.
Afterwards we took her to her most favourite place in the world - the swimming pool. She and I go swimming every Wednesday, so she was eager to show her Baba the new tricks she'd learned!
And finally, we ended the day with cake. The exact cake she asked for: "A yellow cake with an elephant on top!" What can I say, the girl has good taste, I was very surprised it wasn't a Dora the Explorer cake though, because she talked about that for a while after her third birthday. Oh well, she's a girl, who is well known to change her mind and have us all scratching our heads! And that's one of the things we absolutely adore about her, her spontaneity. Lilah chose the (schleich) elephant at Mrs. Tiggy Winkles and the bunting on the cake was an idea that I came across on Etsy.
It was a wonderful day.
