My first month of Project 365 is done-over-finished-complete! Phew!
This project is more work than I first expected. I don't carry my camera with me everywhere I go, even though you might think so with the amount of pictures I take! Really I don't. And honestly, I really don't want to either!
I said this project wasn't going to be all about Lilah, but it's kinda hard to be creative and different, so there is a lot of Lilah in there. I don't mind that though, she was my first inspiration for photography and still is! Although I must admit, I kinda like how the flowers cooperate for me - without bribery!
Data shows that it takes 21 days to successfully form a new habit, so maybe this will get easier... Heh!
My baby girl turned three years old today. She was thrilled, she kept asking us: "Now am I three?"
We started the morning by opening her presents. Afterwards we went out to Cora's for breakfast. I didn't realize they did something special for birthdays, however shortly after they brought out our breakfasts the staff all arrived at our table with an apple cut into the shape of a duck (or maybe it's a bird?). It had a fireworks candle and the staff sang happy birthday to Lilah - she was so overwhelmed and shy and happy of course! After breakfast we took a little road trip to the Papanack Park Zoo and Lilah had a great time seeing all the animals she's only ever seen in books! She requested a Thomas the Train cake and that's what she got. She was over the moon with it! Really, she couldn't stop talking about it. I love how much of a mix my girl is, she loves Thomas the Train but at Cora's when given the choice, she asked for a pink balloon. I really like that she's girly, but still loves many things that could be considered boyish! Now that I think about it, all her stuffed animals are called 'baby boys'. She's never had one she's called a baby girl. Hmm.
I can't remember how many times she thanked me, she said it a lot. She was just so in awe of everything and would look at me and say, "Thank you Mama". And really, it's the part that made me the proudest, just to see how much she appreciated everything. She's got the sweetest personality.
We are amazingly blessed to have this sweet darling girl - our daughter - in our lives. Happy Birthday to our special 3 year old. We love you to pieces Lilah Gracie.
Last evening we made an angel cake with fresh whipped cream to celebrate Lilah's birthday at playgroup today. This morning we decorated it and Lilah was so excited to bring it to playgroup to share with her 'best friends', as she calls them! She could hardly contain her little self - so much so that after the snack and cake, during song time (which is her favourite part of playgroup), she fell off that Cloud 9 she was hanging onto! Oh the joys of turning three, sometimes the sugar high it all just gets to you after a while!
She wasn't long recovering though and is very much looking forward to turning 3 tomorrow!
Here are a few pictures of her with the cake before we left for playgroup and the last few pictures are of her at playgroup. She had lots of little helpers when it came to blowing out the candles! And the requests for a piece of cake WITH a ballerina, was way more than I could handle! Every last piece was devoured!
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched
- they must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
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{ see more black & white pictures at 'The Long Road to China' }
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We had a super fun sunny day today, that included: a bike ride, a picnic and a splash park.
Miss Lilah having fun at the splash park.
It's Baba Boy's birthday today or as Lilah says it, "birfday"! I just love that! Colin is an amazing husband and Baba - we love and adore him so so much. For the last week and a half Lilah has been singing "firty nine firty nine firty nine..." and it goes on and on! Oh and that's 39 in case you're wondering! I told Lilah both our 'new' ages a few weeks ago when I had my birthday, it must have stuck!
Our Church has a Bible Conference that lands on this long weekend every year. It is a wonderful time spent with our Christian friends. Lilah loves Church, the people there are her family (away from Ireland & Australia!), there are lots of little ones to hang out and have fun with and she also gets to socialize, which is possibly her favourite thing in the whole world. She's becoming a social butterfly and brings her little stuffed piggy along and uses him as her buffer zone when she wants to talk to someone! She holds her hands behind his head and nods his head as if he's talking, kinda like a puppet. She has SO much more confidence now, it warms my heart to watch her blossom.
I got a few snaps of Lilah this morning before we left for Church. She was all dressed up, looking the part, and even had her hair curled, which she was pretty crazy about! I don't know why, but she LOVES getting her hair curled. These pictures were taken right after I curled it, they fell out a little more after a few minutes, which looked even prettier...if that's possible! You know me, I'm as biased as any other Mama out there!
The May long weekend has arrived, Lilah and I are thrilled that we get to keep Baba home too! That's a phrase Lilah says often to us now: "I'm gonna keep you". Usually it's when I'm putting her in the crib and kissing her goodnight she hangs onto my arm with a huge grin and says it.
The weather has been fabulous this past week and it's looking like next week is going to be more of the same, all being well. Isn't it wonderful. We might even get to the beach on Monday!
Yesterday we headed on a bike ride to Dows Lake in search of some ducks to feed. I say that, only because it took us a while to actually find hungry ducks in this particular location. After we accomplished that feat we found a big patch of dandelions, I sat down and Lilah played in the dandelions. She had a house and shop in the middle of them all and she was walking and running around chattering away to herself. She was in her element. She also wanted us both to lie down in the grass together, so we did that too.
I love my life, I love my girl, we have the best times together.
One of the things I love about Spring and Summer, and even Autumn, is that I've got more things (other than Lilah) to pursue and photograph. I realize now that an active 2 year old is probably the most difficult thing I'll ever photograph, I'm not sure her turning 3 soon will prove to be much easier though!
Here are a few of my favorite photos taken today, oh and the first one was taken yesterday.
