Here are my contributions to the fifth month of Project 365.
Aren't each of the seasons wonderful? They have a way of not letting us get bored with life! There are so many dramatic changes during the month of September. Like going from sandals to boots, from swimsuits to sweaters, etc. There is something about September that I really love, maybe I just enjoy change. I love the wardrobe changes, the beautiful change of colours, the change in our menu, warm soups and stews... I could go on. I really do appreciate the early fall.
Anyway, I seem to say this a lot, but it was a crazy busy month and to be completely honest, there are a lot of 'fillers' in here. Yep, I had to fill up the gaps of my non-photography days! I wish I could have had my camera out every single day, but unfortunately I haven't had the time. And I also can't believe how quickly the days are getting shorter. Man oh man. Now that's a change I'm not so fond of!
Here's hoping I can do better photographing my way through the month of October!
It's that season again. And Lilah, my girl, is THRILLED. One thing is for sure, the girl does not like to be cold or even the idea of being cold. She loves her boots and tights, and was jumping for joy when she got to wear them for the first time on Saturday past - I just bought them about two weeks ago.
Each night Lilah goes upstairs to her bedroom and picks out whatever pair of pajamas she wants to wear. And each and every night she'll shout down to us from her bedroom: "Is it going to be cold tonight?". She asks that question to help her decide which pair she should wear! Anyway, she's being asking the same question for about 3 weeks now and when she shouted the same question downstairs tonight, Colin looked at me and said, "Is she going to ask us this same question for the next 6 months?!". Because that's about as long as the 'cold season' lasts around these parts...or even longer!
She looks like the cat that got the cream in this picture!
We spent a few hours at the Carp Fair today.
It's the last country fair of the year and we managed to get it squeezed into our schedule. We normally go to the Perth Fair which is a few weeks earlier, but it didn't work out this year because of our house renovations. And if I remember correctly the weather wasn't brilliant that Saturday either. There was a pretty big black cloud today too, but thankfully it didn't come to anything.
From the moment we arrived Lilah wanted to go on the ferris wheel. She talked and talked and talked about it, and quite frankly I thought it was just a little idea she had in her head and was kinda hoping that it would disappear. But it didn't. And guess who got the pleasure of joining her on the ferris wheel? Yes, me. Have I mentioned before that heights are not my thing? Lilah, on the other hand, hasn't got the sense to be afraid and our little face-painted-pussy-cat squealed with glee. It was fun to see her reaction, even though I am normally more of a carousel or bouncy castle kind of Mama! Baba joined her for some more fun in the bumping cars and afterwards told me (with disgust) that they were SO slow. I'm not sure what he was expecting? I guess it's been a while since he's been in a bumping car, and when your 8 or 10 years old they probably do feel speedier than when you're, err, 30? Ahem! Or something close to that!
What a fun day we had.
Tuesday past was a pretty yucky day. It rained a good part of the morning and finally around 11am I decided, let's just do what we'd planned and go apple picking. So we put on some warm clothes and welly boots and headed to the Orleans Fruit Farm - just about a 15 minute drive away.
When I pulled into the parking lot the first sign I saw was: 'Pick Your Own Apples. Weekends Only'. And when I enquired, the girl at the checkout broke the news to us that all the apples had been picked the previous weekend and in fact, the trees were bare. We bought a bag of apples, cherry tomatoes and new potatoes and headed back to the car.
To avoid disappointing the youngest member of our family and just driving back home, I came up with a quick plan that we could take a little drive to Petrie Island beach. We've never been there before and the beaches in the city are obviously closed for the season, but since Lilah had her welly boots on I thought she could splash around and have a bit of fun.
And fun she did have!
Happy Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival otherwise known as Zhongqiu Festival.
Wasn't the Harvert Moon beautiful tonight? Lilah and I took a walk this evening, she with her Hello Kitty Lantern and me with my camera to get a shot of the moon. I read online how to photograph the moon and I'm really glad I did, because otherwise I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have turned out quite like this! Last year we couldn't see the moon at all because it was so cloudy. But tonight was the perfect night, even in the city we could see the stars. Beautiful.
Lilah proudly hung her lanterns last week in celebration for this day and ever since she's been counting them and telling us what colours they are and pushing the little accordians that they are, in and out. She's also been asking us what our favourite colours are - Baba said he liked all the colours, I told her I liked green and of course our little-miss-fancy-pants told us her favourites are the pink ones!
Today Lilah made some mooncakes out of playdough, so much fun. You may or may not remember last year's Autumn Moon Festival when I actually tried to make mooncakes myself and they turned out a complete disaster. This year our family is safe from having to eat my rock hard mooncakes. Instead I bought some peanut butter cookies with jam in the middle. And if you have a pretty vivid imagination, like Lilah and I do, you could quite possibly come up with the idea that they look like the moon! I know I know, your imagination probably isn't quite as vivid as ours! But they did taste great.
Tonight we went out to one of our favourite Chinese restaurants - Brother Wu - for some yummy supper. And Lilah, I know, was overjoyed when she got her beloved chicken & sweetcorn soup. Is your child the same or is it just Lilah, as soon as she hears the word 'soup' her face lights up like a Christmas tree. She absolutely loves soup and last week she pretty much begged me to make more homemade (of course) cream of tomato soup. She also loves loves loves the chicken and vegetable soup I make. Throughout the summer I, for obvious reasons, don't make soup. So now that soup is back on my menu these days, she is ALL OVER IT! I kinda feel guilty that I've been depriving her.
So that's how we celebrated Zhongqui. Hope you all had a wonderful day too.
"You're my best girl in the whole world, Mama."
A couple of weeks ago we were sent an invitation to attend a reception (this evening) at the Chinese Embassy here in Ottawa. The evening was hosted by the Ambassador's wife (Madame Gu Langlin) for all the families in Ottawa with adopted Chinese children.
We were so thrilled to be invited to the reception. I dug out a new qípáo for Lilah, in her absolute favourite colour at the moment. Pink. Who knew! She wanted curly hair, but with the heavy rain we had all evening it just wasn't going to happen.
We arrived a little late and unfortunately missed Madame Gu Langlin's speech, our friends said the jist of her message was thanking us for looking after China's adopted children. There was a huge buffet and the food was outstanding. Also, when we arrived Lilah got 6 red tickets and there were games set up all around the room. To play you had to give up one red ticket and you got a blue one in return once you played the game. There were prizes depending on how many blue tickets you had at the end. Lots of fun for the children. Lilah tried her hand at throwing balls into a bucket, hmmm...luckily the rules were swayed in her favour! However, she was exceptionally good at picking up popcorn with chopsticks, she played that game twice. The children had to get five popcorn onto a plate and you'll see in the photo below that playing that game is all in the way Lilah opens her mouth! (Also, the little girl standing beside Lilah in the chopstick game is our next door neighbour. Yes, we live in a semi-detached house and she lives under the 'same roof' as us! They're both from the Guangdong Province. How blessed are these girls to have each other. There is a 2 year age difference, Lilah is younger, however they are becoming fast friends.)
It was such a fun positive evening and Lilah had a lot of fun with all her friends. On the drive home she asked if she could go back tomorrow.
Yesterday we went out for a little nature walk through our neighbourhood. We also brought along some bread to feed the ducks. Lilah could do this all day every day - she loves nature and adventure. It is really incredible to view it all through her eyes and hear about it from her innocent little mind. I posted about all the things we saw yesterday, but today I am posting some photos of my girl. Because just as much as I am struck with the beauty of nature and creation, I'm also struck regularly with her beauty. Not just externally, but internally. She is a beautiful girl.
I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. (George Washington Carver)
[ more pictures here ]
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{ see more black & white pictures at 'The Long Road to China' }
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