a month-in-photos : may

May sure was a whirlwind month. The old saying stands so true, time flies when you're having fun!

I need to resign myself to the fact that May is always going to be a crazy month, because I imagine it's going to stay this way for a while! Every May, we three May babies all get to celebrate our birthdays! Yes, our current entire household's birthday is in May! Phebe will be thrilled when she realizes she doesn't have to share her birth month with all the rest of us! Along with three birthdays, the beautiful Ottawa Tulip Festival is also in May. Oh, and lest we forget Mother's Day - definitely a special day for me! And last, but not least, our Church Conference is in May - there's always plenty of cooking and baking to prepare for it, but we always get the holiday Monday to recover and to be honest, spending time with friends and listening to God's Word is a wonderful way to spend a weekend in May.

Did I happen to miss anything? Why yes! We also made it to the National Gallery this month, because for sure, we must not have been busy enough! We also got some gardening, park, paddle pool and bubble blowing time fitted in there!

I love May, but man I'm exhausted and ready for a little downtime! Is it any wonder I caught a sweet sleepy moment of Lilah Grace this month! It was probably just a little wishful thinking on my part!

[ the 'a month-in-photos' flickr set is here ]

the birthday girl

I think it's safe to say it was one of the best days of Lilah's little life so far!

Her actual 'friends' birthday party won't be until June 23rd. The paint splatter art studio that I suggested and she really liked the sound of, I tried to book it over a month ago and the closest Saturday available was June 23rd... crazy!

She woke up to a bedroom full of balloons and also the helium ballons were a surprise. We had decorated while she slept and I think if we'd left it at that, she'd have thought it was a pretty amazing day! It's the simple things in life, when you're only 5 years old! She brought cupcakes for all her Junior Kindergarten friends to share, she was so happy! Her birthday was announced over the PA system and the teacher read her a special birthday story and gave her a card.

She asked for her birthday present to be a 'fast' scooter, like the older neighbour kiddies have - I'm afraid the pink "Radio Flyer" scooter just wasn't cutting it anymore - she said Phebe could have it now. Ha! Actually, when I asked her if she was SURE she wanted a scooter for her birthday, her reply to me was, "Well, actually, I'd like a motorized scooter!" Haha! Okay girly, now you're just pushing your luck! We did get a laugh over that though! She had her very favourite supper, lasagne, and for her cake, she loves Cars at the moment and Lightning McQueen is still a big favourite, so he made it onto the top of her cake this year! She loved that!

Happy 5th Birthday Lilah Grace. We love you so so much.

Also, a BIG thank you to our family and friends for all the beautiful presents, Lilah sure was spoiled!

[ the flickr set is here ]

just turned five

My beautiful sweet girl turned 5 today... FIVE years old?
Can someone stop the clock? Anyone?

I'll be back with more pictures tomorrow!

the sweet face of determination

A couple of weeks ago, Lilah arrived home proclaiming with much awe that her friend could blow up a balloon!

Her question to me was whether she could do the same?

So of course I had to go poking around in the basement to come up with a balloon... which happened to be from a packet of leftovers from her 2nd birthday! She blew and blew and blew until she could blow no more. If nothing else, Lilah is as determined as a child will ever be. Thankfully her determination energy is channelled in a good way - otherwise this parenting gig would be much harder than she's made it for us! Anyway, her determination has paid off - she is now a qualified balloon blower and can be found at any given moment, blowing up her yellow "#2" balloon.

Today she asked me if it was possible that I could buy her some new balloons with #5 on them. I'm pretty sure we can work something out, especially since she's turning 5 in just TWO days!

I have to laugh at some of the crazy faces she pulls when blowing up that balloon!

[ the flickr set is here ]

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You can read all about Stefanie and her beautiful family,
and check out more Sunday Snapshots at Ni Hao Ya'll.

imagination

If you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention that characterizes children. ~Jean Piaget

I am imagination.
I can see what the eyes cannot see.
I can hear what the ears cannot hear.
I can feel what the heart cannot feel.
~Peter Nivio Zarlenga

the great outdoors

Lilah loves being outdoors. From the minute she arrived home from China she's being an outdoors girl.

Some of her favourite activites on a daily basis include:
: finding and collecting rocks
: sticks and twigs - generally she has several of these in her backpack, which I believe she picks up on her walk between school and kindercare
: bugs, finding and capturing them in her bug cage - yes, she totally picks them up with her fingers..ugh!
: gardening and watering the flowers

Today, as per her usual routine, she had thrown her school bag through the front door and was out on the front porch watering the flowers, chasing down some poor harmless bug for her bug cage, trying to catch flies with her butterfly net and playing with her rock collection...

These sunny days are just perfect - winter is thankfully, a very distant memory!

dress by 'mani mina'
personalized hair clip by 'twirling betty'
pure cuteness by lilah!

[ flicker set is here ]

baba's birthday

Today marks Baba's 41st Birthday.

We celebrated with peanut butter and banana cupcakes - and some delicious gelato to top it off.

I get the feeling that he never feels in want of anything, especially since our Lilah Grace arrived on the scene. Not that we weren't happy as a couple, because we absolutely are! But Miss Lilah has brought a new dimension to our lives: new love, new laughs, new experiences, new contentment - she is making us better people. We adore our Baba boy so very much - he's so good to us. He's funny and silly and smart. He's our rock.

Happy Birthday Baba Boy! We love you to the sunshine and back!

[ the flickr set is here ]

victoria day

This past weekend was Victoria Day weekend.

It was a lovely weekend, on Friday I volunteered in Lilah class in the morning and afterwards my hubby and I went out to a little local restaurant and celebrated his birthday, which is later this week! On Saturday and Sunday our Church had a conference and we had a wonderful time, listening to God's word being ministered and enjoying fellowship with other believers.

This morning there was a soccer game arranged, Lilah and I went along to watch Baba play, but ended up playing in the park, which was much more exciting, of course! The weather was beyond amazing and by the time we got home from the park it was around 31°C. Indeed, that calls for some emergency cooling off! ...so I pulled out the paddling pool and filled it up with some sleepy lavendar bubble bath. The bubbles were a big hit and they led to even more bubbles! I did a spot of gardening and later on that afternoon Lilah got to jump into a much deeper pool - our (very kind) neighbours invited all the neighbourhood kids over for a splash in their pool and us adults got to dine on some delicious pizza! It was the perfect end to a holiday weekend, seeing 10 little kiddies splashing about in the pool, laughing and having the time of their lives. I wish I'd taken my camera along to capture the joy.

Sigh. Such a perfect weekend. I'd just love to hit the 'repeat' button!

[ the flickr set is here ]

how many tissues does it take... ?

And I wonder how and why and where all the tissues disappear?
It took 16 to make this bed for her 'brothers'! Yes, I counted them!

happiest mama in the world

On this special day - I couldn't be happier.

Happy Mother's Day to all the women in my life that have guided me down this path, that have mothered me and taught me by example - I love you. And to my daughter - you are one of the greatest gifts God gave me. Today we talked about how you have two Mamas... we talked about how you might resemble your birth Mama. We pray for her every single night, we pray that God will keep her safe, we pray that she'll know you are loved, so very much.

There was some "Top Secret" stuff going on at school this week! You would come home and tell me a little bit about it, and then say "Shhh, don't tell anyone!" - I know it's terribly hard for you to keep a secret my sweet girl, and to be honest, we've taught you the motto: "No secrets in our family!" - we talk about everything together... so I can tell it's hard for you to bottle this "Top Secret" stuff up inside. You did wonderful, you brought that little package home from school on Friday and hid it inside your pillow case cover. It was the perfect hiding spot! This morning you came running into our bedroom waving it in the air, wishing me a Happy Mother's Day! You showed me how to open the little ribbon, in fact, you opened it for me, and then you told me that I could tear the tissue paper if I wanted, it was okay... you were just so eager for me to open it. I was absolutely thrilled with my first Mother's Day artwork - I love that your teacher lets you express yourself in your own way, I'm glad it wasn't something that was dictated to you... I mean really, I wonder if any other child in your class wrote: "I love you in a tree, Mama!" It was perfect, it was so you, and if I'm perfectly honest, Baba and I had a secret little giggle at you loving me in a tree!! You are such a special girl Lilah... I love you beyond words. I love you to the moon and back. You are beyond precious my child, you have brought so much love and happiness to my life - thank you for being my daughter.

Next year, all being well, I'll have two girlies on my knee - two little hearts to love. I'm blessed beyond words.

the making of a lazy saturday

: slept in
: played at the park
: smelt the tulips
: walked through the neighbourhood
: fed the ducks
: lunched at 'wild oats'
: grocery shopped
: a little nap
: supper time
: chalked the driveway

tulips tulips and more beautiful tulips

The Canadian Tulip Festival is upon us once again, here in the Nation's Capital.

Last Tuesday, after work, I picked Lilah up from kindercare and we headed over to Dow's Lake to breathe in their beauty, the scent, the colour of the tulips. They are always so beautiful and this year, yet again, they bloomed really quite early. I love Spring in Canada, mostly because I'm thrilled that big bad old Winter is over for a while! But also because it turns into Spring overnight around these parts. It almost seems like things pop up overnight - one day the trees are bare and the next day they are heavy with leaves. This past week, and even the day we visited the tulips, it was wet and warm... the perfect weather for Springtime growing!

Lilah enjoyed herself immensely - meandering around the little walks, checking out the tulips, racing me from one set of tulips to another and counting them of course...trying to, I should say! There were a few hundred more than she can handle right now!

Here's a little history on our annual Tulip Festival...

The Canadian Tulip Festival is a tulip festival, held annually in May in Ottawa, Canada. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips. Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, and the largest display of tulips is found in Commissioners Park on the shores of Dow's Lake, and along the Rideau Canal with 300,000 tulips planted there alone. As well as tulip displays, the festival also includes music performances, speakers and exhibits of international cuisine.

In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, in the Second World War.

The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet to Princess Juliana at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was declared to be officially a temporary part of international territory, so that she would be born in no country and would inherit only her Dutch citizenship from her mother. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.

Taken from Wikipedia.

[ the flickr set is here ]