boucle d'or et les trois ours!

Today Lilah is starring as "Bebe Ours" in her first French play - 'Boucle d'Or et les trois ours'. For us English speaking folks, that's 'Goldilocks & the three bears', and Lilah is starring as "Baby Bear"!

The sad part, is that I'm going to miss her original performance today, as little sister Phebe is having her open heart surgery on the same day. However, the good news is, Aunt Sue has stepped in and she is going to be there to watch it... AND, she speaks and understands French, so unlike us, she'll actually understand what's going on! And the even better news is, last week when I was volunteering in Lilah's class, the children put on a performance just for the parents that weren't going to be able to make it... boy was I fortunate that it was my volunteer day!

I even got to take a movie of the play. I just love my little 'Bebe Ours'! Lilah Grace, I'm so proud of you! You did an amazing job!

Oh, and she told me afterwards that Aunt Sue told her she was the star of the show! After a few minutes she stated very matter-of-factly: "And I believe Aunt Sue, because she doesn't tell lies!" *grin*

6 years old today!

She turned 6 today.

She is everything I ever dreamed about in a daughter, and more.
God truly blessed us when he gave us this little girl to love.
It doesn't matter what age she is, she'll always be my baby girl.

She had her party a couple of weeks ago... see here.

pa & na's visit!

Wow, I've been offline for a while now, but all for a good reason, because Pa and Na came for a 10 day visit, the whole way from N.Ireland! Pa & Na are my husbands parents... mind you, I imagine that is stating the obvious, since they are so alike, in so many ways!

We had such a nice time together. It's been 12 years since they last came here to visit us. 12 years?! They prefer not to travel so far and coming from a dairy farm, they are definitely home birds. We were thankful that they decided to come over and hopefully it won't be so long until they come back!

They wanted a relaxing trip, and I think we pretty much gave them that. We visited the local Tulip Festival and a little village outside Ottawa: Wakefield, where we walked to the beautiful covered bridge and had a delicious supper in the Mill Restaurant. We also took a walk in the Gatineau Park, a little lake known as Pink Lake and we spent a morning at the Agriculture Museum, because a farmer can't spend 10 days in a city without seeing a cow! I joke. I think that trip was more for the girls! And that doesn't include our little walks to the Glebe, to coffee shops, to the park, for ice-cream, shopping, Baba's birthday at the Baton Rouge, etc. We have so many beautiful memories together.

And the best part, because of course, the Grandparents were REALLY here to visit their grandchildren! Of course! It was their first time meeting Phebe and although we had reservations on how Phebe would react to these new people coming into our home, we shouldn't have worried. Phebe really enjoyed her time with them and pulled out all sorts of silly funnies, as she does! From giving them a full show of 'shake your booty!', to singing 'Jesus Loves Me' - our Phebe girl sure knows how to put on a show! And Lilah, well, she is at such a nice age to enjoy her grandparents and she sure loves them, especially when they bring her lots of treats! She has told me almost daily, since they left how much she loves and misses them.

Needless to say, I have plenty of photos. I'll try to scale them down to just my favourites! In other words, this post is going to be loaded with pictures! Oh and even though it's taken me forever and a day to figure out what's going on with the newly refurbished Flickr, I do love how you can view the sets now!

Here they are...

Tulip Festival are here.
Wakefield Covered Bridge are here.
Pink Lake, Gatineau Park are here.
Agriculture Museum are here.

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We miss them already.

happy mother's day!

So thankful God made me a Mama to these two sweet little girls.
Children are a gift from the Lord.

This is what we call 'The Kiss Sandwich'.
The girls are usually on the receiving end of this one!

The best feeling in the world, is to love and be loved.

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a beautiful vase of flowers, from Lilah

a 'cupcake decorating' birthday party!

My girl turns 6 years old in two and a half weeks.

And I don't know how we ended up with the decision to have a cupcake decorating party, but we did. And the girls LOVED it. I mean seriously, who wouldn't love decorating cupcakes!

We started out by decorating the cupcake boxes, with stickers and markers, to take home their decorated fancies. When the girls were finished that task, we then proceeded to decorate the cupcakes - I had enough cupcakes that they could decorate three each. Oh what fun they had: eating candy, chatting and decorating their cupcakes! After they were finished there were a few more games; pin-the-cherry-on-the-cupcake, pass the parcel and another cupcake craft I had organized.

In lieu of gifts, Lilah had asked her friends for a small donation that Lilah could forward to the Ottawa Humane Society. Lilah loves dogs, any animals really! And as you can imagine, our house is coming down with toys, so it was a nice way to give back and help Lilah appreciate that there are others that have needs, more than her. However, Phebe did give her a little present... a little (stuffed!) dog named 'Cookie' that Lilah had spotted in Mrs Tiggywinkles toy shop a few weeks ago, and fell in love with. At the time I told her she had more than enough stuffed animals, but later Phebe and I went back to get him! Of course, our Lilah girl was thrilled to be reunited with him again.

A wonderful time was had by all and Lilah famous last words that evening were: "Mama, I'm NEVER going to forget this birthday!"

Love that girl of mine! ...she's growing up far too fast!

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[ my flickr set is here ]