Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Cupcake Delight

On the day before Amelia's 2nd birthday, I made cupcakes to take to her daycare. One thing I was excited about, was the fact that I was able to use my new cupcake holder that my mum bought me when she was visiting during the summer. I love it!
Here is Amelia in the morning before daycare showing off her cupcakes.

As you can see, she quite enjoyed the cupcakes...

...or at least the frosting anyway!

Kelly, who takes care of her at daycare, bought Disney Princess plates and all of the other children sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

What a sweetie!
I love my little girl so much.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

How Can She Possibly Be Two?

Last Saturday, my baby girl, Amelia, turned two years old. I can hardly believe it and looking back at photo's of her, I am amazed at how much she has changed and grown in those two years. Last week, I went to pick her up at daycare, and as she stood in the room across from me, I looked at her and suddenly saw a little girl not a baby, it was the weirdest thing.

She absolutely amazes me, I love that she can talk now, of course, not in complete sentences, but she does tie her words together. The funniest thing is working out what her words translate into. Imagine, our family lives in a house where English and American-English is spoken (believe me, the two can be quite different at times) and now we have "toddler speak". Some of the funnier words are "boca, boca" which means "water, water", or "peeps" for "sheep". She likes to call both Matthew and I mommy, even though when you ask her who we are she knows that I am mommy and Matthew is daddy.

My little Amelia can be an independent little thing, who knows what she wants, and doesn't always acknowledge you when you call...hmmm, wonder where she gets that from daddy? But, above all, she is a sweet little girl, who is usually well behaved around others, and makes me laugh and smile everyday. She loves music and dancing, but equally enjoys sports, in fact take her toy shopping anywhere and I will guarantee her toy of choice will be a ball.

She likes to look in your mouth with her torch (flashlight), will take her hair bows out at soon as she realizes it's there, and loves to hold onto her hair all the time. She hates having her nails cut, however, will "allow" it if she is promised finger nail polish afterwards.

She loves animals, and can do a great impression of an elephant, and enjoys sitting with mummy to read a book on the "reading couch".

Amelia is such a blessing in our lives, that I often cannot believe that she is our daughter. Who knew that two years ago today, our lives would change so dramatically...and you know what, I could never have been prepared for such a special girl to join our family, I truly am the most blessed mum in the entire universe.

I love you Amelia sweetheart, happy birthday!

So anyway, it's a tradition of ours that we visit a pumpkin patch on our little girl's special day, so this year, we went to EZ Orchard's. It was a rainy day, but to our delight, the sun came out and we didn't get too wet at all, well, all except for our little pumpkin who found out all about puddles. Here are lots of photo's of our fun time at the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, later in the day she didn't feel so good, and had a temperature of 101.7, but at least we were able to have a little fun.

Puddles, what fun!


Just look at that dark cloud, we were so lucky that it blew over so that we could enjoy some sun.

Daddy and Amelia threw the rings on the steer heads, I have to say though, I beat daddy scoring two out of three...better luck next time.

Next, daddy and Amelia climbed a tall pyramid of hay.

Then it was onto the slide...peek-a-boo!


Mummy and Amelia in the Corn Maze.

Here we are at the petting zoo with the "peeps".

There were three little pigs.

While we were looking at the animals in the petting zoo, we saw some familiar faces, this is Rylee.

They looked on as the calf slept.

Here are Rylee's parents, I work with Nicky, and she has looked after Amelia a few times for us. They are a lovely family and fingers crossed, Rylee will be attending the same daycare as Amelia in just a few months.

Just how cute are these two?


Of course, the last thing we had to do was pick out pumpkins. Amelia knew exactly which one she wanted and carried it in the mud and over to the cart.



Amelia found more puddles to run in, luckily we had a change of clothes for her in the car.

Rylee came to see our pumpkins and Amelia offered "knuckles".

Time to weigh the pumpkins.


Just look at those jeans, they were brand new too, thank goodness for washing machines.

After we got home, and Amelia slept, there was a knock on the door...when we opened it, there stood a lovely young man with the most beautiful balloon bouquet I've ever seen. My friend Alice and her son Ryan, brought them along with gummy bears and a special washcloth for Amelia, talk about sweet. She loves to run around the house with them.

Finally, it was time for dinner. Since she hadn't been feeling well, she didn't have a great appetite, and asked for Fruit Loops, well a girl has to have what she wants on her birthday.

By the way, I made her cake, another tradition that I want in my family, since my mum always made me the most wonderful cakes (she is a fabulous cake decorator. Believe me, I have a long way to go before I get even close to her talent, but you know what, I felt so close to my mum as I thought of all the love she put into the cakes she made for me over the years. Thank you mum, I love you so much!

Thank you everyone who helped make Amelia's birthday so special!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Fun at the Annual Summer Picnic

In August, it was time for our Annual Finance Division picnic. This year it was held at Judy and Gordon's home (or Amelia's Grandma Judy and Grandpa Gordon as we refer to them). I was especially glad that my mum and David were still here. It was a beautiful day and we all had a lot of fun. It was also the perfect place for photo's, so I decided to take advantage of it and started snapping away at Amelia, happily, she was quite cooperative. Of course, I couldn't choose just a few so here are some of my favourite photo's...

Mum and David had the best time and really enjoyed themselves.

Amelia discovered a love a stairs.

It was so great watching her carefully climb each one...

...then she'd pose for a picture...

...before climbing back down again.

Just look at the focus and concentration.

Their pond is just beautiful and so traquil. I loved the lilies.

I just love this photo, how cute is she?

Walking to see the chickens and peacocks.

Amelia wanted to drive the gator.

Is that Grandpa Gordon giving her some instructions?

Eating freshly picked blackberries...

The perfect way to end this wonderful day!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Fun at Fort Worth Zoo

Fort Worth Zoo is one of the top four or five zoo's in the country, so of course, when we were in Texas, we went. Unfortunately, I awoke that morning feeling quite poorly, with a cold. But, how could I miss Amelia's first trip to the zoo? So I got up and went anyway. The temperatures that day were above 100 degrees, which made me feel worse.

Although I didn't see everything there was to see, since I found a quiet place and waited there with my sister-in-law until everybody was ready to go home, it was still a good place to go. Luckily for me, Amelia had lots of family around her to keep her company and show her all of the animals, as well as take lots of photo's so I didn't completely miss out on the fun.

I love the monkey in the photo above, it's so colourful.
Below, mum and Amelia look at the animals.

Amelia spent time with all of her grandparents, here she is on grandpa's shoulders.

What does the Orangutan have under his nose?

I love this photo of my mum and Amelia, reminds me of our good times together.

Everybody went into the avery to feed the birds, they eat seed from the lollipop stick. Amelia was pretty cautious and didn't get too close.

Daddy kept Amelia cool by pouring his water over her head, she looks like she enjoyed that. I bet it felt great!

Zebra's are so cool!

Here's all the cousins together by the elephant's home.
What a cute bunch they are! I really miss them all.


Here's Matthew, Amelia, grandad and nana all together.

I love the zoo, but next time I hope it's 75 degrees and I'm not sick!