Madeleine is 5!

Madeleine asked to go visit Grammie and Grandpa's house in Abbotsford for her 5th birthday, so we did! This will be the last year we can easily take off for two weeks in May, so we were happy to make the trip. She helped Grammie with the pink icing and sprinkles on her cake.

We were so glad to have Steve's Aunt Joanne come up for the birthday celebration. Madeleine shared her new tea set with us all, and asked that we not sing Happy Birthday to her... she really doesn't like being the centre of attention! I think she comes by that honestly...

The rest of our visit was filled with the usual fun Grammie and Grandpa activities, such as reading books old and new...

Playing in the new treehouse built by Grandpa, accessed by a little trail in the nearby forest...

Playing with water, bicycle pumps, hoses, and buckets in the basement...

Swinging on the tire swing built by Grandpa (Ross loved looking down at them as he swung over top)...

Building legos...

Washing dishes...

And of course viewing the transit of Mercury across the Sun with Great Grandpa's telescope and Daddy's sun filter.

Madeleine really loves all things to do with horses, and chose this paper cut out horse book from a toy store. She loved dressing up the horses and putting the fairy riders on them. She says that when she grows up she wants to ride horses and she often says she wishes we lived on a farm with horses. I can relate well to all these day dreams - and clearly remember trying to convince my parents that a horse would fit in our backyard.

She loved our time at Grammie and Grandpa's, but by the end of the two weeks she was saying that she was looking forward to going home to see Daddy (who could only stay the first four days). When Daddy picked us up at the airport, she reminded him that we still needed to look for a pedal bike for her... imagine her surprise when she opened the trunk to see this! She was speechless, with a huge grin on her face. She was eager to give it a try and after a short time at the park yesterday, she was riding by herself today!