Milayla's Birthday - Part II

The day after Milayla's birthday we were off to the Zoo am Meer in Bremerhaven for her birthday outing. We figured that the zoo was the perfect fit for our little animal lover and adventurer. But we got a little worried after we visited our first animal - the chimpanzees. 

See Milayla clinging to me and hiding behind my shoulder in this picture? That was her hiding from the Chimps whom did not seem to care for visitors and were making quite the ruckus (poor guys, trapped in an enclosure, I bet they'd like a walk). I certainly can't say that I blame her for being a little worried; the glass between us just didn't seem like quite enough. I certainly enjoyed those sweet little cuddles though.

Thankfully, Milayla warmed up to the zoo pretty quickly after our visit with the chimps and was pressing her nose up to the glass to get a closer look at the animals in no time. 

The kids thought it was great that they could compare their little hands to the animals. We all agreed that we don't want to get too close to a polar bear - they're huge!

It's at least 4.5 Milayla tall!

I love her expression here!

And while the animals were pretty awesome, the kids couldn't help but notice that there were people climbing all over the masts of the boat outside the zoo. See them all up there?

We were pretty lucky that we had the zoo pretty much all to ourselves - just us and one or two other older couples in the whole zoo! There are some lovely advantages to rising early on a holiday.

Milayla was pretty eager to lead the way on our exploration.

And of course, Atticus was always ready with the map in hand to let us know which animal was around the next corner.

I love this photo of Milayla. She was taking a break to watch the penguins swim underwater. Very sweet moment.

Milayla taking a break at the zoo

The kids were pretty excited with how close they were getting to the animals. There were a few cases where I was pretty grateful there was some glass between us and the animals though (like those chimps!).

And this little guy played with us through the glass for a good 10 minutes; playing tricks, following our hands, spinning and flapping his fin. We all agreed that we would take him home for a pet, but then decided that he would be much happier at the zoo than in our bathtub as it just isn't big enough.

And before we headed off we caught one of the animal feeding times. If I remember correctly these are the sea lions (?). This one next to the zoo keeper was huge. The kids sure loved it when they got splashed by her jumping into the water. This was the perfect crowning moment to our trip to the zoo.

And with that we were headed back to Bremen for lunch just as everyone else started arriving for their day at the zoo. It was great. The kids loved having their own private zoo for a morning. And the zoo, even though small, was the perfect size for a morning with young kids.

We rounded out the day with Milayla's maiden voyage on her new bike. We headed down to our favorite gelatria to get some sorbet. Even though we got rained on these kids still thought it was the greatest trip ever. Milayla loves her new bike! A lovely way to round out her birthday celebrations.

Stealing daddy's sorbet - tastes better apparently

Good times and good memories. We had plenty of fun celebrating Milayla's birthday and doing our best to make it a special day for her because we love her to pieces!

Milayla's Birthday - Part I

Oh, this girl makes my heart want to sing. She's incredible, smart and quirky all wrapped up in the perfect little package - herself. We had so much fun celebrating her birthday. After counting down the days we kicked things off on Milayla's Birthday Eve when she got to open her new birthday outfit. Her expressions astound me, she is always coming up with more adorable and creative ones every day.

I had been working on Milayla's birthday dress for a while and she had seen it many times before her birthday (and even tried it on) so I figured that it wouldn't be that big of a deal to open it. Well, I was happy to be wrong on that side of things. As soon as she realized what it was she got a huge smile across her face and held up the package. Then she carefully pulled it out of the wrapping paper and ran her hands along the surface of the dress. She still doesn't have many words (though her sign language vocabulary is really taking off) but her smile and admiration spoke volumes for much she loved that dress. I was happy that she was happy.

After the first present of the birthday season the birthday hugs and kisses were just nonstop after that. 

And Milayla went straight to work putting her dress on, which would have to wait for the next day as it was coming up on bed time.

This picture is funny. Jason snapped it over his shoulder as Milayla was reaching for the camera. We just think it's funny how the angle and lense distortion gave her a whole new facial expression :).

After the birthday girl was off to bed we began putting up decorations. Atticus stayed up late to help us blow up balloons and hang streamers. I was so impressed with his genuine concern to make sure things were perfect for Milayla on her birthday. We really lucked out with some good kids.

Come morning, after we all worked together putting breakfast together we went singing into Milayla's room. I don't think she was quite expecting that, but she still did her best to put on a smile. 

I was pretty happy to oblige the birthday girl when she was reaching for mommy-cuddles. 

And once Milayla had a chance to wake up and get dress for church we headed in to the living room.

She was pretty excited about all the balloons and decorations and the kids had fun tossing the balloons around while we finished the last of the breakfast prep.

More birthday hugs :).

Then everyone had fun playing with the noise makers (a favorite moment for our neighbours on an early Sunday morning, I'm sure) and sharing some of their favorite things about the birthday girl.

I love that as soon as we said it was time for pancakes, that Milayla instantly clasped her hands for prayer. Heart melting moment.

I'm sure this picture is going to get me in trouble many years down the road as it shows Milayla so eager to eat her pancakes that she has a utensil in each hand to eat her pancakes quicker. She loves pancakes. And seeing how much she has improved in her eating in the last six months makes me one very happy momma.

And just to balance off that other photo, here is one with only one utensil. I think she was getting full...

She was sure happy once her tummy was all full of pancake though.

After breakfast we had a little birthday spiritual thought and then headed off for church. Following church and naptime, I got to get a little time with the birthday girl to take her 2-year-photos dressed up in her new birthday dress. Seeing that the weather was rather rainy and mucky we were limited to our little balcony but still got some great shots (putting those up in their own post). Then Atticus joined us for some bubbles.

Seeing that it was Sunday, we had planned to do her birthday outing on Monday (which happened to be a holiday here, so it worked out nicely) which meant we had plenty of time to open presents and just do whatever the birthday girl wanted to.

As usual, there was no shortage of help in opening presents.

I sure loved watching Milayla open up her gifts. She was so sweet and grateful.

We keep things pretty simple when it comes to the gift department, but that is made significantly easy by the fact that our kids have been pretty easy to figure out the perfect gift for each year. I'm hopeful that will always be the case, but I guess you never know. Milayla got some new pencils, kitchen gear, books and a brand new bike. Atticus did an awesome job picking his gift for Milayla, which was a new german word book. She had seen it at the gift shop in the art museum and loved it. Atticus remembered. He then picked it out for her birthday a couple weeks later. It was an instant favorite.

We couldn't have asked for a better reaction to the the new bike. Both kids were over-the-moon about it. Milayla has been trying to ride Atticus' laufrad for some time and we figured it was about time she got her own set of wheels. I sent the kids on an errand to another part of the apartment so that I could set the bike up in the living room and capture their reactions when they entered the room. Atticus entered first and did a happy dance and started calling for Milayla to "come see quickly!".

And then Milayla came running in and topped the charts with her reaction.

And then immediately hopped on with the help of her big brother.

Pretty sure this is the look of pure joy.

Atticus then pushed Milayla all around our living room for a good half hour while Milayla got some birthday wishes from family in Canada via facetime.

Of course the kids stocked up the basket with books for their little journey.

The kids had so much fun playing together. They just had perma-smiles on their faces and were these bright blurs most of the time. I love it.

Milayla figured out how to use the noise making which made her one happy kid.

Then we all settled down for birthday dinner. Milayla is a bit young to pick her meals so I picked what I thought she would like best and I'm happy to report dinner went better than I could have hoped. We had ratatouille over rice with crusty bread and the birthday girl helped herself to a few plates before she declared herself finished. Thankfully she still had room for cake!

We had picked up these cute pinwheels when we were visiting some friends in Netherlands the week before Easter and I told Jason they were perfect for Milayla's birthday cake (which was well over a month away at the time) and Jason just rolled his eyes at me. I think he was in shock that I had even started planning her birthday, let alone her cake.

Well, the pinwheels were a BIG hit. Everyone loved them. And daddy kept them spinning while we sang happy birthday to the birthday girl.

Those smiles and giggles - love it.

I wasn't too sure what Milayla would think of my first attempt at a raw, vegan ice cream cake but it was a hit.

Just check out that face!

After a few small slices of cake, the birthday girl was officially stuffed and smiling from ear to ear. Atticus suggested we sing some more songs for the birthday girl and read her her new books and so we all piled onto the couch (after getting that cute little face and fingers cleaned up) and enjoyed some books and songs.

It was a good day celebrating! We sure are so blessed to have Milayla in our family. She is truly one very special person. Happy Birthday, Milayla!!!