Marietta's 7th Birthday

Wow, our big girl is turned 7 yesterday ... hard to believe it's been that many years already. As is our tradition Marietta got to pick what she would like to do for the day ... they can choose a birthday party or a (cheap) outting (swimming, skating, dining out, etc.). After talking for months about who she was going to have over to her birthday party we were surprise when this is not what she picked but instead asked to go out to the country for the day. Originally this past week we were suppose to be housesitting for friends ... which was also going to be our holidays for the year as I we had no idea how things would be going with the pregnancy or James ... and regardless I didn't think much of the idea of camping at this stage in my pregnancy. This country setting included a pool and a mini horse, lots of room to roam and ride bikes, and a nice fire pit area for the evenings ... plus all the conveniences of home. We all know how the past months turned out ... needless to say I had no desire for a "holiday" this past week and was much happier just to be home ...even tho it meant lots of work.
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So Marietta asked if we could still go for one day ... her request was made last Saturday when she arrived home during the swealtering heat ... who would have guess it would be so cool and windy by the end of the week ... wonderful for James, not so wonderful for swimming. Saturday morning when we realized it was going to be windy, cool and rain we asked Marietta if she would like to do something else as there would definitely be no swimming and we'd probably end up stuck inside a good part of the day. We told her that we would take them to the fair set up at Zellers instead as it didn't look like it would rain until the afternoon ... but she still wanted to go out to the country, so away we went. I must say it was an enjoyable day, for altho we've all been home this past week we've been so busy getting things in order with house and vehicles that we haven't taken time to relax and enjoy each others company. Marietta was smart to make us leave our home surroundings that tempt us to work and have us just sit down for a nice quiet day. This was the first time in almost 2 months that James has been anywhere besides home and the hospital ... boy could we tell ... he was so excited to be allowed to come with and go for a ride in the car with everyone else, the light in his eyes and the fun he had yesterday (we could also tell by his SATs at the end of the day).
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Present and cake time
I believe the favourite of the day was the Easy Bake oven and recipes that she received.













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Outdoor and Play time before the rain arrived.
Climbing and sliding, the real (mini) horse versus the play horse. James was rather reserved around the real horse and would only look from a distance, but oh how he loved the play horse. Since it rained for the afternoon Rob set the tent up in the basement for the kids to play in












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Pin (tape) the Tail on the Donkey
James thought this was great fun and quickly caught onto the idea ... he just needed to be a bit taller to do better