Hi, everyone!
The apple trees are starting to bloom, and that means birthday season in our family! James’ birthday comes first! I helped Grandma make a coffee cheesecake for James’ birthday, just in case that’s what he wanted. James decided to write his own birthday cake recipe, so we put the cheesecake in the freezer!
Grandma let me carry the presents to James’ house for his family celebration. As soon as Aunt Kara came home from work, James and Thomas showed off their new bicycle tricks. Then we had dinner and James’ birthday cake. James’ recipe turned out as two great big chocolate chip cookie layers with lots of frosting. It was yummy!
Then it was time for James to open his presents! Grandma and I gave him a new book about me and Grandpa gave him a ream of paper and some new pens. His big present was what he’d been wanting for a long time — the Lego Taj Mahal set! James did his happy dance about that! Then he started building the Taj Mahal. There are 5700 Lego bricks in it!
Last Friday, Grandma and Grandpa took me out to the bay again. The water level in the bay is now higher than our deck! In the woods, the Jack-in-the-pulpits are starting to bloom. We took the deer fencing around the rhododendron down. The buds all looked like they will open soon, and the flower buds on the azaleas were getting ready to open, too! It was warm enough to walk out to the lighthouse at Sodus Point to watch sunset.
Last Sunday, after church, Grandma and Grandpa and I drove to Ottawa to see Uncle David’s family. There were severe thunderstorms moving through the area, but we managed to dodge them all! Monday was a holiday in Canada and Karin said she wanted sticky buns for breakfast! I helped Grandma make a batch!
Bill was a sleepy-head, so I had time to listen to Uncle David play guitar. Then I made friends with the Boys Festival display!
Once everybody was ready, we went to the Canadian Tulip Festival! Uncle David’s family had been there on Sunday, so they knew a good place to park. Last year, we visited the part of the festival near the Farmers’ Market. This year, the festival was mostly at Commissioners Park near Dows Lake. Our parking place was right next to a path that led directly to the Tulip Plaza! I made friends with some new tulip statues right away!
Because Karin and Bill had seen all the tulips the day before, they decided to take a pedal boat out on Dows Lake instead of walking around again. They were very good at moving and steering the boat, even though there was a lot of wind on the lake! When we were on our way back from looking at the tulips on the other side of Dows Lake, they even stopped to say hello!
The Tulip Festival was on its last day, but most of the tulips were at peak bloom. I guess Ottawa had the same kind of cold, rainy weather that kept the Highland Park lilacs from being in full bloom at the start of the Lilac Festival! The flower beds reminded me of Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands! There were double tulips and striped Rembrandt varieties and even some double Rembrandts! There were lots of people enjoying the flowers and the sunshine!
Monday evening, Uncle David and Aunt Emi made a special Victoria Day dinner. It was yummy! Bill and Karin played with the Miposaur dinosaur robot that Uncle Steven’s family gave Bill for Christmas. It got left behind when Uncle David packed up after the Christmas visit, so Bill hadn’t had a chance to play with it until we brought it on this trip. He figured out how to make it do a funny dance! Tuesday was a school day for Bill and Karin, so we headed back to Fairport after we said goodbye to them. Original Lion-san gave me a big goodbye hug!
We got back to Fairport in time for a late lunch. It was sunny, so Grandma took me back to Highland Park to see the lilacs. She figured they would be at peak bloom by then, and she was right! We parked near the east end of Reservoir Drive and took the path through the azalea and rhododendron plantings. The early varieties were starting to bloom! Then we walked down the hill through the lilac gully to the pansy bed. That still wasn’t in bloom!
It was fun to see so many of my lilac friends in full bloom! There were lots of people with dogs enjoying the lilacs, so my groundhog friend didn’t want to come out. He did say hello to me from the safety of his burrow!
After we visited the lilacs, Grandma took me to the magnolia path and the Poet’s Garden. Some of the magnolias were still blooming, and the buckeyes were just starting to bloom. The dogwoods and redbuds were in bloom, too! There was something pretty to look at everywhere we walked!
Thomas had his birthday while we were in Ottawa, but we had another family birthday dinner for him tonight. When Grandma and Grandpa and I got to Uncle Steven’s house, James and Thomas were working on their tree fort. They were wearing their bike helmets so they didn’t bump their heads on the branches! James has finished building his Lego Taj Mahal set. It only took him three days to do it! Thomas got the Nerf gun he wanted for his birthday and showed me how it works. Uncle Steven made a yummy dinner, then Thomas opened his presents from Grandma and Grandpa and me. We gave him a new book about me!
Uncle Bill’s birthday comes next. Grandma said he would have turned 50 years old this year. James and Thomas plan to eat ice cream for breakfast to honor him!
Love,
Lion-san
The dogwood and azalea flowers look pretty. The tulip festival must have been nice. We liked the tulips with the grape hyacinths. It is hard to believe all those birthdays. Although there are a lot of birthdays for us the end of May. There is Beth our cousin, Don ,our uncle, but that is enough for us to keep track of. A tree fort, that sounds big and lofty.