Pure joy.

"While we try to teach our children about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

-Angela Schwindt

(By the way, I totally copied my blogger friend Carol's style of starting a post with a touchy-feely quote.)

So last Sunday we were trying to figure out how to spend our afternoon. All I knew for sure is that I did not want to stay home. I needed to get out of the house.

Khan stumbled upon an ad for some Earth Day festival in Dunedin. Farmer's market, crafts, food, music, and it was supposed to close with a night time lantern parade. Sounds promising, we decided. And off we went.

Yeah, it was a little underwhelming. It was probably our timing -- late in the day on Sunday -- by that time most everything was gone. A random dancing chicken was the highlight.

Lily was not a fan. 

But we had come for the lantern parade anyway. I thought it sounded like a fun thing to try to shoot, and I figured Lily would love the whole lantern thing after watching Tangled 700 times. (<--only a slight exaggeration.)

After the chicken, we decided to find some dinner. (ha!)  We went to Casa Tina's, a Mexican place that always looked good but we had never tried. 

Lily worked on an important project. She cut her tortilla chips carefully with a butter knife, then placed a small piece on each number of her little coloring sheet. I don't get it, but it seemed to have real purpose in her mind. 

There were acrobats. Maybe I don't go to Mexican restaurants often, but this was a little strange to me. 

After dinner, we had some time to kill before the parade started. Then it started to sprinkle. We stopped under a covered area outside a closed restaurant. Lily entertained herself for a bit. 

But then it started to pour. Florida-summer-style. Khan and I wondered if we should just wait it out and see if the parade would go on anyway. This kind of rain doesn't last long, we decided. 

(These photos, technically speaking of course, suck. They're grainy because there wasn't a lot of light and my ISO was set high. Either I've reached the limits of my gear, or the limits of my ability, probably the latter. But I have to share these pictures even though I know they suck.)

Lily, however, didn't give two craps about a parade, high ISO, or anything else. She just wanted to play in the rain. 

She pretended to wash her hair. It's just water to her. It's not dirty rainwater. 

She pretended to make a cup and drink it. 

But mostly she just danced, stomped, and giggled. 

Honestly, when was the last time you felt joy like that of dancing in the rain?

When you didn't care that your white shoes were getting dirty, your hair and clothes were wet, or even that the parade you came for was definitely not happening? When you weren't thinking of anything else -- not the long drive home, the price of gas, and most definitely not thinking of  your to-do list? 

Just pure, simple, untempered happiness. 

Thanks, beautiful girl, for reminding me of a feeling I might've forgotten. 

My happy birthday.

So I just turned 33. (I know! And I don't look a day over 32!) But in a lot of ways, I haven't grown up and probably never will. I'd rather eat macaroni and cheese than sushi. I don't like to share. I'll be an A-cup forever. Vegetables are gross. And, yes, when I realized that my birthday was about to pass without due celebration, I pouted, whined, and sulked. And made passive aggressive comments to my poor husband who should really know better than to try to surprise me.

Anyway...although my day was made better by birthday greetings, it was still a sucktastic day at work. Yes, happy work birthday. I even had to work late, and that didn't contribute to birthday joy at all.

But when I got home there were streamers hung with care and Lily jumping up and down, so excited I was there. (Forgive it?)

Khan had taken off half the day from work to clean the house to the best of his ability, decorate, get a cake, and pick up Lily to finish off the last birthday party details.

Do you know what she's doing here? She's staring at the cake. More specifically, the frosting flowers on top of the cake.

Khan announced cake was up first. While I'm never one to argue with that kind of common-sense approach, I'm pretty sure he was done trying to keep little fingers off the cake.  

Because that battle was being lost anyway.

A happy birthday surprise, indeed.

To continue the birthday weekend. (That's right, weekend.) We decided to get out of town for the day and went to sunny Sarasota. We had lunch at the circle and then went to Turtle Beach.

I'm starting to realize that all of my beach pictures look the same. And as this is just the start of beach season, I  have a feeling we're all going to be very sick of "Lily at the beach" pictures.

But I've never been one to show any restraint, so here's some pictures of Lily at the beach!

The waves are much bigger at Turtle Beach than at Fort Desoto. Lily was a little bit scared of them and a little bit excited by them. She giggle-screamed as she chased them in and out, but she never wanted to get all the way in the water here. 

But she's perfectly happy to play in the sand

Even she's sick of pictures of Lily at the beach. 

Sunday we went to BARF. (Bay Area Renaissance Festival) Marina is a wench at the Pyrate's Pub, so we usually try to go and visit her. But this year, she was super busy.  

So we wandered like peasants for a bit, saw some animals, eccentric characters, and random shows. 

Did I mention that it was insanely hot? Like record-type, grumpiness-inducing highs? 

So we turned that frown upside down. (You can forgive that one, too, right?)

We tried again to see Marina, but her line was never-ending. So we gave the face painter a try. 

And then we went to the bar to show Marina. But she was still busy. 

And with that, we left BARF and went home where we all napped the rest of the afternoon away. And that is the best way I can think of to end a birthday weekend. 

Sunday picnic.

A few weeks back, we were trying to figure out what to do with our weekend. If we were more responsible or just smarter, we'd stay home and pay some attention to our house before it caves in on us due to angry neglect.

But it was a nice day for a picnic.
Windy, though.
We had planned on the downtown St. Pete waterfront area, but the Grand Prix was in town so we moved our picnic further to the north along the Bay. Nice area, but there was no playground, and I actually thought Lily would be bored so I brought bubbles for fun. Rookie!

The bubbles were fun and all, but what I forget from my own childhood is that children need nothing but imagination to make a game and have a blast.

She and Khan ran around -- chasing each other, hiding from each other, and occasionally sitting down next to each other on the park bench. For at least 14 seconds.
And sneaking up on someone....or something? I don't know, but Lily had the whole picture in her mind.


And we took some pictures, of course.

Basically it was a perfect Sunday afternoon. At least until Lily got inexplicably mad at us. I think we didn't follow her rules exactly right.
After the first Sunday picnic, we tried again the next weekend. This time we stayed on our side of the bay and went to Curtis Hixon Park in downtown Tampa.
It was nice....but Lily had her sights set. On this.
She didn't care that the water was cold. She was in.
And about 12 seconds later, so was her father.



She played happily for a long time in the water.
Not a bad afternoon in the park. Not bad at all.