Violet and Philip come to visit the Beach House!

Look who came to see me at my Beach House today!!

Last week I received a phone call from my friend, Christine. I used to be a very part-time nanny for her family (last winter) while Christine was recovering from foot surgery. I had promised that once my little cottage was "finished", I would invite them over to see how beautiful it turned out! So we arranged for them to come over this morning to play for awhile.

This is Violet. Isn't she darling? She will be entering the first grade this fall. She is one of the smartest little girls I have ever met, and she is completely delightful! Violet enjoyed my finger puppets for awhile. This is the very first time I've had children over to play in my toy room. Baby Brendan has been here, but since he is only six months, he hasn't even begun to play with all of his grandma's toys!

This is Philip, who is just past four-and-a-half ... but he can tell you more about space travel, the Wright Brothers, planetary systems, and other amazing Science facts than you can almost begin to understand! I got down my LEGO bin for him to explore ...

Violet bouncing on one of my beach balls ... Yes! A cottage simply MUST have beach balls!

We played a little game called: "Count the Lighthouses!" and went from room to room to see how many lighthouses were in Miss Carol's cottage?!! Here are Philip and Violet looking everywhere to see if there were any lighthouses hiding up on my shelves or on my bookcases ...

 And since it is my birthday next week, they surprised me (completely!) with a perfect birthday cheesecake and other amazing goodies! They sang "Happy Birthday" to me both in English AND Chinese!

 And then Violet ran to the piano and played me the "Happy Birthday" song ... wonderful, Violet!

We also listened to all of my shells ... Could we hear the sea rolling in? 

 Since my very favorite color is RED, Violet wore a beautiful red headband and flower in her hair and a pretty red shirt. Philip wore a nice red shirt as well. And the children brought me two separate bouquets of red flowers. This was so BEYOND nice! Walk with me, and I'll show you where I put their flowers ...

I put Violet's bouquet on the piano! 

 And then in the kitchen, right on my little table, I placed Philip's bouquet!

Now, for days and days as I enjoy these gifts of love, I will remember the preciousness of these little ones (and their mama too!). Thank you so much for coming to play at my Beach House today!