Celebrating the youngest fourth

A lake, some geese and gulls and a fourth birthday.

Yesterday our youngest grand daughter, Cadence, turned four years old. Due to other commitments, both for Cadence and us, we celebrated her birthday this afternoon. We picked her up around 2:00. She had been to church this morning and told her mom that she wanted to stay in her dress because she thought Grandpa would like her in a dress. Our first stop was Stars & Stripes Park at Lake Hefner, the main reservoir for the north Oklahoma City area. This area always has a large number of Canadian Geese, various kinds of ducks and an unbelievable number of seagulls. They hang out here because so many people bring stuff out to feed them. We had stopped by the Wonder Thrift Store and picked up a loaf of bread to feed them. (We have done this in the past with our other two grand daughters, Emma and Aurora.) As is usual with Canadian Geese folks have to be careful around them because they can get mean. These will come up an almost take the bread directly from your hand. The gulls don't get as close but will fly directly above and even hover in the air, like a helicopter, and will grab the bits of bread right out of the air if you throw it up. This is fascinating to watch. After feeding the birds for awhile, until the bread was all gone, we then walked over to the playground so Cadence could swing and play on the slide. Though she really was not dressed for this she had a big time anyway.

I have previously told Cadence's parents that the job of grandparents is to spoil their grand kids and that we take our job very seriously. With that in mind after leaving the park we headed to the nearest Braum's. This is a local chain of ice cream and dairy stores that also serves great burgers and other fast food. Today it was the ice cream we were interested in. Although Cadence had a cup of orange sherbet, Grandpa made due with a double hot fudge sundae. Following our ice cream we headed back to our house so she could get her birthday presents and spend some times with the dogs. After opening her presents she spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Buddy and Bridgit and with the toys we keep in a cabinet in the living room for the girls. She seemed to like her birthday presents. Grandma had gotten her a really nice raincoat, since our rainy season will be here within the next few weeks. She also got her own set of stuff to blow bubbles. When she visits us in the warmer months her favorite thing is to sit out on the back patio and blow bubbles with Grandma. In all it was a great day and we enjoyed celebrating Cadence's big milestone. By turning four she will be starting school this next year in Pre-K.