Last friday, during my daughter’s ‘March Break’ from kindergarten, I sent her on a day trip to Casa Loma in Toronto.

_{Casa Loma}

Organized by the local daycare, the bus trip was hard to resist, costing parents the grand sum of one dollar. To tell you the truth, I was a bit jealous—it’s been decades since I visited this grand castle estate. I decided to buy Deirdre a disposable camera for the occasion, and to be honest, I figured that she’d use up the photos on her friends…and probably long before the bus even arrived in the city. I was so wrong.

When I picked up the film today, I was impressed at some of the things she’d found interesting enough to snap a picture of, and thought I’d share a few of those pics with you:

Deirdre told me that she would like to have a bedroom like this someday. I believe this is Sir Henry Pellatt’s suite, as Lady Pellatt’s room is very dainty and Wedgewood blue. I’d prefer this style myself. She also spied the rather shapely silver server in a display of militaria. For a five year-old, you have to admit the kid has pretty good taste…I think she’s been stealing peeks at the ‘oak pornography’ magazines her parents have hidden under the bed (Old House Interiors, American Bungalow, etc.).

Another thing she zeroed in on was the garden landscape architecture (too bad the flowers aren’t in bloom; the gardens there are really spectacular), and thinks we should do something like this in our backyard (currently a mess from constructing the addition…we’ve been talking about how we’re going to landscape around the house). Uhhh…sure.

Sometimes, your child surprises you in wonderful ways—I had no idea that she was really paying attention to these kinds of things.