When you give a Carrie a glut of confetti...

 

This is the child with homemade confetti all over her bed because the night before her birthday she rigs up a pouch of handcut confetti which she attaches to her ceiling by a pull-cord so that when the alarm she's set for 3:10 AM (which is when she was born) goes off she can yank the cord and celebrate her special day before going back to Dreamland.

 

 

 

Good plan, but something backfired and she woke up at 3:10 to a confetti-covered bed. She thinks she pulled it in her sleep or snagged it or something, but either way, the birthday girl woke up in style.

 

I can't make stuff like this up.

 

Where did she COME from!?

"Omigod, they're giving her a sword!"

 

I know, I know. Y'all are getting good at seeing blue and gray and thinking, "oh, more karate pictures, really?"

 

In my defense, we now have a 12 year old in the house, and she chose a karate party this year. Due to it being the last few weeks of both school and soccer, lots of friends had to decline, but the ones who could make it came and they had a blast. Carrie was delighted that some of her best guy friends from her old school district could make it, and our sweet Nina and Jonathan were the icing on the cake.

 

Anyway, Mr. Stanford goes over rules about respect and some karate basics at the beginning of the party...

 

 

Then the birthday girl gets a chance to show off a few of her moves...

 

And then they played tornado ball.

 

That's Dada in the above picture as I'm sure the eagle-eyed among you already noticed.

 

Then they played Swords and Shields:

 

And pizza and cake and homemade ice cream, of course.

 

Pretty sure she blew all the powdered sugar right off the cake.

 

The quote of the day was from her friend Jake. The tradition at karate birthday parties is to have the birthday kid slice the cake with a sword. Hence the title of this post. I put spaces in there, but it really came out of his mouth all in one breath like this: omigodthey'regivingherasword! It was accompanied by him rapidly sliding his chair backward. Smart kid.

 

Then it was present time and a quick game of Ninja ball. We think she had a splendid time with her buds. Thanks so much for coming, you guys!

 

Happy birthday, Care Bear!

 

For far-flung friends and family

 

For me, part of the fun of Facebook is seeing everyone's kids and the stuff everyone is doing in actual photos. I figured some of you are the same way, and I'm addicted to spring, so here are some photos of Lalaith Havens in the springtime. It's fun seeing things pop up where there'd just been dead leaves and snow. We're constantly guessing what plants are coming up, and we're even finding some in unexpected places. The very best part is that we didn't have to plant any of them ourselves, haha!

 

 

I'm pretty sure the top ones are violets, we have dandelions out the wazoo- or did before Dada mowed them all- and PaPa said the lower photo of purply flowers are phlox of some kind. Just gorgeous. Even the kids noticed, hehe! I'm sure there will be more nature shots to come. Just wanted to fill in the gap for those of you far away. =) You're welcome.

 

Introducing the newest member of our family

 

I love the incredible amounts of green in this first photo. If you click on it, it'll open bigger so you can get a better look at it. I think it would make a wonderfully exasperating puzzle!

 

Anyway, we bought a John Deere. We haven't named it yet, but it is a fancy big sucker that devours dandelions (or is a dandelion magnet... whatever). Dada looked completely at home and I suppose pictures with the kids posed all over it will be coming shortly.

 

 

Which way did he go?

 

There he is!

 

 

Hehe. I love that one!

 

Anyhoo, this fancy big sucker (maybe we have named it after all) is supposedly able to bucket the snow off of our nice, long driveway as well as turning our grass into smithereens. I'm sure it does other fancy stuff, too. I'm just glad the auctioning and eBaying and hunting around for sales is over and he's parked quite happily in our shed.

 

Welcome home, fancy big sucker.

Damon vs. the rope swing, part 1

 

The Christmas elves left us a rope swing that you often find Carrie shimmying up. Damon took a crack at it on Saturday and I lost track of how many times he lost his flip flops...

 

 

Being a boy, he doesn't mind getting dragged across the dirt. He just pops back up, laughing, and launches after the rope again. Pretty entertaining!