Anna Celebrates the Big Seven!

For Anna's seventh birthday party we contemplated several different options.  A movie party?  A swim party? Chuck E Cheese? Another go at the Mad Potter? 

We decided to scrap all of those ideas and hold a royal tea party.

Anna's friends received royal requests for their presence at the Smith Castle.

The princesses (and one handsome prince) showed up in their royal finest.  No tea party occasion is complete without a beaded necklace, so we began our party by stringing "pearls".

The living room was transformed into a princess wonderland.

All the party goers were greeted with place cards. 

And we even scored real bone china for our group of young ladies.

Even the cupcakes joined the flowery theme of the day...

The guest of honor thoroughly enjoyed the festivities!

Of course, the ceremonial opening of the gifts was a hit, too!

Here, some of the princesses were scurrying under the table for better "seats".

A great time was had by all!

Tonight Anna capped off her celebrations by getting her ears pierced.  She was so nervous beforehand, but was determined to see it through.  Fortunately, a slightly more mature girl (of 9) got her ears pierced right before Anna and gave her some words of comfort and encouragement. 

I was expecting tears, but she only let out a surprised, "OW!"

Very brave!

All evening she's been positively giddy.

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Anna's royal tea theme was due, in large part, to the wedding of William and Kate today.  Although some may scoff at all the pomp and circumstance and say it's unnecessary, I for one (and Anna and Libby as well, judging by the gap-jawed, enamoured looks and words of pure delight and exclamation...and perhaps most telling, the fact that their breakfasts sat untouched while they were GLUED to the television) think it is beautiful.  I will readily admit to getting teary-eyed watching the newly married couple walk down the ancient aisle of Westminster Abbey. 

The carriage ride through the streets of London.

The kisses on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

It was all so.....fairy-tale like.

So exquisitely beautiful.

I wish bountiful blessings and a long, happy marriage to the prince and his new bride! 

Now we can all guess on when the newest Mountbatten-Windsor will make his or her appearance into the world.

;-)

For now, as an ending to this fabulous day, my own Prince Charming and I are going to watch The King's Speech. 

Can't let the royal tide go out quite yet, I suppose!

Growing Kittens and Catching Up

Both Indy and Ella are doing great!  They survived Libby's overwhelming "love" through their fragile kitty stage.  After two rounds of deworming medicine, we finally got them healthy and growing.  Now they enjoy getting into mischeif and racing to see you can cause the most damage to my furniture. 

Indy is still a gentle, lovey, purring, rather stupid furry feline.  He's still quite often taken by surprise when Libby scoops him up out of a sound sleep.  He's slowly learning that the safest place for him to snooze is on the top level of their kitty tree - far out of Libby's reach!

That cute little dotted nose!  I love it!

Ella is getting over her aloofness and becoming more lovey.  She's still more likely to ran maniacally (is that even a word) around the house. 

One night we caught her hanging (literally) from the top of our curtains.

Needless to say, both kitties are going in for their surgeries next week.  A spay, a neuter and hernia fix.....and, after much consideration, we've decided to get them declawed.  I'm still not 100% convinced it's not a barbaric procedure designed solely for human convenience.  However, after talking to several (yes, I'm a nerd like that) vets, I believe the pros will outweigh the cons.  At the very least, our kitties will be treated to the newest, high-tech, laser claw-removing-surgery.

With a high-tech price tag attached.

pets.

=)

On the homefront...well...I am just utterly grateful to God that we still HAVE a homefront.  It's been a crazy month!  The tornado sirens have certainly been getting a work-out, that's for sure.  April still has several days to go and already it broke the record for the rainiest April and earned a place in the top ten rainiest months.  Of all time.  Yipee!  Oh, and did I mention that I heard on the news the other day that May statistically gets hit by more tornadoes than any other month?

Oh boy.

Over Easter weekend we got hammered with rain.  Our already saturated ground couldn't soak it in fast enough and as a result our backyard turned into quite the water park.

So we did what any other sane, normal parents would do.

We encouraged our kids to splash around in the ice cold water while thunder rippled threateningly in the distance.

And it was fun.

These are my feet.  We had a good 3 inches of water rushing by.

For the record, we did lecture our offspring on the importance of caution when it comes to flood water.

Then we took a drive around the county to see all the flooded areas.

Life has been flying by at its usual hectic pace. 

There is a light at the end of the grad school tunnel - just TWO more assignments and I am FINISHED!  I'm really looking forward to taking the summer off completely.  No work, no school work, no house building.  I'm just going to enjoy the time off with the girls, work on keeping the house clean and cooking good meals, and hopefully go on a few vacations as well.

Anna celebrated her 7th year of life on April 17th.  We treated her and her royal firends to a tea party that weekend.  I'll post pictures soon. =)

Easter and Eggs

Hail, Zoo....LIBBY!

Hail.  What a thing to see during Spring Break!

A bald eaglet to be.

This elephant rammed into the other one, and we're pretty sure she broke her tusk.  She then searched it out and rubbed it on every surface in her cage.  You can kind of see it in her trunk.

And....

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If you ever wonder why few pictures of Libby have been posted, behold the reason....

Crazy girl!

A Walk in the Woods With Libby