Another Birthday

Katelee turned 4 last week finishing up our busy birthday season. She is our little St. Patty's girl, which in itself is ironic because 2 of my 3 kids have reddish hair. Katelee is the one that doesn't, while she wanted to recognize her Irish roots by appearing on leprechaun's day, she has not the red hue or freckles or light coloring. We celebrated with a flip flop cake (gluten free, of course) presents and dinner of green food and good company with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Shannon. Katelee got a new bike and couldn't wait to try it out. She took off without a hitch. She chose to go to Kangaroo Zoo for a party with Brenna and Grant and they ran around like wild animals. Katelee is a pure girl. She cries daily, those tears can appear instantly and with drama like you have never before experienced. However, overall she is so fun and pleasant. We consider her to be like a little ray of sunshine, cheesy-yes, but true. She is so sunny and bubbly and skips, dances, sings her way through the day (with the previously mentioned dramatic outbursts sporadically placed). Even one of her friends asked her the other day as she was making up songs and bouncing around, "Why are you so happy?" Maybe she will be our optimist. She turned to me during church the other day and said, "Why do they always talk about Satan?!" She would rather we all burst out in happy songs like she does and peform some impromptu musical. I guess it could happen. Love our sunny lass!

Party til You Drop

Actually, Brenna's narcoleptic high chair episode was not due to excessive partying. She's been sick, all the kids have been. I was just saying how the illnesses haven't been too frequent around our house this winter, then we got hit. But, we are on the mend. Now back to normal activities which consist of all things "fun." Everyday, usually after Grant is off to school, a little whiny gal moans, "Mom, I want to do something fun." This phrase is repeated over and over again and does not stop until a fun activity is found. Somedays I am Mary Poppins and try to teach Katelee that "in every task that must be done, there is an element of fun." She isn't buying it. She insists that her choices of fun things include: Candyland (which is constantly rigged by putting Princess Frostine as her first card drawn), Ring Around the Rosie, London Bridge is falling down-a real challenge with just us two, Hide and Seek or Play on the Computer. Next year, when Grant is gone all day long, I am afraid I am in for it. Although maybe Grant will be home next year because he told me the other day that "school wastes his time." I am hoping Brenna will grow into an entertainer role a bit for Miss Katelee. She can't keep up with the kids in a lot of play, but she seriously knows how to light saber better than I do.

My list of fun rarely coincides with Katelee's, but she has been telling me how much she loves roller coasters. She prays over her food, each time it is her turn to pray that the food may " help her to ride the roller coasters, because we love roller coasters." She continues with "bless the food so we will grow and be big enough to ride all the roller coasters." It is a good motiviation for those vegetables that I believe really tip the charts on roller coaster height qualificiations.

Let Them Eat Cake

I think that frivolous French queen may have been on to something with that statement. We are partial to the deliciousness of cake, and look for every opportunity to consume it. The past few weeks gave us plenty of chances! We celebrated Grant's 6th birthday!!! And while I like to think of Dave and I as equal opportunity parental figures, we had a slip of the brain and failed to take many pictures. It really is a travesty because his celebration was such a success! Grant opted for a Star Wars birthday...shocker, I know. He invited some friends and had a jedi training experience with pizza, Yoda sodas and games. After their master/trainer (aka known as Master Kara the Wise, dressed in my father's ever so handy brown robe) had assessed they were prepared for full jedi status, we went to our garage. I had all the boys try to FORCE up the garage and somehow...they did!! No one was standing by the garage door button, but it surely did arise and there on our driveway was DARTH VADER! The entire pack of boys attacked as only jedi's can. It was fabulous. We love our little Star Warrior. Brenna, the wild child, the crazy climbing animal of the house, turned 1 last week!! She loved her toy and loved her cake, as displayed in the series of pictures to follow, tenderly entitled "Progression of Cake Consumption"

.Roll her out, she is done. Cake=yummy; result=sugar overload!

Birthday Extraordinare...(it's a lengthy post, you may want to just skim through!)

This week was momentous for me. I entered a new decade and I embarked on a collaborative celebration for my birthday, my sister's and my dear friend Alisha's. My mom also accompanied us on the amazing vacation. We have always wanted to go sky-diving (with the exception of Shannon!) and flew down to Arizona to fulfill our dream! Quite a few months back, Alisha and I were discussing what to do for our entrance to the "30's." We were then informed by my travel planning and superior surprising husband that he was already arranging something. He planned our entire trip and had started it without our knowledge. We had to fly to Arizona because it is way too cold to do that here in the winter! As soon as we got off the plane we headed to our jumping destination. We received little instruction...pretty much the standard harnassing and the mention that you need to "arch or die." Not the most encouraging of words when you consider falling 10,000 feet. Before I left, Grant had wished me a happy birthday with one request, "don't die, Mom." I figured that was valid. After being hooked we walked onto our luxurious plane (heavy sarcasm here) that would carry us into the horizon. I had joked all along in our trip preparations that I would be fine with the jump as long as we weren't in a dinky plane that was put together with duct tape. Alisha kindly pointed out the adhesive tape was in fact used inside the plane. Scary. Dave had assured me that this was a legitimate company he had researched, but he also told me he had increased my life insurance, so I wasn't convinced on that! Alisha went first, then my mom, then I scooted out to the open door and fell through the air with the greatest of ease and exhilaration like none I have experienced before. I LOVED it and the landing went smoothly (for me)...Alisha looked like she was kneeling over her lunch that came back up, but she just couldn't get back on her feet and my mom walked like a drunken sailor, which she attributed to bad knees) but all in all, it was AMAZING!!

.. ..

We stayed a night at a fanciful desert retreat, had an incredible dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, came back to the room to rose petals and chocolate strawberries (arranged by previously mentioned husband of the year). The next morning we had massages and explored downtown Scottsdale. It was PERFECT. Dave did an unbelievable job with my birthday. It was so special, and while I will get an earful for mentioning this, I appreciate how he got us there as much as the trip. He sold items on ebay, negotiated gift cards from work and donated his plasma (his specialty for those of you who know us well), to fund parts of the extravaganza.

As I enter a new decade, I reflect back on my last 30 years. I guess my hope and aspiration is that with each decade, each year, each day really I am getting better. I want to be getting closer to becoming the woman I want to be and know I have the potential to be. I don't want anyone to see me or think my name and have the thought cross their mind, "boy, Kara, she has really gone down hill..." While all of our lives are a journey and experience to test our character, I find that my greatest growth periods have come in situations I didn't necessarily want to be in. If I get a choice, I would like to cap out at 80, so for the next 50 years, I want to choose to not only look for the best in the things, but make the best out of everything. But, with this particular birthday, I didn't need to put in any effort, it just truly was THE BEST.

Superpowers

Sometimes I think members of my family have abnormal abilites. For example, Dave can sleep through anything, anywhere, anytime. From family movie nights, to ringing in the New Year, to being dragged out of a rainstorm in a sleeping bag, he can stay in a peaceful slumber.

Grant can see things the normal eye can not perceive. The other day he told me, as his finger was poking into his eyeball, that when he did that he was able to see me and my spirit. Fascinating...

Katelee can control objects without any contact, apparently. When asked if Brenna was awake in her crib, Katelee answered that indeed she was and all of Brenna's toys had "magically gone into the crib and buried" the baby.

Is Brenna swollen and bloody in that photo? Yes, she had previously run into my metal bed frame. She has a great healing power, as well as an uncanny stamina...pushing sleep away when a regular human would cave with exhaustion. Brenna has been working on surprise tactics as she demonstrated here. I opened my kitchen drawer to find a small child...clever girl. Now, all I have to do is learn how to fly or continue my quest for super strength and we will be a family of super heroes!