Happy Birthday to Me

Another Prime birthday (geek joke).  I had two parties, one at home today, with taco salad--a pedestrian name for something exquisite, especially John's fresh salsa and Amy's homemade lime cilantro salad dressing.  And triple chocolate cake, which always makes me look this way:

Amy and I went to a party yesterday in SLC, which included a visit to Colette's school art fair.  Johnathan and Colette showed off their mad playground skillz, as a prologue to the festivities.

We saw Colette's class' projects, played games, ate treats, and watched performances at Ensign Elementary.  We had pasta, pizza, and chocolate brownies at home when the fair became just too exciting to bear.  Rob gave me a set of four vampire movies, and Nicolle gave me a succulent planting which she had put together.  When I brought it home, John found a tiny plastic snake to add to the collection.

Today Betsy, Ellie,

and Ethan came to lunch, along with Amy, Jamison, and Dex.

We sat out in the sun and the rain with the kitties.

I might need to rename Claudio "Cheshire" (he sort of looks like it, except for the lack of a smile), because

my Alice statue finally arrived.  As you can see, I need to decide on siting, what sort of base to use, how to do the garden around her, etc.

Lots more fun presents, including music from John, a Mary Poppins bag of fun stuff from Grandma Gene, and a date in with Amy.  Betsy's going to help me find a base or plinth for the Alice statue.

But best present and last of all, we caught Ellie's first real smile on camera!  She was talking to Amy:

and had a lot to say:

although some of it wasn't that interesting:

Still, what a cutie.  Three weeks old.

Betsy promised she was going to post pix on her blog, so check it out.