The Icing On The Cake-Or Lack Thereof

Yesterday I showed you

the back of Lulu's cake.

Several of you guessed

precious BabyE

got into the cake.

Some of you

KNEW BETTER..

You KNEW who had

ravaged the back of that cake.

First though,

let me tell you that Lulu

had a wonderful birthday.

A few of her friends came over..

She got some wonderful gifts

including all kinds of art materials from

her other grandmother, Marilyn.

Marilyn is an artist and has

won many awards over the years.

She also got an ANT FARM..

I asked her if she wanted an

UNCLE FARM too but

she failed to see the humor in that.

And she got a great hat...

Of course the cake is

always the highlight of the birthday party.

Mama always makes a cake for

their birthday...

Who want the first bite?

Hmmmmm...

Looks like SOMEONE was already

"nibbling" on the cake..

and I don't think it was a mouse..

I think it was a pretty BIG nibbler...

Whacha doing there, SweetCheeks?

Nohthing!

Hmmm...Your little friend LilyAnna

is telling ON YOU!

Who did it LilyAnna?

Who ate the icing off the back of the cake?

I did Nana..but jus' a little biht!

Hmmmm..

Looks like some serious nibbling business to me...

Lulu-Trhy it...

Jus' stick yoarh face in yoarh cake..

Itsss fuhn...

See?

Do any other families do this?

Seriously?

And, of course, every day must have

a bit of drama in it.

SweetCheeks found out about

guppies.

Guppies have babies.

Some Mama guppies eat their babies.

SweetCheeks thought it wise to

share this information with

her bestest friend, LilyAnna.

LillyAhna, did yohu know that

Mama Ghubbies eat their owhn babies?

They do!  Our Mama guppie athe her babies.

LilyAnna is rendered speechless.

SweetCheeks- Don't tell her that.

That's not nice and it makes people feel bad.

Wehll, I think that gubppy baby feeled pretty

bad when it got eathen too-

'specially cuz its Mommy eated it.

It's okay, SweetCheeks.

We'll talk about it later.

How about a hug for Papa?

And so it goes..

Another birthday for Lulu,

Another lesson in life for SweetCheeks.

One of many.

Amen.

Justice For One

Hmmmmm..

Did you think this was going

to be a some sort of  legal post?

You know...
Justice For One And

A Justice for All

sort of thing..

Well,

I want to show you a

different kind of

JUSTICE.

This one is for

pre-teen girls.

Lulu's 9th birthday

is here.

One of the special things

we did for her was to

let her go to Justice

and-

for her birthday-

she could pick out any

outfit she wanted.

Here she is when she

figured out where we were

going...

It is a cute store.

Age appropriate clothing,

nothing too "old"..

Nothing that makes her

look like she belongs

in an exotic dance bar...

just sayin....

While she was

trying clothes on

we were watching a show.

The Ria and SweetCheeks Show

One head..

Two heads...

Under the rack head...

Crazy measuring tape head...

After we found an outfit..

and I can't BELIEVE I don't

have a picture of it...

We told Lulu

she could pick the restaurant

for lunch.

Hmmm...

BIG DECISION

Finally, after much discussion,

she settled on

The Olive Garden.

Right after lunch

SweetCheeks and Ria

could not wait to give her

their presents.

Before she could even

open the card,

SweetCheeks said,

Hehre Lulu-Hehre's Yohu

Birthdahy carhd and

itss Tinkerbell singing a song

to yohu.

See?  I tohld yohu!

Look at SweetCheek's expression
as she waits to see whether
Lulu likes the present she chose.

Here's Ria & SweetCheeks

hamming it up for the camera..

And..

Not to be outdone by the little kids,

Mama & Mimi try to

duplicate the cute pose.

Sorry girls..

It was cuter when you were four and five.

The day ended on a
Sweet Note

But there is more to come...
This has only been Day One

for the

Birthday Girl.

Tomorrow I will show

you the REAL party at

Lulu's house...

As a teaser...

see if you can

GUESS WHO

dug into the back

of the cake.

Anyone care to hazard a guess?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Pink Tractor Float

So....

Yesterday I told you a

little history about Algoma, WI..

and the reason behind the parade.

Were you paying attention because

there might be a quiz later on~

Just checking.

You know,

 if you visited here yesterday,

that we were all sitting along the

parade route.
The parade itself is about a mile or so long.

On a cold day, or rainy day,
it seems longer.

Wondering what else we saw?

Well, I will spare you a lot of words

and show you some of the

MANY THINGS

we saw.

And...I'm betting that you

NEVER IN YOUR LIFE

saw a parade quite like this one!
Many maids in covertibles...

Steam engines and old cars...

Is THIS a Pink tractor?

Nope~

Is THIS a pink tractor?

Nope-

Now HERE'S a PINK TRACTOR~

A tractor painted to honor a wife with breast cancer...

Cowboy Bob- or whatever the heck his name is...

These are REAL DOGS folks..

A head in every window~

Some guy sucking up to his wife....

How about some

GIGANTIC RED ROSES?

SweetCheeks started laughing and clapping excitedly

to see

The LITTLEST CAHMELS I EVAH SAW!;>)

(We didn't have the heart to tell her they were llamas)

The only local store that sells bridal and prom gowns...

A few political statements...

And the old woman that lived in the shoe

finally ran away from home and

joined the Red Hat Society...

I won't bore you with the other

138 floats in the parade...

But it always ends with the

Chambermaids

(very physically enhanced MALES)

bringing up the rear

and bringing down the house.

I hate it when the guys have

bigger boobs, better legs

and look better in a dress than I do!

Dontcha love the black pumps

with the blue dress?

And after the parade is the

best part of the day..

visiting the food booths

and watching

Baby E eating his first corn on the cob

at Shanty Days.

Was it good, BabyE?

His new favorite saying is

OH YEAH!

Notice the little red mark on his forehead?

Remember yesterday I told you they

throw candy from the floats?

Well, THIS YEAR, they

also tossed the miniature

BOUNCY BALLS..

and-you guessed it-

once bounced up and hit

BabyE in the forehead.

SweetCheeks has a suggestion..
Next year instead of
RHUBBER BOUWNCY BALLS..
they shuld throhw
Wahter balloons!

Uh-huh-
We'll get right on that!



SweetCheeks Loves A Parade

Algoma is on the other side of

the peninsula from us.

Every year in August

they have a festival

called

Shanty Days.

It harks back to the time

when  shanties lined the

banks of the Algoma river

and fisherman followed

the river out to

Lake Michigan to

earn their living catching fish.

We were lucky enough

to look out of a home we

used to own and see this

little shanty across the river

from us.  It is one of the last

ones standing.

So, every year we go to

Shanty Days and watch  the parade.

Now this is not a normal parade.

No indeedy~

The parade lasts anywhere from 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

It all depends on how many entries there are.

ANYONE that wants to be in the

parade CAN BE IN the parade.

Today I will show you a

couple of the things we saw..

Tomorrow I will show you a

few more.

The parade starts at noon but

people are there as early as

7AM putting their chairs out

and claiming their spot.

Lord help the person that

tries to sneak a chair in the

front row at the last minute.

Cuz..it ain't gonna happen.

This was BabyE's first

Shanty Day parade.

He kept watching and waiting for

something to happen..

squinting into the sun a bit...

SweetCheeks, on the other hand,

is well-versed in parade

procedures now.

She dances in the street while waiting

for the "show" to begin.

And walks along and waves to everyone.

Oh Boy!

Here it comes....

They start with the veterans...

and everyone stands and applauds.

And a unit marches for the

fallen firefighters...

which puts a lump in every throat..

And then there is the clown car...

And there are boats of all kinds...

But the best part is that most

of the floats throw candy along the

edge of the street..

And all the kids scramble to pick

up what they can.

SweetCheeks yells,

CAHNDEE PLEAZZE..

And they throw it right to her.

However, there was one

VERY SCARY THING

that stumbled along the parade path...

and I just caught the back of him...

But SweetCheeks saw him coming

and ran to her Daddy for

protection.

She did NOT like him AT ALL!

But was soon smiling

when the

not-so-scary pirate posed with her

and her sisters.

Bored yet?

Yeah?

Well, too bad because

tomorrow you get to see the

pink tractor float

and BabyE eating corn on the cob.

Y'all come on back now, ya hear?