Cassie's birthday was March 14, but the universe conspired to keep us from having her party at the Farm that weekend so it was moved to yesterday. I was so tired from Friday night's events that at first I couldn't even take any pictures. Misty took my camera around and got some great ones for me! This is my least favorite.
(Ellie and Emily
Kids are lined up to get their birthday cake: Sacrificial Lamb red velvet. His head slid off because I packed his neck with red cherry pie filling for when you decapitate him. He was still cool though, and yummy.
I brought out the meat cleaver too for serving him up.
It was fun because Vanessa, Karla, Jud and Cory all came out; such a treat! Karla and Vanessa are the other half of me and Brandi. The four of us grew up together, getting to see each other a few times a year between here and Mississippi. Now Karla lives in TN and the rest of us are in Charlotte so when we all get together it just feels right.
I am going to have to do an entire post on each of them. The first time I laid eyes on Vanessa she was galloping by the car as we pulled up her sweet country dirt driveway. Her pony's name was Dusty, a gray, feisty little mare! Girl and horse were one; a red streak atop a gray streak flying by, what a vision! I was struck by the impressive sight and I've had hearts popping out of my eyes ever since.
Like I said, that's it's own long post for another day.
Actually, I intend to write individual posts on all the people I know or have known who I am enamored with or who just fascinate me. I wonder if I can cover most of that this year? I have so many who I'd love to write about...Only one way to find out.
But back to the birthday party! Jim grilled up all sorts of gourmet stuff, I don't even know what all since I was so tired. Jim is always in his element in front of a grill with a Miller Lite, that's his natural habitat.
Even though it was a beautiful spring day (the first official spring day!) we had a fire, a main attraction for all kids.
Misty took a picture of her cute rain boots. Doesn't it look like a shot in a magazine or something really fancy?
She was also able to get some cute shots of Ellie, who usually eludes me when I am behind the lens.
Ellie and Rebeca play with the fire.
Cassie darts and flits about like a little humming bird.
See, another shot of Misty's; what a great picture of Connie!
Zoe is always good for some comic relief, you could write an entire book with her verbal gems. I must start recording them.
Here's the poor old mush headed lamb. The droopy stuff on the left is what became of his head.
Rebeca running around with a stick. Isn't she beautiful?
Bran & Karla cracking up in the spring house, a familiar sight! Next time I'll have to get a picture of their graffiti from the 80s inside!
The Spring House is a entity, both worthy of and in need of its own post. It is an institution, an icon of The Farm and a Sacred place.
Cassie is wild with excitement for candy fresh from the pinata!
"Cassie Q" is so pretty in the Spring House between green crepe paper and the lake.
Ellie & Danny's birthdays are right in Halloween season and Cassie's is at the Spring Equinox. Such lucky kids!
For the record, I love celebrating birthdays with the kids out at The Farm right where I grew up in the very same paradise. I'm not that sentimental about any place in Charlotte, even thought it's my hometown, therefore I love it. Nothing else can touch The Farm.
I am so grateful for it! I have so much to be grateful for and so much to look forward to. Family, friends and The Farm, just to name a few.
What a treat! I love snakes and like everything else, the babies are even cuter. Here Mixie dashes away from my camera as I was shooting the little spring harbinger this morning.
It was hard to get a shot if that tiny flickering forked tongue, you have to be fast.
The only babies I ever catch are these little brown guys and beautiful green vine snakes. I imagine a baby King Snake or Black Rat Snake would be too beautiful; I wouldn't be able to turn one loose.
He has a few nicks but I turned this one loose outside up a tree and hoped that the cat wouldn't bring him back (as she has been known to do). So far so good.
I love having animals around, specifically I love having weird animals around. I miss my chickens Mildred, Suzie, Dottie and Betty and I miss Pumpkin. Pumpkin was my 'possum I "adopted" years ago. It will take one LONG blog post to tell all about her. Mayhaps a story for another day. For now I'll just say when she was a baby she lived in my sports bra and was fed my sister's breast milk for weeks. I took her everywhere, even up on three decks of scaffold when I was restoring Charlotte's historic Radcliffe Flowers building. And she was probably the only 'possum who got warm baths and Bath & Body "Sweet Pea" lotion rubbed onto her tail afterward. She was a very pampered marsupial.
