Surprise!

AM hit the big 4-0 this week. To celebrate we visited a local pancake house where "rain, sleet, or shine there is always a line" for breakfast and then for dinner a little italian. Her big over-the-hill birthday present was a serger. Now to non-sewers like myself, a serger and a sewing machine seem like pretty much the same machine, but apparently they are entirely different, sort of like a road bike and a mountain bike, except of course its more obvious why you need two bikes to have fun that two sewing machines...

Then on Saturday, we had a surprise party. I had smuggled decorations and food to our friend's houses and the playhouse for safekeeping. (I even got up in the middle of the night once to transfer things from the wagon to the playhouse because I realized that AM was likely to drive the wagon the next morning and might get suspicious about the towels covering stuff up in the back. Fortunately there was a big windstorm that night so when she asked why I got up, I could say I was checking on our trashcan that had in fact been blown over in the storm.) On Saturday, one of AM's friends invited her to lunch to get her out of the house so I could decorate. I then picked her up directly from the restaurant on our way to a juggling show that we as a family had tickets too. (Which by the way was fantastic.) This provided the cover for people to assemble at our house. Then when we came home, I made sure she was the first to enter the house. She was quite surprised when everyone jumped out. I was trying to follow along with the camera to get video coverage, but my video feed turned out real jumpy, so I won't post it. Anyway it turned out well and was lots of fun. Thanks to any of you out in the blogosphere who participated.

Spring Break

AM decided that the kids needed some excitement for spring break, so they visited the Memphis zoo, the Civil Rights museum, and CMOM.



The pandas were on break as well.



Feed the birds, tuppins a bag...



Why trying to outswim a polar bear is a bad idea.



"Early evening April 4, a shot rings out in the Memphis sky, free at last, they took your life, they could not take your pride...in the name of love."
It will be 40 years ago next month that King delivered his mountaintop speech the night before his assassination.

"And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."







Ring around the rosies...

Billy Goat Gruff

A couple of weeks ago, we had a short visit from Nathan G, who was back in town to defend his dissertation. While we didn't get to see as much of him as we might have liked, we did get a chance to get caught up on the family happenings and as he successfully defended, look forward to see the whole family back for graduation.