A Birthday and a Haircut and Mardi Gras.... Oh My!

I'm sure this should be separate posts, but I have been lax and not posted all week. It has been a busy week and it has been fun. And someone had a birthday. Delaney said it was the very best day ever! The fact that it was Valentine's Day and there was candy and love everywhere may have helped.

She wanted a round chocolate cake with a heart on it. I was happy to make a simple cake and she was pleased with it. I believe the term "The Greatest Ever" was used. I love it that she is easy to please!

After blowing out the candle- we weren't fast enough to get the actual blow.

Devouring the delicious cake. Yummy!

Joshua thinks he is SO funny.

And well, he kinda is.

I love the look of sheer delight on her face as Delaney (and all her helpers!) opened the big box from Grandma and Grandpa.

Delaney had a great birthday and enjoyed her presents. She is such a sunny child and so easy to please!

Now, you may recall that a few months back, Delaney hacked into her hair. While I was able to take her to a salon and get it evened up a bit, she still had chunks in front that were shorter. I let it grow and finally decided it was time to give it some help.

This was suppose to be a "before" shot. I could not get a picture that showed the true chaos that was her shaggy hair. I do put a ponytail or two in it so its not horrid, but it was still pretty wild.

This is her "after" shot. It too does not convey the true look. The stylist did an amazing job of bobbing it in the back and it is super-cute! Delaney was marvelous and sat so very still for the 30 minutes it took to get it perfect. I asked her to even the front, but not trim it because I would like it to all grow the same length eventually. So the front is not as cute as the back. As we finished up and I was about to pay, the guy who runs the salon suggested that a girl as good as Delaney might need some pink in her hair. I was skeptical, but he assured me it would wash out. So, you can see she does have some lovely pink streaks in her hair. She loved it and so did I! (The pink was gone in 24 hours, after a fantastic time playing in the rain the next afternoon.)

It is Mardi Gras down here! Crazy stuff, I tell you, crazy stuff! On Friday, the base put on its own little Mardi Gras Parade and it was quite a lot of fun!

Callie was so sad that the horses were not going to be part of a pony ride; they were just for the parade.

There were some cute floats, and you can see that the Coast Guard didn't need to do anything to look cool. Everybody tossed beads and the kids had a blast cheering and grabbing them.

Here's Delaney making some noise. She shouted "Go, Parade, Go!" for most of the time. So cute.

Joshua taking a break from snagging beads.

Callie and her loot haul!

So, fun times have been had this week. And that doesn't even account for the cousins who came to play! I am a bad, bad person that I didn't take pictures till 10 minutes before they were leaving. We did squish 15 people into our little house, and it went surprisingly smoothly. I'm not sure we would survive more than a week like that, but a few nights was fine. And the kids were so sad to say goodbye to their cousins. I am so happy that we live close enough to my brother to make little visits like these possible!