Mongoose Mayhem

I decided to splurge and get a custom made cake from a local bakery.  The shop had a 1/2 off deal so it was perfect timing.

My delicious chocolate and buttercream frosting cake!  It has some pretty gold shimmer all over too ;)

This is a picture from my 10th birthday.  It was a really fun, memorable day - seems like yesterday.  Diane took us skiing then we came home to Biddy's house and enjoyed some birthday cake.  I'm pretty sure the cake was Baskin Robbins ice cream cake since that was my favorite choice and the one Aunt Biddy always bought for my birthday celebration ;)

We whipped up that neck guard in 5 minutes with some fleece and the sewing machine.

The weather outside is frightful and the fire is so delightful

It was high enough that we had to force the backdoor open for the dogs!

Perfect winter food - homemade chili

All of this is solid ice - it looks like snow but it is really frozen tundra THAT WON'T MELT

Mike and his buddy Will from up the street.

Buying those sleds on Monday was a good call!  Had to go to the ski shop to find them.

Our secret sledding hill.  I realize off season that this would rock in the winter if we got any snow.  It's was created when they built the new private hospital (just up our street) next to the retirement home (HAHA), which backs up to part of a neighborhood.  They had to create a large drainage area for all that which ended up having great sledding potential.  This doesn't look real snowy but everything is covered in ice so it still worked great with the sleds.

 

The condition of our main neighborhood roadways - a few inches of solid ice

Mike and will on our trek home from the secret sledding spot.  It was soooo cold walking back in the wind!

This concrete work reminded us of the scary story "IT" by Stephen King with Pennywise the Clown

The drudgery of going to work everyday

This was the open ceiling inside a stone room/chamber - it felt very Egyptian to us

Jimmy's photo - I really like the color contrasts

Jimmy took this as well - it's his favorite

The other end of the open air passage, which made me think of the 70s Land Before Time show

This work represent the lives lost in the Holocaust

Mike took this pictures - very interesting "city" perspective with the winter tree and skyscraper

Their art teacher, Sona, snapped this one of us

Mike's LEGO version of an air craft carrier - look close and you'll see it even has an infirmary in the back left corner

Jim wasn't so happy with getting gingerbread duty... :P

St Peter's Cathedral -- New Orleans

Jackson Square, New Orleans

St Peters, New Orleans

Our trip came to an end...but we forgot to tell you about the exciting start!

Libby came along on our trip but promptly hurt herself 30 minutes after we arrived.  Diagnosis? Dislocated hip.  She ended up requiring major surgery - an FHO or femoral head osteoectomy.  That means they sawed off the ball of her hip joint. It was quite a vacation drama but went well overall.  Two months later, she's getting around pretty darn well. 

If you look at her hip you'll see the big incision and stitches

I had to post the silly face version of the photo.