Backwards Posting.. Pictures of Kara's Birthday Party

I am so scrambled brain these days. I thought I had put up some pics from Kara's birthday party and pics of her Kamdon cake but I realized I hadn't. I know some of you probably have ulcers from wondering where these photos are, and considering I don't like to disappoint, I'm posting them a month late :)

The theme for this year's birthday was "Art"... Kara loves art and wanted an art party. This is a cake she co-designed with Miss Kamdon. The little paintings were painted by she and Ainsley on fondant canvases.

pre-party irritation (already)

Clay's last day of pre-school was on Kara's birthday.. excellent timing because her party was for "girls only". I'm still not even sure he realizes he missed the whole thing!!

Party table.

Instead of games, the girls painted these little wooden dog houses from Michael's. They were a huge hit and they turned out really cute.

The cake was tye-dyed!! How cool is that?!

It was a good day.. fun celebration of Kara and her 7th birthday. We sure love that girl.

Since We Last Met....

Greetings from mid-June. This summer is FLYING by, folks.. Lots to report since the last update. I know everyone is just waiting with bated breath.

I'll get straight to the point and use the bullet system for this post. Since you last heard from the Johnsons, the following has happened:

* Clay turned 5! Seriously, where has the time gone??? I feel like he should still be 3.. which he occasionally acts like. We aren't partying big until TJ gets here but we did go to Chuck E Cheese with the Sutterfields the night of his birthday for a mini celebration. He thoroughly enjoyed the attention. We're saving the awesome cake for the TJ party to follow.

* Summer 2010 visitor round 3 has come and gone. Our sweet friend Jenn from Fort Worth came up for 2 weeks. We had lots of fun trekking around, showing off Alaska. The weather her first week was awesome. It was pretty dreary the second week. Add the exhaustion from the first week and some summer colds (UGH!), the second week was probably a little anticlimactic. Oh well, it was great to see her. It had been 3 years since we'd seen her with our eyes.. she's been to Africa and back in that time.. and we've moved to AK (obviously). We're thankful for good friends, old ones and new ones.

* Clayton and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. Sometimes it seems like we've been married for 13 months and sometimes it seems like we've been married for 31 years. We got to go out to dinner in Anchorage while Miss Jenn hung out with the kids. AND, we got a new camera!! Hallelujah!!!

Here are some pics to keep you entertained and to prove that the sporadic blogging isn't merely a result of my laziness :)

Fishing at Lake Hillberg on base... the kids and Jenn caught some little fishies. They threw them all back.

Trooper is back with us for a week or so... We love him!!

Happy Birthday to Clay... LOVE HIM!

The family that hikes together.....

Miss Jenn and her fan club at Alyeska.

Clay and Chase eating smores.

Summer 2010 Visitors: Rounds 1 and 2

We're only about 10 days into our summer vacation but I can already tell it's going to FLY by this year. We've already logged 2 visitors so far this year and it's only June 2. I think that's not too shabby. The first round was my mom and dad and grandma Jeanette. My dad actually had meetings in Anchorage so they all trekked up here and made a trip of it. We had so much fun dragging Jeanette all across "south central Alaska". The kids thoroughly enjoyed having 2 grandmothers and a granddad in town, to cater to their every whim (what a shock this week will be when it's just me..not catering to their every whim). The grandparents stayed until early Saturday morning and their replacement, Karen, arrived late Friday night. She stayed through a lovely Memorial Day weekend and left us Monday night. Good times. Lots of ground covered. Yesterday it was back to business as usual. I spent the entire day with my new best friend, the rug doctor, cleaning our foul carpet. I nearly tore off my pinky finger in the process but I have clean carpets... just in time for our next visitor, Miss Jenn from Fort Worth!

Kara's birthday celebration (round 2) with the grandparents.

Chocolate chip cookie dough cake from Cold Stone... yum.

The whole fam damily at the Anchorage Saturday Market.. lots of "bargains".

The grandparents took the kiddos to the animal preserve that wasn't that cool after all.. no bears but lots of moose. At least we can check it off the list of things to do in Anchorage.

Eklutna Lake picnic with the Sutterfields, Fillemans and Ryan. Beautiful day, beautiful lake.

Portage Glacier cruise... it was really warm but there is still an off-glacier breeze on the top of the boat so we gave in to the windbreakers.

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Miss Karen, our frequent Alaska visitor, offered to pierce Kara's ears last Christmas. Kara thought about it, Daddy agreed so it happened last weekend. Kara was pretty brave though I know the "deadening" part hurt.

I think this picture is SO FUNNY with the needle hanging out of her ear. Kara does not share in that humor. At all.

All smiles and 2 pierced ears. I was hedging bets that Kara would only end up with one pierced ear.. I was wrong! She did great. Thanks go out to Miss Karen for all the pokes she gave out last weekend ;)