steveprattfamily.com The adventures of the Pratt family in Vancouver - Steve, Lisa, Cedar, Dawson, and Sandy (the dog).

So Cedar turned 6 yesterday.  6!!!  She got loads of great presents, including a watch, a kids camera, and a “Canadian Girl’ doll that she has been desperately craving for close to a year.

Another perk of birthdays in our household is that Sandy always helps to unwrap the gifts…

But the highlight of the big day was her birthday party.  She invited 14 girls, all 5 or 6 years old, to our house for a “Ruby The Red Fairy” party.  For those not in the know, this is a reference to the Rainbow Fairy collection of books about a vast variety of fairies who are constantly being plagued by the dastardly efforts of Jack Frost and his army of half-witted Goblins.

So our house was quickly filled up with Fairies of all colours of the rainbow.  After the girls arrived, Lisa revealed a secret to me - that I had to pretend to be Jack Frost for the duration of the party and, at some point, steal all the presents the kids had brought for Cedar.

It was all VERY funny.  I wrote a note that was quickly discovered - it revealed Jack Frost’s plans to steal all the presents and sent the fairies into a hyperactive panic.  I sent several more notes during the next hour, each one increasingly odd, but getting the girls more and more riled up.

They went over the top when Jack Frost actually ’stole’ all the presents while they were out in the yard playing, although they quickly found them hidden on our front porch.  They TOTALLY lost it when the presents went missing a second time and it took almost half an hour to find them.

However, karma is a weird thing. After all the panic I caused, I got paid back big time.

After we recovered the presents for a second time, we hid them under a blanket so that Jack Frost wouldn’t be able to find them again.   When the kids were in the kitchen eating cake, I moved the presents yet again and hid MYSELF under the blanket.  The kids came roaring in after cake, extremely pumped for the present opening.  One of the kids ripped off the blanket, at which point I popped out and screamed that I was Jack Frost and scared the living hell out of them.

I hopped up in triumph, surveyed the screaming and mad psychosis I’d created, and enjoyed more than a small bit of satisfaction at a job well done.

And then… WHAMMO!

One of the girls ran up and HAMMERED me in the nuts.  HAMMERED.

Fairies win again.  Poor Jack Frost, who hobbled off to find an ice pack.

Posted under Cedar News, Humour

Cedar has recently become obsessed with money.  I think it’s because she’s wanted several toys, including something called a Canadian girl that costs about $100 (!), and we’ve told her to wait until her birthday and Christmas.  She’s become frustrated that she can’t get what she wants exaclty when she wants it and has decided that getting lots and lots of money is the solution to all her problems.  (Scary how early that gets ingrained…).

Cedar and I began bargaining - she wanted me to give her $100 for doing nothing.  I told her that you don’t just get money for free because you want it - you have to earn it.  If she wants money, she has to do something of value, like chores.  I also told her that no matter how many chores she did, I would never give her $100.  Maybe $1.

After about 15 minutes of hard-core negotiations, we came up with a win-win solution yesterday.  Cedar rubbed my feet for 5 minutes and I gave her 65 cents.

The Maggot is infuriated. (She claims its horrible that I paid our daughter money to rub my feet, but I think she’s just jealous that she didn’t think of it first.)

Posted under Cedar News, Children, Humour

This week marked another major milestone for Cedar - the start of Grade One, which also means her first full day at school (including lunch!!!).  Here’s the annual pic with past ones for comparison:

Posted under Cedar News

Went a bit crazy with the camera at the beach this morning, but got some VERY cute pics of the kids…

Posted under Children, Vancouver