After School, Special

                                                                           Photos courtesy of Egan's dad

After school, I like to hang out with my friends for a while.  Following a long day of studying, it's fun to finally spend some of our excess energy with a friendly wrestle on the grass out front.

 I'm small but scrappy.

 And, so far, no one has been seriously injured!

We sometimes wind down by eating snacks and inspecting the neighbor's exposed gas and plumbing lines.  It doesn't get much better than this.

Go-Carts and Bumper Cars

 My new friend, X, invited me to his birthday party at the go-cart track.

 I had a blast riding around on these things, and I survived with barely a scratch.

 I also tried out the bumper cars.  I was the only one there at the time, so it was a great way to figure out how to work the controls without getting whiplash every five seconds.

 Then it was back to the track for a few more spins before pizza and cake.

I think I'm ready for my driver's license.

Carnival/Cinco de Mayo Wrapup

 You know how you can go weeks without anything on the social calendar and then everything gets scheduled for the same date?  Well, that happened to me a couple of Fridays ago.  But with a little strategery and an accommodating driver I made it to multiple engagements.  Grace's school held its annual carnival, which I could not miss, especially since my mom is one of the chief planners of the event.  I got a shaved ice with every available flavor, so my day was made. The brown snow cone is the best!

 I spent quite a bit of time on the giant slide, as well.  Then I was off to the next event.

Hot-footing it back over to my school, I arrived in time for the annual Cinco de Mayo potluck, which always ends with a great pinata beat-down.  Since my friends and I are now the seniors, we waited patiently for the little ones to take their turns trying to hit the giant strawberry or chili pepper -- I don't know what that thing was supposed to be.

When it was my turn, I really whaled on that thing.

Hey, I wanted some candy! Don't judge me.

In the end, we all received our fair share of the candy.

This is definitely one of the best days of the year for me.