who's got a birthday?

Kirsten does!

Here they all are, Halloween 1986, her one week old--see her tiny on the pillow?

She grew pretty fast for a while.

Here's daddy with both his girls.

I love this crazy nakey picture of you Kirsten, one year old.   You're so darn cute, I could grab you up and smooch your neck.

Playing house, sort of.

Here's how we used to be all the time, sucking the thumb, twirling the hair

And here s my favorite picture of you and Pauline.  The story of Pauline is that she went everywhere with Kirsten, and then one day was lost, terribly lost.

We searched the whole house, called places we'd been--Fleet Farm, the supper club where my grandparents' 50th anniversary party had been held, the lost and found at all sorts of places, looking, looking everywhere for her.

A couple weeks later she turned up in the He-Man castle, and we were so excited she was found! Right in our own house!

This was before cell phones, but Jay had a pager.  If we called it, we could leave a brief message, and then  he'd have to drive to a pay phone to call us back.   We didn't want him to have to do that, so we called it and together just yelled, "We found Pauline!"

He said he heard that come shouting out of his belt and laughed right out loud.

Oh yes, Pauline.

A lot of years have passed since then.


Here you are, all grown up, college graduation.

And no kids ever had a more devoted big sister, or niece and nephews a more devoted aunt.

Your whole life you have brought dad and me nothing but happiness, pride and FUN. We all know this family is better because of you.

Twenty-five years of loving Kirby?

Lucky old us.

love you more than you can imagine, Mom and Dad and everybody