happy birthday, dear kirsten

It was so nice to spend time together in celebration of your birthday!

Cake time!

Nice job!

Happy birthday, beautiful girl.

I hope the year ahead is all kinds of spectacular, just perfect.

This family has only ever been who it is because  YOU are in it.

Lucky little old us.

Love, Mom and Dad and Everybody
 

I ran across this old picture a few weeks ago and sent it by facebook to Huldah, who is currently running for office, "Back when you and Kirby were babies,"  She had not seen this before and was delighted.  You were babies, so sweet.

And this precious little baby:

I love this old classic:

And this sweet photo, your guy with his ears blowing in the breeze--

happy birthday, kirsten

Birthday cake in the field, at the big bonfire

It was a lovely evening, plenty warm near the fire.

Kirsten, here's hoping the year ahead is wonderful, and wishing you the happiest birthday.

Love forever, Mom and Dad and Everybody

 

happy birthday, kirsten

Okay, this pic is of the very hard fought Nok Hockey battle.   And battle, I do mean.  Kirsten brought this, arranged prizes, the whole works.  And then they fought, like scrappers will do.

Kirsten?  You are impressive, honestly.

And the cakes--we had two, five different flavors involved, all good, celebrating in the dark.

Gift second, after cake.  Changing up the birthday party order.  It's fine. 

Some pics from the past, always good:

I hope it was a great day.

Thanks for being ours.

Happy Birthday, with love forever, Mom and Dad

a fine monday

Today Kari and I picked up this kid at lunchtime after she was done with her first day of preschool.

She wanted Wendy's, so we looked up the location of the closest one and bought some lunch.

Then we went to the nursery up by their house and bought two dogwoods, a burning bush, and an arborvitae, and also a little mum she wanted to give to her own mum.  Kari picked a dark pink one for her to give to Heidi. 

Jay planted those purchases later, but before she went home we walked to the park and played for a while.

After this, Kari went back to her dorm, had a class this evening, and I drove the little one home again.

Julia had volleyball tonight and Kirsten joined us in the bleachers.  This morning as I watched the queen's funeral procession winding through Edinburgh, it brought back lovely memories of the semester Kirsten spent in Scotland, the green, green hills, the winding little roads and historic buildings, the Loch Ness monster, the dorm room in a castle, her taking dizzy video of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel a few weeks later. 

It is fun to be in the old gyms, be part of the crowd on a Monday night, cheering them on.

That's such a Julia expression, biting the inside of her lip under stress:

They did not win, but it was a close game, fun to watch.

And then we drove home in the early darkness of September, quiet car gliding down quiet streets, lights shining in all the windows along the way, glad for a perfect weekend and all the things that make a random Monday special.

Love, MOM aka GRANDMA