Is. turned five today, and following past years’ re-enactments, we decided to attempt a then and now photo.
Birthday highlights included a chocolate-sprinkle donut from Dom Bakeries, a few hours at Rolling Hills, dinner at Red Robin, and white cake with chocolate frosting.
Today’s my brother’s birthday, and a big one: the turning point in life when hard-working cake makers recommend you switch from solo candles to a pair of numeral candles (one of them reusable for the next decade). Had a nice talk on the phone with him earlier, Is. leading us in a speakerphonic “happy birthday” song. Will hand deliver the card on Saturday when we get together.
Seems like a few short years ago he (right) was hassling me on the porch of our grandparents’ home on Drummond Island, waving that pop gun in my proximity (without pointing it directly at me because that was against the rules), firing off a cap or two to keep me afraid.
Does Y. know today is his fifth birthday?
An impressively long and heartening string of birthday wishes poured in today
over on Facebook. Add to that a couple of phone calls, a couple of cards, lunch
with friends, and an improvised cake+ice cream social with Is.’s neighborhood
pals, and, well, turning thirty-five hasn’t gone too badly. In fact, it
has all in all been pleasant.
Ph. turns 18 today. Among my many feelings on this day: That was
fast.
I’ve blogged most of his teenage birthdays. You’ll see those entries
listed over at the right, in the Yesterblog (the On This Day in EWM History
feature). And I suppose this entry marks the conclusion of Ph. birthday-blogging,
enjoyable though the practice has been. I mean, adult children can blog their
own birthdays.
To make this celebratory entry stand tall among the others, I had to dig for
a few minutes in the photo album, dredge up a couple of photos that, for me
anyway, span (or somehow thematically encapsulate) Ph.’s childhood. Chose
two:
1.) Giddy-up: this one is from when Ph. was about four years old, when my mom
took him to ride the ponies at some ranch near Raytown, Mo. Apparently
they made a fine time of it. Yes, those are leather chaps.
2.) Scorching the Tiffany Springs nets: here, Ph. is drilling a ball past me
on one of the many, many extended shoot-arounds we enjoyed at the Tiffany
Springs fields just north of Kansas City (bordering on the south edge of MCI
airport). I’d guess he was eight or nine in this photo–the days when we’d hang
around at the field until long after everyone else had (sensibly) gone home.
Our dog had a birthday yesterday. I’m not accustomed to holding a grand celebratory event for a pet’s birthday, but Is. made a convincing case for the baking of cup cakes (with ice cream) in Y.’s honor. She also made a strong pitch for her own part as Y.’s surrogate when it came to extinguishing the candles. So that’s how it was.
My dear friend, Blog, is celebrating a birthday today, marking the start of a sixth year.
You probably aren’t sure what sort of present is appropriate for a blog. I wasn’t sure myself, but after I thought about it for awhile, I decided it would be nice enough to ante up for another year’s worth of hosting. A pinch of money: much easier to give than the gift of time (which is what Blog really needs if it is to avoid rotting in the year to come).
I have no idea where this will rank in self indulgence among my
birthday entries
of all
time.
Inspired by Colourlovers, I’ve
cobbled together a few of the latest hues and tints:
Not exactly the color scheme you’d want to use for sprucing up
the CSS on your site, unless you want that site to look something like me.
Happy birthday to other notable Fifthers:
Donna, KB, Marx, Soren K., and Ann B. Davis.
