September 2009 Archives

The cinnamon roll birthday breakfast and the poppyseed chicken birthday dinner are about as constant as the twinkle in Rachel's eyes.

Sarah made the day even more special by getting up early to have breakfast with her sister and then prepared a beautiful birthday table for dinner. She gave Rae a special "Sister Twins" birthday card and a "sisters" necklace followed by a manicure and pedicure.

When the girls were small, they wanted to dress alike and ran around singing "We're the sister twins!" Now they are appalled at each other if the other one wears something even remotely similar and they yell at each other if one of them wears the other's clothes without asking or doesn't return an item to it's proper place. But when there is some important event, they each consult the other about what to wear and how to do their hair.

Sarah has already admitted that when she goes to college next year, she will be lost without Rachel . I'm thankful I had a brother, but even more thankful that I was blessed with girls and the chance to experience sisterhood vicariously.

When Rachel was only 3 or 4, we were having a very important family discussion about how we care for our bodies.

After the usual lecture about food, nutrition, exercise, etc., the conversation took a turn and queries were made about body piercing and tatoos . . . . . . .

Sarah thought for a few moments and then deducted that if you got a bunch of tatoos all over your body, you just wouldn't look like a Gramma when you got older.

Translation: It is more important to be a Gramma than to "look cool" when you are younger. Sound logic in my book! (Maybe I have done something right as a parent.)

However, Steve twisted the conversation and taunted the girls by telling them that he wanted to get a tatoo: a NIKE swoosh on his bottom.

"Daaaaad," Rachel quickly replied, "all you have to do is get a straight line because it will turn into a swoosh when you get older."

True story.

Steve has continued to threaten the girls with a NIKE swoosh and swore he would get his tatoo when he turned 50.

Did he?

Or didn't he?

Kinda . . . . .

Surely, you expected a couple of cracks about Steve's birthday, didn't you?

Steve tried to escape, but he survived another birthday afterall..............

Admittedly, it has been a tough couple of months/years for the birthday boy: hamstring tear skiing with Rachel, bike accident, Achilles tear and 5 days in the hospital this July with pneumonia, just to mention a few. For a guy who has been empowered by the endorphins of exercise for years, it has been a painful lesson in patience and perserverance.

So . . . . . . . last week, Steve and Eric escaped to the upper penninsula of Michigan for a father-son, I don't-want-to-be hassled-about-being-?0-years-old camping trip.

The scenery was spectacular as the photos attest. They said the sand dunes in the UP make the dunes on Lake Michigan look like ant hills and marveled at the eroded/sculpted cliffs and beaches on Lake Superior.

The boys are already talking about the second annual UP camping trip, but they were glad to finally return home . . .
. . . where they were ambushed upon arrival for a family game of paintball!

(Thanks to Sarah's boyfriend Joel for equipping our SWAT team)

We finished this untraditional birthday party with dinner, old photos (of course) and an untraditional birthday cake.

Looks good, eh? (The "cake" too.)

(He still gets asked if he is Eric's brother.)

Fabulous, father, funny, fit, fanatic, friend, focused, fortunate . . . . .

(Happy anniversary of the day you were born. We love you!!!)

Sarah and I spent the last 4 days Erie, Pennsylvania where the LCA volleyball and soccer teams competed in the NCSAA Great Lakes Classic.

When they were free, the volleyball players also doubled as the LCA cheerblock for the soccer team. The girls wore the boys' soccer jerseys and cheered them to victory on the first day. The girls even got their coach to play some "circle games" with them during half-time. (He almost escaped into the woods --- see top right.)

Three of the four volleyball seniors (gulp!!!)

The soccer guys also made a very big and loud cheerblock for the volleyball players, but the most spirited cheerleader was one of the soccer moms. She is also a teacher at LCA and is in the middle of chemo for breast cancer.

Unfortunately, the volleyball and soccer teams usually competed at the same time which left me as the only one in the LCA cheerblock for the volleyball team, but my cheers did get a compliment (I think) from one of the refs.

Both teams placed third in the tournament.

Meanwhile, Daddy stayed back in Warsaw with Rae. She had a big week in volleyball as well with a tough loss to rival Lakeview on Thursday and then an all-day tournament on Saturday which ended up pitting Edgewood against Lakeview for first place. After a long day, Edgewood proved themselves to be the champs!!!

File photos since Daddy was in charge ;o)