Kali Fest 2007

Today is my little sister, Kalin's 21st birthday.

On one hand, it is hard to believe that 21 years have passed. On the other hand, Kali has been a grown-up since she was born, so it seems as though it's about time that she pass this threshold.

To celebrate her birthday, and her legal ability to imbibe alcohol, we, her sisters, took her to Kelleher's, an Irish pub in Peoria. The joke was that the poor girl had to spend her 21st birthday with people who are usually in bed by 9:30 p.m. but we wanted to make it fun for her, so we came up with some fun things....

Yesterday in speaking with Kali, I asked her if she wanted us to wear anything in particular. "Aside from matching t-shirts?" she joked. That was enough to inspire t-shirts for all of us using this graphic. They said:

Kali Fest 2007; 21 May 6:30-8:30 p.m.; We're gonna rock and roll "all night"!

We also made her a crown with stars and a pageant sash that says birthday girl.

This photo was pretty much staged with any empty glasses we could find.

Marissa was in rare form and this was pretty much the theme of the evening -- Roo carrying on and Kali looking uncomfortably elsewhere.

And here we all are.

We laughed a whole lot and we did some pretty significant celebrating of our little Kalin Dara. Kali is among three of the most clever, original, hilarious, and intelligent people I've ever known. When I was 11 and she came into our family, we didn't know what to expect. What we got was this spectacular creature who made our family complete. She's an amazing, wonderful person and she's my sister. Happy Birthday, Bukes! I love you!!

Eureka in full mocking-mode

This weekend Annalivia, Daniel and I are going to go to my hometown of Eureka to visit a friend and spend some time with the family. I love going home to my hometown and were gas not outrageous and my children slightly uncooperative, I'd probably find a way to head down there semi-weekly.
The only problem with going home is that I long for it when I'm away. This was particularly compounded a few weeks ago when we went to Eureka to spend the night and give Daddy some time to do homework without being bothered by his needy wife or verbal children.
It just so happened that Dennis' need to have peace and quiet coincided with the weekend of Eureka's Lilac Festival and Fine Arts Fair which is an annual event held on the campus of Eureka College, my alma mater.
This year the festival was on a day when it was almost 80 and the sun was shining. It was a tad windy, but it was gorgeous. As we came into town from my parent's house which is an old dairy farm on the edge of town, we saw that Main Street had been lined with American flags put up by the boyscouts, headed up by my scoutmaster father.
We first headed out to the lake where all the cousins got their picture taken together as directed by Grammy Adaline.

We hung around to see my nephew play soccer with the Eureka Youth Recreation Association and saw all sorts of parents being supportive and kindly competitive (really, honestly).

Annalivia and her cousin Cleya ran sprints under my direction. I'd have them run to a fence about 40 yards away before I counted to some random number. They enjoyed it and the lovely side benefit was that they were VERY tired out.
Little Lirah, who is in the stroller in the above picture took a nap on her handsome daddy's chest and channeled Yoda. Wise already she is.

And my sisters ran in the Eureka Spring Classic. And yes, that sister on the left is Lillia, who gave birth a week before I did. And ran five miles, but first walked out to the lake and then walked back home (another two miles). Sheesh.

Marissa placed in the top five(I can't remember which place exactly) in her age bracket.

Then we went to the college to hang out at the Lilac Festival. The College usually has a gorgeous grove of lilacs in bloom that was developed in the first half of the century by a professor; this year they were snowed upon, so no lilacs. Artists set up booths amongst the academic buildings and sell jewelry and paintings and scultpure and pottery etc. There is also live music, this year from a wonderful bluegrass band called Ashton Junction which features the banjo music of a native Eurekan. Several church youth groups sell treats, as well as the Eureka Hornet Music Boosters. And the Rotary sells porkchops, which Eureka Rotary Club does better than anybody else on earth, I think. My grandfather was collecting money for Rotary and came over to see Daniel. Daniel looks more like Gramps than any other family member, we think.
And we met up with my college friend, Remy, and her two energetic boys.

Essentially, it was my hometown at its best: beautiful weather, American pride, wholesome family activities, healthy athletes, artists and non-lilacs, good coffee and better friends, Gramps and Grammy, sisters and brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews.
I want to live there, too.
Can you tell?

My unexpected friend

Today is my little sistah Lil's birthday. She's 25 today. She's also 39 weeks pregnant.
I am so thankful for Lillia. She is a friend I am still kind of surprised that I have.
Lillia is 6 1/2 years younger than I am. When she was born, I don't think my sister, Marissa, and I knew what to make of her. Consequently, we made life pretty difficult for little Lil.
Somehow, despite our best efforts, Lillia grew up into this person who is gracious and kind, easy-going yet passionate, disciplined and devoted. She's hilarious and intelligent and has always been one of the most generous and creative people I've ever met. She's a great mother and a blessed wife. Essentially, she is who I want to be.
What is especially cool is that Lillia is a great friend to me. She is the sister I call a couple times a week and she lets me talk to her about everything. She's great at maintaining levity and also being a sympathetic commiserator when necessary.
She's just one cool chicka.
And today, she is 25 and more than ready to give birth to her second child, her second daughter. I'm excited about that niece, but, frankly, today I'm more excited that God gave me this little sister to love and adore and treasure. Now that I've gained some wisdom with age, I see that her family were the ones who got the gift on her birthday. She really is amazing. And I'm glad she's here.