more party pics :-)

Kimberly's Fabulous Forty . . .

. . . and what a surprise it was :-) The memory I will treasure most is her sister and brother rearranging their too full lives to fly up with me yesterday morning to share this milestone moment in their big sister's life. And we have today together--just the four of us--while Kelsey, Garrett and Kira are in school . . .

More later, but here are some of the zillion pics we took to capture yesterday's celebration for posterity.

old enough for "big school"

why is it . . .

. . . that some birthdays are seasons while others are blips in time?

Our March birthdays are like that--the blips in time. We pool our moments for a communal event--some years here (Jamie, Christie, and I) and others with Garrett and Kira, the two distant first-week-of-spring grandbabies. Not that I'm complaining, not at all. The year Jamie arrived, my one New Year's resolution was that he would make his appearance before my birthday. He did--the evening before, 7:49pm I think . . . I've never been much of a birthday cake fan so sharing a cake has been a blessing in disguise. Funny, but this year, when my officemate surprised me with a cake at work, I realized that was my first "just for me" birthday cake in recent memory! I still ate only one piece and gave the rest, willingly, away :-)

In contrast, Michelle's mid-July birthday has been, almost from her arrival, a month-long event, usually combined with a family vacation week, often at the beach but sometimes in the mountains. Cassie's arrival, late July instead of early August, almost three years ago has meant sharing the summer limelight, but it hasn't shortened the celebration, not one long July day of it!

Which brings me to April . . . and my shun-the-limelight firstborn child. How could we not celebrate, even from a distance and with cyberspace tributes, her milestone birthday this year? Does she not, too, deserve to linger a while in our reflections of the joy she has brought into each of our lives? We love you, Kimberly :-)

But you've got serious competition for the April spotlight, oh girl of mine. That sweet baby boy of my baby boy will be officially old enough for "big school" tomorrow. Michael will have two parties in his honor this year--one for us adults tonight to savor the gift-opening ritual (hope FedEx has come through by the time I come home today) and one with his preschool friends and other children tomorrow. I will, of course, be there for both.

Oops, one more! Campbell will be 9 next week, with a party of his own for our family since he also shares his birthday with his half-sister. Like his mother, he has no problem with the extended birthday season :-) Mason, who has February all to himself, also celebrates twice.

I'll blog about Kelsey's May sweet sixteen another time . . .

Definitely a milestone birthday year!

when we lived in the mountains . . .

. . . and what a view! The daffodils were blooming at the foot of Parker Mountain and, at home, a quarter mile up the gravel drive, baby brother Jamie had finally arrived.

Two short years later came our time to say good-bye . . .

caught napping

bathing beauty

Christmas at Mama's: 1976

For Jamie and Michelle, this would be their one Christmas Day at Mama's house--that last winter we lived in the Virginia mountains outside Charlottesville. But for Kimberly, who spent her first two Christmases here healing Mama's heart after Granddaddy Owens died, this Christmas was about coming home . . .

Like the angel on her white Christmas stocking, Kimberly was our hope on the darkest of days, in the darkest of times . . .


Above the mantle in this picture hung a portrait of her grandfather. There are no pictures of Kimberly with Granddaddy Owens--except the one in my memory.

It's a July afternoon in 1969. Daddy's sitting on one of those folding lawn chairs on the brick patio just outside the room pictured here, holding his first grandchild in his lap . . . I so want to snap that picture, for her, but I know he would want, in her created memory, to be the man in that portrait above the mantle. So I put the camera, and the wish, away--but never, ever, the memory of that July afternoon in 1969.

a season for celebrations:

Kimberly's birthday, Easter, and spring

and Mommy made both dresses :-)

how quickly she grew . . . but some things never change--like the smile on her lips and in her eyes :-)

Minuet and Dance of the Blessed Spirits

Even as a child I was intrigued by the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice . . . My first encounter with this musical selection from Gluck's opera of the same name (as the love story) was Kimberly's gift to us. Her first public performance of this piece? Her brother's First Communion--on his 9th birthday.

Not so many years ago she surprised me--made me cry, too!--by playing this piece in church during one of my visits to Pittsburgh. Of all the music with which she has enriched my life, this is our closest tie, our song. I guess that also makes James Galway, whom she had the honor of meeting in person when he visited South Carolina many years ago, our musician.


Thank you, Kimberly, for this gift, this memory, beyond price!

She has a reputation, I hear,

for creating the most original Halloween costumes on the block. What you may not know is that practice is what made her perfect at the art of disguise . . . Check out the gypsy and her impish brother captured for posterity here . . . Wouldn't you love to know her thoughts?

love u infinity plus one

63.

the local March birthdays trio

a Toy Store story . . .

I am really intrigued by what Windows Moviemaker chose to leave out from the original videoclip. You'll need to use your imagination here to picture Percy's magical transition from Cassie's hand to Michael's and her predictable two-year-old response :-)

There's another story in the picture in the background. When my son was about 9 or 10, he decided he was ready to attempt counted cross-stitch. Having an older sister who excelled at the craft was both his inspiration and his project's eventual salvation. I purchased complimentary designs: Antique Store (in the background) for me and Toy Store for Jamie. Both were tucked away, unfinished, for years, until Kimberly decided to surprise Jamie one Christmas by completing his picture. (A snapshot of the project, as Jamie had left it, is taped to the back of the frame.) A few Christmases later, a completed Antique Store (probably the last time I attempted anything in the way of embroidery . . .) joined Toy Store in the nursery being prepared (yes, that wallpaper had to go!) for Michael's arrival.

childhood dreams are made of this . . .

holding court

butterfly flying high

Cassie is 2