My Birthday Blog

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Well, it's true - I am half of 70 years old now. It's been a great week, and month, so I will try to catch you up on the good and interesting stuff. We'll start with the recent and then go to the past. On Wednesday when I came home I noticed a new baseball mit with the other three - a lefty mit for Scotty. I immediately knew that my birthday wish had come true, for if Lisa had been to the Sports Authority, it wouldn't have been to buy a mit, but to get a PING PONG table! Since bringing it home, we have been having a very nice time playing, or, whatever you would call what we have been doing. Lisa and I got a chance to play without the kids on Friday night, and what we thought would be a few minutes of volleys turned into 15 minutes of enjoyment. How nice! Thanks Lisa!!! The boys were hilarious about trying to keep it a secret. Scott said, "We got something for you, but I'm not supposed to say what it is". I could tell that it was going to get out fast, and that it would utterly frustrate Parker if it did, so I helped it out. I said "Oh man! We are never going to get a Ping Pong table" at dinner, to which the younger two said "We did!" I feigned misunderstanding several times, then as soon as Parker was affirming the same thing, I yelled "Yahoooooie!", and did a victory dance. It was fun to make them giggle.

Parker woke me up (too early) on my birthday to play more Ping Pong. I was annoyed, as it was my chance to sleep in, but glad that he wanted to play more. We have played the most of anyone in the family so far.

Scotty loves it too, and usually shows the most coordination in a sport, but is trying to slam it a little hard, and is a little short for the table. He has also stuck a nail through one of the balls already, which he attached to the fridge with a magnet, and will probably add it to one of several creations that are always in the works. His latest is a robot mask made from a box, that now has an old lawnmower starter on the top, with wires and washers, drawings, quarters, plastics spoons, and screw eyes. I think that when he looks at it, he sees with both his real eyes, and his imagination eyes. He has an instinctive builder type of personality. I wanted to start calling him 'putty', but Lisa didn't like it. Although he is like the Tazmanian Devil at times, he is also a very sweet, cuddley little buddy too.

Tommy is fun to watch play sports. He jumps up and down between swings or rolls. With ping pong, he gets frustrated with the paddles, so he just throws the ball to serve, then runs around the table with the paddle, and chases the balls when they go out of bounds. He is the one that is particular about things being put away correctly at the end of the game.

Tommy, or Thomas as he prefers, STILL asks me every day "What did Mittens do today?" If it wasn't so much fun to hear him laugh, I would have stopped telling the stories. He is very excited about going to preschool next year. On Thursday I took some great pictures of Tommy with 'my' new camera, while we were at a 3rd grade music performance. I would have more pictures of Scott, but he wanted to TAKE the pictures rather than be in them. I also have pics of the rest of the family, including Parkers stellar, albeit stoic, performance. The best moment was when they started to sing "An Austrian Went Yodeling", and he gave us, especially Lisa, a big smile, as this is a song that Lisa taught him many years ago.

My Birthday was very nice. Lisa made a German Chocolate cake - I will attach a picture, as it was beautiful. I love my wife. She is trying to go to sleep here next to me, so I am going to use that as an excuse to wrap things up. Goodnight!