Ryan's Birthday Dinner

Ryan doesn't ask for much for his birthday. All he ever wants is a home-cooked meal. I even let him choose what he wanted. He chose stuffed shells, because, as he jokingly tells everyone, it's the only thing I can really cook. It's not true, but he likes to tell it like that. Whatever. He also asked for carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

So, we invited James and Sabrina, and our friend from our days at the Rock Church, Christina, over for dinner and a game of Cranium. We hadn't seen James and Sabrina since the dog show a year and a half ago, and we hadn't seen Christina since we left the Rock almost four years ago. It was nice to get together with all of them and just catch up on everything.

I guess I have to admit that the guys won the game that night. It was close, but only because they were really unlucky with their rolls. So, it was a humbling experience to lose, but we still had a great time.

Here are some photos and a couple of videos of the evening.

Happy birthday, Ryan!

And this one's for Kyle



Sabrina and Christina posing for the camera

Gene serving up ice cream.

Leah enjoying a beer with her cake and ice cream (root beer!)

Ryan and Krista being silly (surprise)

James is obviously enjoying something funny.

Ryan really enjoys the sound of the timer song.

Puppet Master Christina trying to get her puppet, Sabrina, to act like she's mowing a lawn

The guys are trying to work out a Data Head question.

Here's Ryan acting out "Trick or Treat."



And here's a rare photo of Ryan not being silly. He's so handsome!

I Would Swear They Were Sisters by Blood!

It's amazing to me how Leah and Krista are exactly like biological sisters. They can be mean to each other one minute, and then playing "fort" the next.

Even though they are four years apart, they are almost the same size now. In fact, they wear each others' clothes and shoes often. I think Krista will pass Leah in height this year. And then it's payback time! Leah will start getting the hand-me-down clothes.

The girls have their own room now, but lately, Krista has been sleeping in Leah's room. When I told her that she needed to sleep in her own room, she got really upset. I told her I was going to turn her bedroom into a guest room and that she and Leah could go back to sharing a room, and she said, "Okay!" (But Leah said, "No way!") What's really funny about it is that Leah has a queen-sized bed in her room, but Krista sleeps on the floor. She insists that she likes to sleep on the floor, but I'm not so sure. I could totally picture Leah telling her that she can sleep in her room, but not in her bed (that's what I would have done when I was a kid--and Kathi would have happily slept on the floor, too).

Leah reminds me so much of me when I was a teenager. She absolutely HATES to go up to a store clerk herself to ask a question or to buy something. She makes Krista do it (Krista has no problem doing it). I remember using Kathi to do the same thing for me. I feel so bad for Leah, but I do make her do it sometimes, because practice builds confidence. And, if you get out of practice, you have to start all over. It's really a challenge to live a productive life or to be successful in a career when you have crippling shyness or social anxiety disorder, or whatever you want to call it. I hope she can overcome it before she is an adult.

But, when push comes to shove, I know that Leah loves Krista. She defends her all the time at the Boys and Girls Club. She has told me in private that she thinks Krista is funny and a good singer, but she told me that if I ever told Krista that she said that, she'd deny it. I completely understand, but it makes me secretly very happy.