Ben's Birthday 2013

When family lives far away, celebrating birthdays together rarely happens . . .so when it does happen, it is wonderful!! Our nephew, Ben, is in his senior year at Vanderbilt and he will be going on to Medical School when he graduates. We are so proud of him. He is such a well-rounded young man - really smart, kind, and good.  When Ben and his brothers were little boys, my sister-in-law, Susie, would bring them from wherever they were living - Virginia, Delaware, Iowa, Indiana, etc. - and they would stay for a month in the summer. During those days, I was mostly a stay at home mom and our kids spent many long summer days together swimming and going to the park and movies. Susie and I would spend hours refereeing four boys and one little girl as they played together. Seems like someone was always crying . . .but it was fun. If I close my eyes, I can still see us sitting around Uncle John and Aunt June's pool . . .I can hear the kids as they jumped off the diving board . . .I can see them eagerly eating their snack of graham crackers (usually chockwit - translation - chocolate) and lemonade that Aunt June brought out every single time on a tray. Those are memories that I hope I never forget.

Then something happened. Our kids all grew up. The youngest boy is a junior in high school. The oldest three - Laura, Glenn and Paul -  have all graduated from college and are adults. Real adults. How could that be? Ben is going on to medical school to be a doctor. I guess I have to call him an adult, too - good grief, he is going to medical school!!   We still have sweet Grace who is finishing her freshman year of high school but she came along too late to participate in those long lazy days that I am remembering.

So this year, we celebrated Ben's birthday when he drove down to spend Easter weekend with us. We live close enough for him to drive for a weekend when it is just too far for him to drive all the way home.  It just happened to be the same week of his birthday this year ---- which was great!!! I was trying to remember the last birthday celebration we were able to share with him. He came for Easter last year but Easter was in April so his birthday had already passed. It has been quite a few years!!

Grandmother made a carrot cake and it was yummy!!

Happy birthday to you, Ben! You are a fine young man and we are so proud of you!!!

p.s. Have you noticed that we celebrate a lot of birthdays?  Life is a gift - let's celebrate!!  Don't you agree?