Birthday Happiness Part III

Boston is a lovely city. It is even lovelier when you are with your siblings, and when they are spoiling you because it happens to be your birthday (and because you happen to freakishly love your birthday).

Here are a few highlights:

Friday night we arrived and played the recently begun Kooistra tradition of Rummy Royal. We also continued the tradition begun years ago at some steak house called "Make fun of Lauren when she's had a bit too much to drink". (It's only because it doesn't take much, I say in self-defense...)

Saturday began with early morning coffee and conversation. Kara made us pancakes once Keith finally emerged from bed (my, how that boy can sleep). We lolled around until it was time for...

...presents! My second gift (of many) for the weekend was my first scarf (of many) for the weekend.

(I do love a pretty scarf or two--or three...)


Then we went shopping! Since this is Keith's favorite weekend activity...oops, I mean, since Keith was such a good sport, he and his friend Jon took advantage of the atmosphere in Crate & Barrel to do a little catching up.



Then it was time for dinner where my friends Gene & Kathy met us. We had yummy food, and then the waitress brought me this flaming coffee sundae. I don't know how she knew that coffee ice cream is my favorite (and really the only kind of ice cream I particularly enjoy), or that the chocolate cookie on top was the kind my mother bought when I was a kid for some special dessert she made when she went to other people's houses. I was never allowed to eat them unless she had one left over--so they are on my list of "special treats".


Then we marched through the cold July twilight to the Hatch Shell to partake in the free Temptations concert occurring there. My two favorite parts of this event were 1) that Karen, my old roommate from when I lived in Princeton who now lives in Boston (an ironic twist, since I lived in Boston before I moved to Princeton....), met us there and 2) Dave and Kara dancing like weirdos. (They are made for each other, these two...)




We left a bit before the concert was over to beat the crowd to The Sevens, a quaint neighborhood bar where we finished out the evening with good conversation, baseball, and Guinness. (Yes, I was in such high spirits that I didn't voice my suspicion that the boys were only in this adventure for the flat screen tv above the bar...)




(I'm not sure I've ever had Guinness before. Growing up, I tell you...)

That was it for Saturday. I officially headed into my birthday on the train home, but I already felt as if I'd celebrated sufficiently. Nonetheless, the next day we had birthday cheesecake for breakfast, and then picked up some lunch at a deli around the corner from Kara's place. We took it to a park nearby and played bocce ball for an extended period of time. During this tournament, I realized how fun it is to say "Kara-Qualley-Kooistra" and decided I would call dear Kara this for the rest of her sweet life.

That was until she beat us all: I now call her "Killer-Qualley-Kooistra".

If you want to see us playing nice, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDVccrQFeO4

When it was time to head toward the car to leave for home, we all pouted.

But, we rallied, and had 15 extra minutes to chat on the stoop of Dave's next door neighbor.

I reveled in the beauty of having such lovely sisters, and do not know how I got so lucky. (Those boys have good taste, which I suppose is not surprising, seeing as they had such a fine example of quality womanhood [I'm talking about me] before them their entire lives... :-] )

I also don't know how I got so lucky to have such great brothers.

(This picture is my favorite from the weekend. It captures Davy at his finest (ie., nuts) and Keith with his most genuine smile (all heart that guy...like a big teddy bear)...I can almost hear him laughing to match it...)

An excellent way to spend a birthday I'd say!