Mother's Birthday, Robins' Birthday, Father's Day

On June 13th, Mother turned 86 years old.  A few of us got together for dinner and hugs.  We love you Mother.

Several weeks ago Mr. and Mrs. Robin built a fancy nest on a downspout a mere 3 feet outside the Crow Family Room window. We've been watching the diligent parents sit on the eggs.

Presto ... babies are born.  Mom and Dad scurry around gathering bugs and worms. 

The babies grow super fast and now ... they are gone.  The nest is empty.  No more Robins at the Crow house.

Last weekend was Father's Day weekend.  Helen's work schedule was slammed so Jonas and I joined the Gs who were hanging out with SACII & Cheryl at their wonderful vacation condo on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri.  The condo is super comfortable and the view from their deck is wonderful.

Donna, Anthony and Andy joined the fun too.

We toured Branson Landing, enjoyed a fancy dinner 

and breathtaking views on an excursion train,

shot some Zombies at The Castle of Chaos, rode go-carts (I'm the blur in front ... that's SACII behind me in the Hawaiian print shirt),

got Jonas a real Banana Split,

spent part of Father's Day on a boat

and got to spend some fun time with people we love.

Happy Mother's Birthday, Happy Robin's Birthday and Happy Father's Day.

Helen serves me ... and 9 others

Tonight Helen volunteered to serve as a celebrity waitress at Via's Pizza and donate all of her tips to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Topeka.   Not willing to miss the opportunity to be waited on by Helen, I gathered family and friends to witness the event.

Everybody had a blast!

Unfortunately, we found big ugly flies in all of our drinks ... food, too.

Even so, it was great having Helen wait on me.

Helen did a really good job, too.

We tipped her very (very) well.

100,000 views

Today is the day .... Cat protects old dog hits 100,000 views on You Tube.  No, its nothing compared to the views of a Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga video but hey, I was just walking the neighbors' dog when I decided to pull out my old BlackBerry and record the events.

You Tube even contacted me about allowing advertising on this video.  Amazing!  So, here is a screen shot showing the views and the advertising.

The neighbors are now insisting on a cut of the advertising revenues.  

Does anybody know a good lawyer?

Memorial Day 2011

Today we celebrated the lives of people we love ...

and celebrated living with people we love.

Happy Memorial Day and thanks to all who have sacrificed for our freedom.

Kelley gets married

Tonight we went to Kelley Van Sickle's wedding.  Memories flooded back as I watched Gregg walk his daughter down the aisle.  Gulp.

 Having survived a half-continent multi-month relationship, Kelley and Tommy are perfect together.

We laughed, danced, ate cupcakes and took a bunch of pictures ... including some of ourselves.

Oh yes ... we also found the photo booth and acted like 8 year olds.  I'm blaming Helen's friend Barbara.

It was fun.  Congratulations to Kelley and Tommy.

Good-bye Nickolai and Leticia

After months in Topeka, Nickolai and Leticia leave for home tomorrow morning.  We have enjoyed getting to know these young people and marvel at their talents and composure.  Last night we hosted a good-bye dinner for Nick and his parents ... who arrived from Norway to accompany him home (after stops in Florida, DC and New York).  Real parents, host parents, friends and adoptive host parents posed for this group photo:

Today, we kissed Leticia good-bye as she heads home to Panama.  Here she is with her host mother Marie.

We will miss you Nickolai and Leticia, but remember ... you have a home in Kansas.

Arkansas golf trip ...

Last week was my annual golf pilgrimage to Bella Vista, Arkansas.  The same old guys showed up ...

and despite some rain, lots of golf was played.  With 5 scenic golf courses within 15 minutes of each other ...

we had a blast!  Some of us even wore our shirts from the Children's Miracle Network Charity Golf Tournament

allowing us to say that ... we did it for the kids.

Graduation Day

Yesterday Jonas graduated from Topeka High School.  Here is a picture of him in his cap and gown:

and here is one of him with John and Martina at one of the many graduation parties he (we) attended.

Our friend Myriah also graduated from Topeka High School yesterday.  Here she is at her graduation party:

and with Helen and Miss Vickie:

Yesterday was also Graduation Day for Jorge.  He arrived in the USA from Paraguay in August of 2007 

(see blog post here) and lived with us for 2 years.  Yesterday, he graduated Summa Cum Laude from Washburn University with tons of departmental honors.  

He will start his job with Price Waterhouse in New York this Fall.  You've come a long way Jorge.

We are very proud of all the graduates.

Congratulations to them all!

Mother's Day, Dad's Birthday, Helen's Birthday, Mother's Day again

This weekend started on Thursday.  Samantha and Jake flew in from Boulder to help celebrate birthdays and Mother's Day.  We joined Oma for an early Mother's Day gathering and photo on Thursday night.

SAC II and Cheryl arrived to help celebrate Dad's 85th birthday on Friday at his office ...

followed by a giant birthday gala at the Circle S Ranch.  This event also marked Dad's 30th Anniversary on the Federal Bench.

 There was a fancy dinner, lively conversation, clever presentations by the Court Family linking Dad to the Queen Mother and Alice (of The Brady Bunch - and Dad's birthday buddy) and ending with a witty Jeopardy Game.  In addition to the entire Court Family, we were lucky to have Nancy, Roby, Melissa, Andy, Donna and Anthony join us as well.  Here is the family displaying their Jeopardy Game winnings ... a pocket-sized copy of the US Constitution.

After dinner we enjoyed s'mores by the campfire and learned that Andy and Donna are pregnant!  Here is the first photo of little Daniel Anthony Jacob Crow who is expected to arrive in early November:

The next day was Helen's birthday.  It was extra lazy and largely consisted of marathon "porch sitting" topped off by an excellent meal and giant (can you say humongous?) servings of Angel Food Cake and frozen strawberries.  Happy Birthday to my dear Helen.

 Today ... Mother's Day ... completed the weekend.  We had a fun and satisfying weekend filled with extra special people

wonderful mothers

and Happy Birthday people too.

Jonas goes to the THS Prom

Tonight Jonas is at the THS Prom.  He and Maggie (and about 100 other couples) gathered in Gage Park for a marathon photo session before dinner.

Not done in German schools, Prom is a quintessential American experience for Jonas.   

Beginning at 11:45 PM tonight Helen and I will help with the After-Prom.  Sponsored by the parents and designed to keep students off the streets and in a safe environment, After-Prom is amazing.  Free food, games and fancy prizes ... like TVs and laptops ... will be given away.  It goes until 4 AM.  Gotta go ... I need a nap first.