June 8th 2025 was a day for celebrating a whole bunch of birthdays!
Firstly, it was Pentecost Sunday – Happy Birthday to the Catholic Church!
Secondly, June 8th is Bishop Dolan’s birthday – Happy Birthday, Bishop!
Thirdly, it is also my cousin Brad’s birthday – Happy Birthday Bradley Wayne!
Fourthly, it is also the birthday of my dear Uncle Dick of blessed memory, pictured here with his son, my awesome cousin Erik – Happy Heavenly Birthday, Uncle Dick!
And last, but certainly not least, we celebrated our Lyss-Lyss as she became an official teenager. Happy 13th Birthday, Alyssa!!
There was brisket with potatoes, onions, jalapeños and carrots, roasted since Saturday night; a giant tossed salad; soft dinner rolls with butter; and for dessert, both chocolate and white cakes (because she couldn’t decide) – from Costco, because they have the best butter-cream frosting.
The afternoon was relaxed. Noel and Ruben were just hanging out, sharing a tablet on a chair which warmed my motherly heart, so I suggested we do a little informal photoshoot. I was envisioning adorable double-portraits, formally situated in front of the backdrop, but casually relaxing, with one of them sitting on Ruben’s little red rocking chair and the other reclining on his giant squish-mallow, sharing the tablet. Cute, right? And they were seemingly all for it. But, when they got in there they found the PVC-pipe sword and the air rifle, and well, they’re boys. Obviously, all they wanted to do was play-fight. So we just went with that. (Nota bene: I’m no noob. I made certain there were no pellets in the air rifle!)
Cousins. Gotta love ’em!
