July Birthdays Galore

Making 34 wishes!!

Rob, Sandie, Ning and my dad all have July birthdays, so we partied the month away!

Ning's dear friends, Pat and Patrice, came up to Milwaukee for her birthday and we had a super fun dinner party on our new patio, singing along with Darius Rucker and enjoying Patrice's imported birthday meal, made from scratch.

Next came Sandie's big day. The Vlachs drove up and the kids treated her to a very special birthday cake that they decorated themselves with anything they spied in the overstuffed pantry.

For my dad's 60th, we went to a fabulous beer garden a mile from our house where you could blink and believe you're in Munich -- live accordion, blue umbrellas with gravel underfoot and a giant beer stein in your hand. Then we had a seafood extravaganza and almond birthday cake back at our house. We took turns reading "60 Reasons Dad's/Papa's Great," a gift from Mollie, Kenny, Andi, Kyle, and our little family of five. One of Charlie's reasons was "Because you have a fish on your shirt and Caterpillar on your belt and that's pretty cool." One of Madeline's was "Because you're a mighty man and everyone loves you."

And finally, Rob took the 31st off work so we could celebrate all day long! Madeline and I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache that called for a pound of dark chocolate. Now that's love. He got the special treatment at our favorite breakfast spot -- all the staff sang him happy birthday over a birthday muffin while he wildly tried to make them believe it was actually my birthday to deflect the attention. Nice try, bud. Then he went fly fishing, had a fun family lunch at a milkshake shack on the beach and took a birthday nap in the afternoon. He said it was his favorite birthday ever!

John's totally in the mix these days.

Happy birthday, Sandie!

The Glamour Girls.

The Johns.