Apparently his wishes will be coming true this year.

Even though the official day was yesterday, we celebrated Kyle’s birthday today. He requested Chinese takeout (in consideration of his mother’s healing foot) and a chocolate peanut butter pie (Jeanine prepared it before her surgery). Earlier in the day Kyle had some of his friends over for a band practice and later dragged his father off the sofa for some one-on-one soccer including Nicolai. Although he beat me like a drum for 30 minutes, he made the mistake of accepting a next goal wins challenge in which I was able to score. Regretably, he will have to wait until he is fifteen before his next opportunity to claim soccer superiority over his old man.

After I got tired of chasing bugs around, I relaxed with this flower composition. I find something about it very satisfying.

After a day full of chores and staying close to Jeanine, who is recovering nicely, I spent a little time this afternoon shooting macros.

Kyle turned 14 years old today. Seems appropriate that today’s post should feature him. It didn’t take long before there was a reason to aim a camera at him. Nicolai kicked a soccer ball into this tree and Kyle volunteered to retrieve it. In consieration of his birthday, I would say that Kyle has graduated from monkey to ape.

AFTER – The surgery was successful and the right foot is now done. It will take 3 months before Jeanine can have the left foot done. She looked great after the procedure and was out of the hospital in just under four hours.

BEFORE – Jeanine immediately prior to her bunion surgery. We originally arranged for our neice Erica to stay with us so Jeanine and I could take a vacation in Fiji. Jeanine opted instead to have bunion surgery while Erica was available to help her recouperate.

Maya has learned needle point and is busy with a project for her grandmother.

Jeanine and the family are returning from Indianapolis this evening. Rather than returning home, I went into Boston while waiting for their flight to arrive. While strolling through the Boston Common, I came across this free performance of Taming of the Shrew.