This evening Nico and I attended the kick-off meeting for his Coming of Age program at First Parish, our Unitarian Universalist church. The year long program of self reflection culminates when each child addresses the entire congregation and shares their personal credo. UUs do not dictate a credo but rather encourage each member to discover their spiritual perspectives and to embrace a set of beliefs of their own distillation. Nico will join a small circle of peers guided by one male and and one female mentor and will participate in a number of retreats during which they will explore and develop their belief systems. I did my best to get a nice portrait of each child in the program and was pleased when Nico took the camera from me and reciprocated. Followers of this blog relize that Nicolai and I have already celebrated a Coming of Age adventure when we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro two years ago. The UU COA will be on the spiritual/intellectual level rather than in the physical challenge domain.

Today’s main destination for the female foursome was the Museum of Natural History which I am told was a big hit.

While the girls enjoyed a fancy breakfast in NYC, the boys and I went out for brunch at our new favorite breakfast spot at the West Concord Train Depot. My calf muscle is still out of commission so I was very thankful when my soccer game was rained out. While Jeanine was enjoying time alone with her daughter I got a chance to hang out with my sons and really enjoyed our conversation. I have decided we should do a monthly manly breakfast going forward.

Lydia and Maya in the lap of luxury at their hotel.

Admittedly, my first instinct would not be to photograph a bathroom stall. Jeanine, suffers from no such limiting conceptions and produced a very nice image of her daughter. I will have to ask the girls to explain the significance of this particular location.

 
Maya and Jeanine with friends Lydia and Kate began a mother-daughter NYC get away weekend this morning. After seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway they explored Times Square. You will probably need to enlarge the photo to appreciate the matching shirts the girl’s are wearing.

My girls just before leaving for a special weekend in the Big City.

As I left my office this evening the street was filled with emergency personnel. A traffic accident had left one driver with a broken leg. Cambridge has an unusually high concentration of cars, bicycles, and pedestrians and a week does not go by when I do not come across an accident scene of one type or another.

Jeanine and Maya hosted a baking party today, during which mountains of cookies, brownies, and other delights were prepared to be sold at the Kicks for Cancer charity event that is coming up.

 
My dad turns 85 today and is going strong thanks to the healthy lifestyle my mother inflicts upon him. Left to his own devices, he would enjoy a delectable but admittedly unhealthy diet, not unlike his oldest grandchild pictured here with him. Of all our children, I believe Kyle takes after my dad the most. Both live life passionately, open to new experiences, and willing to work hard towards goals. They share a love of guitar, fine food, and the company of close friends. Each has the gift of infectious laughter and little is required to get them started. The gift my father passed to me was a creative approach to being in the world which has been the foundation of my success in life. If I had to guess my dad will be celebrating his birthday on the dance floor.

The CCHS Varsity Soccer team was in action this evening against rival Lincoln Sudbury. Kyle did not get any minutes but I shot the game for the benefit of his teammates anyway. The match was much closer than the 3-0 win would suggest.

There are some things that Nico is challenged by, but leaping high into the air for a header is not one of them. Today his ground game was a little weak by his own standards but he was a total beast in the air and helped the CCHS Men’s Freshman Soccer team to a 3-2 win over arch rival Lincoln Sudbury.

Tempted as I was to intervene, I realized that there were some valuable lessons being learned, so I left the kids to their wanderings while I enjoyed the beauty of the park independently.

This shot sums up the situation nicely. Greg believes the group is heading the wrong way, Ty seems to have a headache from studying the map, while Zack is busy calling in an air strike or something.