Katherama

For the past few years, we have tried to organize a celebration of Katherine's birth which is commiserate with both our collective love of her and her unparalleled love of games. We have largely failed, due to the Pandemic (which resulted in a Zoom celebration for her 40th), weather (which hampered her 41st) and scheduling conflicts (which meant we celebrated Katherine's 39th birthday in NYC without her). But for her 42nd the weather and scheduling gods granted their favor, allowing for a full four-day, mostly out-door celebration of Katherine (though the COVID gods weren't totally on board, forcing Grandpa Fawcett to quarantine for part of it).

On Katherine's actual birthday (Thursday, May 26th), she went to dinner with Mom Mom, Grandpa Don, Uncle L and Adrienne while we continued to mask up and test John. On Friday, Katherine and Uncle L saw the sequel to Katherine's favorite movie (Top Gun) and enjoyed (possibly too much) her new present from Adrienne, the Bartesian, while we had family game night followed by COVID testing (all negative, except for John). On Saturday, we convened at ThROW Social (site of Katherine's cancelled in-person 40th birthday party) for some cocktails and games. The kids and I had to leave after 20 minutes due to noise issues, John was still quarantining, and Nancy had to cancel, but Katherine, Uncle L, Adrienne, Mom Mom, Grandpa Don, Danny and Allen had an amazing time showing off their cornhole-football-bowling skills in a game which clearly was designed with the Fawcett-Suggs in mind. Afterwards, we reconvened at our place for some barbeque and cupcakes where we allowed John to join us (albeit only outside) and Katherine was forced to open her presents.

While Katherine typically balks at opening presents in a timely fashion, we insisted she open the joint present from Mom Mom and us, a Solo Pi pizza oven, as it directly impacted Sunday's final celebration of all things Katherine. The next day, we brought homemade dough for 12 full-size pizzas, a variety of toppings, and a masked John for an evening (and early morning) of pizza, cocktails and yard games. There was thai-chicken, barbecue, meat lovers, cheese and pesto wood-fired pizza. There were rhubarb shrubs, margaritas, and lots of beer. And there was cornhole, bocce, marbles, beer pong and shuffle board. And all on a clear, lovely night with seemingly no mosquitoes.

So it was kind of the perfect birthday celebration for Katherine, which probably means we won't have its equal for another five years...

(To see all of the Memorial weekend birthday pictures, click here.)