May Birthdays!

The twins recently celebrated birthdays. Shockingly, their 18^th! It is almost unbelievable to think that those babies are now adults. Except of course for the fact that they tower over us (Adam over both of us, Royce over me!). While we were feeling nostalgic about it all, Royce put it in perspective. She said that there were now two more voters would could vote for Dad, who is on the ballot again in June. Adam nodded along but then sent me a text later – much later- that night, when I reminded him of his curfew. He said something like- yes, I will come home but aren’t I an adult now? I was not amused.

Once again, a covid like birthday was a manageable birthday for us. May is always crazy but covid kept it less so. We just had tacos in the backyard. Each kid had a friend or two over. They ate cake and played badminton. The girls deviated to cornhole when the boys got too competitive at badminton but overall good times were had by all.

All this is such a far cry from birthdays of old. When each kid had half the class over for the parties. We remember fondly the twins’ 9^th birthday parties, which included a boy Percy Jackson party in the morning- a mid-day lunch birthday party for me- and then a girl Percy Jackson party in the afternoon, with Tori’s tennis lesson thrown in the middle.

Actually, the most noticeable birthday change was the lack of Tori. Last year she was home but this year she was at college. She called and Facetimed multiple times but it wasn’t the same. (She also sent birthday cards and gave each twin cash, which so reminded me of pulling whatever bills were in my wallet and sending to my own brothers on their birthdays. Definitely heartfelt and all that was possible!) We all missed Tori immensely which led us to thinking about next year’s birthdays…

Royce voiced the idea that the twins might celebrate their birthdays separately next year. This took us all back a step. After several minutes of contemplation, Adam mentioned that many kids are home from college by the end of May. Tori isn’t because her school is on the quarter system but semester schools are home. We all sighed heavily and pushed the thoughts of separate May celebrations down the road. To be continued though hopefully not!