Happy Birthday Dear Valerie...Happy Birthday to You!

Oh, it was a grand old time with the Squires celebrating Valerie's birthday at a popular seafood restaurant! We had a waiter named Tom, whom we later called "Octo-man" because he dispensed water, coffee, butter, all-you-can-eat shrimp and fixins' like he had 8 arms helicoptering over us almost constantly, cracking jokes and bowing and scraping like a parody on Saturday Night Live! Fritz hated his loud voice, but we wanted for nothing, especially considering that his young lady assistant would drift by and ask us what we wanted only seconds after Tom had showered us with all our needs. Tom led us in singing Happy Birthday to Valerie as she goggled at the luscious dessert with a candle on top, accidentally blown out by Tom's loud voice. Willow was as good as gold throughout the meal, handled expertly by her Grandma Margie, although my attempts to snap a picture of her cooing and smiling were foiled by the half-second delay on my digital camera flash....and speaking of cameras, I inadvertently caught some dessert stealing going on, although I wouldn't like to say whose arm and hand that is wielding the soiled fork that is digging deeply into Margie's Chocolate Lava Cookie. Anyway, we did have a wonderful visit with family and enjoyed celebrating Valerie's birthday. I am sure the birthday girl had an exciting and eventful day, even though afterwards we had to take Jamie to the emergency room to get a shot for a migraine. We topped it all off with a ride around the lake.