I Recall Central Park in Fall...

Lawson Remler's birthday is on April 15th. Tax day. The humdrum Sunday after Easter. The last day of spring break. For several reasons, this year, April 15th was a day Lawson found unremarkable. Still, we marked the occasion with a birthday meal and birthday brownies, and extended family came over to wish him many happy returns.

But this year, Lawson wanted a birthday celebration worth blogging about. A celebration for his entree into the teen years that he--and his friends--would remember well into adulthood. So one day, as Lawson and I pondered his birthday over a bowl of cheese fondue, the idea came to us:  a Ferris Bueller birthday.

Today, April 27th, was that day. And in true Ferris Bueller fashion, we lived according to the movie's central principal:  Life moves pretty fast. If you don't take a look around once in a while, you might miss it. 

There were a few differences, though. For instance, Ferris took two friends with him on his field trip. Lawson took four. Ferris took his girlfriend along. Lawson doesn't even want to think about that. Ferris drove his best friend's dad's mint condition classic Ferrari. Lawson rode shotgun in his dad's Suburban. Nevertheless, today's day of hookey bore some semblance to the day Ferris et al. enjoyed out and about in the Windy City. 

For instance, Ferris and his friends visited the Art Institute of Chicago:

Lawson, Drew, Mills, Brennan, and Matt also visited an art museum:  Savannah's Telfair Museum of Art. I wanted to get a photo of them in this same pose, but the museum personnel wouldn't allow photography indoors, so we took a similar shot of the boys appreciating statuary:

Ferris and his friends managed to get themselves a choice table at Chez Louis by stealing the reservation of Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago:

We also had a reservation in the name of Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago. Abe just happened to take a short trip to Savannah, and he chose to lunch at Spanky's Southside:

A day off from school wouldn't be the same without some sportsmanlike conduct. Ferris and his friends took in a game at Chicago's Wrigley Field. Our group preferred to hit the links, so we took in eighteen holes at Islands Miniature Golf.

Finally, at the end of a long day, Ferris, Sloane, and Cameron relaxed in somebody's pool and Jacuzzi (I never have understood whose). After a hot day gadding about town, our boys were ready for a dip too, so they took a plunge off Aunt Kelley and Uncle David's dock:

After that, they came back home and had a nice, relaxing shower.

I don't know if they did it the Ferris Bueller way.

 

The whole time the Bueller party was invoking the carpe diem philosophy, the folks back at the dreary high school decided he was deathly ill and began a "Save Ferris" campaign that eventually grew citywide:

I don't know if the "Save Lawson" campaign grew quite as strong, but Drew's sister did have a change can at school, and the poster hung on the school's gate served to boost the birthday boy's spirits. Many Facebook friends also joined the movement by posting SAVE LAWSON on their status updates.

(See, he really does look like he doesn't feel very well.)

Ferris and his buddies got all the goodie out of their day, but I think we packed in even more. For instance, we may not have participated in a parade, but Ferris and his friends didn't get to ride bumper cars. They didn't get to climb on a monument of General Oglethorpe. They didn't get to interrupt the Rotary Club meeting at the DeSoto Hilton, and they didn't throw each other quite as much as this group of boys did. 

Ferris would be proud. I, on the other hand, am pooped. Still, I'm up for a "Danke Schoen" singing competition. Anyone? Anyone?

 

 

A Quadruple Whammy Weekend

This weekend has been so packed with activity, I feel like it lasted an entire week! Most of the hustle and bustle revolved around Davis's sports and dances, but I had a little bit going on as well. I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but after rushing from one event to the other, I was a little glad this morning to sit down and grade freshman composition papers.

A Book Signing

Thanks to Jill Hardin at Kimberly's Fine Antiques, I had my first book signing Friday morning in Hawkinsville. The store is beautiful, and Jill bent over backwards to make me and everyone else feel at home. I've written more specific details about it on my author blog:  www.nancybrandon.com, so I'll just link readers to it. But I'll also extend many thanks to Jill for her hospitality, to my friend Lois for leaving her family for a day to help me out, and to everyone who came to the book signing to get an autographed copy of Dunaway's Crossing.

St. Vincent's Academy Junior-Senior Prom

After the book signing, I high-tailed it down I-16 back to Savannah because Davis was preparing to attend Megan's senior prom. Megan's mom was out of town as a sponsor at her friend's confirmation, so it was up to me  and Megan's grandmother to get pre-prom photos. Neither did I want to miss seeing Davis all dressed up in his father's tuxedo. That happens so seldom. And he looks so spiffy. Don't they look like the belong on the cover of a magazine?

BC Lacrosse Wins the SCILL Championship

After coming home in the not-too-wee hours, Davis rose bright and early for an afternoon of athletics. And the rest of us had to be at the school, banner in hand, to cheer him on. The South Carolina Independent Lacrosse League finished up its season Saturday, April 21st, with the Benedictine Cadets celebrating an 18-3 win over Charleston Lacrosse Club for the league championship. More than five hundred people came out to see the Cadets put a whopping on Charleston and to hear the BC cannon fire eighteen times for each goal. Poor Tom Mahoney had to resort to putting duct tape on his fingers from firing that gun so many times. We appreciate the sacrifice, Tom. At the end of the game, the boys celebrated by drinking sparkling wine out of the trophy (I hope someone has washed it out by now) and setting off maroon and white balloons in honor of their deceased teammate Ricky McAllaster. Then most of the boys went home to shower, shave, dress, and get ready for their big night (see below).

 (Here's the happy scoreboard)

 

Here's the famous cannon with its empty shells.

(Here's the proud coach with the trophy)

Here's a link to the news video. Watch Tom fire that cannon. What skill--or maybe we should say what SCILL!

Benedictine's Prom

Davis just had enough time to run to Walgreen's for more deoderant before putting on his duds again for the next big dance. This time he and Megan joined friends TJ Mahoney, Neelam MacLeod, Brice Bailey, Jarrod Drown, Anna Seganak, and others for a fun night at the Telfair Museum's Jepson Center. This time we gathered for photos on the banks of the Wilmington River, and even though the guys looked dapper in their tuxes, they just couldn't help wearing their championship caps--at least for a few minutes--before removing them to avoid hat head. 

I can't identify everybody in this photo. 

But they sure do look good!

Our children arrived home worn out but safe, and for that we are all thankful.

And now, the Remlers are going to have a little nap.

Easter 2012

Top ten reasons to celebrate Easter Tybee style:

1. The flowers:  No, not the ones bursting out on every bush in the yard because we haven't really had winter yet and the shrubbery is confused and thinks it's May, but the ones JoJo handed out to everyone upon arrival at 10th Court and pinned to their shirts and hair so that we could stand forth even more colorful than we were when we got dressed that morning.

2. The food:  Because nobody likes to go hungry, not even for five minutes, which is why JoJo orders six dozen pieces of fried chicken from Tybee Market, which we munch on all day, along with pasta salad, seven layer salad, broccoli salad, deviled eggs, baked beans, pickles, rolls, and assorted desserts. 

 

3. The ping pong table:  because this is the time of year when we can finally open the garage doors and play table tennis (except for this year, when we didn't really have a winter and had the garage doors open even in December) with fresh air blowing on us and a bubble machine giving the game that nostalgic Lawrence Welk ambiance.

 

4. The bocce tournament:  For when the ping pong doesn't get our heart rates up high enough and we have the urge to throw something a little bigger and heavier and something the size of a ping pong ball for the sake of acting like we're exercising off all that fried chicken mentioned in #2.

5.  The egg toss:  We don't have any ordinary egg toss. No, we toss eggs only from grain fed, free range chickens, the eggs that say "all natural" on the cartons and come with the cute little red imprint on the shell, which makes it worth spending the extra buck fifty for them, so that when we throw them at each other and get all gooey, we think, "Boy, we got our money's worth!"

 

6.  The grandchildren:  They're finally old enough to stand still and smile for the camera--genuine smiles that show they actually like each other, or at least they're willing to act like it for two seconds while someone snaps the camera. 

 

7. Watching a Georgia boy get his green jacket:  If it's Masters week, the TV at the Remler house will be on, and we will all be yelling, "Get in the hole!" But it's extra special when the final round of the Masters occurs on Easter Sunday, and a former Georgia Bulldog (named Bubba, no less) earns that green jacket in a double sudden death that ends with him weeping with elation in his mama's arms.

 

8.  Beautiful weather:  What could be more pleasant than a day of 75 degree sunshine and a gentle breeze that keeps the gnats and mosquitoes at bay while we enjoy our frosty malt beverages in festive pastel-colored solo cups? 

 

9.  Cool dudes: Because it's important to keep up that ultra cool persona even on a holiday.

 

10.  Spending time with friends and family:  Because Easter is the best time of year to recognize that when the chips are down, prayers get answered, and we can all be together on a beautiful day.