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?