We laid low for Father’s Day, after spending Saturday with my Dad, picking cherries off his trees, checking out Dad’s art show, and hiking through the woods until we were all dripping in sweat.  A good friend of Sara’s from school, whom I will call “Band Aid” had a family birthday dinner Sunday evening, to which we felt honored to be invited.  I call him Band Aid, because last October when I asked him what his middle initial “B” stood for, he confidently told me “Band Aid Butt”.  I knew right then and there he and I were going to be fast friends.

When Band Aid’s Mommy asked him what kind of birthday he’d like to have, again with great certainty, he stated he’d like to have a Lowcountry Lobster Boil.  And therein lies an illustration as to why I love Sara’s school: A) Sara is surrounded by friends whom are both eclectic and confident and FANTASTICALLY cool, even at the age of 4.  B) Upon hearing Band Aid wanted a Lowcountry Boil that would include lobster and shrimp, a style of cooking that originated from South Carolina, Sara flipped a lid with excitement.  If there are 2 things Sara loves, they are seafood and South Carolina.  The apple didn’t fall far from this tree.

So we sat down to the tastiest dinner I have eaten this year.  Delectable, delicious….yum yum I love Southern food.  I think the girls ate a pound of shrimp each.  It was a true boil, with lobster and corn and potatoes (and sausage because my heavens, we must have the sausage!).  I’m embarrassed to admit how much food Greg and I inhaled.  We finished off our appetites with a cake decorated with a shark eating a lobster.  To eat Lowcountry Cuisine in the middle of Indiana was a superb treat.

After a lovely prayer, as the room quieted down to eat, Kelly piped up as loud as she could muster and sang, “Old MacDonald had a SHRIMP!  Ee-eye, Ee-eye, OOOOHHH.”  It’s official: our girls walk to the beat of their own drummer.  And the blessing of this year is that they do not walk alone.  Band-Aid pounced outside after dinner wearing his lobster shirt, bright yellow boots and work gloves, and as I relaxed back into a chair to watch the kids play, I realized how unalone I’m feeling these days.  Old MacDonald made some friends…..Ee-eye, Ee-eye…..