Sister's Day

First, there was Mother's Day - Yeah moms!!!

Then, there was Father's Day - Yeah dads!!!

Then, well, then there was nothing.  So, in 2002 when my youngest daughter was about to turn one (1), and after we celebrated Father's Day, we decided that our family should have the very first ever "Sister's Day" and that it would be celebrated the third Sunday in July each year.

Wow, that just about sounded like a decree from Caesar Augustus, didn't it?

Our brilliant idea, (and it was brilliant, just so you know) was that since we celebrated individually moms and dads, we should also celebrate what makes them moms and dads.  In our family, we called this "Sister's Day" since we have two daughters.   Our daughter would then exchange small gifts on this day every year.  If you take one thing away from this post, it should be the whole Sister's Day concept.  You should do it!  You could call it Sibling Day, Brother's and Sister's day, or just Son/Daughter/Offspring Day if you lavish all your attention on a single child.  Just do it!  Give them a special day, too.

Interestingly, the kids never seem to forget about Sister's Day!  I wonder what triggers their memory?  Could it be, getting to give PRESENTS?  I think so.

Well, this year, both our daughters were out of town with Grandma and Grandpa during the official observance of "Sister's Day", so we decided to hold the still official, yet delayed, celebration at the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden - our usual Wednesday evening haunt.  BTW, this week "The Poor People of Paris" were playing, and they were excellent!  Check out their website (click on their name) for information about future appearances. 

We made our way to Shaw's House for the picnic portion of the evening, as well as the gift opening. Rachel, the six year old, wanted to give her gift first, and gave Rebecca a matching earing and necklace set. Rebecca is all about jewelry these days.

Then Rebecca gave Rachel her gift - a gift certificate card to Target.  Believe it or not, this gift has fulfilled a "lifelong dream" of Rachel's to have her own gift card to go shopping with.

Girls!

BTW, I can explain the very disturbing bottle of spray-able cheese.  That's Rebecca's.  Rebecca apparently hasn't developed taste buds, yet, so no hassling from the foodies!  My wife and I had real cheese...several varieties.

After the meal, a bottle of German Riesling (for the adults, of course!) and the presents, we packed everything up and moved the party to the stage area.  As it turns out, there was a large area RIGHT IN FRONT that was perfect for people on a blanket.  This is where we spent the rest of the night, and I took probably 150 pictures of the band.  A couple of these I will use for Friday's picture post.

It was another fun night at the garden, with good food, a good band, and Sister's Day!

Life is good.

Comments

[Renee]

That is the best idea I've heard in a long time! Our spring is crazy with our anniversary and birthdays. We were just commenting on how the summer is just kinda empty. Our kiddle is only 1 at the moment, but we will definitely be doing this anyway!

[abunslife]

The girls are just too cute!! It's funny that you wrote about this, because after Father's day, Jake was asking about when was there going to be "kids day" and of course I said a very parental thing to the effect of "everyday is kid's day"! He didn't go for it. So in May we have Mother's Day, June Father's Day, July is Jake's B-day, August is Olvia's b-day....so maybe we should do a sibling day like in October or March or something.....good idea!

[Rightmyer Rants]

Such a sweet idea! I lost my baby sister 3 years ago; I wish I had thought of something like this for her.

[rebecca]

this is seriously one of the most heart warming posts ever. (especially with the mention of the real cheese assortment that you and your wife enjoyed). . . i wanna come join your family, for real.

[lfm]

what a sweet idea! So awesome that you went to the Botanical Gardens to the concert as a special little outing for the day.

[MP]

I think that is an AWESOME idea! In my family we always celebrated "gotcha day"..that was the day my mom and dad picked me up from the hospital (I'm adopted)