50

Mari's birthday celebrations started on Friday when she shared with her colleagues a beautiful and delicious chocolate cake decorated with books, which Melinda special ordered for her.

Friday afternoons, she enjoyed a happy hour celebration with her Book Club friends, and then she made French fries for the fam.

Saturday, she and Nina started the day with a "Walk for Breonna" at Wintersmith, as they have every Saturday this fall.

She and Nina and I then headed to OKC for our first trip outside the city limits since the pandemic hit in March. Our first stop was La Madeleine, where Mari ordered a hearty breakfast featuring eggs, a potato mash, bacon, avocado, a croissant and a mimosa. We then we exercise bike-hunting and tried out several models (without yet committing to one). On our way back to Ada, we stopped at Basil Mediterranean Café on 23rd street to buy lentil soup, hummus, falafel, fresh pita bread, baklava, and saffron honey, and we then dropped by La Madeleine again to pick up various tarts, cookies, mousse, a Danish pastry, and a baguette.

Back in Ada, we took some photos (see below), we feasted, and then the kids brought Mari a red bucket filled with 50 scrolls, each of which listed something each one of them loves about her. As she pulled each scroll out of the bucket and read it out loud, she guessed (mostly correctly) who said what. 

Afterwards, we headed to the piano, where I accompanied the kids on the piano as they sang "They Can't Take that Away from Me," with these modified lyrics, which they wrote:

"The way you fry po'taters,'

the way you sometimes cuss,

the way you hate dictators,

No, no, they can't take that away from us.

"[Nina:] The way you call me 'Betty,'

[Emilio:] the way you say I must

take out the trash, [Pablo:] the way you make me spaghetti!

[All:] No, no they can't take that away from us.

"We may never, ever put up the dishes in the way that you would love,

still you'll always, always keep the memory of . . 

"The way we never hush,

and never tie our shoes,

The way we never flush!

No, no, they can't take that away from you.

No, they can't take that away from you.

And then we all watched "Dave," starring Kevin Kline, which Mari picked because she thought it was appropriate for the electoral season (a hopeful fantasy), and she knew everyone would enjoy it. And we did.

Before calling it a night, I gave Mari the card I created for her, featuring a list of many of the places she has visited over the course of her life (half before we had kids and half since then), and a list of fifty things I love about Mari, and fifty unforgettable days we have spent together. That was not a hard list to create.

Throughout this day, Mari received more than a hundred well-wishes on Facebook, along with cards, mailed gifts (that kept coming throughout the week), emails, poems and phone calls.

With Nina . . . 

With Emi . . .

With Pabi . . . 

With all three. . . 

With me (Nina took these) . . .