50 years and 50 friends.

With much birthday fanfare... my dear Karl turned 50. 

And we celebrated his first and next 50 years with gusto and good cheer...

A good rule of thumb while planning a kids party is to match the number of guests to the birthday boys age. This party advice works as well when you are 5 as 50, and Karl celebrated his day with 50 of his nearest and dearest friends. 

Including his very first friend in the world... his father made the journey south to wish him a happy day. 

And so did his next oldest friend and brother... celebrity guest Tom, journeyed the furthest from Rhode Island to be there for his big bro. 

Which made Karl very happy. 

It should be noted that this photo was taken in the wee hours of the party morning when both the icy 50 and my cute husbands party eyes were a little droopy. 

Tom looks like he's about 17... he always has a youthful glow to him.    

Karl again looking bright eyed and celebratory with his former roomies and forever friends 

(do dudes say forever friends? probably not)

Matt and Jon and their amazing wives, Karen and Suzann. 

For the record... Matt also holds the claim to fame of being my Bradley Hall resident advisor way back when in our Buckeye days.  

There was a lot of reminiscing and cracking up in the kitchen as my hubby was roasted by his pals.. of course party girl Ro is in the middle of the action

We are very lucky to have a couple of young friends too.. and even luckier to have wonderfully talented young friends who have mad musical skills and play beautifully while plopped down on our front steps.

Here is the wonderful duo Genevieve and the Giant Peach (aka Gen and Josh) playing their fun and lively party music. 

And then this happened.

Karl's very best birthday gift was a song that Josh and Rosie wrote together. Josh wrote the music and Rosie wrote the lyrics. While Josh was helping Rosie brainstorm on ideas on how great her dad is, he asked what the best thing he ever did for her was. 

So Karl's birthday song is appropriately titled, The Best Most Awesome-est Dad and it opens with "Daddy, thank you for adopting me..."  

And then she sang it... and it really was the best most awesome-set thing that could ever happen to a dad on his birthday.  

    Because it was a weekend of 50's for us.. it also happened to be about 50 degrees outside, which was very nice for January, but also a hardship for the Big 50 ice sculpture which didn't make it to the end of the  weekend.
The following morning, as the big ice 50 was puddling on our front porch, Karl and I spent a lot of time recounting the fun party events of the night and being completely amazed by our good fortune. We have many (50!) truly remarkable friends from different times and places in our lives... having them together at the same time was a true blessing as well as a whole lot of fun.
Happy 50th to you Karl!