Seven is Magic

So the title of this post refers to the title of my first grade reading book. For some reason I never forgot that title, and I have to admit being seven was pretty good times.

The post title also refers to today's birthday blog. My pal, Sidney Marie Thomas, turns seven today. I hope Sid finds that "Seven is Magic" for herself. Happy Birthday, Sidney!

For those you not in the know, Sidney is the oldest daughter of my dear friends Jenn and John. She currently lives in Bellevue, Nebraska, but will be moving with her family to Colorado Springs, Colorado soon. She, along with her younger sister, Abigail, are the only children that call me "Aunt Jane" other than my own nieces and nephews.

I love Sidney, she has a zest for life. She never settles for the ordinary. She is also a bit of shopper... gotta love that. You could tell from an early age that she had the shopping gene... check out this picture of her camping out in the Marshall Fields shopping bag.

I have lots of Sidney stories, but will limit it to just a few for this blog. One of my favorites is when I went to visit the Thomas family when they lived in Colorado Springs. Jenn took me to Golden for a tour of the Coors brewery, and Sid was about 2 and behaved quite delightful on the tour. John was away for work that week, and was kind of disappointed to miss the tour since he is one of my beer buddies. Anyway at the end of the tour we were enjoying our complimentary drinks, beer for me, a soda for Sidney. She was asking about her Dad, and Jenn reminded her that he went "bye bye for work" or something along those lines. At that point Sidney responded with a classic line of "No Beer for Dad!".

Another favorite story was approximately 3 years ago. In the days leading up to Sidney's birthday Jenn's parents were visiting and they were asking Sidney if she was excited for her party, and looking forward to turning "4". She proceeded to tell them that she was definitely looking forward to turning 4 because as she put it "3 was SO boring!" I am not sure what 4 brings that you don't have available at 3... perhaps occasionally drinking out of a cup that doesn't have a lid... yeah that's got to be it... lidless drinking... living on the edge... drinking with a lid is very boring.

Sidney is also one of my best little Illini fan buddies. Her Dad and Grandma are Illini alums and she is being raised to cheer for the Orange and Blue. I taught her I-L-L... I-N-I when she was just 2, and she knows Oskee Wow Wow too. She is a good little fan, and has taken a particular interest in football. Last fall when Nikki and I met the Thomas family for the Illini football game in Iowa, Sidney sat between Nikki and I the entire game and completely soaked up all the football knowledge we could send her way. She got the whole 10 yards in four downs concept, and when Nik explained why we were bummed after Rashard failed to make 1st down on 3rd and 2, she confirmed that 2 was just 2 of the short lines (hash marks) and then replied..."Well, that isn't very far, I could run that far!" She also asked why the Illini had to sit in "time out", referring to a penalty flag that had been thrown against our team... she remembered us telling her that a penalty flag meant that your team did something against the rules and that you had a punishment for it.

So Sidney, Happy Birthday Girlfriend!!! I hope Seven IS Magic!