Tommy is my character. He is passionate about just about everything, for better or worse. A grumpy, little man on Mother’s day he proclaimed, “I wish it was Brother’s Day,” while we were getting loaded up to go celebrate the day with John’s mother and grandmother.

It was love at first sound for me. I didn’t let on right away, though. “Thomas, we take time at different times of the year to celebrate the people we care about. Now, get in your seat and put your car seat straps on!”, are words that likely came out of my mouth. I know I also told him Brother’s day was a good idea, because he was lucky to have two brothers in his life.

I googled it in May and didn’t come up with a date I was happy with. In my mind it had to be a summer date, so my boys can have a great summer memory to hold onto.

While drafting this post, I googled it again and found a facebook page (of course I did, right?) http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brothers-Day/80359246817 which claims Brother’s Day is observed on the Friday, following the first new moon, after August 1st. There is also a celebration on August 11th hosted by Widmer Brothers Brewing as a fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbian Northwest. It turns out that in 2008, with the help of the Widmer Brothers, the state of Oregon and the city of Portland proclaimed August 11 a holiday.

The crummy Pacific Northwest weather has been putting a crimp in my brother’s day plans. I refused to have our holiday on a dreary, gray day. You can’t break out a new slip-n-slide and mondo water guns in the drizzle. I don’t want the brothers to lose interest in sleeping outside, because they are freezing.  I would have loved to have jumped on the local band wagon for the 11th, but I wasn’t willing to have Brother’s day without some heat.

Well, I got my heat today. And we started the morning like this.

I have had these pancake molds set aside since May waiting for Brother’s day to surprise my guys. Every time I make pancakes they ask me to make them a Yoda pancake. Every time, until this morning, the Yoda I would come up with was a very sad excuse for a Yoda. Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper showed up too. If you have little Star Wars nuts at your house you can find these awesome pancake molds at Williams-Sonoma.

Then they gave each other cards they had drawn. Tommy’s passion came out in its sweetest form, in the 12 cards he made for Keith and his 5 cards for Greg. One just wasn’t enough to show them how much he loved them. I adore that about him.

After breakfast had settled, and a few legos masterpieces were constructed, I went outside and got a new slip-n-slide ready and opened new super soaker water guns. When they came out with their swimsuits on, they were surprised to see the slide and huge water guns and wasted no time finding water.

These are the only photos I will post with all three of the brothers in them, because an almost two-year-old is tooooooooo busy to stay in one place for more than almost 2 seconds.

The rest of the day entailed lunch, cartoons, more water play…..this time with Mom sliding and getting soaked, dinner, ice cream, a movie, popcorn, board games, a story and then…..

sleeping for the first time in a tent. Yeah! I think I am more excited about it than them. I LOVED sleeping in a tent in my backyard as a kid and hope they have a blast tonight.