Don turned 70 on June 17th, so we began the celebrations with a dinner party …

including a simultaneous singalong from the St Louis crew (an Ackert family tradition) …

Above the table was our gift to selves …

our six grandchildren imaginatively portrayed by artist Jill Pankey …

who we have gotten to know through our visits to the Assemblage gallery …

The table cloth then traveled with us to St Louis, where it found itself at the scene of an amazing homemade hibachi dinner …

Last, but far from least, I asked each one of my loved ones to sign the cloth (with heat-erasable pens), after which I stitched all their names with Deb’s threads …

Lest we forget (as if).