Our own March madness

Jenny Dale Miller cradles Lucy in her arms at Lucy's first birthday party today. Joining the celebration (top left) was my niece Terry Lynn Dale Cavet, who also celebrated a birthday this month. (Don Dale photo, 2011)

Our family celebrates a lot of birthdays in March.

To be even more precise, we celebrate a lot of birthdays on St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

My niece, Terry Lynn Dale Cavet, was a St. Patrick's Day baby. And as the luck of the Irish would have it, she married James Cavet, who was also a St. Patrick's Day baby. (In fact, he was born on the same day Terry was born, and to be perfectly clear, I mean in the same year.)

My nephew Mike's daughter, Jenny, was also born on St. Patrick's Day. And Jenny (my great-niece), gave birth to my newest great-great-niece, Lucy, a year ago yesterday, March 19.

Mike and Terry and her family and I went out to dinner to celebrate Terry's and James's birthday on St. Patrick's Day this year. To avoid the crowds and the amateur drunks, we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

Today, we celebrated Lucy's first birthday with a fine lunch, astonishingly good homemade cupcakes (Mike was particularly vocal in his praise), and some time watching Lucy and the kids opening her birthday presents in the sun in the back yard of Jenny's husband's parents -- Lucy's grandparents.

Lucy is thriving, thanks to her parents' loving care. (I think her genes help, too.) She's just beginning to walk and took three full steps into her mother's arms as we adults laughed and applauded.

It was a good day to be celebrating for two reasons: Lucy achieved a milestone, and the family saga continues.