Birthday Festivities
Posted on December 30, 2025 by Ching under Events, Pickleball.
I thought by leaving town the weekend before my birthday I would get out of birthday festivities. I just don’t like when people make a fuss. It makes me feel bad. However, Dawn texted with me while we were in St. Louis and she insisted on hosting a birthday get together at TapNPaddles. I was a reluctant participant but it was very thoughtful of her and I appreciated it.
Here are some fun pics from that day.
Pic with Cindy and Joe Witte. My US Open travel pals.
Picture with my good friend Ryan Kellenbarger. This isn’t his first appearance on the blog. I think he made his debut as early as 2021. We’ve done quite a few things together over the years.
Picture with James Pham who I met for the first time a couple of months ago in open play. He just happened to be at Tap at the same time as my birthday pickle so he got to celebrate with us.
With Cindy Witte and Fong Witte — no relation. Actually, Cindy pronounces her last name as “Witty” and Fong pronounces her last name as “Wit” so same spelling but totally different.
With Keith Lietzke and Chris Wilson.
With Jeanette Santo, Janelle Lindeman, and Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance.
With Chandi Bongers.
With Jeanette, Monica McGehee, and Chandi.
Two of our favorite girls — Huyen Nguyen and Hannah Wesolowski. They’re so fun!
With Uyen Dang, Hannah, Senda Vu, Fong, and Tiffany.
Jeanette, Dawn Hazlewood (she’s the one who orchestrated the whole thing), and Karen Fox.
Brian with Dawn.
Me with Sandi Dobbs.
Jeanette, Sandi, and Chandi.
With Dawn and Trung Ho-Nguyen.
As much as I don’t like to make a thing of my birthday, it was nice being able to see and play with everyone.
Dawn is the best birthday pickle organizer!
She even got me a fun cake!
But I also brought cake for everyone to try. I’m weirdo who brings cake to her own birthday celebration. Anyway, the funny story about this cake is that it has been showing up on my social media feed for over a year and I’ve been dying to try it but there’s no way I could eat the entire cake by myself — not even with Brian’s help. So, when Dawn decided she was hosting a birthday pickleball party for me, I rush ordered the cake so that it would arrive in time. This was the perfect excuse for me to try and it wouldn’t go to waste because several people would be helping me eat it.
Before the birthday pickleball party on Sunday afternoon, Susie and Grant Ternes had invited us to dinner at Bella Vita. This was our first time back since they moved to their new location. It was lovely dinner but I started to get a headache.
After dinner with the amazing Terneses, Brian and I went to Barleycorn’s to watch Grandma the Band perform. I had promised our friend Kyle Starkel that we would go. Although, we contemplated not going because my headache was getting worse. I didn’t want to go back on my word though because I had bailed on coming to his band perform a few times before.
It was fun seeing Kyle in his element.
The next day, my headache was still in full force but I couldn’t bail on the pickleball party because they were having it for me. I just had to suck it up. I’m glad I did though, because it was wonderful celebrating with everyone.
That’s my post-birthday weekend in a nutshell. I feel like I got to do everything I wanted to do during my birthday and then some.
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