You can pick your friends, you can't pick your family...

...but when your choose to make your friends your family, you have a good thing.

Winnie and Annie "grew up" together through parenthood...the Jamie/Amy years, and (god help us...) the Jenny/J.J. years. Both sets of "sibs" were on the same wave length...the older sisters pretty much thought they were in charge. And the "Casual Kids", as J.J. and Jenny named themselves at an early age, spent their formative years bonded to the proposition that "all children are not created equal."

The site of the Casual Kids running sprinting across the lawn away from Annie's house, the shouts of the older ones..."They're getting away, they're getting away..."

I remember the very first time I played an outdoor concert with the band...Elburn, Illinois. Through the lights, I can still see "Mr. Rhythm"...J.J.....unable to contain himself at about age 3, just breaking down his dance moves on the grass. He looked like the gopher from Caddieshack.

And Amy...when the kids were videotaping themselves at my house...dancing to "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns and Roses, twirling a doll over her head by the hair...until the body popped off and she was left holding the head...much to her on-camera horror....

But most of all, the way both Annie and Winnie lit up when it each other's company....PRICELESS.