Dear Kid,

It is that time of year again. Yes, it is Pi Day.

By now, I’m reasonably sure there aren’t too many interesting facts you don’t know about Pi (the number, not your sister—I’m quite sure there are an infinite number of interesting facts about the GirlChild that remain unknown). But in case you’ve forgotten, I’m helpfully providing links here and here.

In 1879, Albert Einstein was born on 3/14, which is pretty much Pi-cture Perfect imho.

In celebration of Pi Day, we are doing very pi-like things. Like adding pi-ns to pi-interest. We thought about pi-ling into the car and going for a pi-cnic, but the weather isn’t cooperating, so instead of being pi-tiful, we’re having pi-zza around the fire pi-t.

Not really. We’re doing laundry and taxes and things like that. Aren’t you jealous?

Hope it’s a great day, whether or not you pi-ck a way to celebrate Pi Day.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

It’s Pi Day! Unlike Pi Approximation Day, this is the Real Deal. Especially if you happen to think about it at 1:59 because then it will be 3.14159. (Careful, don’t overexcite yourself.)

Pi Day is also Albert Einstein’s birthday which is excellent because without Albert E we wouldn’t have crazy Albert E wigs or know how to say E=MC2. Perhaps I’ll look up more about Al next year.

There will be many celebrations around the world for Pi Day, most of them organized by scientists and mathematicians. This is great news for students whose teachers decide to do away with the standard lesson and focus on Pi. Especially if they celebrate Pi with pie.

The second best idea I found for celebrating Pi Day (the first being: Eat Pie) is to create a human pi sculpture. It requires four people, two of whom hold the third horizontally. The fourth person is for taking a photo to send to your mother.

I found a lot of other ideas that I am not going to share with you because they would make you roll your eyes, and I don’t think you need any help with that. They are generally aimed at elementary school types. I didn’t find any fun Celebrating Pi Day at College Ideas (please let me know if you come across any as I will save them for next year).

It will probably stun you (and by “stun” I mean “bore you to pieces”) to know that I have no interesting plans for celebrating Pi Day. Except to say things like “Happy Pi Day” a lot. I’m hoping I don’t have to explain it too often. Explaining it will depress me.

But I will have a marvelous time dating all my emails π. Wonder how many people will think it’s a typo?

Have a fabulous π Day.

Call (or text) your sister.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Yesterday was Pi Approximation Day. Only I got so excited about your new bike that I completely missed this Important Day. So here we are, slightly imprecisely, celebrating Pi Approximation Day. Approximately.

FACT: Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22 (or 22/7 in the day/month date format), since the fraction 22⁄7 is a common approximation of π.

Turns out that not much has been written about Pi Approximation Day. Personally, I’m stunned, because it seems like Hallmark would have been all over this one. Sadly, not so.

I would also have thought there would have been enough net nerds to litter the web with interesting Pi Approx stuff. From what I could find during my in-depth, highly scientific, four and half minutes of research, most people have focused on Pi Day (March 14), and the stuff about Pi Approximation Day is just dull.

So I am left to fill the void.

The problem is that I am neither a mathematician nor a scientist. Not having any original ideas about Pi Approximation Day, I turned to approximation research. As far as I can tell, nothing particularly interesting has ever happened on July 22. E-ver. Certainly nothing that would be an interesting Pi Approximation Day fact. I must make a note to create some interesting, if fictional, facts for next year.

Hoping your Pi Approximation Day is was more interesting than most.

Call your sister.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

I know that Pi Day is traditionally March 14 and/or July 22, but since your sister is coming home today, it seems like an early celebration is in order.

So Happy Pi (is coming home today) Day.

I will be spending the majority of the day driving to Indianapolis and then driving back with an additional child and 953 tons of laundry, so I don’t have much time to write a long letter to you. Which in no way means you are less important than Pi. It’s just that until I grow a second pair of hands and eyes and/or voice recognition gets good enough to allow me to dictate text, edit, and modify graphics, I’ll be keeping my eyes on the road rather than on a computer.

I know you’re not big into Pinterest, but I have launched a DearKidLoveMom Pinterest page anyway. It will not surprise you to learn that while there are a few semi-serious pins, mostly the pins are of the Amusing Variety. (Mascots are coming.) I am working to make life Exceedingly Easy for you by putting a feed on this site from Pinterest, but I haven’t got the code working yet. Sigh. Stay tuned.

And feel free to check out the site in the meantime. Who knows? You might like it. (Grin)

Love, Mom