Birthday girl

My little girl is 5 years old!  She has always acted older than her age.. but now she looks old too!  For her birthday dinner we went to Beau Jo's for pizza (YUMM!) and they had a balloon artist there.  He made these awesome Alien and Viking hats for the kids.  Alex put his on and said, "oh no, I'm a girl!"  But the artist assured Alex that ALL Vikings have long braided hair :)

We had a party for Miss Lydia, who would invite the whole world to a party if she could.  It was very hard to keep it small.  My mom and Dave's mom helped out so I would have enough hands for everything.  It went really well.

I am not a cake decorator.  Lydia asked for a cake that looks like grass with Barbies sitting on top.  I laughed when she asked, and I still laugh when I see it now.  Hopefully she'll always be happy with colored frosting and some toys sitting on top, because this is the most complicated I do :)

Happy Birthday Lydia!  You are so much fun to be around, and I'm glad I'm your mom :)

3rd Honeymoon (or 4th?)

Dave and I had the rare opportunity to travel to DC just the two of us!  In December we will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary, so we decided it could be an early anniversary trip.

We got to go to Gettysburg with Gary and Christine, which was great because Gary is VERY knowledgeable on the subject.  

We also got to see Mt. Vernon, which was amazing!  After touring the house and grounds, looking out on the river, and hiking through the woods, and learning about his farming experiments, I agree with George Washington... Mt. Vernon is one of the best places on earth.

We also took paddle boats out on the Tidal Basin, which was incredibly relaxing (despite the ugly orange life vest)

We did end up being there on Mother's day, which was kind of weird to be celebrating while my mom did all the work with the kids thousands of miles away. But we celebrated anyway at a french restaurant with some really delicious brunch.  I wanted a picture of the food, but apparently I couldn't wait :)

        It was a great trip, and we're very excited to be back!