Birthday Bashes!

We celebrated 5 birthdays this weekend!

Our niece turned 11 and 2 days later, her brother turned 9, so we headed out to Virginia to celebrate with them.

We drove out late Friday night after Jacob got off work, so we got to see bits of the girls' sleepover (tons of fun!), and were in place for the Saturday morning road race.

The brand new 9-year old beat his uncle and his mother (both former track stars) to finish the 5 mile race in 36:51.  That's a 7.5 minute/mile pace, which earned him 4th in his 19 and under age division!  I think we have a future track star on our hands.

After all that running, it was time for some partying.

The little guy was in absolute awe of all the big boys, studying their every move!

See that '9' candle?  It was passed on by Grandpa, for use on the big day.  We have to get the story straight from Grandma, but we think it was the candle atop his daddy's 9th birthday cake.

The birthday boy's request was for chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and chocolate icing...with chocolate candies to top each slice!  And gummy worms, of course!

With two birthdays fully celebrated, we headed back to DC.

We'd had a dinner date planned for my birthday last Tuesday, but Jacob had to work extra late that night, so our dinner date became a Sunday lunch date! 

The little guy ditched his stroller for a better ride.

And we hit up my favorite gourmet pizza place.  With my two favorite boys.

I feasted on flatbread pizza with caramelized onions, rosemary, and goat cheese.  It was splendid! 

And guess who ordered from the kids' menu for the first time ever?

To top off the weekend, we celebrated the 2nd birthday of these these sweet girls at a children's gym.

Andrew had a BLAST!

The slide was a big hit!

But he thought seesawing was just ho-hum.

Until he was joined by an older woman.

His mission for most of the night was to collect every one of the millions of balls around the gym and corral them all in one place.  It was an unending task, but he is nothing if not determined!

Don't you just love birthdays?