And that's a wrap!

Ah, the birthday dust has settled...school is in full swing and I finally have a day with nothing on my calendar.  I can finally sit and catch up just a tad.

On Clark's birthday I headed into the Pentagon for a little celebratory lunch with the two littles and the Man.  We took a forbidden picture in the food court...I'm sure everyone thought I was just holding up my phone to check a message while my husband and baby made direct eye contact and smiled...I'm certain no one noticed the accidental flash 'oops'.

 Dinner out once again except this time I refused to let anyone order plain buttered noodles.  If we were paying for them to eat out then, by golly, they were going to eat something that I don't make a bajillion times a year at home.

 At home we celebrated with balloons and made the kids spell things out on the floor.  Do you see the bendy 35? Who'd have ever thought that the cute boy from high school that I married would ever turn 35? Weird.  I guess aging happens.  I happen to think that Clark does it rather gracefully, or manishly, or whatever men do.

 I particularly love Jonah's presence in the family picture.  Totally partied out.

 On Sunday we celebrated further with cousin Heber whose birthday is the day after Clark's.

Double the birthdays, double the dessert.

And then I broke down and decided that I could do without Hazel just one day a week.

We are doing a little co-op group that is just enough to satisfy her pleads to go to school.

She was dang excited about it.

And dang cute too.

 She insisted that the photo shoot last a little longer...

 Last week I had the opportunity to attend a Romney Rally here in Fairfax.  I don't particularly care for anything to do with politics but I can't pass up the opportunity to do things that may be a once in a lifetime deal (ie seeing a future President in person, yell "move that bus" on the set of Extreme Home Makeover, be in an educational film, that kind of thing...)

 So I hooked up with a couple of friends and we headed in.  We stood on a rather warm parking lot and waited.  The kids could not have been better.  We were in a thick crowd and they were so good!

 We were appropriately riled up about lots of good stuff and promises to have soda machines in the cafeteria, something about all our wildest dreams coming true, etc.

 It was a good time although I could do with less of the large groups of people that break out every 5 minutes in spontaneous chanting ("USA, USA, USA" or "Mitt, Mitt, Mitt", etc.  lots of chanting.)  Love my country, hate the politics of it.  People get all in a twist when talking about their political opinions and it makes me want to scratch my eyes out.

Hazel liked the stickers.

While waiting for the rally to start, the three of us were each interviewed by different reporters that were walking around talking with people.  My favorite question that I got was "what are your thoughts on Mitt Romney being a Mormon?" I was totally giggling on the inside - just look at the group I was with, she obviously hadn't done her homework.  I nonchalantly told her that I knew lots of Mormons and they were all really great people.  And then I'm sure I said something very intelligent that I can't remember.

In other news, my baby loves the bathtub.  It is his happy place.  I am ashamed to admit that he gets bathed way more often than the other ones did, pretty much daily.  If he is feeling a little grumpy,  just throw him in an inch of warm water and sooner than you can say "throw a washcloth on his crotch!" he will be flailing about violently in jubilation.