My awesome birthday celebration

I have to say, I was SPOILED ROTTEN for my birthday this year! Steve and the kiddos really took care of me. For our birthdays Steve and I always try to go out to dinner at the birthday persons favorite restaurant. Well, that hasn't been possible for me for a while...until NOW! I LOVE CAFE RIO!!!!!! And now there is one 2 1/2 hours from our house. Well Steve, in his generous fashion, decided to take me to dinner and lunch at my fave place. He said if we were going to drive that far for it, we might as well go twice-I wasn't going to argue with that. But not just that, we made a getaway of it. We packed up the kids and the car and headed to Olney, MD for an overnighter.

Our first stop was supposed to be the hotel but we got stuck in some traffic (as would be expected on a Friday afternoon near DC) so it was dinner time by the time we got down there. So, first stop-CAFE RIO!!!!!! Oh, I was in heaven! I decided to get the salad tonight and I'd get the pork burrito for lunch tomorrow. It was every bit as good as I remembered!

After dinner we went and check into our hotel. As soon as we walked through the door the kids were DYING to go swimming. So, without any hesitation, we changed into our swimming suits and hit the pool. Here are our goggle faced kids-they won't swim without 'em! (well, Jason will, but he likes to put them on at first) Abi was so excited that she wouldn't stop jumping-hence the blurry image of her.
The next day, after another trip to the pool and some granola bars for breakfast that we brought along, we checked out of the hotel and decided to go find the Bethesda location of Georgetown Cupcakes (from the TLC show DC cupcakes). I expected to find it with a mile long line out the door. Much to our pleasant surprise there was NO line. The girls and I walked right in and only had to wait for 1 person ahead of us to finish paying and then it was our turn. Sorry about the bad, glarey (is that a word) cell phone pic...
Just to try something different I went with the red velvet cupcake for me (plus it was the day of the BYU/Utah game so I had to go with the red :) It was really good. Steve and the girls thought theirs were just ok-but it was still fun to go check out the store.
We didn't eat the cupcakes right away since it was almost lunch time, we decided to save them for dessert. So, we were on our way to Cafe Rio when I (as Steve put it) called and audible (remember it was the day of the big rivalry game?!) and decided that I'd rather go to Matchbox pizza for lunch-weird, I know...we drive all the way for Cafe Rio and I don't go?! Well, if you've ever eaten at Matchbox you'd understand why. This place is SO good! Plus, the kids didn't really like Cafe Rio and I didn't want to go through that fight again. Instead of bringing out crayons and a paper placemat for the kids entertainment, they bring them a big ball of pizza dough to play with. The kids LOVE this and it entertains them much better than crayons.
On the kids menu they have a healthy platter (it's got a clever name that I have forgotten) with cheese and fruit and veggies and this DELICIOUS homemeade peanut butter. We got this along with some mac and cheese for the kids. Well, Abi dug right into the healthy plate of food and started hoarding it all. When I told her to stop taking all the food she showed me why she needed it all...her rendition of Rapunzel! To her credit, she did eat it all too!

Emma told me I needed a pic of her eating her mac and cheese-so cute!
Well, Jason started yelling "CHEEESE" in my ear since I was taking everyone's pics. So I took his picture and realized that I was going to be busted...yes, that's Jason eating his peanut butter for lunch off of a KNIFE! We win the parents of the year award-it was just a butter knife, does that make it better?
The girls got these stickers from the cashier at Georgetown Cupcakes and they thought they looked like eyes and wanted me to take their picture like this. All I have to say is "Pan's Labyrinth" anyone? If you've seen it you'll know what I'm talking about...creepy!
It was such a wonderful weekend getaway. It was low stress, it was so fun to have all this family time, and it was so fun that they put so much thought into me and my special day. Thanks babe!!!!