And it goes on...

Ha ha Blogger, I tricked you into uploading more photos!  I win!!  (today of course)  

Alright, so back to the summer of amazing events, where were we??  Yes of course, eric's birthday.  So we have the coolest tradition ever for the boy who refuses to acknowledge his birthday.  Eric has a serious soft spot in his heart for cereal.  Specifically sugar cereal.  Then he married me.  Don't get me wrong, I like cereal too, but not the same kinds and not with the same frequency that he does.  We do however have some wonderful friends who share eric's deep love for the "good stuff" and every year we hold a little party.  We go all out.  The kids are allowed free reign in the cereal aisle to get whatever they want.  We bust out the wedding china, champagne and fine china and FEAST!!!!  All year long when the kids ask for a cereal that is not on my very short approved list I say, "yes, but not until dad's birthday" which helps to make this day THAT MUCH BETTER.  The build up is year long.

This year was a fine example of what a year of longing will get you.

There is an Amish grocery store in the next town over where you can buy bulk bags of Lucky Charm marshmallows   For the record, eric says adding them to Frosted Flakes is next level.  I wouldn't know because that is WAY out of my league.  I can't hack much beyond Fruit Loops, though I will admit they are pretty tasty.

Marcy, being the awesome person that she is, crafted this awesome contraption so we could put candles in eric's cereal out of an old jug and florist foam.  She rocks!  It gets pretty smoky these days :)

After eric's birthday we headed to D.C. to enjoy some lovely 105 degree weather.  Actually we went there to hit up some museums and hotel living.  Eric had to do research for a few days so the kids and I crashed his sweet hotel room and took in the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Zoo.  I will be honest though, we spent a LOT of time at the pool.

I don't think I ever have seen a panda as close as this.  We watched him eating and I swear "smiling" for at least half and hour.  The Zoo was wonderful but very very hot and we could only handle being there for the morning before we beat a hasty retreat to the A.C. and pool at the hotel.

Have you ever heard of the services where you get "flocked" and someone plays a prank on you and fills your whole yard with pink flamingos.  I secretly wish I had a front lawn and that someone would do that do me.  I think flamingos are such cool animals.  I have never seen a whole flock of them sleeping before but we did on this trip to the zoo.  How that is comfortable is beyond me, but it sure looks cool!!!

The National History Museum has an entire interactive level for small kids in the basement and we spent most of our time there.  Otto was over the moon to discover they had a whole corner filled with Legos and K'Nex.

I sat over in the block area with Mette knowing he wasn't going to run off anytime soon.

Mette found some great colored blocks to build with,

and make glasses out of.

Together they worked on building runs for the marbles.

But really what we did was hang at the pool.  It was such a great pool, how could you not?  The entire thing was 3 to 3 1/2 feet deep which is perfect for Otto.  He can just stand but it is enough to really push him to swim as well.  Plus they had a little baby pool to splash around in.  See the table with the umbrella on the left?  I kid you not, we had dinner there EVERY night we were in D.C.  We had all the grand plans of going for Ethiopian and wonderful other culinary events but when the kids are so happy in the pool, it cools off to a chilly 99 degrees in the evening and the pool is willing to deliver drinks and dinner.... yeah, it was a pretty easy decision.  Heaven is watching your kids frolic in the pool drinking a cold beer knowing they will sleep well tonight!!!

This is also the famed pool where Otto overcame his fear of going under the water and turned into a fish.  There he is, under the water, having a blast.  I am really hoping eric needs to do a lot more research at the Library of Congress every summer because I could get used to this!