Birthday Brunch, Barack Obama, and Baby

Sometime this year I will get back to posting about things other than weekend reports, but given how crazy work has been over the last couple weeks almost all the fun stuff is happening on the weekends anyway.  This past weekend my littlest brother, Chad, was in town to celebrate his 17th birthday.  "Littlest brother" is actually a significant misnomer these days as he is now the biggest of the four of us at just over 6 feet...

Where did this "man" come from???

He got into town late Friday evening and we had a laid back night consisting of pizza, trashy reality TV and a couple pints of Ben & Jerry's. Russ also came to spend the night, which made us especially miss Kauri to round out the sibling sleepover. Saturday morning we hosted a brunch birthday party for Chad at our apartment.  Katie, Ben, our adopted Norwegian sister, Rosa, and Greg's parents all came over to celebrate.  Katie has known Chad since he was flirting with her from his car seat, so his age (and sheer size) blows her mind almost as much as it blows mine.  I love the laid back vibe of brunch parties and this one turned out especially well.  The star of the menu was definitely the monkey bread birthday cake pictured above.  It was so over-the-top decadent that I got chills.  Every bite is like the best gooey piece of a cinnamon roll...dangerous.

Taken from the roof deck off our gym during Obama's Inaugural Address

Saturday night we grabbed burgers and went to see Silver Linings Playbook, which I highly recommend to anyone who has not seen it yet.  It is equal parts tough, funny and sweet with amazing performances from the entire cast that left me quite misty at the end.  On Sunday, we popped Chad across the Key Bridge to meet the Georgetown crew coach (woohoo!) and then headed down to Chinatown to hang with Russ and meet his new pet hedgehog, Quilliam, before Chad's train.  Sadly I did not manage to snap a picture of my little nephew but I assure you that he is as silly and cute as he sounds.  As always, Chad's trip flew by way too quickly, but it was a joy to have him in town for the short time we did.  

Four years ago, his birthday present was attending Barack Obama's first Inauguration in person.  We got up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to the Mall along with 1.8 million other people.  I would not trade that memory and experience with my brother for anything, but I will say that I was content to watch this year's ceremony on television from a treadmill.  I thought it was very moving (I am a sucker for democracy in action as previously discussed) and can we talk about Kelly Clarkson? Girlfriend nailed it.

Little love bug

I wrapped up the weekend with a visit to the newest member of Greg's extended family: Baby Northe.  Hard to think of a better way to end a busy weekend than snuggling a newborn and toasting his arrival with family. 

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend and that this short week is kicking off well!