27 is the New Thing

last time I received a birthday balloon?
Gisela and the purse and high healed shoe ...
how old were we?!

Happy Birthday to Me ..! And my Twin!  It's been a wonderful birthday ... and only the 2nd I've celebrated separate from my twin sis, Marge.  One for each of us ;-)

The day began with a phone call from my sweet little nephew, "Hannah. I have something to tell you. Happy Birthday. What are you doing right now??" His newest 'thing' is to talk on the phone - he insists on knowing my phone number each time I say, "Hey, call me tomorrow ok??" then he says, "I know it starts with 5 .." and won't pass the phone off to my sis until he knows the remaining 9 digits ... It's pretty cute!

Text Whales - Mine had
little ^ hats on ;-)

We were set on going to breakfast at my favorite spot - Uptown Kitchen - but by the time I was done on the phone and showered (man alive I took my time and it was glooorious!) ... T was ready for a nap ... so The Boys (yes, both of them) napped while I poked around downstairs, prepped for our giant road trip tomorrow, and chatted with my mom ... texting my sister whales, birthday whales, whales wearing birthday hats ... ;-)

By the time the boys awoke from their slumber it was time to head off to lunch because Uptown was closing in an hour ..!! After perusing the menu, Ry ordered the chicken sausage hash (yumm with Rye toast) and I chose the Nicoise Salad - tempted by how delicious it looked after a friend of ours ordered it when we met for lunch back in August .. YUMM - It had artichoke hearts and calmata olives - two of my favorites - baby tomatoes, hard boiled egg, seared ahi tuna ... all over mixed greens ... with a garlic-parsley-vinaigrette ... which was to DIE for ... the perfect lunch.  Ryan and I shared bites <3 hehe  Speaking of yesterday's post where I mentioned mastering the art of one handedness?  T was a gentleman at lunch, fussing only for his own bite to eat.  Had we been farther along on the solid food route, he'd have been munching on some peas .. but I was able to give him a bottle while continuing to eat my lunch.

Ry was great about choosing a slice of cake for us - after watching Iron Chef last night and drooling over Chef Faulkner's peppermint chocolate cake ... that is exactly what he chose after I told him to "surprise me"!  Thinking of Marge, 500 miles away, we made the following video at lunch .. err .. should i say .. dessert!

In addition to the best chocolate cake ... with peppermint bark between the layers ... I received the best birthday present, too - Little T took his evening nap - albeit brief - in my lap.  It was so sweet to watch him doze off. I just love when his little lips make that "w" shape ... he is too sweet for words.  I can't wait for our family to see how grown he's become since we were last home at the end of October.  He awoke because Ry and I were continuing to send goofy text message to Marge while she was at dinner with her Ryan and my jiggling belly laugh jiggled T right awake!

zonk ... out he went!

look ... at those lips ...

I love when his tiny bottom lip
curls under and makes a little 'w' shape
lord isn't he cute?

Considering it's only our second birthday apart from one another in 27 years .... it's been a fulfilling and relaxing day all around.  We are totally packed and ready to hit the road for Minnesota tomorrow ... All we have to do is load the car!