Dad's birthday weekend

My sweets, I'd love to share a few photos of my dad's birthday weekend, if you'd like to see...

We rented a big house on a frozen lake in the Poconos. My aunt, uncle, cousin, sister, brother, brother's girlfriend, and, of course, dad all piled in, and we built fires, played games and made lasagna. We also went for snowy walks (it was surprisingly wintery!).

We brought 60 candles for my dad's cake, plus another 34 candles for my sister's husband, Paul, whose birthday was the same day.

It was quite a feat.

The birthday boys.

The night of my dad's birthday dinner, I made everyone stand behind a chair to take portraits. A little cheesy, I know, but I love them. (Above is Alex, me, my twin sister Lucy, and our little brother Nick.)

Since we're usually squeezed into a tiny New York apartment, it felt awesome to hang out in a sprawling five-bedroom house. Even the sofa was enormous. Here, Alex and Toby chilled on Sunday morning.

(And one of them drooled a lot.)

Toby was visibly thrilled to be in a huge group all weekend. (One morning when I came downstairs after taking a quick shower, he was happily parked on the sofa between my dad and uncle, watching No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, like a little couch potato. It was hilarious.)

It was such a great, cozy, relaxing weekend, and made me want to do these types of mini family getaways more often! xoxo Happy birthday, again, Paul and Dad! We adore you!