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Continuing in convoluted chronological fashion, let’s take a look at Paris’ 6th birthday! Most of it was celebrated in Annapolis so that Mark, Kristin and Cameron could join in, and we had a blast!

Unfortunately, most of the great pictures (of the birthday and of Plebe Parent Weekend) can’t be posted. Most are set to self-destruct if ever opened again! Yes! It’s true! That’s how serious Mark is about making sure nothing gets posted, seen, or otherwise hinted at that might be used against him by upperclassmen.

Let’s just say he spent a lot of time doing his favorite things over the weekend: eating, texting, and being online. I even have a picture of him with birthday cake jammed in his mouth, a piece the size of a Volkswagen in front of him, and his cell phone in his hand (texting away). Oh…wait…was that a hint? Sorry Mark. Refer all upperclassmen to me…

Let’s start with a peek at Parents’ Weekend. As you might imagine, parents everywhere wanted pictures with their newly-minted plebes in uniform. The newly-minted plebes weren’t thrilled. Initial worries centered on getting bright white uniforms dirty (which would cause all Hell to break loose upon the plebe’s return to “deck”); later objections sounded a lot like “please! No more pictures!” I don’t really have anything “official” showing off Mark and his new duds — nothing posed, nothing that captures the starch and gig line precision…

So here’s a look at a happy plebe hanging with his family for the first time in five plus weeks:

He insists the hat “fits perfectly”.

Just to be sure, Paris decided to give it a try:

Birthday! Check out this cake!

You might be asking yourself “why post a picture of the damn cake?” Excellent question.

We ordered the cake from a baker in Annapolis a few days before leaving Florida. The baker was closed on Sunday (the day of the celebration), so we picked up the cake on Saturday. The cake is one of those “some assembly required” types, so the animal cookies were in their own container awaiting precise placement on the cake. Our newly-minted plebe is raiding the refrigerator for the 9,00th time on Saturday and sees the cookies…”Hey Karen! Can I have some of these?” Even the detailers couldn’t kill the locust in him…the kid is a walking freakin’ plague when it comes to food.

Fast forward to the Birthday Girl! She wore this crown all day on Monday — the flight crew on our trip home loved it (as did most of our fellow travelers):

And finally, Karen’s favorite of the entire weekend:

Those are four of Paris’ favorite people in the whole world. They mean everything to her, and they are happy to give it! We can’t really ask for much more.