A little culture in the city...

This morning, Evie accompanied Mommy and Aunt Lillian into DC to check out the modern art at the Hirshhorn Museum. Evie liked some of the sculptures and paintings, especially the bright painting behind her. She kept trying to find a way to get past the rope to touch the painting but a guard was keeping a close eye on her.

Aunt Lillian catches a wave...

Mommy and Evie: life imitates art.

Christmas in Spring Lake

Mom, Dad and Evie headed up to New Jersey for more fun with Grandma Bebe, Popi, Uncle Patrick, Aunt Casey, Uncle Dave and the cousins Stan and Julianna. Evie's favorite part was climbing on her rocking chair and sprinkling snow on the Dicken's village. In fact, Evie has gotten very good at saying "snow."

The family poses for our Christmas portrait, but Evie is fascinated either with the gifts or Tootsie on the ground.

Evie explores a book about "Granny's Bag" with Grandma Bebe.

Wahoo! I'm ready for the snow with my new sled - bring it on!

Christmas morning at home

Evie woke up on Friday morning to find Santa had come! She gleefully tore into her stocking (thanks for the new toothbrush, Santa!) before moving onto all her gifts - and then everyone else's! Evie loves ripping off the paper on gifts and playing with bows, so that was even more fun than what was inside the boxes. The family enjoyed a delicious breakfast of leek and asparagus quiche, baked french toast, and sausage before packing up for Christmas #3 at the McDonalds.

Ba reads Evie a Vietnamese baby book that Mom found on Amazon.com.

The big surprise of the morning was "patching" in Uncle Karl and Aunt Amy via iChat. Karl and Amy were dressed in their red pajamas and matching Santa hats. We all got a kick out of wishing them a merry Christmas over the web! Isn't technology grand?

Evie loves her new "Ten Little Tadpoles" book.

Christmas Eve at the Foelsche's

What a wonderful start to the holiday celebrations! We all had a fantastic time opening up gifts before a delicious dinner with Aunty Nguyet's family. We also played my new favorite game - hide n' seek - and there were plenty of hiding places at Ba's and Opa's. I also enjoyed my artisan cheese - Gruyere - from Cheesetique in Del Ray (where the day before I had some delicious peppermint stick frozen custard from the Dairy Godmother) - what can I say? I have sophisticated taste.




Oh, boy! The most exciting part of the night was playing with my new plastic balls in the hamper - I just could not get enough of them!
I also liked playing the piano for everyone. Maybe I'll be on "America's Got Talent" someday!

Visitors from Spring Lake to check out the tree!

Last Thursday lucky Evie had visitors - Grandma Bebe and Popi! She had a wonderful time of showing off all the Christmas decorations. We all enjoyed a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs before hitting the hay.

Evie helps Daddy hang up a beautiful ornament from Grandma Bebe and Popi.

Grandma Bebe and Popi left in time to miss the big snow storm on Saturday. Evie liked touching the snow but it was so wet that she and mom did not have much luck building a miniature snowman.

Evie is looking a little flustered because she's finding it a little difficult to walk in her boots.

the holiday party curcuit...

Last weekend Evie and Mommy and Daddy were able to attend numerous parties, including one at Kate and Mike's house with friend Izzy. The kids and grown-ups had a great time, eating delicious food, lighting some Hanukah candles, and checking out all the toys in Izzy's playroom. Connor was giving out kisses left and right, and Izzy gave Evie a big hug which was so cute to see!

Evie with her friends: Connor, Ava, Andrew, and Izzy.

Evie visits Santa when he stops by Georgetown.

Lucky Evie visited her first Santa of the year who was stopping by Georgetown's Healy Hall for a visit. She loved decorating cookies with sprinkles and exploring the President's office, but she especially liked picking up and moving the gifts around - looks like she doesn't need any practice for the big day! Evie ate at least 3 of the cheese star sandwiches, too (she wouldn't give it up to Santa). She had quite an adventure to kick off the holiday season!

The family poses for a portrait.

These packages are so light! I want to start opening them too!

Decorating my first cookie with mommy - the frosting was delicious!

Celebrating with John Carroll...

...and Andrew too!

Check out my cute jacket/beret combo, a gift from Ba of course.

Fun at the playground...

Evie loves playing at the playground by a nearby school so everytime the sun is out we head over. Here is our little sweetheart looking like an ad for Dartmouth, Daddy's school.
I'm out the top of the slide with Mommy, ready to go down all by myself.

Whee! Here I go! Whoa - the static is making my hair stand up!
Why sit in swings when you can push them?

Gobble, gobble!

Lucky Evie celebrated Turkey Day in Spring Lake surrounded by family, including Stan the Man, her youngest cousin pictured above (Evie is also sporting her "thankful for mommy" t-shirt proudly). Ba and Opa traveled up with us as well so we had almost the entire family hosted by Grandma Bebe and Popi - Aunt Casey, Uncle Dave, Jules and Stan; Uncle Wally and Aunty Karen and cousin Molly. We had a delicious dinner with the works - every dish you could ask for was there - and Dad made some great sausage stuffing just like Uncle Karl's.

Grandma Bebe and Popi proudly display the turkey.

Jules cries out in delight over pumpkin pie. Molly takes in her first Thanksgiving with mommy Karen.
Evie gets dressed up in her Lily Pulitzer outfit with Daddy.

Evie was a big fan of the rocking chair but unfortunately liked standing on it more than sitting on it, to Mommy's dismay.

Finally she sits down and gives Mommy a break.

Evie enjoyed the Christmas village that Daddy set up - Grandma Bebe showed her how to sprinkle snow on all the people but she had the most fun sprinkling it on mommy.

Bagels for Babies...

The weekend started with the return of Daddy from some business trips - he was gone nearly all week and Mommy and Evie missed him so. Evie also had a little case of the sniffles, but she was still a trooper doing Stroller Strides with mommy and running a couple of errands on Saturday.

On Sunday, we all went over to Kate, Mike, and Izzy's new house where we had a delicious breakfast. Evie and the rest of the kids had a great time playing with all the toys and chewing on her bagel.

By the end of the weekend, Mommy had caught Evie's sniffles - whoops.

Evie checks out her first jack o' lantern.

Daddy finally got around to carving our pumpkin this weekend - Evie was a little intimidated when the lights were out but the next morning "Jack" was her friend. She took off his "stem hat" and liked poking her fingers in Jack's ears and eyebrows. Then she had a blast pushing Jack around the kitchen in her favorite chair.

An adventurous week with Grandma BeBe!

What a fun time Evie had with Grandma Bebe this week, as the two took over the town -- not only DC but Old Town as well. The two went into the city on Wednesday to walk around the FDR memorial, where Evie went and petted FDR's Scottie Fala. She and Eleanor also checked each other out. Finally, Evie and Grandma checked out the Lincoln Memorial. That night Evie tried her first taste of Popi's meatballs before heading over to yoga with mommy.

The next day Evie played peek-a-boo behind the chair before bundling up and going on a long walk by the waterfront with Grandma.

What a fun couple of days with Grandma!