The Year of the Dragon...

Ellie is crawling all over the place these days... here she is doing her dragon impersonation to ring in the Chinese New Year!

Here Ellie models her red ao dai with Ba.

She loves playing the piano these days - here she is playing a duet with Mom of Chopsticks. No, really, it was Heart and Soul.

Evie looked like a Vietnamese princess. She loved dancing around and threw flowers to her audience.

Evie and Daddy take a break from her performance.

On Sunday morning, Ellie had her first waffle.

"A mass of nothing?" Nah, Massanutten!

We had a long holiday weekend so decided to take a weekend jaunt to Massanutten, a mountain resort in Virginia. Although we were not able to go ice skating as planned, we did enjoy the indoor water park, playing games at the arcade, and our cheese and chocolate fondue feasts. Evie enjoyed the outdoor playground despite the chill in the air.

Evie got a big kick out of teasing Mommy by throwing off her winter hat. Mischievous girl!

Ellie is a big fan of the swing and her sister's antics...

We only brought one bag of toys with us, so it was up to Evie to use her imagine a lot throughout the weekend. She got a kick out of dressing Ellie up in Mommy's new wool hat and "wrapping" her up in a sheet and having us "open" up our Christmas present. Ellie has made a lot of progress in crawling over the last week - when she sees something she wants, she's a baby on a mission. She also likes saying "ma ma" a lot.



Despite no snow, we found a patch of snow by the slopes that we could pull the girls around in the sled.


Evie was eager to try pulling Ellie around.



We're not quite sure how Ellie liked her first sledding experience.


The girls are all smiles when playing together back at the condo.

A fun weekend for all!

Our little ballerina, Evie.

Videos from Evie's dance recital in December, finally uploaded! In the first one, Opa narrates (luckily not for long) while Evie warms up. She is very good at listening to her teacher!




In this one, Evie demonstrates her princess curtsy. Every time she sees this video she likes to point out how she said the name of the colors first.





And finally, it was time for Evie's solo. We were so proud of our little ballerina!

A new year spent off the couch! Inconceivable!

This year the family was very lucky to spend New Year's Eve in Philly with Auntie Mel, Amelia, and Auntie Lillian. First stop was at the Camden Aquarium, where Amelia and Evie got the most fun out of dancing around the Rotunda rather than watching the fish. The family then headed outside to watch the 6 p.m. fireworks over the river, which were quite impressive. Who knew Philly could put on quite the show?!?

Ellie was all bundled up, and in the words of the immortal classic "A Christmas Story," looked like a deranged Easter bunny. Hee, hee. Just kidding. She watched the fireworks with eyes wide open!

"Happy New Year!" shouted Amelia and Evie when the fireworks started! When we returned to Mel's house, Lillian had a gourmet dinner waiting for us and the kids enjoyed some mac n' cheese and playing with their Baby Ellies before going to sleep. What a fun night!

Christmas comes to an end...

Some final pictures from Christmas 2011...

We came home on Tuesday and Evie was delighted to see what Santa Claus had brought - a retro, and pink - kitchen set!


Ellie too had received a kitchen set, but picked out from her sister.

Evie helps Daddy open his "Super Dad" book.

Ellie is decked out for Christmas and loves exploring her new toys.

At the end of the week, we headed up to New Jersey to visit Bebe and Popi. We also got to see all the cousins, including Julianna, Stan, Molly and Bryn.


Evie got to play Santa with Aunt Dellie.


Ellie models her new outfit from Aunt Dellie!

Grandma Bebe with Ellie and Molly.
It was also an opportunity to celebrate Bebe's 71st (17th) birthday. All the kids wanted to help blow out the candles on the cake!

After New Years, we had a delightful lunch with Ba and Opa.
A big kiss from Daddy.

Evie had some fun with the gold tinsel...

A goofy smile from Ellie.

Evie has gotten really good at reading the names on the gift tags, and here demonstrates her clear pronunciation of "Foelsche".

The family picture (Evie called it her Santa Claus dress)!
With Ba and Opa laughing at Mommy's antics.

Some buy a zoo, others just go to one...

On our last day in Tampa, we decided to check out the Lowry Park Zoo, which was great for kids Evie's age. Here she is getting a close up and personal look at the manatees and sea turtles.

Evie stays close to Daddy with an alligator nearby.

What a great place! They walk around with llamas that you can pet - Evie says there's her mama with a llama!

Ellie's first ride on a carousel - she looks a little wary...

After the carousel, Evie was able to read "Sweet Shop" over the cupcake store and was a little disappointed when we told her no sweets until after lunch. She had to have some alone time while we checked out the penguins (translation: she went over to the corner by herself and moped).

Evie the explorer!

Ellie is not far behind!

Evie went on her first rollercoaster ride with Daddy and she loved every minute of it!

They went four times around the track and she didn't want it to end...

Ellie does some exploring on the map to see where to guide Daddy next...

On our second carousel trip, Evie found the courage to finally try a horse that went up and down.

At the end of the day, Evie got her cupcake from the Sweet Shop. All is right in the world.

The girls, Ba and Aunt Amy and Dia enjoyed one last dip in the hot tub.

What a wonderful trip for everyone! Thanks Aunt Amy and Uncle Karl!