Up to the highest height!

The family drove down to the Ellipse today to enjoy the Cherry Blossom kite festival by the Washington Monument. It was a perfect day for kite-flying - the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze in the air. Evie and Mommy sat down to create some mini kites at one of the booths, by coloring some Japanese symbols for sky and dream.

Evie shows off her masterpiece while Ellie is just waking up from a short nap, and looks a little dazed.

The two sisters show off their mini kites... but Ellie is showing off her walking skills a little more.

Look at me standing, Mom, in my too-too cute tutu!


Here is Evie trying to fly her mini kite as Mommy chases her around.


Ellie likes to take a break from standing and squats in the grass. She has pretty great balance!

Next, Evie shows off her plastic bottle windsock...

...which she also playfully places on her head and asks Daddy to take a picture!

About this time, we had seen a lot of kites and now the kids were getting impatient for some sustenance. Enough of the pictures, off on an ice cream hunt!

You can see that they are much happier now - Ellie with her Puffs and Evie finishing her rainbow popsicle.

Afterwards Evie shows off her "dance like Jagger" moves in front of the American History Museum's fountain. Daddy taught her how to make a pouty lip face.

She loves to dance! And she loves singing "I've got the moves like Jagger."

She even does a little kick of the legs in her routine.

All smiles as she bows at the end! What another fun day in Washington!

Miss Molly's Pinkalicious Birthday

The family traveled up to PA this Saturday to celebrate cousin Molly's third birthday, which was pinkalicious! Molly had a great time in her beautiful pink dress waiting for Uncle Wally and Aunt Karen to light the candles on the cake.


We all sing Happy Birthday to Molly, including little sister Bryn.

Aunt Casey and cousin Stan are having fun with their balloon swords.


We had an interesting time trying to get the five cousins (Bryn was sleeping) to take a group picture. Many flashes later, this was about the best we could do, but it probably does a good job of capturing the kids' personalities!


Evie stoically held her sister on her lap the whole time with an exasperated look on her face. What sacrifice!

I love Stan's goofy look in this one. Lydia also joined us for the picture.

Aunt Dellie showed the kids a cool cat who purred and closed her eyes - everyone loved it!

Evie has a couple of laughs with Grandma Bebe.


Ellie had a great time playing with all the toys. She and sister Evie actually shared for a change - must be because they were playing with Molly's toys.

Julianna enjoys a cherry cupcake.

Ellie, Aunt Casey and Stan are ready to dig into some cake as well.

Mommy and Ellie have a big laugh - what a fun time for all! Happy Birthday Molly!!

Two Dads and little Ellie pause from discussing the Yankees for a pix.

Grandma Bebe also got some cute pictures above and below!

Evie patiently waits for her piece of cake.


Evie and Julianna hold hands as they play with the trains.

Ellie considers a cherry cupcake.

A little birthday lobstah!

We celebrated Opa's birthday a couple of weeks late since everyone has been recovering from colds... but this celebration was worth the wait! We all dug into some delicious lobsters, of the 2-lb variety, no less!



Happily posing for the group picture, yet it's hard to get the girls to look at the camera!

Evie helps sing along while Opa blows out his candles.

Wait, will Princess Evie help blow out the candles? You betcha.


Then we went outside to enjoy the beautiful day in Ba and Opa's garden. Ellie must have found something Ba said to be pretty funny.

Here is Ellie exploring a birdhouse...


...while Evie explores the secret garden of daffodils!


Big laughs from Ellie - what a sweetheart!

A Vietnamese Engagement Party

This Friday the family traveled down to Richmond for Cousin Valerie's engagement party at Aunty Van's and Uncle Diem's house. Valerie and Aunty Van are dressed in their beautiful ao dais as we wait for her fiancee Sean and his family to arrive.


Sean's family arrived carrying gifts, covered in red cloth, for Valerie's family. Sean carries the traditional roast pig. After going inside, the traditional permission ceremony took place, with Sean's family members formally asking permission for Valerie to join their family. Everyone said yes, of course, even Valerie's protective older brothers Paul, George, and Bruce. We had a delicious feast to celebrate.


Evie is all smiles for the ceremony and dad is wearing a goofy smile too.



Evie found a friend early on, cousin George's and Frances' daughter Katherine. The two ran around the yard and got their stockings all dirty from the mulch. It was pretty funny.


Ellie had a lot of laughs trying to escape Opa. She was a baby on a mission - there was much crawling and many red packages to explore.


Aw, a cute picture of new friends!

Suprasensorial in the City

After finally getting a decent night's sleep after Ellie had a rough couple of nights, we decided to travel down to the city for a change of pace. We decided to check out the Hirshhorn's exhibit called Suprasensorial, which "presents large-scale installations by five artists who abandoned traditional art in favor of ephemeral and subjective forms based on light, color, motion, and space." Before we went in, Evie enjoyed running around the sculptures outside.

At our first stop, Evie is delighted - "Look, I'm blue! Take a picture, Mom!"

Even Ellie thought it was pretty cool. The neon lights looked like windows.

The next piece, Jesus Rafael Soto's "Blue Penetrable BBL," consisted of hundreds of dangling nylon strings. Ellie and Evie really loved this one! Ellie would grab onto the strings and not let go.


Whee, it's fun when you can touch the art!



Evie loved walking through the piece - we stayed here for 10 minutes. The nylon strings made her hair stick up; it was pretty funny.


We saw some other really cool pieces like "Chromosaturations," where you had to wear special booties to go in the exhibit to keep from scruffing up the floor. Evie ended up taking off her shoes and running around in her socks. It felt like being in a rainbow. Overall, everyone enjoyed our little bit of culture - the best part of being in DC!


Next, we ventured out to the Mall to enjoy the beautiful blue skies. Ellie had a habit of sticking out her tongue - maybe she is feeling her new teeth (she is up to six teeth, four on top and two on bottom!).

Washington, DC: plenty of opportunities for great photo opps with landmarks in the background...and it's not even cherry blossom season yet!

Next it was off to the carousel where Evie picked a pink-decorated horse. The carousel went super-fast so both her and Daddy held on tight.

Ellie is eager to walk these days, and Mommy and Daddy always end up forgetting her shoes. But that didn't stop her from walking barefoot on the Mall, enjoying the feel of the grass between her toes.

She can make several steps unassisted these days, which as you can see from her smile she is very excited about!