Kicking off summer with some splashes!

Summer has officially arrived to DC, with 90-degree weather on its heels.  We headed to one of the spraygrounds in Arlington to escape the heat on Saturday afternoon.  Evie was a big fan of splashing in the puddles in her red bikini.  

This was Ellie's first trip to a spray park, and she was unusually cautious at first.  She did dip into the water eventually though... 

...as evidenced by her big smile here! 

 

Evie screams in delight as she runs around.  Spray parks are old hat for her.

The next day was Ellie's real birthday. We opened a couple of gifts at our place - she seems particularly pleased with Evie's choice - a Little Peoples toy for the bath.

Then it was off to Ba and Opa's for another celebration. First we spent an hour at the pool, where Ellie wanted to roam the baby pool on her own (she only went under five times or so, but that didn't deter her from running away from Mommy and Daddy). 

True to form, Ellie takes a break from opening presents to climb up on top of the gift boxes. She has a serious expression as usual - hey climbing takes concentration!

Family picture in front of the traditional ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins! 

 Evie digs in. 

Ellie demands that she feeds herself her ice cream cake.  Anything for you, birthday girl. We love you, Ellie! 

...the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true...dreams of a delightful 1st birthday party for Ellie, that is!

We were blessed with beautiful weather to celebrate little Ellie's first birthday at Clemyjontri Park in McLean. Over 60 people came out to celebrate, coming as far as San Diego, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Richmond.  Our little girl looked so cute in her pink polka dots (Ba always finds the perfect dress for the girls, and this one went with our rainbow polka dot theme).
 

 Amelia holds Ellie on her lap - she is an expert!  What a treat to have Amelia, Aunt Mel and Uncle Brian join us... Mom gets a lot of inspiration from Auntie Mel's party decorations and menu creations.  By this time, even Evie has picked up some hostess skills:  she greeted most of the guests with party hats and rainbow goldfish.

 Ellie is pretty blase about the whole thing, but that was *before* she took a walk around the playground. Opa gave her a lift to get a better view of the lay of the land.

Popi takes the birthday girl for a walk as she shows off her beautiful dress!



Evie blows some bubbles to create a festive atmosphere under the tent. 

 

Opa,Uncle Diem, Auntie Van, and Ba take a break to smile big for the camera (although Ellie looks distracted).

Carousel time!  Evie picks a lovely mare next to Amelia as she and Bebe wave to Daddy as they go round and round, up and down.

 

 Amelia and Evie decide to be co-pilots of their plane. Where to, ladies?

 Mommy and Ellie enjoying the sunshine before digging into some fruit salad... yummy, yummy.  Ellie is mastering the windswept hair look!

 

We all gather around Daddy's delicious cake as Ellie gets ready for her big moment! Wait to you see the surprise inside the cake!

It is the rainbow cake to end all rainbow cakes!

Evie helps her little sis blow out the candle and we take a family picture. Now it's time to dig in to a rainbow of colors!  ROY G. BIV, baby!  

Dad spent many hours baking the six layers of the rainbow and making buttercream frosting from scratch!  Every birthday he makes a new cake that will be hard to top for the next one!  We know Ellie certainly appreciates it! 

Bebe holds little cousin Bryn as she finishes her bottle.

 

Mel, Amelia, and Brian dig into some Mediterranean pasta salad. Would they like to try the rainbow jello cups (they only took Daddy 4 days to complete)?

 

Cousin Molly finds a balloon to play with - fun, fun! 

Aw, doesn't Molly look precious! 

The Kuczkowskis are ready for the Nats game after the birthday party - cute family picture!
 

 

Auntie Van, Tyler, and Becky enjoy some delicious rainbow cake. 

Daddy, Mommy and Ellie, in the second beautiful dress of the day (Opa picked out this one)! 

 

Ellie enjoys a ride around the carousel.  No fear, this little girl!  She was bouncing up and down on her horse, eager for the ride to begin.  

Tom and Andrew get a kick out of riding around in the carousel sleigh.  What a treat to have them here to celebrate Ellie's special day with us.

You can't have a rainbow party without the requisite picture next to a rainbow!

 

Our little munchkin couldn't be happier with her party!  Thanks to everyone who shared the special day with us!

Visitors from California make it an extra special Friday!

 

Mommy played hookie on Friday because we had four very special visitors to spend time with: Aunty Jen, Andrew, and Justin, all the way from San Diego!  First stop, a couple of hours with the kids in the Playseum in Bethesda, where they enjoyed shopping in the market, storytime, and the construction site, although Ellie liked tasting the sand a little too much.  Ellie and Justin then took a turn on the fire engines - baby at the wheel!  

That night, we met up with all our friends at Andrew's ol' favorite park on Harrison Street.  Ellie is really enjoying going down the slides these days.  She barely wants any assistance from mom or dad.  

 

Here's Evie scaling down the ladder after the slide.  Next stop: the giant sandbox and swings! 

 

Kate, Mommy, Jen and Justin celebrate a fun visit!  Hooray! 

A memorable Mother's Day

We spent a lovely Mother's Day morning in New Jersey, not only celebrating Moms but the string of May birthdays for the cousins.  Ellie was excited to get access to her own kid's laptop since Mom and Dad usually don't allow her to play with ours at home. 

Ellie serves as the greeting committee as she enjoys showing off her pink tutu dress.

 Sisters on the move, running around in delight! 

Mom finally gets them to sit down for a picture but it takes a lot of tickling to get out some smiles. 

With just the soon-to-be-birthday girl! 

 

JJ and Evie give Bebe their mother's day gifts and cards.  Evie was rocking a weird expression for most of her pictures today (sigh).

  

Cake time!  JJ and Stan get ready to blow their candles out - Ellie is just figuring out what this whole thing is about.  Did someone say chocolate?!? 

 

Well, then Evie felt left out so we changed it to "Kid Celebration Day" and gave her a chance to blow out the candles too. 

 Daddy gets ready to feed lucky Ellie some cake - she soon took over by grabbing the fork and going to town.  

I've got this, Daddy!  Thankfully all the chocolate stains would come out later...

 

Ah, so peaceful to finally get some shut-eye with Mom. Birthdays can be exhausting! 

 

Gallery Opening Night for Evie

Evie had an exciting night - her artwork was displayed down at the Torpedo Factory Art Gallery in Old Town. We loved her interpretation of a beautiful garden that she posed next to above. 

 

A classy gallery opening needs some classy food, preschool style: apple juice and popcorn.  Ellie was partial to the goldfish crumbs.  

 

Even Opa found the night to be quite the cultural excursion, as we roamed the gallery and enjoyed the other kid's creations. 

 

Afterwards, we walked along the dock a little. Ellie had to take a break after all the goldfish and exercise.

 

Evie did an impromptu dance on the stage. Then we had delicious dinner to celebrate Mother's Day early with Ba at Hank's Oyster Bar.