Girls gone Wild... Kingdom!

What a fun weekend we had!  Two birthday parties where Evie got to flex her Explorer Extraordinaire skills. First up was Katie and Mason's birthday at Potomac Overlook Park, where we got to see a box turtle named "Stumpy" and three different kind of snakes.  Both Evie and Mommy were brave to try touching the snake's scaly skin.  

Then we went on a nature hike where we ended with a finding several frogs chilling in the pond.  Evie was very excited to point them out.  What a great celebration with Katie and Mason!  

 

Then, that night, we hosted an outdoor movie screening under the stars of "Toy Story".  Everyone came dressed in their jammies and had delicious ice cream sundaes.  But.. unfortunately we ended up being under the rain clouds, and had to move the party inside.  Ellie made the most of it, though, quickly turning her outdoor movie into a drive-in movie instead.

 

The next morning we headed to the National Zoo to celebrate Mia's birthday. We dropped Evie off, and then got to explore the zoo. Ellie was excited most about splashing in the puddles of the rain forest but she also liked see the pygmy monkey that was just hanging out in the trees.

 

We really liked getting up and personal with the sea lions, who would come right up to the window to give you a whiskery kiss. 

 

Ellie happily munched on goldfish while the sea lions swam by - actually, she seemed more interested in watching the other kids.  We later saw some otters eating some real goldfish... very surreal. 

 

After checking out the elephants, Daddy and Ellie pause for a Pirate's Booty break.

 

We later caught up with the birthday party getting a special tour of the zoo in their safari hats. Evie has her typical birthday look on... 

  

After the party we stopped by the new carousel, where Evie hopped on a pink flamingo while Daddy traveled on a seahorse. 

 

Ellie woke up from her nap and of course wanted to ride on a yellow frog.  

 

We decided to end the day with a trip to the playground and spray park in Arlington. 

 

Ellie loved following her big sister's lead.  

 

Here she is attempting to climb up Venus. 

 

Splash parks are the best!  And Mommy is too tired to come up with creative captions anymore. 

What dog days of summer?

 

The family has been beating the heat with lots of trips to our neighborhood pool, but this weekend we got a special treat when we checked out the Water Mine park at Lake Fairfax with friends Ava and her baby brother Dylan. Dad was delighted to get a spot under a giant umbrella, and the kids were delighted with the water slides and splashing in the pool.  Ellie was quite the daredevil, taking on the "Big Pete" water slide and not minding at all getting water up her nose.  Above the kids enjoy a gourmet Pirate's Booty snack before hitting the waves.

Ava and Evie pose next to the lazy river.  Mommy and Evie got a bucketful of water in their ears while floating around the river, but it was still a blast!  

Ellie and Dylan are literally wiped out after a couple of hours... what a fantastic time! 

Meanwhile, the future director/songwriter/singer Evie is developing a portfolio of work, surely to go viral on youTube someday. Here is her "Mommie" song.  Mommie is dedicated to Evie's cinema verite style, even though it does capture her stuffing her face with lasagna.  

Stronger than the Storm

We had a delightful couple of days over the Fourth of July holiday weekend up in New Jersey with Bebe and Popi.  On Thursday we enjoyed a couple of hours at the beach which was hopping.  Then we had a great BBQ with Uncle Dave, Aunt Casey, JJ and Stan.  All the cousins got along and had a great time going down the water slide into the pool. 

Ellie is delighted with her bubble machine.  She loved climbing backwards up the slide and then sliding down into a big splash.  

The next day we headed over to the Monmouth children's museum - Evie was dying to go remembering how we went 2 years ago (Ellie was only 2 months old at the time).  Now Ellie was able to run around and enjoy everything as well - one of her favorites was the slide down the whale's mouth. 

The slide was also one of Evie's favorites. 

She's all smiles as she was able to climb the big treehouse all by herself.  She gives a triumphant yell when she reaches the top and smiles over the branches.

She also was loving being a big sister and dragging her sister to all the activities. With the help of Mom and Dad, Ellie was also able to get to the top of the treehouse and peek over the top.  

 

Ahoy, mateys, mommy and Ellie make it onto the lifeboat! 

The girls and Grandma Bebe enjoy the boat ride.

On Saturday we went down to the Point Pleasant boardwalk for some fun and games. We started with some mini golf. 

"Arg!" Evie does her best pirate impersonation while hanging from the ballast! 

She was getting a lot of "hole in ones" and celebrating. She has a very liberal definition of hole in one.  

Meanwhile Ellie decided to sit out the game and enjoy an app on Mommy's phone instead. 

The girls fell in love with skeeball in the arcade.  Unfortunately Ellie only knew how to throw the ball overhand, resulting in some interesting incidents.  Luckily no one got hurt! 

Then we were off to the rides - Evie hung onto Beanie during the Crazy Bus ride... may have been a little too crazy for her. 

The carousel was more of her and Daddy's speed.  

But why not throw a rollercoaster ride in there! "Maybe that was too fast," she said after she got off.  Thanks for a great couple of days, Bebe and Popi!  

Putt Putt into the Future!

The family ended the weekend with a trip to the National Building Museum on Sunday to partake in their annual mini golf exhibit, to Evie's delight.  Keep the mini golf coming! The theme this year was for the architecture firms to imagine the DC of the future. 

Everyone loved the hologram hole where you could pretend to be Godzilla and stomp on the hologram buildings.  

Evie leaves her mark on one of the exhibits. This one featured a xylophone down a ramp that added a musical component to the challenge. 

Our pro golfers pose on the eighth hole, which had a bright red Nationals Stadium. 

 

Poor Ellie slept through the whole thing and wanted to cuddle with Mom when she woke up. 

She seemed very aloft while riding on Daddy's shoulders, blase about the world around her. Ah, our sweet girl.  We decided to head down to the National Gallery of Art since we were in the neighborhood. Gotta love DC! 

Ellie cheered up a little after viewing one of our favorite paintings at the museum.  We had a great time checking out the costumes, set designs and art of the Ballet Russes exhibit.  Evie enjoyed watching a couple of scenes from the ballets but was not a big fan of Mom's rendition of The Rite of Spring.