Evie brings out her artistic skills for Family Day at the Corcoran

What a fun morning Evie had at the Corcoran Museum of Art in DC for their Family Fun Day! The theme of the day was exploring color and light and Evie donned her artists smock and jumped in. First stop was the face-painting booth where Evie became a work of art herself with a butterfly on her arm. Then we stopped by the mosaic room where she helped contribute to the group project by gluing on pieces of paper - she is a master at the glue stick.


Then she had a DYE-namic time picking colors and creating her first tie-dye art. Evie wanted to use every color available.


Next stop was building an "edible color wheel" out of Nilla wafers and frosting - Evie mixed the primary colors together to make green, orange, and purple including the red, yellow, and blue... but the art quickly disappeared into her mouth.


Daddy helps her create green... but soon was partaking in the "edible" part of the project as well.

Another artistic creation - the icing around Evie's mouth! Art can be delicious?!?


Finally, Evie ended the visit by creating her own "stripe" painting using masked tape and acrylic paint. This time she remained mostly unscathed by her materials and only got a little paint on her shirt and forehead!

Evie plays hostess to our visitors

Evie had a big weekend last week, with many out-of-town visitors dropping by, including Auntie Jen from California, Aunty Michelle from Alabama, and Aunty Mel, Brian, and Amelia from Philadelphia. Evie was a wonderful hostess, usually inviting our visitors to sit down and have tea, and demonstrating the use of our many toys. Here she is with Aunt Mellie and Amelia, who is already showing signs of the potential to be a Miss Future Student Government President. Amelia learned everyone's names and would frequently cry out "Evie" during our brunch.

Evie demonstrates the use of her cell phone while Amelia watches on.

Happy Birthday George!

On the third Monday of February, Alexandria hosts the largest parade to celebrate George Washington's birthday... and Evie was there in 2011!

This looks like George Washington's old regiment. Man, how do they stay so young? Maybe they are vampires.

Evie was very impressed with the clydesdale horses.

It's the Shriners in their little race cars. Evie wished she had a race car like those.

The best part of the parade? The free lollipops! Yummy!

Bringing in the Year of the Rabbit

This past Thursday Evie and the family celebrated the Chinese New Year.

Evie was excited to get a lucky apple from Ba and Opa that she took some bites right away!
Evie opens Ba and Opa's gifts in delight. "Ohhhh, money" she says when she opens up her lucky money envelopes, "I have to go buy some toys!"
Evie prepares for the cold and rain with her new winter coat, umbrella and boots. She is a big fan of splashing in puddles!

Our final days in California

We had another 2 beautiful days in San Diego with the Paul family. Our first stop on Thursday was the Scripps aquarium, where for some reason Evie loved posing inside this giant shark mouth. She and Andrew ran from one fish tank to the next, saying "Wow!"

The kids also love playing in the aquarium's tidal pools, where they touched a starfish, a lobster, a sea anemone, and a sea urchin.

Mommy and Evie are captured by the shark - yikes! After the aquarium, we ate lunch in La Jolla and then went down to the beach to see the sea lions basking in the sun on the beach.

We finished the day with a trip to the playground after naptime and then a trip to an amazing toy store dedicated to Thomas the Train! Evie got to pick out one gift and she selected a Thomas dish set.

The kids in their Thomas pajamas, all ready for bed.

The next day it was off to the beach in Coronado. Evie couldn't have been happier than when she arrived. She ran straight into the cold ocean and then made some sandcastles with Daddy before it was time to leave.

our little beach bum...

Auntie Jen and Andrew enjoy the sun!

Evie didn't want to leave...

Balboa Park Adventures in San Diego

Our first day in San Diego was spent in Balboa Park. We started our morning at the San Diego Zoo and took a bus tour all around the zoo. Evie's favorite animals were the giraffes, elephants, and hippos. She ran all around the zoo looking for dragons... luckily we were able to find one Komodo Dragon in the reptile house.

Evie and Mommy enjoy the tram across the entire park. What a view!
After checking out the petting farm, where Evie wanted Mommy to pet all the sheep for her, the two posed as a spider and a fly.
After a nap in the car, the family checked out the Model Railroad Train museum. Evie loved the exhibits of the Pacific area railroads.
Evie got to push a button that would make the trains go around the track.

We say goodbye to Hollywood...

As a last stop in LA, we checked out the Gramman's Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. But perhaps Evie's favorite part was the fountain that she could run through. Luckily Mom and Dad had a change of clothes and a blanket to towel her off with!

At first she just enjoyed running around the edges of the fountain...
...and laughing in delight...

... but then she soon gathered up all her courage and ran straight through the spray.


It wasn't long before she was standing directly on top of the spray...
... and as you can see it only took 5 minutes to be soaked. The people on a tour found her to be quite amusing. Thank goodness it was in the 70s!
After a costume change, we compared our handprints to famous stars including C3po and R2D2 (they were filming an Extra TV segment with Billy Bush too... eh, not too exciting).
And Mommy and Evie pose by Harrison Ford's block. Evie's sandals are still being dried in the sun...After that, we hit the road for San Diego. After a stop to settle in at Aunt Jen's and Uncle Tom's and a play session with Andrew at the playground, we had a lovely dinner in La Jolla with cousins Tanja, Jimmy, little Audrey and Aunty Karin. What a beautiful sunset by the beach!