Celebrating the fourth in Centreville...

The family headed over to Centreville to eat some crabs, light some fireworks, and spend some wonderful time catching up with the family. Mommy, Ellie, Auntie Van and Ba pose for the camera - we had just missed a big Ellie smile!

Evie and Uncle Pierre's son Elias check out their glow-in-the-dark necklaces.


Uncle Pierre's daughter Elizabeth and Evie enjoy some fun with play-doh!


After dinner, we set off some fireworks in the driveway. They made a lot of pretty lights, but they sure were loud! Evie had to plug her ears.

An exciting start to the holiday weekend

The family has been celebrating the fourth of July holiday weekend with many fun activities. On Friday, we packed up a picnic and checked out the Latin jazz/mambo band concert at the National Gallery Sculpture Garden. Mambo is after all Evie's favorite dance, as she knows how to cha cha cha from her Classical Baby Dance DVD.


Evie was a little shy about dancing in front of the crowd, but did a couple of twists and twirls with the encouragement of Mommy. She also wanted to climb the pyramid sculpture in the background, although she says she just wanted a "closer look".


All smiles after sharing some cheese with Daddy. After the concert the family had our first taste of gelato and it was delicious!



Ellie slept through the concert in the shade, chill as could be.


On Saturday the family met Ba and Opa at Pearmund Cellars in Middleburg for a private barrel tasting. After a delicious BBQ lunch with sangria, the family headed inside to the barrel room to sample the wines. Evie was fascinated by watching the wine guy use a funnel thingee to take the wine out of the barrel. She also found that the barrels made good drums.


While Ellie was not tasting the wine, she had a dopey smile on her face all the same. Everyone surprisingly liked most of the wines we tried, and therefore were a little dopey ourselves at the end of the tasting.


Evie checks out the grapes with Ba and Opa and explains they are used for the chardonnay that the winery creates. Opa is particularly very happy with the wine - he sure bought a lot of it!


The four girls pose in the vineyard... Ellie had a good idea to take a nap - after this outing, the whole family needed it!

Enjoying a nice summer day with bubbles...

While Evie has been enjoying dinosaur camp every morning this week, Ellie has had some primo R&R time on Ba's shoulder.

The weather has been (relatively) mild for a Virginia summer, so Evie decided to play with some bubbles in the shade this afternoon.

This one looks like it's going to be a big one! Evie watches it warily to make sure it doesn't pop in her face.


Evie is particularly amused when mommy tries to catch the bubbles with her toes.



Even Ellie couldn't help but give a goofy smile at everyone's antics...


...before heading back to dreamland!

Ellie Enjoying Her Four-Week Birthday

Ellie was in a good mood today so we decided to take a few pictures. Enjoy!

Another dash for dad race for the record books!

The family was all excited to participate in our fourth annual Dash for Dad on Sunday to kick off a wonderful day. Evie examines her letter and dons her shirt to participate in the 1-mile walk with Opa, Ba, and Mommy while Dad ran the 4-miler.

A couple of sprinkles did not deter Evie from being sure to get a good view of Daddy racing by at the starting line!

And here is Daddy at the last leg of the race, whizzing by us (incentivized by the lead woman runner on his heels). He ended up coming in 4th place out of over 900 runners - hooray!


Ellie's first Dash for Dad and she slept through it all, even the mimosas afterwards.

Evie and Daddy pose for a Father's Day picture in the backyard.


The family gathered at Ba and Opa's house for reuben sandwiches and to celebrate a fun day for all (in addition to Father's Day, it was also Mom and Dad's 7th wedding anniversary).

We also found out today via skype that Karl and Amy will be having a girl - another girl for the Foelsche clan! She will be arriving November 1 - how exciting!

Evie's Big Sister Party

Evie celebrated her new big sister status with a party on Sunday with tons of her friends, including Sam, Katie, Mason, Miguel, Shelby, Izzy, Ava, Levi, Greta, Molly and her new sister Kelly. Mom and Dad had won a gift certificate to a private storytime at her favorite Alexandria bookstore, Hooray for Books, which seemed like a great activity for the kids.
Everyone enjoyed the songs and books that were sung and read.


Here is Evie preparing her "scary face" for the book being read about a scary dance. Afterwards, we all headed to one of Evie's favorite playground to enjoy some cupcakes.

Of course honorary little sister Ellie slept through most of the festivities!

Evie is having fun being a big sister

It has been a hot couple of days - summer is definitely here! To escape the heat, the family has been relaxing by our deluxe inflatable giraffe pool in the backyard.


Evie is a big fan of any opportunity to wear her new yellow swimsuit that has a "tutu" for our little budding ballerina.


Evie helps keep Mommy cool by "watering" her legs.

Ellie takes a nap in the shade while Evie splashes around in the spray park.


It is a rare moment when Ellie has her eyes open...

Evie is becoming an expert at holding her little sister, who she likes to exclaim is "soooooooooooooo cute!" Ellie is pretty mellow for the most part and lets Evie explore her little toes.