Showered with wonderful birthday gifts for mom...

The family had a relaxing celebration of Mom's birthday on Sunday, enjoying the beautiful weather with an outdoor picnic of meatball subs from the Italian Store and artisan cheese from Cheesetique.  While opening gifts, Ellie loved Mom's new soft scarf from Ba and Opa because it's her favorite color, of course!  Hmmm... Mom better keep a close eye on where the scarf ends up!

Evie was delighted to give Mom a special gift, a coupon for a "No Screen Time" Day. 

Ba is becoming quite the artist and presented another masterpiece to be hanged in the master bath, professionally framed by Opa.  

Another acquired piece of art for our kitchen, selected by Opa.  Ba and Opa are becoming quite the patrons of the local art world these days! 

The girls and Daddy get ready to help Mom blow out the candles on her traditional Baskin Robbins ice cream cake!  Another year, come  and gone, and it was a memorable one! 

Celebrating Mom's Birthday with Crabs

The family made our annual trip to Kentmorr across the Bay Bridge to celebrate Mom's birthday with a delicious crab feast. Ellie kept herself quite amused with some playdoh while Ba and Mom kept ourselves quite busy with our crab picking. 

Meanwhile, Evie enjoyed her crab coloring and mac n' cheese just like she likes it, a la Kraft. 

At the end of the meal, Evie practiced her mallet skills by cracking all of our crab legs...

...while Ellie used her mallet to create playdoh cupcakes, topped wiht a little Old Bay seasoning. 

  

Outside the restaurant is a beach area where the girls found plenty to amuse themselves, especially the hammocks. 

Which Ellie loved purposefully falling out of. 

Look at those happy, happy hammock smiles! 

Then we had a moment of panic when Daddy's wedding ring flew off into the sand during a competitive game of tetherball.  Thankfully, Opa found it before we went into a panic and had to frantically track down a metal detector.

Evie could not resist dipping her feet into the waves of the bay. 

She also took a shot of Mom and Dad, enjoying the beautiful day. 

September Adventures in Flight

We have been having some fun times on the weekends now that school is back in session, starting with a fun day at Six Flags. The park was pretty empty which meant no lines to the kid's delight.  They had no fear about riding nearly every ride, although after the first round of the rollercoaster, Evie was ready to get off - unfortunately there were two more rounds to go.  Flying together on the plane was a little more their speed.

Ellie and Mom take a ride on an old electric car, with Daddy and Evie at the controls. A little jerkier than our electric car, could use a little more zip. 

 They loved the waveswinger, particularly as they kept cracking each other  up as they yelled "pottyhead" to Mom and Dad as they passed by.

Evie gave a thumbs up to the train ride. Mommy and Daddy definitely needed a tamer ride after going down the Penguin's Blizzard River.  We had no idea the giant raft kept spinning down the whole ride - it felt like we were in a washing machine.  While Evie and Ellie wanted to go again and again, we quickly vetoed that ride.   

Then, last Saturday we checked out Family Heritage Day at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum where the theme was appropriately Women in Aviation. The girls actually stayed engaged during the "Forces of Flight" demonstration, sitting in the first row eagerly calling out answers. 

Evie was one of the first volunteers, demonstrating that there is air pushing down on her arm *and* lifting it up. 

Ellie also got to demonstrate the propeller in action.  Duck! 

After creating their space mission patches and "Snoopy Ears," the girls made asteroids out of foil, mineral and gases, that also made great necklaces and bracelets. 

Ready to BLAST OFF !!!

Or simply do a dance with their handmade comets. 

We finished our museum trip with a paper airplane contest as we all perfected our folding skills and  aim.  What a fun day for both kids and parents!  

A Padawan Birthday for Amelia

Luckily for us, Amelia's 5th Birthday took place not in a galaxy far, far away but in Philly.  Some of her favorite movies are the Star Wars movies, so she was happy to lay on some bean bag destruction on the Death Star.  

Ellie too gave it a try and let the bean bag fly.  Concentrate, young Padawan. 

Mommy and Ellie get snuggly. 

Aunty Mel had put together this amazing punch box - the kids retrieved handfuls of candy treasure!

Ellie gets a little Darth when handed the light saber.  Maybe it was the effect of the lollipop. 

Amelia gets ready to blow out the candle on her sweet stormtrooper cake.  Next birthday Daddy has promised to make her a mini fondant cake. 

Aw, look at that sweet smile.  My how the years have flown by! 

Too Cool for School

Evie started First Grade last week, ready to conquer the world!  

Ellie was there to lend moral support...

...and gave big sis a big hug as we send her off to school (it was a sweltering day after a mild summer, so she and Ba decided to walk us only halfway).  

Jack (starting kindergarten), Ella (who will be in Evie's class this year), and Evie take our traditional picture in front of Belle View's big sign!  Here's to a great year ahead!

Meanwhile, Ellie was excited to start her second year at MHCP, where she will be in Mrs. Arthur's and Ms. Anahi's classroom. 

Mom and Ellie on her big day - no jitters for this girl!

Dad also was there to give our little munchkin a proper send-off, literally with some munchkins we provided for the Courtyard Coffee.

Ellie and London reunite on the MHCP playground.

Ellie proudly shows off her "Comfy Bear" picture, full of princess stickers and family pictures so she can visit the family should she ever get lonely at school.  She also kindly had placed some peanut stickers by "Comfy Bear's" mouth to keep him well fed.

Another year, another mommy holding back tears!

The Last Days of Summer...

Abigail and Evie had a lemonade stand - Evie earned $3.25!  Looks like we have some entrepreneurs in the making... 

While Daddy is off to Telluride, the girls and Mommy have been enjoying the last week of summer before school starts with some final trips to Great Waves, spray parks and playgrounds.  Here the girls show off their expert surfing stances and sassy looks at Great Waves, after an hour in the wave pool and at least 30 trips down the curvy water slide. Ellie was so proud that she could go by herself.   

We also had a great time at the Oliver's annual luau - the weather was beautiful!  Evie and Ellie mastered the rock climbing wall and loved zooming down the slide. 

On Thursday, Evie got to meet her new first grade teacher Mrs. Bates and see her new classroom.  It looks like Mrs. Bates is a Mo Willems fan as we saw Pigeon, Piggy and Elephant all around the class.  Several of her friends will be in her class - she is excited to start the year! 

On Saturday we headed downtown to check out our annual favorite, the National Festival of the Book.  After passing by Captain Underpants, the next stop was the PBS Kids area, where the kids were delighted to meet Cat in the Hat for the third time.  

  

And then Ellie actually got out of her stroller to put on a smile to meet one of her favorites, "Georgie"!  

Meanwhile, Evie takes Sid's Science Challenge and sniffs away to see which scents she could identify. 

The next day we left at the crack of dawn with Ba and Opa for an adventure at Rehoboth Beach.  What a delightful day we had for enjoying the surf and sand.   Ellie was particularly happy enjoying her pirate's booty with Ba. 

After some arcade games and skeeball (where thankfully no machines were broken), Ellie took a ride in a little frog. 

Then it was off to Funland for some carnival delights! Ellie gets ready to take off in her rocket ship - she insisted on being in the front seat despite Evie's insistence that she should be sitting in the back; as you can tell from Evie's expression, she's none too pleased but our littlest is no pushover. 

Two lovely ladies rocking in their hot rod!  What a great way to end the summer!