Another dash for dad!

On Sunday, Mommy, Daddy, Ba and Opa took to Eisenhower Avenue for the Annual Dash for Dad. Unfortunately, Daddy had twisted his knee the week before and couldn't run in this year's race, but he joined us for the 2-mile walk. Evie had a great time and wore her number with pride. She walked the last 10-feet of the walk all by herself!

Evie gives mommy a big birthday kiss!

As Mom celebrated her "23rd" birthday, the family had a fantastic weekend enjoying the last bit of summer before fall arrives. We spent a lovely day checking out the various parks in Old Town, flying down the slide and exploring the butterfly garden.

Evie loves squeezing through tight spaces, like between these two giant logs at the park.

On Monday Evie helped Mommy unwrap all her gifts, including another book for Mommy to read her, but this one is for the bath.

Polka dots and bubbles!

Evie had a fun weekend where she attended another first birthday party for friend Connor, and got to bring out her polka dot party dress. After the party, Mommy and Daddy took advantage of the beautiful weather to take Evie to the park where we enjoyed a cheese picnic, blew bubbles around her, and played some bocce ball by the water.

When Evie finds something funny she scrunches up her face and growls.

Here is also a video of Evie feeding Daddy some food as he feeds her some yogurt. Our precocious little girl!

Did you think the birthday parties were over?!?

Heck no! The parties are just getting started! Lucky Evie got to celebrate Izzy's and Andrew's first birthdays this weekend. She had a great time playing with her friends and all the new toys that were around, and eating a little cake, here and there.

Here are Evie and Andrew playing with a cool toy on Sunday. Evie couldn't wait for Andrew's birthday - they splashed in the baby pool before playing with the toys outside.

Evie was not a fan of the party hat.

Fun splashing in the water park!

Evie had a great time playing in the waterpark in Arlington, happily splashing away and walking into the streams of water. She was tentative at first, but soon jumped right in. Afterwards Mommy and Evie got a meatball sub from the Italian Store, which Evie loved.

The first time she stuck her hand in, and then after that it was time to walk right under the spray.
She's getting the hang of it now, and getting more wet by the minute! Good thing Mommy packed some extra clothes!

Evie's second birthday party is a blast!

Evie celebrated her birthday with friends this weekend and had a great time! The sun was shining, babies were crawling all over the place, and the bubble machine Julie brought was...bubbling. Evie's first guests were Meg, Kyriakos, and Zoe (who recently turned two and gave Evie a special message, "Happy Tutu Evie!"). It was super cute. Then soon enough all of Evie's friends from her waterbabies class and now music class started rolling in... Izzy, Ava, Connor, and Andrew!

Surrounded by Dr. Seuss characters! Here is "Evie in the Hat" with Mommy and Daddy. Evie was not a big fan and it only lasted seconds on her head.

Evie actually got into opening some of her gifts this time around. She went for the gifts about halfway through the party (was attracted to a big white bow) and actually seemed to enjoy each of the cards almost more than the gifts themselves (until the next day, when she didn't want to take a nap so she could just play with her new gifts)!

Everyone sang Happy Birthday before Daddy helped Evie blow out the candle on her "black & white" cupcake. At the end of her bites, Evie had both chocolate and vanilla frosting all over her face. Ba, Julie, Ava's daddy Thomas and Evie recover from the cake. That's Andrew and Tom in the background having a blast pulling down the streamers. Andrew was a big fan of the Dr. Seuss hat, and the balloons!

As was Connor, here with his mom Kristin. These boys could wear the hat all day! I guess Evie was worried that she would get hat head and mess up her hair.

Ava with Mommy Valerie

Phew! I am exhausted!

Evie celebrates her first birthday with family this weekend!

Evie had a fantastic birthday party on Saturday, surrounded by family and thunderstorms. Grandma Bebe, Popi, and Great-Aunt Dellie traveled all the way down from New Jersey; Aunt Karen, Uncle Wally, and cousin Molly traveled from Philadelphia, and Great-Aunt Karin traveled from Yorktown, all to help celebrate Evie's first birthday. With Ba, Opa, Ba Co (Great Grandma), Great-Uncle Minh, Great-Auntie Mailan, Great-Auntie Van, Great-Uncle Diem, Great-Uncle Tung, cousin Kevin, Nguyen and Yvonne. It was a full house but everyone had a good time, including Evie.

Daddy made this fantastic cake based off the "Oh, the Places You'll Go" image. Yes, that is a picture of our little Evie sticking out of the balloon's basket!

Here is Evie in her stylish party dress, opening gifts.
Evie enjoyed everyone singing Happy Birthday before Daddy helped blow out the candle for her cake.

Yummy! Evie loves her first taste of Funfetti cake and frosting. Opa, what is this ancient-looking thing? A camera?

With Popi, Daddy, Mommy, Ba, Ba Co, and Grandma Bebe.

After everyone had gone home, Evie enjoyed playing with her new toys in her ballerina princess outfit.