A fun weekend around the neighborhood

The family enjoyed themselves immensely at the Meeting House Coop Preschool picnic on Saturday. Here Evie and her friend Bryn look at the cute owls.

Evie put some extra eyes on her owl and called it "Four Eyes!"

Evie enjoyed her chicken tenders, biscuits and mac n cheese, but loved the cake the most.
Ellie slept through most of the picnic, but proudly wore her Yankees cap.

Later that day we bundled up the kids with Ba and Opa to take them to the Art on the Avenue festival in Del Ray. Ba was in heaven and even Evie got into the buying action, coming home with a wooden frog and a special surprise gift for Dad's birthday. Among one of the surreal views of the day, a band playing Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" while 10 or so kids danced in front of the bandstand. Ellie must have been soothed as well because she slept through most of the afternoon, including the pumpkin frozen custard.

Instead of sidewalk chalk, they had a fun activity we had never seen - painting with colored sand! Evie got a brush and gave it a try. It was a perfect activity for her given she really likes to mix colors.

Photographer Evie!

Since Evie was about one year old, she has loved taking pictures with our little Canon PowerShot digital camera ever since we bought our fancy Nikon. Once we taught her where to press the button on the top of the camera, she's been off and running taking pictures everywhere. We figured it's about time to feature her portfolio. Here are a dozen of our favorite pictures (Mommy has added some titles).

Angles on a House (2011)

The Affect of Children on Furniture (2010)

Girl, look at you at CVS (2011)

View from a Stroller (2010)

Shadows in the Backyard (2010)

Illumination in the Backyard (2010)

Lonely Baseball Pinata at Birthday Party (2011)

Blue Skies Ahead (2009)

Runner (2009)

Self-Portrait in Storm Door Window (2009)

Light illuminating all but dark Mommy figure (2009)

Empty Chairs (2009)

More pictures to come in the future!

We love to read!

The family decided to brave the cloudy skies and take a trip down to the city to check out the National Festival of the Book on the Mall. There we saw some storytellers, authors, and singers, but most importantly Evie got to meet the Cat in the Hat. She looks a little terrified here, but when we actually walked away from the Cat she had a big smile on her face.



At the PBS Kids tent, Evie enjoyed painting on the Electric Company mural and taking a smell test at the Sid's Science table. Hmmmm... what could this smell be?

Mommy and Evie work on designing some bookmarks together with crayons and stickers.

At the Target Book Nook, Daddy reads Evie a Curious George book that comes with a Curious George himself.


Ellie seems really into this story of a pig who would dream big which was written by Kristi Yamaguchi.

She looks straight at daddy while Mommy reads on.

Hmmm... she also seems fascinated with her "I Read Today" sticker. Here's to reading everyday!

The last birthday...for another 10 days or so.,.

This Wednesday was Mommy's birthday, and we had a lovely dinner with Ba and Opa to celebrate. Everyone enjoyed the chocolate cake after Mommy and Evie had blown out the candles.


Mommy and Ba pose for a picture.
Evie seems particularly excited about her $50 bill, but Mommy explains that it won't be going into Evie's piggy bank!


Ellie watches with wide eyes all the birthday excitement. Hey, she says, when do I get one of these?!?


Evie gives Mommy a big birthday kiss after she opened her card, which Evie had composed herself. Evie is getting very good at signing her name and also writing other letters and words, like "mom" and "love".

Whew! What a day/night! Mommy looks wiped out but still enjoys holding little Ellie in her lap.

We followed the yellow brick road...

What a lovely visit we had in Philadelphia and New Jersey this weekend. On Saturday we were so lucky to celebrate Amelia's very special 2nd birthday at Smith's Park. The theme of the party was Wizard of Oz, one of Amelia's and Mel's favorite movies. Above, Amelia admires her Dorothy birthday cake dressed as Dorothy herself.

Aunty Lillian and Aunty Mel with little Ellie. Baby Ellie had lots of smiles for everyone, while Mommy stuffed her face with rainbow rice krispie treats. Yummy yummy.

Amelia digs into the delicious rainbow cupcake which was topped with a ruby slipper.

...Evie had about five of them. Well, that's an exaggeration - between the whole family we had about five of them.

Amelia loved touching Evie. She stroked her cheek and then told Mommy Mel "I am being gentle, Mommy!" That she was! Check out Amelia's blog for more pictures of the awesome party!

Then we returned home to Bebe and Popi's new house in Wall and celebrated Mommy's, Daddy's and Evie's birthday with delicious chocolate/vanilla cake!


The next day Ellie got some quality time with Popi. She was fascinated with Popi's voice.

Eyes wide open (and with a little mohawk).


Ellie takes a nice nap on Beanie, content as content can be.


Evie, on the other hand, was a bundle of energy. She liked showing off her ballet moves.

Take us out to the ballgame!

On Labor Day the family (sans Daddy who was at Telluride for another successful film festival) was off to the Nationals ballpark with our $5 tickets for family day. Evie got to ride on Opa's shoulders just like Mommy used to do when she was a kid!


Even Ellie was getting into the excitement - there were four home runs by the Nationals and they ended up winning against the Dodgers.

Evie digs into her ice cream sundae - the thing she was most excited about at the game!

Ellie prepares to do the wave from the Red Porch restaurant - best seats in the stadium (well, better than the cheap seats).

Ellie, Ba and Opa cheer during the President's Race - it was TJ's day to win.

Ba and Evie pose with the Geico Gecko. Looks like he lost a finger from an enthusiastic high five.

We always said Opa looked like Abe Lincoln - what do you think of his doppelganger?

...and the presents keep on coming...

Evie's birthday started with a bang - Hurricane Irene kept Mommy and Daddy up most of the night, but luckily the next day we had power, no flooding, and lots of sunshine. Ba and Opa came over that night to celebrate one last time.


Evie had many presents to open - she was excited about her pink piggy bank which Opa intends to fill with many dollar coins.

Evie also got her first battery-operated Rosie train (for lazy kids who can't push trains around the track - just kidding!).


Evie needs to take a break halfway through the present extravaganza on Ba's lap.

Evie blows out the three candles on the traditional Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. She had kindly set the table for everyone and even helped cut the cake! "I get the first piece," she reminded mommy when it was placed on a plate.


The family poses for a picture... Ellie looks like she's ready to celebrate her birthday already!


Evie loves that hammock!

To end the night, Evie took some practice swings on the t-ball set given to her by Uncle Dave and Aunt Casey. We hear that Stanny has quite the throwing arm so we're just a couple of summers away from our first wiffleball games!

Evie was also very excited about Annie and Clarabel - finally reunited with Thomas! What a fantastic third birthday!