Halloween in the 'Hood

Welcome to our humble home, lit up with Halloween luminaries.  And who could that be rockin' on the porch to greet our guests? 

Why, it's our friendly missing pumpkin head man, Mr. Jack!  The girls proudly stand by their creation - Evie sketched out the face for the jack-o-lantern for Daddy, but unfortunately during the carving process many teeth were lost, whittling him down to 3 teeth.  Ellie helped stuff our man with newspapers, and Mommy added the mustache to the jack-o-lantern as the final touch.  

Ellie is ready for her last tour as Rapunzel - "Best Day Ever!" she yells, with chameleon Pascal nodding in agreement. 

Evie loved spreading her wings (and wrapping them around her to keep her warm). 

We gather at the neighborhood kids for a group pix - Abigail, Leena, Ella, Evie, Jack, Cole and Ellie all dressed in our Halloween finest!  

Leena gives rabbit ears to two unsuspecting girls!

Jack may have actually not have been as welcoming as we thought - one parent told us his toddler was too scared from last year to come up to the house... whoopsie. Well, it is the scariest night of the year, after all! 

6th Annual Del Ray Halloween Parade

It's our 6th annual Del Ray Halloween Parade! Well, the parade itself is longer than six years, but we've only been attending for six parades since Evie was born.

Mom spent several weeks working on Evie's spectacular swallowtail butterfly costume.

It was worth every minute! Amazing!

Ellie, on the other hand, spotted her costume many weeks ago on a trip to Costco. Once she saw it was Repunzel, she immediately declared the outfit her Halloween getup.  She received the hair from Aunt Casey for her birthday a few months ago, and that pulled the entire customer together. Notice the homemade Pascal on Ellie's shoulder. Impressive pipe cleaner sculpture Mom!

The girls show off their costumes together before everyone heads out to Del Ray Alexandria for the world's, okay, Alexandria's largest Halloween parade!

Mom and Dad get into the spirit too. First up is mom as a butterfly garden!

Next up is Dad as the lantern-filled sky from "Tangled."

Garden and butterfly coming through! (caption by Evie)

Happy Ellie... check inside her mouth! (caption by Evie)

Little princess getting bored; butterfly not paying attention. (caption by Evie)

Yummy popcicle and ice cream! (caption by Evie)

"Why do I have to go to the car? I want to go to the playground!" (caption by Evie)

A Picnicking We Will Go

The family took advantage of a beautiful fall Saturday to go a-picnicking with Ba and Opa to celebrate Ba's birthday.  We found a shady spot under an apple tree and enjoyed a cheese picnic and Dad's signature tomato mozzarella sandwiches. 

Ellie delighted in "relaxing" on top of Opa. 

Final stop was a trip on the "Ghost Train" which the girls were very excited about. 

Evie all grown up - this picture reminded us of the time she went to see Thomas when she was two.  Trains never get old! 

Ba and Ellie enjoy the characters dressed in costumes - witches, little mermaid, and pumpkins oh my! 

Was that a ghost I saw? 

Then, it was back to Ba and Opa's to celebrate with gifts and cake.  The girls were especially proud of their hand-painted cards and pottery they created to add to Ba's gallery and art collection. 

Per family tradition, everyone helped blow out the candles before digging into some delicious Pastries by Randolph chocolate mousse cake. 

Dad's Birthday Weekend

Last week was Dad's birthday and he had the best birthday ever!

Evie and Ellie are hanging out with Dad as he begins his gift opening ceremony. Evie shows off the beautiful picture she made that shows off her and Dad -- nice pants Dad and nice hair Evie!

The girls and Mommy put together an elaborate birthday card modeled after their favorite iPad with a surprise under all the apps.. leading Dad through a scavenger hunt of his gifts.

The girls were delighted to watch their birthday video for Daddy on the blog.  If you think that's funny, wait to you see the outtakes!

Time to blow out the candles!  Ellie puts in a little extra stretch to reach Dad's cake. Evie, meanwhile, was taking her own photos.

That weekend it was time to head up to NJ to visit with Bebe and Popi.  With beautiful weather Evie and Ellie wanted to head to the beach.  Though we said we weren't going to play in the sand and water... well...

Ellie was trying to build a little sand castle and was getting quite messy in the process.

Evie and Bebe enjoy the views as they look over the ocean. It looks like Evie has an idea...

Time to test the water. Ellie figures if her sister can check out the ocean then she can too.

Both girls are playing with wet sand and trying to see how far they can throw it. Those smiles are mostly excitement with a touch of naughty.

Uh oh, the waves are getting a little larger. I think the girls believe they must be stuck in a riptide as they travel parallel to the shore.

With the waves rolling in, time to head back to the safety of dry land (though with very wet pants and a wet jacket for Ellie).

Ellie wistfully thinking about summer.

Must be quite a wave that's coming at her!

Finally, time to head back home.

While Ellie puts on her shoes before we head home, she enjoys a little taste of the beach.

Happy Birthday, dear Daddy!

The girls put on their best performance for this birthday video for their loving (and much loved) Dad.  Of course they put their Foelsche-McDonald debonair flair in it!    

The McDonald-Foelsche Family works up a sweat

We had another delightful weekend and the family took full advantage of the summer-like temperatures by getting outside. Ellie had her first soccer class on Saturday and sister Evie was cheering her on from the sidelines and showing her support like a great big sister. 

Ellie sports her soccer threads and her new purple sneaks. She had a fun time with friends Ben and London and can't wait till next week. 

On Sunday we traveled down to the Jefferson Memorial to try something absolutely new for the family: paddleboating on the Tidal Basin!  The family donned life jackets and packed some sandwiches for a lovely picnic on the water. 

  

Mommy and Ellie enjoy the view but soon realized paddleboating is quite a bit of exercise.  We quickly abandoned plans to paddle to the other side to see the FDR or MLK, Jr. Memorials and decided just to float peacefully with the seagulls while we ate our picnic. 

The view is always great in DC!  We also saw what could have been Marine 1 fly over the basin and waved excitedly to President Obama.  Also, a flock of geese did a fly by just feet from us - it was cool to see!

Halfway through the trip Evie got behind the lens and took this stunner shot of the Jefferson Memorial.  

She also took quite a few pictures of the ripples in the water - Mom was just glad the camera did not end up in the waves.  She also helped Daddy steer the boat as well, a very competent first mate.  

So we didn't quite last an hour - Ellie quickly got tired of the life jacket with the grumpy face to prove it, so we headed back to shore.  What a lovely experience on the water! 

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!