Our first Chinese New Year trying Chopsticks

Chinese New Year is always a lot of fun, and this year was no different! The girls donned their ao dai and the family headed over for dim sum where Evie modeled her chopstick skills for the rest of the tame. Long noodles, long life!

Then it was back to Ba and Opa's house to celebrate! 

The girls were delighted to see what surprises were within their lucky red envelopes! 

The week before, we checked out the festivities at the Sackler Gallery where Evie was a ribbon twirling master!

Mom, Dad and Ellie had fun coloring our monkey masks. 

We have a howlin' great time at Great Wolf Lodge

The girls were so excited to hit the road for an adventure - our first trip to Great Wolf Lodge!  While we wait to collect our wolf ears, the girls explore the lodge lobby with Dad, including the huge fireplace...

...and the scary bear!  Augh! After checking into our room, we headed straight for the indoor water park and enjoyed splashing around in the wave pool, the many water slides, and the lazy river.  The girls were very brave and tried almost all of the water slides, including the fast slides that spun us down a dark tube!

After a couple of hours at the park, we decided to check out the other areas of the lodge, and everyone had a blast playing candlepin bowling.  Ellie liked to chuck her bowling ball, though, we thought she was going to break something.

Evie found the cub ears to be her good luck charm, landing a couple of spares.  However, Mommy won the championship, to Dad's chagrin.

Next stop: the arcade, where Ellie is doing an impersonation of a crazy bus driver.  Mom thinks she lost some of her hearing being in the arcade noise for so long!

That night, while Mom and Dad watched the superbowl, the girls loaded up on their own snacks and snuggled up in their own cave - which had their own TV. The girls were in heaven.  Overall it was a fantastic trip! 

Bookworms rejoice at the Library of Congress

We had a lovely visit with Grandma Bebe over the long holiday weekend and we got to visit the Library of Congress for the first time! 

Ellie became a photographer and captured some great scenes from the beautiful atrium with the iPhone. Meanwhile, Evie liked scanning the books in Jefferson's Library and peaking into the beautiful reading room. 

We also liked studying the old maps of the country, including one of New Jersey around the Revolutionary War.  It was a lovely visit followed by a delicious dinner and of course, Bebe's french toast. 

Let's get surreal...

In the winter it is great to escape indoors to enjoy many of the city's wonderful museums. We checked out the surrealism exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum and were delighted to find this Magritte sculpture, one of Evie's favorite artists. 

There was a giant magnetized wall and the family really got into creating our own surreal objects.  This was Evie's piece called "The Big". 

Mommy particularly liked Ellie's mustachioed clock. 

Dad's famous "Artichoke Arms". 

2015 comes to an end with more time spent with family & friends...

We ended the year with a bang with inviting relatives over for brunch on Sunday who had traveled from Yorktown, Richmond and Manassas to catch up and enjoy some good food and wine. 

The next day we made our traditional visit to the US Botanical Gardens, where the DC landmarks were in full display (this year, a playground and vegetable garden adorned the White House). 

The theme of this year's exhibit was "Pollination Station" as we saw oversized flowers, butterflies, and bees all created out of plant materials.  The kids were thrilled to especially see the trains like James and Thomas whizzing through the settings and above. 

Jack was excited to see the train high above! 

The girls pose next a jolly ol' elf. 

Speaking of trains, it's always fun to be the conductor on the plant train! 

The girls pose in front of the Capitol, under construction of course, bundled up.  Winter has finally arrived! 

Then, a couple of days later, the girls, Sonali and Sachin enjoyed making homemade pizza for our New Year's celebration with the Sareen family. While Ellie passed out during Chipmunks II, Evie actually managed to stay up to midnight but then promptly fell asleep on Mommy's leg at 12:01.  What a great way to end the year!  

Christmas Eve Part II

As every Foelsche knows, the Foelsche Christmas lasts for at least 3 days and this year we were excited to extend it another day to celebrate a "second" Christmas Eve with Uncle Karl, Aunt Amy, Dia and Jack, along with Popi and Bebe. One of our favorite traditions is walking with candles to the Christmas tree while we sing "Stille Nacht" in German (or just hum along). 

The girls and Jack look angelic with their candles. 

Bebe and Popi enjoy the decorations and delicious meal. 

The whole family in our Christmas finest!

Ellie gave Ba and Opa a Grinch Santa plate for cookies.

Jack and Dia were big fans of their presents - a unicorn and cleaning set. Jack took out the broom and got to work right away!

Who needs snow for Christmas? Not us!

There's nothing like the joy of rolling out of your bed and running downstairs to see what Santa has brought! After quick inspection to see if Santa ate some cookies and shared his carrot with the reindeer, the girls dug into their stockings. Evie is always excited to get her toothpaste and vitamins. 

This year, cool gift certificates to Cheesetique and Dairy Godmother, our favorite Del Ray spots. Looks like Evie will be loading up on a lot of cheese in the coming months! 

Evie is over the moon to get an American Girl doll that looks just like her, including some pink rose glasses. 

Teamwork!  The girls dig into Ellie's Santa gifts, which included a Paw Patroller and 3 accompanying pups - Everest, Chase, and Marshall. 

The girls share big hugs after opening each other's gifts to each other. 

They want to read their new books immediately - so we take a break to read a Bitty Baby book and pose with the Piggy Popper and new purple hedgehog. 

Ellie is delighted to get Rolly, one of the 101 Dalmations.  It's appropriate given later that day she would be asking "When's dinner? I'm hungry." 

Dad models his "superhero" mask -- maybe one day this winter he'll be able to wear it if it ever gets cold. 

Later, we were all excited with the arrival of Bebe, Popi and Dolly. Evie is excited to open up her very own Lego Christmas Village. 

Meanwhile, Ellie gets a Crazy Forts set, which we used to build our first igloo later that night. 

When Ba and Opa arrived, we had a delicious dinner of crab cakes with arugula, tomato, and corn salad; roast lamb with asparagus and rosemary potatoes, and topped it off with a delicious bread pudding!  It was a wonderful dinner - thank you Wegmans for making it so easy! 

After a satisfying meal, we gather around to commemorate Christmas 2015 with our new friends - including Snoopy, Rolly, Kate and Lucky - and our loving family!