A said to B, I'll race you up the Coconut Tree (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom)

Last week, Alexa passed her coconut food challenge. What a relief to be able to cross that one out of her list of allergic foods! We spent the next few days in coconut overload - I think everyone was a bit tired of coconut by the end of it. Our neighbor Maura, whose two kids also passed the coconut challenge a few days before Alexa, brought over coconut cupcakes. On the advice of Elizabeth, I bought some Coconut milk ice cream. And Sunday night, we had Piña Coladas for dinner!

Girl Scout Field Trip

Over the weekend, we had a Girl Scout field trip to Sully Plantation - where we got a personal tour of the grounds and the main house. The girls were amazed that there were no bathrooms in the olden days!

After the tour, they decorated flower pots and planted some flower seeds...

Veggie Gardening

The Easter bunny brought the girls some veggie and flower seeds so once the weather was nice enough, we went outside to plant them. Last weekend was hot and sunny - perfect weather. This year, we are trying our hand at tomatoes, sugar snap peas, zucchini, and cucumbers -- we'll see what happens!

Emma was supposed to be watering the seeds, instead, she turned the hose on herself!

Museum Day

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and took the girls into DC last Saturday. Emma recently finished a unit on Dinosaurs (her first diorama!) and was excited to see them at the museum. And she really did love it - she knew all the types of dinosaurs and was pointing them out to us at the museum.

(Speaking of trivia knowledge, next time you see Emma - quiz her on state flowers. That's another unit the kindergarteners just worked on. Given her interest, I checked out this book from the library about the state flowers (a kid's reference book, really), and she has gone to town flipping through the pages. She knows most of the state flowers by heart and we've never read the book to her!)

Our picnic by the fountain in the Sculpture Gardens:

After lunch, we gave the girls a choice. They could either choose to have an ice cream treat, or ride the merry go around. Emma chose the treat (Rocket Pop!) and Alexa chose the Carousel. Even though she had a great time on the Carousel (laughing the entire time), when the ride was over and we were heading out, Alexa said to me (in all seriousness) , "I changed my mind. The merry go around wasn't very fun. I want a treat instead...!"

Crossfield Jogathon

Last Friday, Emma's school had a school wide jogathon. The idea was to promote fitness as well as raise money for the PTO. We were given sponsor forms and then ask sponsors to pledge a certain amount of money per lap that the child ran. Each lap was .2 miles and the kids had to run/walk/move for 30 minutes around the school field. I figured, no way is Emma going to make it more than 5 times around.

Go figure - Emma completed 10 laps in 30 minutes - that's 2 miles! And we figure that with her little legs, it was harder to cover that distance than it would be for us as adults. On top of that, she was smiling and having a great time the entire time! So I'm really proud of her! (Though I now have to pay twice as much $$ to the PTO as I had originally anticipated...)

Here is her kindergarten class warming up before the big run. There was a DJ in the background playing fun music and pushing the kids on. At the end of the run all the kids got popsicles too.

I love this picture of Emma with her friend Taryn:

Spring Break

My mom was able to spend 2 weeks with us here during Emma's spring break. Though the girls got sick for part of the time she was here, they still had tons of fun with Puo Puo. Emma learned how to write 2 Chinese characters each day, they spent plenty of time outdoors, and we were all spoiled by my mom taking care of us during these 2 weeks.

We went to the Adventure Theatre at Glen Echo Park to watch the play If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. Emma was laughing hysterically throughout the play - she really loved it!

Easter Egg decoration:

When Alexa accidentally cracked one of her eggs before she had dyed it, and burst into gut wrenching sobs - I promptly did what any responsible mother would do. I took a picture. To my credit, after this picture, I did console her and she was fine after that...

On my parents last night here, we treated them to a delicious dinner at Woo Lae Oak. It was delicious, even if we had to be really careful with the Sesame Oil that was everywhere!

Easter Egg Hunt with the Neighbors

On Sunday afternoon, we had an Easter Egg hunt with some of the kids from the neighborhood. Poor Alexa was still suffering from a very high fever, so she stayed home with my mom. Each child got a "color" egg to look for, so there wouldn't be any scuffles over eggs. Mary Kelly made a chart depicting what color egg each child was supposed to look for - very creative!

Emma and the Lazy Pig

This picture of Emma next to a big sleeping pig at Frying Pan Park is really important to me, because it's the first weekend outing I had with Emma (Alexa was sick at home) since the first trimester of the pregnancy. There have been enough complications and nausea that I was homebound for many of the last weekends. So the weather was beautiful on Sunday and my mom and I took her for a quick trip to the farm. It felt so good to be outside and walking around like a normal person!

Deven's Birthday Party

Usually I'm on birthday party duty, but since the pregnancy has been so difficult, Arturo was on call. And lucky him, it was a princess ballerina birthday no less! He did a good job capturing how much fun Lex had though...

Step right up and Get Your Girl Scout Cookies!

Emma and some Girl Scout buddies spent a recent Saturday afternoon outside of Giant, hawking Girl Scout Cookies. I see a budding salesman in Emma. After the initial few customers, she totally had her routine down, and was regularly upselling customers!

Emma and Lucky the Ladybug

Each child in Emma's kindergarten class gets to be the "Star of the Week" for one week during the school year. The child gets to make a poster about themselves (with pictures and such) and share it with their friends. At the end of the week, they bring home "Lucky the Ladybug" and do something special with her over the weekend. At the end of the weekend, the star records in the class journal the adventures that Lucky has been on. So far, I think Lucky has been to Disney World, the National Zoo, and some other wacky places!

Each child's week was assigned back in September, and the class list was sent home. And every week since about October, Emma has dutifully crossed off the current star of the week, counted how many weeks left until it is her turn, and then announced this information to us. So when it came to scheduling this trip to Cozumel, we actually scheduled it AROUND her Star Week. Yes, we are that obsessive of parents! (Imagine what we'll do to get her into her first choice college!) The good news is that we were able to take Lucky with us to Cozumel - which was fun for Emma, and nerve wracking for Arturo who was feeling the pressure of making sure that Lucky also made it safely back from Cozumel.

Emma came home and dutifully recorded Lucky's adventures. I restrained myself and let her "sound out" as much as she wanted and write as messily as she needed to. I did not exert parental control over this, and the result is a semi indecipherable chronicle of Lucky's adventures with the Gay family:

Transcription of Page 1: "Me and Lucky went on a plane to go to Cozumel. And back from Cozumel!"

Transcription of Page 2: "Me and Lucky went to Cozumel and Lucky went Kayaking and we stayed at a hotel! And we stayed in our room and we could look out..."

Transcription of Page 3: "...our room! We went to the beach and I found a snail!"

Parental Commentary #1: Note the over use of Exclamation Points, or as she was taught in Kindergarten... "Exciting marks!" Ooh la la!!!

Parental Commentary #2: Note that in the picture she drew of her and Alexa in the last page, Alexa has crazy wild and curly hair. I love it.

Potraits of Emma in Cozumel

These were taken by Mau. I love how the pictures capture how happy Emma was to be at the beach with her cousins!

Cozumel Overload

In early March, we met Arturo's entire family in Cozumel - where we spent 4 days at an all inclusive resort. The weather was gorgeous, the cousins loved spending time with each other, and we got to relax with family. Here's a mish mosh of pictures from the trip.



Arturo, Mau, Gabriel, Vero, and Ale went Scuba diving the second day there:

Emma still loves playing/taking care of Montse:

Love this group shot!

Alexa, enjoying Nachos by the beach

Abi with all her grandkids:

I sure wish I knew what Em was saying to Montse here!

Alexa's hair got curlier each day we were in Cozumel. The girl and humidity do not mix!