Viva Vienna!

On Sunday, we went to Viva Vienna, the annual Fair which has lots of kiddie rides. For too much money, your kids get to have 2 minutes of fun. Luckily, the smile on the girls' faces are priceless :)

We took this picture of Alexa watching the "Dragon Wagon" because she oftentimes does this: when in deep concentration, she likes to jut out her lower lip -- it's hilarious and adorable.

What summertime Carnival is complete without Corn Dogs and Cotton Candy?

About 10 minutes after we sat down to eat, the skies clouded over and we had a huge thunderstorm. We moved the picnic table underneath an overhang and were safe from the rain. But once it let down a little, Alexa ventured out under the rain and examined the puddles. This picture was taken about 2 minutes before she decided to jump into the puddle...

Hanging out with the Grandparents

All the pictures in this posting were taken by my dad with his camera, during the last 3 weeks that my parents stayed with us. They have helped us so tremendously with everything during my surgery and recovery, not the least -- playing with and taking care of the girls. You can tell how much fun the girls had with Puo Puo and Gong Gong all this time!

Here they are pretending to be asleep in Lexy's bed:

This is a beautiful and delicious edible fruit arrangement that the Chen's sent us after my surgery. Here we are digging into it!

Alexa is the early riser in our household; she is usually up by 6:30 am. In these pictures, Puo Puo is eating breakfast with Lex while Mom and Dad are still snoozing away!

The girls at play:

"Picture Day" in the Gay Household

Emma kept telling Alexa that it was "Picture Day" and time to take pictures with the family. Here we all are, hamming it up!

Annual Fine Arts Festival

This past weekend was the Reston Fine Arts Festival. It's always fun admiring all the art we can't afford! At this particular booth, the artist actually encouraged the kids to touch the sculptures, so it was a nice change.


The girls had a good time, though the best part was the children's tent where they got to create some "art" or their own. Here's Emma working on her necklace and the girls rolling a ball covered in paint:

Here are the girls showing off the mobile sculptures they made:

...But it's not easy being an artist! Alexa is ready for a nap at this point! Yawn!

Hannah's Bday Party

At a birthday party this past weekend, they had a lady come with all sorts of little animals for the kids to see and touch. Emma loved the entire show -- she was cracking up the whole time!

Look who got caught!

Here's Alexa, getting a little carried away with the stamping!

Playing with Puo Puo

The girls have been having lots of fun with their Grandma these days. Here they are analyzing the leaves of a tree and throwing a ball.

Too cool for you!

Here's Alexa with her painting smock on. Shortly after finishing painting, she put on her sunglasses by herself and we caught her like this... She's too cool for us!

Pre-Summertime Fun

It was a good 80+ degrees last week, so during his week at home, Arturo turned on the Elmo sprinkler for the girls. And corn on the cob is one of the girls' favorite dinner dishes. Here they are chomping into a big ear, no holds barred!

National Zoo

We went to the National Zoo this Saturday -- the girls had an absolute blast seeing all the animals. Surprisingly, the octopus and the birds ranked as high on the list as the pandas and other "big" animals. We stopped mid morning for a cotton candy break; the picture of Alexa loving the treat cracks me up!

Alexa Sings

Apologies, in advance -- this is a long video -- a full 2 minutes long, but as her parents, we think this video of Alexa singing is very cute. I did try to shorten it as much as I could. Basically, Alexa is singing "Jack and Jill" for the first song and "Twinkle Twinkle" as her next song. Here are some highlights to listen carefully for during the video:

1) At second 10, Alexa burps twice. It's pretty funny.

2) In between songs, she translates the word milk into Chinese and Spanish for me.

3) Emma also makes a split second cameo appearance