Maryland long weekend

A wonderful time was had by all during Lola's birthday weekend in Maryland.  Here's Bea and her Lolo:

Beatrice at the Library of Congress the day before I arrived:

My sister-in-law Lucy and I cooking before the party:

     Lola loves cheesecakes, so I made two of them, which held seventy candles!

Most of the gang:

Fun was had with fake mustaches:

   And Bea and cousin Linden were nearly inseparable, doing lots of pretend and of course TV:

Sunday we headed to DC.  First stop was mass at the National Shrine with Lolo and Lola:

and then to the Hirschorn and National Gallery museums to see the Ai Weiwei and Ellsworth Kelly exhibits.  Here my little "Year of the Rat" girl:

We are sooooooo spoiled to get to go around DC by being chauffeured door to door everywhere we want to go! 

   I was a little sick Saturday night and was worn out on Sunday:

I took this shot outside the East Wing of the National Gallery.  We're still cute once in a while! 

She was convinced the sculpture outside was of "girls dancing" so she joined in:

                                                     Squatting down to ponder the crabs:

         

Big "B" and Little "B":

I swear I didn't dress her in black, red, and white on purpose!

My husband in his "church:"

It was a great trip.  As often happens, I'm amazed at how many moments we did NOT capture on film. I'm especially upset that we didn't take more of Beatrice with Lola.  She  had a great time with her grandparents, the best ever I think.  She cried the night before we left and this morning at the fact that she had to leave them.  She slept with them for two nights and can't wait to see them again.  It was great to see family and to celebrate Lola's special day all together.

And it was so special for Daddy to have some time alone in the city of his birth with his girl....

Happy Birthday Lola!

Anthony's mom turns 70 today and he and Bea are off to Maryland while I return to work after a lovely and relaxing 4-day weekend.  She was so excited to see her Lolo and Lola and has been counting down the days all week.  She was so grown up packing.  I couldn't believe what an experienced traveler she acts like! I will join them this weekend and we all return on Monday.  One thing Beatrice and her grandmother have in common is a love of books, so that is the theme she chose for her birthday card.  She cut out lots of little books, and then drew a picture of Lola reading her "Princess Pea" while I apparently am calling them away from their fun and telling them it is almost breakfast time.    Guess I'm a killjoy in my daughter's eyes!  :)  

Beatrice came up with the wording for this card and I edited nothing.  Her Buddhist influence is present!

 

Meanwhile, here she is at the airport awaiting departure.  I packed her a surprise in her backpack and Anthony snapped this picture of her enjoying it.  (When did Barnum's animal crackers start to cost $1.99 by the way? And when did they get politically correct and remove the cages from around the animals? That was a good move that I guess increases the value.)

I miss her already.  Guess I'll put my palms, in which she sweetly planted kisses this morning, against my cheeks as she instructed me to do when she was gone. She always remembers this from The Kissing Hand book that we read years ago and still take out now and again.

Valentine's Fire & Ice

Today was the first FIRE AND ICE festival downtown.  There were ice sculptures, beautifully lit ice luminaria, horse-drawn carriage rides, and winter/Valentine items in all the stores.  We only went down for a bit, but I was really proud of my little town, as I feel so often the past few years when they come up with these cool events.

On another Valentine's note, I witnessed Beatrice giving Sula a pretend Valentine the other morning, opening the envelope for her and reading it aloud.  It said:  "Dear Sula Goose, Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you will get lovin' every day, and if you find the most fantastic thing of all, then you will become the princess of Sula-land!"

Bringing Tet to Bea's School

We were up early this morning, slicing watermelon and steaming Bánh bò for Bea's class. I went and did a Tet presentation to 23 3-4 year olds,with 2 out of 3 staff members out for the day.  It was quite a challenge but, in the end, I think they all had a great time and Beatrice was beyond excited!  I showed photos of Tet from the internet, read the book "Ten Mice for Tet," told fortunes, played games, had a very modified dragon parade, and handed out li xi to each child.  I hope Bea will allow me to offer to do this each year, until she's old enough to do it herself.

They weren't as colorful as Anthony's iPhone makes them seem, but festive nonetheless:

I knew this double bamboo steamer would come in handy some day!

Bea donned her "cooking headband" to help in the kitchen.  Is licking the bowl just the best thing ever?

Year of the Nemo, I mean the Snake!

Nemo hit us hard, starting Friday morning and ending 24 hours and about 24 inches later.  It took another 24 hours for us to look this good:

Unburying the cars took many hours, with the edge of driveway holding at least a yard of snow.  This storm was why heavy equipment was invented, but our two shovels did what they had to do to at least get us out.  More than 1/2 the driveway is still buried, but we'll just chip away at it over the next week or two. Fingers crossed there's no more snow anytime soon, because there just is nowhere to put it!

Meanwhile, back inside, there was no cabin fever for this girl.  She could be inside for weeks and be thrilled. She played and played hard. These getups yesterday make me think she may have some Romani blood in her somewhere.  She was carrying little bags full of "stuff" too.  Oh, and those stains all over her shirt are from thoroughly enjoyed hot cocoa.  'Tis the season, after all....

Saturday night, Quynh sent us a Happy Lunar New Year email with this gorgeous photo.  Beatrice quickly asked to drag it to our desktop, and then said "It's a good thing Quynh sent that picture because I keep trying and trying but I don't remember Vietnam!"

Unfortunately, our plans to attend the Tet festivities at the temple this weekend were canceled, so we tried to make up for it at home.  After a yummy breakfast and the opening of a lucky red envelope, we headed outside.  Today was beautiful and clear, lots of melting and the icicles everywhere are dramatic!

This girl loves to eat icicles and snow!

Just had to take a picture of this beauty, who has been a trooper being flexible with nowhere private (or warm) for her to "go" if you know what I mean....

Our friends the Schultzes had a little cabin fever so they came over for a spontaneous playmate, which we turned into a Tet party.  Here are the Ethan, Brandon, and Bea playing a chopsticks game:

Here's my girl, a champion "chopsticker" who moved her pencil case under her as a seat.  Readers who know Vietnam should get a kick out of that!

Next we balanced dragonflies on our fingers!

No party is complete without a lion dance or dragon parade.  We opted for the latter:

I told you we had some kickin' icicles!  They are so loud when they fall too! Here's the scene from Bea's bedroom window:

With all the time on her hands, our little author has been hard at work.  This "mail" came from out of nowhere yesterday:

I wonder who it's from?????

Her newest thing?  Playing school.  She's the teacher, of course, and I get the joy of being either Bree or Alice, depending on whether or not she's in a Fancy Nancy or Angelina Ballerina mood:

                                  (the sunlight streaming in through the window was gorgeous!)

Many tents were built this weekend, and this makeshift swing/jumprope:

Our new (to us) piano arrived on Wednesday, and all three of us have been enjoying its beautiful sound!

 The days inside gave us the time to complete our 2-week long Valentine making extravaganza.  Putting the candy on is all that remains:

And it gave me time to put the finishing touches on the Tet presentation/party I'm doing for Bea's class tomorrow morning.  Please oh please let there be school!!! I'm not steaming the little rice cakes or cutting up that melon until I know for sure....

                     

And here is the "reason for the season" in her beautiful ao dai straight from Hanoi (thank you Quynh!)

Anthony worked on this Duck dish all afternoon, and man was it delicious!

                                Up close, for posterity.  And the sesame green beans were to-die-for as well!

                                                 chúc mừng năm mới!