Evan's New Bed

Early one morning a week or so ago Evan came in and woke up Mommy and Daddy instead of the other way around. It was quite a shock because we didn't know that he had learned to climb out of his crib.




With his new found talent of crib diving, aka diving head first in and out of his crib we decided that it was time for a big boy bed.

So off to IKEA we went. We told Evan that we were there to find his new bed. He was very excited and as we followed the arrows around the store he was trying to climb into all the adult beds. We had to keep telling him that those beds were too big and that we needed to keep looking. When we arrived at the children's beds we said "okay Evan which one is Evan's new bed?" Before we could catch him he ran over to one of the floor models, striped down to his diaper, got into a bed, pulled the covers up, and declared that it was Evan's new bed while leaving his shirt, pants, and shoes on the floor. Coincidentally, the boy has good taste as that is the one that we ended up purchasing.

Grandpa comes for a visit

Grandpa Saunders came for a visit this week on his way back from Kurdistan where he will be building luxury houses for the next few years. It is a long story, but the good news is we will probably get to see him more often when he takes a layover here for a day or two on his way back home. Yea!! we love Grandpa!

On this visit we took Grandpa to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. The building opened in December, 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited on the National Mall. The two sites together showcase the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world.

There are lots of plaques that tell you all about how cool the planes are but we didn't need that because we had Grandpa who loves planes and could tell us how cool all the planes were all by himself.

Evan spent the day running around like a lunatic telling Grandpa "I found the airplane! Come this way Grandpa, how about this airplane!" It is difficult to keep up with a two year old's energy level.  He was very excited to be spending the day with his Grandpa Saunders and it showed.

Mommy's favorite part was seeing the Space Shuttle Discovery. It is about 4-5 times bigger than I thought it was going to be no wonder it needed all those huge rockets to get it into space.

We are so glad that Grandpa came to visit and can't wait till we get to see him again.

Flowers In our Garden

Its spring here in Virginia and the flowers are out. Evan and I have been working hard getting our garden ready and planting lots of flowers.

Evan has been a great little helper. He loves to dig in the dirt and show mommy where all the flowers should go.

He takes digging in the dirt very seriously. My trowel is now Evan's Shovel and he will tell you all about it.

Our hard work has paid off and we have lots of pretty flowers in our garden. We love to go out side to smell the flowers but no touching. I got too close to some of the flowers the other day and Evan pulled me away and told me "no mommy, no break it". So we take our flowers very seriously around here.

Happy Easter

This year for Easter Evan participated in not one but TWO Easter egg hunts. The first one we went to was put on by the city of Falls Church. They had it divided into age groups to avoid trampling. We were in the three and under group. There were a lot of kids there and Evan was very excited. It was over in about 1 minute. That is about my child's attention span so it worked out perfect.

 Considering the amount of time he had to collect eggs and candy before it was all gone I'd say he got a pretty good haul. The apple slices were mom's addition hoping that he wouldn't just fill up on chocolate eggs before lunch.

Mmmmmmm... chocolate!!!
Evan had a lot of fun running around with chocolate all over his face and he even got to say hi to the Easter Bunny. We will definitely be back for the fun next year.

We also participated in a Easter egg hut at our friends house where the eggs were empty but there were a lot more of them and no elbows were needed in the search.

        HAPPY EASTER!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Just in case you were wondering...
The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration in Washington, D.C., commemorating the March 27, 1912, gift of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City to the city of Washington. Mayor Ozaki donated the trees in an effort to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and also celebrate the continued close relationship between the two nations.

The Cherry Blossom Festival is a big deal around here and although we have lived her for 5 years this is the first time we have gone. We are so glad we finally went out to see it we will definitely be going back next year. It was such a fun family outing. It took us around 3 1/2 hours to walk around the Jefferson Memorial tidal basin to look at all the trees in bloom but it was worth it. The weather was just right for a stroll in the park.  We brought a picnic dinner to eat on the grass as we watched the paddle boats go by on the water. 

Evan REALLY wanted to get in the water. If we had let him he would have run right of the 5-10 foot ledge and dove right in. Don't worry I've already bought him a life jacket for when we go to the beach this summer.

A day at the Zoo

Follow the Tracks!

The conversation that morning went something like this. 
Mommy: "Good Morning buddy do you want to go to the Zoo today with our friends?
Evan: "Okay"
Evan: "Hey daddy." Paul: "What buddy?"
Evan: "A go a zoo!" Paul: "That sounds like a lot of fun."
Evan: "Hey daddy." Paul: "What buddy?"
Evan: "A go a zoo, monkeys! OOEEAA" Paul: "There are monkeys at the zoo, you're right."
Evan: "Hey daddy" Paul: "what buddy?"
Evan: "Hey daddy" Paul: yes?" Evan: "A go a zoo!"
It went on like that for about an hour till it was time to take daddy to work. Needless to say he was excited.

 We saw the Elephants.
Mommy: "Where are they Evan?"
Evan: "I found it. Right there!" "Elephants!"

And the Monkeys "OOEEAA"

This one looks a bit grumpy.

 

Shhh.. Monkeys sleeping.

In the Reptile House Evan challenged a turtle to a race.

and in the discovery center we saw how many two-year-olds can fit into this snake's tummy.

We had a great day at the zoo, and now that we have the zoo pass we bought Evan for his birthday we will be coming back often.

Mommy and Evan: "Bye Zoo!"
Evan:"Hey mommy."
Mommy: "Yes buddy?"
Evan: "A take a nap?"
Mommy: "Sure buddy mommy thinks that is a great idea."

Happy Birthday Evan!!

Evan turned 2 years old last weekend. Though we can't believe that our baby is 2 already we are so proud of our little boy and how much he has grown and all that he has learned is the last 2 years.

We celebrated the occasion by inviting a few of his friends over for some homemade pizza and cupcakes. We had a great time and everyone enjoyed making their own pizza. 

 

Evan loves Thomas the train so I got a bunch of Thomas party stuff including cupcake papers which were my favorite.

We blew up a bunch of red and blue balloons and hung streamers from the ceiling. Evan and the other kids loved the balloons.

 The Cupcakes were a problem however. Evan loves chocolate so I made chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate ganache frosting. Evan was very excited about them till we put a lit candle in it. I guess it was just to freaky and weird for him because he refused to eat it. I even tried replacing the offending cupcake with a new one that didn't have a candle in it. He wouldn't even touch it and the one I saved to try the next day was the same story. Even though he didn't eat any of his birthday cake I know he had a happy birthday playing with the other kids and opening presents.