Evie Turns (well really turned) 9!

Favorites:
Color - Pink
Animal - Elephant
Book - Secret Zoo series
Music - Coeur de Pirate
Movie - Secret of Moonacre
TV Show - My little pony (same as last year)
Subject(s) in School - Art and Math
Game - Baby dragons - where she and her friends pretend they are baby dragons who have adventures
Afterschool Activity - Jujitsu
Food - Macaroni and cheese (somethings I guess never change)
What she wants to be when she grows up - Engineer or an elephant scientist
Best Friends - Isabella, Nanan and Ruby
Best thing that happened while she was 8 - Getting to see my cousins twice!!

Notable things -Has started to read whole chapter books in just a few days (and will even take to reading instead of watching TV), went to sleepaway girl scout camp and really, really loved it, and became very interested in elephants and started donating money from her allowance every week to an elephant rescue group.

Sleepover b-day

Last year both girls had birthdays on the road.  This year we decided to be a bit more chill about it and so both will have b-days at home.  For her birthday Evie picked four friends for a sleepover.  She made her own invitations for her friends on the computer. We were pretty happy with her initiative and (for some reason) didn't think to proofread them... which meant that the birthday was accidentally set for a Friday night (when the weekend before we were in DC....) We rolled with it pretty well though :)

The birthday bash consisted of pizza eating and playing and then the main event of a trip to Valley of the Moon to see Rumpelstiltskin. Three of the girls had never been, so it was extra fun to have them experience the quirky place.  After the show they hung out and played the "games" for awhile and then we headed home for cake. 

After cake, Evie opened presents (Evie's friends bought her legos, shopkins and sewing crafts) and then the girls watched wiener dog internationals (a high budget film to be sure) and then had a "scary story contest". 

While the girls slept I put together clues for a scavenger hunt for the next morning and then got up early to hide the treasure.  I am not sure who had more fun... me or the girls :) 

It was a bit exhausting to have the party on Friday, but we were pretty thankful for a restful Saturday night and Sunday!

March? April?!

How is it that all of March and half of April have gone by without my finding a moment for the blog?

March was fully of birthdays... first mine and then Patrick's..... For my birthday I ran (or really ran/walked) a 5k beer run, had a crew come out with me for a room escape game, and then to the Casa Video bar for a good beer... pretty much the best birthday! Made all the better by the banjo that Patrick "bought" me (i.e., I picked it out)

Its a pot of gold cake

Patrick's birthday was celebrated closer to home (or really at home) but was no less fun.  He had an incredibly unique and interesting day (you should ask him about it...) and then we had a few friends over for cake and games. On a similar vein I "bought" Patrick a new hub and wheels for the MGA :)

The weekend after Patrick's birthday was our 5th annual International Day representing Belgium.  I made four batches of waffles and was still sold out by noon!

For Easter we went over to a friends house for a good ole desert egg hunt.  The girls made out like candy bandits (and were also very happy when the Easter bunny left them sparkly eye beanie boos under their fruit trees... Not sure what the Easter bunny was thinking... those kids must have almost a dozen of them by now :)

Then the biggest event of late was a spring break trip to Washington DC to visit family and for me to interview for Presidential Management Fellow positions.

While in DC we visited Chessie's dog park (aka the congressional cemetery)

Then later in the day got a little democracy in with a trip to the U.S. Capitol via a guided tour by an intern at our congresswoman's office. (It was not Izzy's favorite part of the trip... mostly I think because the poor girl was very tired)

Ate plenty of good ice cream.

 And took a visit to the natural history museum.

Perhaps the highlight though was the time the girls were able to spend with their cousins... a full on 3 night sleepover! The five of them were very cute together.

Then when we got home from DC it was a week's worth of Evie birthday parties... but I will update on that one in a few days :)