Eli's Birthday Party!

What a fun day! We headed out for a new kids gym for Eli's 3rd Birthday Party. Here is Alexa all dressed up and ready to go. She wanted to wear her RED dress. It was a little chilly, so I grabbed this fabulous little navy sweater that Grandma E just sent her. Perfecto! Look how cute!

The party was pretty fun. Alexa's favorite toy was the pretend treadmill. Just wait until she's older and has to work out FOR REAL. She also loved the cake but was confused because she thinks every birthday party needs to have CUPCAKES. Thankfully, they did have pizza, which is the other thing she thinks every birthday party must have. Yum!

Music class and a birthday party!

We had a full and fun day today! It started with music class. Alexa loves all the props. The first song always involves the little back eggs that you can shake. Another song means it's time to break out the drums! The scarves come out for the gypsy song! Alexa always wants the red scarf. She also always wants to help put the props away!

After music class, we loaded up in the car and drove to Virginia for Will's 1st Birthday! The party was held at the same toddler gym where his sister Rigby had her 1st Birthday. Friend Nate had a party here too. Alexa loves this place. Henry is starting to like it too! 

Alexa loves this garden!

Alexa loves this little plastic garden! It's at this park near our house. There is another one at another local park. Plus, her cousin gave one to Grandma E, so there is one at Grandma E's house too! We are trying to figure out how to get it to Washington, D.C. It's such a cute garden and Alexa is drawn to it. Every time she sees it, she wants to play in it. Plus, it's been discontinued, so we can't get it anywhere else! Here she is playing in the garden with her Daddy this past weekend. I'm surprised that he fit in there!

Ring Around the Rosie & Elephant song (video)

Today was a truly musical day! It started with music class, where Alexa decided that she didn't like the song being sung by the teacher, so she started spinning around and singing "Ring around the Rosie." Before long, her friend Ella and Ella's friend Henry wanted to sing with her. Soon, all three were holding hands in a circle and singing "Ring around the Rosie" - It was adorable!

After music class, we went to meet Grandma E and cousin Samantha at the Metro, then walked to lunch. And Alexa decided to sing her favorite song to Grandma E - "The Elephants Went out to Play." This is a new song to me, which we learned from Daddy, who used to sing it on the bus to camp!

Music class!

We signed up for an 8-week music class with some of Alexa's friends. It was great! The kids got to ride horses, play band instruments, wave scarfs, shake rattles... They had a blast! It was so loud that Henry fell asleep. :-)

After lunch and Alexa's nap, we headed to a nearby park for some fun. Alexa pushed her baby doll in the swing, took her and a sticker book down the slide and then discovered a little play house where she could "make cupcakes"!

Rigby's 1st Birthday Party!

Alexa and Henry had a great time at Rigby's 1st Birhday Party! We loved this place from Nate's party and were excited to go again. Alexa had a blast jumping on the trampoline and swinging from the bars with her friend Kaitlyn. She also had fun on the wooden boat with Rigby and playing bubbles with Cella Marie! Henry took a little train ride, but mostly hung out with Daddy.

To see how much these girls have grown, here's a flash from the past... Alexa, Cella Marie, Kaitlyn and Rigby less than a year ago!

Pizza with the big girls!

We went over to a friend's house for an afternoon play date and impromptu pizza party. Their twin daughters are 2 years older than Alexa, but they were very sweet and played with Alexa too. They dressed up in costumes and let Alexa play with their baby dolls and other toys. Alexa had a blast! She even ate pizza outside with the big girls. So fun!

Big boy outfits for Daddy's mini-me

OKOKOK, I have to stop buying baby boy clothes! I totally admit that boy clothes are not nearly as cute as little girl clothes. But there are still some gems out there! Remember how I got obsessed with Tea Collection stuff for Alexa? Well. It turns out that they have some pretty cool stuff for little boys too! Check out this selection of Tea Collection outfits that I got for 1/2 off, plus some clearance Carters stuff. Totally leaning toward navy blue and darker colors... More boyish than pastels and sail boats!

Play date with 1-year-old Anne!

We were in Hawaii when Alexa's friend Anne turned 1. So we planned a play date so the girls could play together and open Anne's birthday presents! Alexa loved Anne's retro red play kitchen. Anne loved the tunnel she got from Alexa for her birthday! My friend and I enjoyed watching how adorable the girls were as they played because they were SO CUTE!

Alexa feeds ducks! Plus more beach & shave ice!

Another great day in paradise! Alexa got up early again, so we took her for a walk on Duck Lane to see, you guessed it, ducks! We saw a few, but when we started feeding them, more ducks started high tailing it over from all over to get scraps of bread! We also saw some baby ducks. Alexa was mildly amused.

After all the fun with the ducks, we headed for Kailua Beach Park. Daddy set up the umbrella and mat and we had a great time hanging out. Alexa tried chips for the first time and, big surprise, decided she liked them. She also tried on Daddy's sunglasses. Around noon, she got tired and we headed home for a nap.

After Alexa's nap, we headed out for some more shave ice at Island Snow! Yum! Alexa has started calling it "Purple Ice" because that's the color of shave ice Daddy had the first time she tried it. Ha!

Alexa meets her other great grandmother!

We had a great day in Los Angeles. As soon as Alexa was up, we had breakfast at our hotel and then picked up a rental car to drive south so she could meet her other great grandmother! Alexa is very lucky. She has two great grandmothers! She had a good time visiting with her California GG. Here we are hanging out at her house. While exploring, Alexa discovered our wedding photo and eagerly pointed out "Mama! Dada!" Nothing gets past her!

Alexa also met her Great Uncle Manual and Great Uncle Danny, who joined her on the swing set at a park nearby. Alexa had a good time playing with the little kids there. She was very friendly and ran up to them right away. I think she's starting to miss her friends at daycare!

On our way back to our hotel in Los Angeles, we stopped by my cousin Mike's home to visit baby Mason! Alexa got to meet her Cousins Mike, Ashley and Marcus, and baby Mason. It was really hard to take a photo with Mike and Mason since she was so squirmy! Then Aunt Ashley broke out the bubbles and Alexa was in heaven. Whew!

Playtime with Alexa

Alexa is a busy little girl! She loves running to the window and climbing up on her step stool to look outside, hoping to spot a DOG! She also loves blowing her Tommy Toot horn. And reading books! She likes it better when she can crawl on our lap and get us to read her books... She also spends a lot of time caring for her two baby dolls. She pats their back, feeds them a bottle and puts them down to take a nap. So cute!

Daddy's little girl

My goodness but doesn't Alexa have a handsome Daddy? I love this photo of them together at the birthday party this past weekend. Alexa was being squirmy and her Daddy was so patient with her. It's amazing to watch them together. When I go into Alexa's room in the morning, she'll point at the door and ask, Da-Da? Other times, like in her bath, she'll shout at the top of her lungs: DA-DA, DA-DA, DA-DA! He comes running and she cracks up giggling. It's so cute! Wrapped around her little finger he is. And he's not complaining one bit.

Alexa learns about make-up from Ms. Elizabeth!

After Tarik's 1st birthday party last weekend, Ms. Elizabeth came over to play with Alexa. Alexa was more interested in playing with Ms. Elizabeth's purse, which I must admit was a pretty hot item.

"That's OK," Ms. Elizabeth said. "I'll close the zipper."

Unfortunately, Alexa knows how to use a zipper! Within seconds, she had her hands on Ms. Elizabeth's lipstick, compact and credit cards. That's when Ms. Elizabeth came up with the idea that Alexa use her chapstick to "pretend" put on lipstick. Brilliant!

Check out Alexa pursing her lips -- and applying chapstick on Ms. Elizabeth's lips! She also learned how to apply powder -- to her ear! Haha. So cute!

Alexa gets a visit from her friend Anne!

Alexa's little friend Anne came over on Sunday afternoon to play. Alexa had a hard time sharing her toys, but she adjusted pretty well. She said "hi" to Anne and called her a "happy baby." After the girls had lunch, we took them outside for photos. Obviously, we started with our fabulous Adirondack chairs!

We also tried taking photos of me and Libby holding our girls... But we couldn't get both babies to look at the camera at the same time!

Finally, Alexa sat down on the stone stairs and we tried more photos of the girls together. Alexa was amused by Anne. Anne was amused by Alexa's jacket. What a pair of cutie pies!

Another Sunday Fun Day with Avery!

One of Alexa's new favorite books is called Caps for Sale. She loves the part where the monkeys steal the caps and say to the peddler "Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!" She giggles and shakes her finger! So we went to a Sunday Funday play date about the book with her friend Avery. It was great! The kids colored monkeys, stuck hats on a wall, walked on a crunchy road and played with balloons! Alexa had a blast!

Headed to Tarik's 1st birthday party!

Alexa got all dolled up today for the 1st birthday party of my friend Shazia's son Tarik. Here she is looking cute as we got ready to pile into the car. It was a beautiful day, a little windy out! My cutie pie!

The party was Alexa's first time actually meeting baby Tarik. She wasn't too interested in him. But she LOVED his toys, especially a cardboard house with doors and windows! How cool is this?! I think it's THIS house on Amazon that sells for $49. Hmmm. Would you pay $49 for basically a cardboard box? The benefit to this cardboard box is that you can color it and it has doors and windows... Hmmmm.

The party itself was pretty over the top. They had valet parking, a photographer, catered buffet, puppet show, an artist drawing caricatures and gifts for all the kids! Wow! Alexa had fun and so did we. We hope to go back and play with more of Tarik's toys!

Two of Alexa's favorite books!

This 1st book was a gift from my friend Aisha. Alexa loves it! When she sees the train, she says "chooo! chooo!" and when she sees the cow she says "Boo!" Yes, Boo. We are trying to teach her "Moo" but so far, according to Alexa, cows say Boo! At the end of the book, the last word is "You!" along with a mirror, which Alexa loves to kiss!  Ha! (The book is "Peek-A Who?")

Another favorite book is this one that we just picked up on Saturday. Alexa is getting really good at telling us what certain animals say. Cats? "Meeuw." Dogs? "Woof!" Sheep? "Baaa" So we picked up a new book that teaches her even more animals! So far, she seems to be picking them up fast... "Oink," "Neigh," "Whooo" and "Roar"!! (The book is "Sounds: a look + learn book")

Another play date at the National Building Museum!

Today was a rainy day, so it was CROWDED at the National Building Museum! We met two moms from my mom's group and their girls. They were already in LINE when we arrived. And the museum hadn't even opened yet! Holy crazy! Once it did open, we rushed down the hallway to the Kid's Zone and got in. But there was such a long line that we only had about 30-40 minutes to play. Still, the girls had fun! Here are Alexa, Avery and Ella checking out the eco-doll house!

After the doll house, the girls wanted to play in the REAL house. But they all wanted to sit in the chairs! Except Alexa was a bit obsessed with her favorite puzzle toy. She has found and played with this SAME buckle puzzle EVERY time we've been here. Uh oh, does that mean we need to get her one?

Finally, here are more pictures of Alexa playing... Again with the puzzle! She also enjoyed playing with the trucks and the train. If you ask Alexa, "What does a train say?" she'll smile real big and say "chooo! chooo!"

After all the fun in the Kid's Zone, Tricia and I took Ella and Alexa out to lunch. Look how cute the girls were! They shared Kix and laughed when they reached out and held hands. So cute!

Who's the cutest girl in the world?

Alexa! Alexa! Here is a photo from last Saturday that didn't get downloaded, so I overlooked it. But it's so cute, I just had to share. Enjoy your daily dose of cuteness!