Keoni, Monica, and Sai came to visit us in D.C. this past week. Keoni had a conference and was able to bring Monica and Sai with him. Monica and I were able to spend some time together while Keoni was at his conference. On Friday, we decided to go to the U.S. Botanic Gardens. Here's a picture of the Capitol building, which is right next to the gardens.


Last year, an outside garden extension was built. If it weren't so hot, we may have spent more time outside. Instead, we found the highlights and ran inside to the semi air conditioned building. This is an art piece all made of glass. It is quite spectacular.


This is a fountain right inside of the entrance. Notice the gardenias in the right corner of the picture. They were SO fragrant!!! It reminded me of home!!


The building is only semi air conditioned because it regulates humidity and temperature for all the different types of plants to grow. One of the places that is air conditioned is the restroom, water fountain area. They even surround that rest area with beautiful plants and fountains. Notice the sweat plastered hair on Lillie's forehead.


The other place that is air conditioned is the exhibit area. They frequently change the exhibits throughout the year. Today's theme was how plants are incorporated into our lives. Lillie is standing next to these metal flowers that were filled with different spices and plants to smell. Lillie had fun taking a sniff of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, peppercorn, saffron, grass, hay, and others.

By the way, the sweat plastered hair, eventually got back to normal. What a fun visit!!

Baby Sai Comes to D.C.

Oh yeah, and his parents, Keoni and Monica came too. They came on Wednesday and stayed until Sunday. It was such a great visit and Lillie sure had a great time with Baby Sai. We went on a D.C. Ducks tour that was fun. We traveled on land around the city, then went into the water and stopped feet away from where the airplanes land. We saw three planes fly right over our heads, which Lillie was thrilled with!! On Friday night, we went to a Japanese restaurant where they cooked the food right in front of us. Lillie was a little freaked out by the noise and fire, but Sai seemed to love it. Lillie already misses them!!

Before...

After!

Guess who got a haircut?!?!? We went to a mall on Saturday and saw a cute kids salon that I had heard about. It's called Cartoon Cuts and they specialize in cutting kids hair. They have videos for kids to watch while the cutting is happening, a big elephant sink where the trunk is the hose, and kids hair products for sale. We decided it was time for Lillie to have her first professional haircut, since mommy is far less than an amateur.


Lillie looked so cute today, I decided to take a few pictures of her.



These are some pictures we took at the Strawberry festival we went to last weekend. Notice how Lillie's hair started in cute pigtails. By the end, her hair was out and a bit of a mess, as you can see in the very first picture before her haircut.

Ride 'em Cowgirl!!!

A Day at the Strawberry Festival

On Saturday, we decided to go to a Strawberry Festival about an hour and half away. It was a little hot, but Lillie loved seeing all the animals. The horses were the highlight!!

Happy or Delirious?

We spent the morning at the park and got home a little late. Lillie was about 45 min. past her nap time, when we had lunch. She decided she couldn't stop laughing while trying to get her sandwich to fall from her mouth. For some reason, she also thought me saying "pieces" while whipping my hand in front of her, was hilarious. Happy or delirious?? You decide.

It's been a while!

A little of Lillie's favorite things to do...eat, count, animal sounds, singing, and the park.

Lillie has found a new breakfast food...French Toast!! Mmm Mmm good!


Today we ventured out to the park. It was BEAUTIFUL weather! Blue skies, cool breeze, and warm! Lillie likes these motorcycle "rides". She really gets into rocking back and forth.


D.C. is filled with nannies, au pairs, and babysitters. Lillie found one of them playing ring around the rosies and decided to join in.


Lillie loved climbing up and down the equipment. She's celebrating the fact that she semi-jumped down this step. When I say jump, I really mean Lillie did a little squat, jerked her body up, then stepped down off the step. We're getting there.


Lillie is such a socialite!! She walked up to just about every adult in the playground and said hi, or looked interested in the kid they were watching, or wanted to touch the baby they were near. This girl in the background, arrived at the playground and she and Lillie instantly gravitated toward each other. They sat on a step holding hands. It was so cute!! We found out her name is Ellie and she is 3 years old. When they both stood up, holding hands, another girl joined them, and what else...ring around the rosies!

We've got a Miss Clean in our house.


Lillie loves the duster in our bedroom. She likes going around the room and dusting...EVERYTHING!

Happy Easter

Lillie received an Easter package today. As soon as I brought the box in the house, Lillie squealed, yelled "Nana", and couldn't wait to open the surprise.

Easter is almost here and we are very excited! The decorations are up in the house and we are looking forward to this Easter weekend with some friends. Lillie "helped" put up some of the eggs and decorations.



Spring is here!!!...temporarily, at least. Today, the temperature was 82 DEGREES!! Can you believe it!! It went from cool, to all of a sudden pretty warm. Lillie and I decided to take a little walk and look around our backyard.


Flowers are starting to bloom, buds are peeking out of trees, and Lillie is growing by the minute.