McLean Carnival Day!!
Today we went to McLean, Virginia to see what their Carnival Day was like. Although we passed them the first time, Lillie was excited to dress up like a princess and take pictures with Cinderella and her friend.

After walking around a bit, we found some GREAT kiddie rides and were excited for Lillie to experience all of them!!

Who knew Lillie would be opposed to MOST of them!

Mini ferris wheel...NO DEAL!

Mini carousel...NOPE!

Major swinging boat thing...DEFINITELY NOT!!!

Folks, we have a WINNER!! The ball room!

Lillie had to warm up to the idea. Can you tell?!?!

Trying to figure out how to relax

Crawling to the exit (against her will) without any casualties. Check out the boy next to her.

After a great time at the carnival, Keola decided to open his own Japanese restaurant! ha ha Actually, without the pictures to prove it, Keola made some YUMMY tempura - shrimp, eggplant, onion, and bell pepper. Did I say it was YUMMY!! Because of the tastiness, I was embarrassed to take a picture of the spread - so no one would know how much we ACTUALLY ate! ha ha Anyway, this is what was left after the FEAST!

Now, like I said, I don't have a picture of everything Keola made, but here is someone's plate after we finished. Any guesses as to who's plate it is?? Now take a good look - that's right, there are EIGHT shrimp tails!

Hee, HEE!! YUMMY!!

I know you all think we doctored the picture and there's no way Lillie ate all of this...but BELIEVE it!!

Last sip to drink it all down!!

Yesterday, Lillie and I visited the National Arboretum. I enjoyed seeing the beautiful flowers, trees, and landscape. Lillie loved the fish, flowers, and running. Here are some pictures from our field trip.

Sorry so bright...the backlight on the camera was on and I didn't notice until we left this area. Pretty flowers and cool sunglasses.

Next, was the Koi pond. Lillie loved looking at the fish, but she loved running around with the 3 kids that were there. Views of the fishes are in the video at the bottom.

"MOM! Can I just run?!?"We found a little circular section of the herb garden. Lillie favored the gravel filled path. Here are some pics as she made her way around the pathway.

As you can see, Lillie collected a few rocks on the way.

More pebbles for the collection

Ok, I have to admit...beautiful scenery, perfect day - how could I resist making Lillie pose for pictures. Professional photographer I am not (although secretly I wish I were!!), but the subject was patient and photogenic!

"I'm DONE!"

"The hills are alive..."

Sweet and carefree!

Right before we left, I noticed tucked away in the corner...Lily of the Valley

Again, how could I resist - Lillie in a grove of Lilies of the Valley.
Say cheese!

Over here, Lillie. Look at the camera.

Smile at the camera, Sweet Pea!

There's my big girl!

Flower Mart
Today we spent the morning at the National Cathedral. Every year the Cathedral holds a Flower Mart with lots of crafts, kiddie games and rides, and GREAT food booths!!

Here's the beautiful National Cathedral

Lillie, bustin' a move!

A pretty warm day = drink break

Can't get much cuter than this!

Kiddie games that included a cake walk, duck "hunting", and throwing a ping pong ball in a fishbowl - bad aim, no fish, so sad : (

They also had some rides - a carousel, a bouncy slide, a moon bounce. Lately, Lillie has had a thing about unsteady footing (you'll see in a later post of her on the playground bridge). So eventhough Lillie LOVES to jump, the minute Keola put her on the poofy moon bounce, she freaked!! I have to say, part of it was probably due to the fact that nap time was looming. She has gone in a moon bounce before, but the previous ones were quite a bit smaller.

Fun day, but we're ready to go home.

Warm Weather = Park!!
The weather has been a bit wishy washy. So, when we heard a warm day was coming, we headed to Garfield Park. Lillie is so smart, she can name at least 4 parks around our house. Anyway, Garfield Park is right across the street from Aunty Dale (Keola's aunty whom we lived with when we first got married) and is the "playground" for the Capitol Hill Day school also across the street. While we were there, the kids from the school had recess. Lillie soon found a few friends.
This little girl really took a liking to Lillie as she helped her up this bridge.

This is actually an area to play horseshoes, but Lillie decided it was better to run short relays.

Here's a quick smile for the camera as she took a breather.

Short video of Lillie with her new "friends".


This is just a random shot of Lillie helping in daddy in the backyard. If she looks little worried, it's because daddy just started up the weed whacker. SCARY!!!

Train ride anyone???

For Christmas, Keola gave me a book outlining all the fun things to do in the metro area. I decided to look up some things Lillie and I could visit. As Keola looked at some of the places I highlighted, he wanted to go too. So, off we went to a park that had a small train ride, a carousel, and, of course, a playground. The ride was a little less than I expected, but Lillie had fun nonethe less. Here's a little clip of our trip and train ride.

If you notice, Lillie is NOT on a horse. We tried everything to get her to ride on one of the horses, but she had a slight fit and only settled for the little bench.

We decided to cut Lillie's hair on Saturday and then we decided to curl it at the bottom. We think she looked really cute, what do you think?

The Cherry Blossom Festival
Every year, Washington D.C. has a HUGE celebration of spring. The biggest attraction is the blooming of the Cherry Blossom trees around the tidal basin. Along with the GORGEOUS blossoms, the city has multiple events. We decided to visit two of them.

The opening ceremonies of the Cherry Blossom Festival took place at the National Building Museum - beautiful architecture with a LARGE main hall. There was so much to see and do. Here's a snapshot of all the things we were able to do and see.

Performances from local dance groups

Lillie got to dress up as well. After dressing up, she tells me, "I want to dance on the stage!" That took a bit of work convincing her it wasn't her time yet.

Look how long her hair is!!! Sorry, random comment, but I was able to make two pigtail braids in her hair that was SO cute!!

Not quite sure what she was doing here. Maybe mistaking herself for a samurai!

Mommy and Lillie in front of the HUGE cherry blossom balloons.

Lillie and Daddy making some wood block prints. Can you tell by Lillie's headband who sponsored the event??? Target!! Oops, sorry, no Target in Hawaii right?!?!

Lillie also got to dress up in everyday Japanese wear. I wanted her to put on that yellow hat on the table and they had these heavy duty leather backpacks, but no chance!

Lillie is always up for a little chopstick practice.

Here's some of the decorations in the museum. Little lanterns hanging from an artificial tree,

Large origami cranes hanging from the ceiling,

Large Cherry Blossom balloons.

There were fans for Lillie to color.

Here's a giant origami giraffe that someone made and had displayed.

A short video to show a little Lillie.

Another BIG event they have every year is the Kite Festival on the Mall. Hundreds of people come out to show off their kites.

I couldn't get a great shot, but here's the clue, EVERY little speck you see in the sky is someone's kite flying!

We had SO much fun today. We wish you were all here! Maybe next year some of you can visit during the Cherry Blossom Festival!! HINT HINT!!