Seedlings :)

Eila tending the garden

Arugula sprouting

Zucchini

Cilantro

Admiring the new Japanese maple tree

Eila on her Rodie!

Eila and I have had success! We have baby seedlings- another beautiful day here! We have arugula, zucchini and cilantro sprouted now. We are very happy...
I got some cute pictures of Eila letting me try out her friend Olivia's pony tail style ...we made it about 45 minutes before she tore out the hair bands.
Eila also got a new Rodie horse for her birthday from her Ba and Dada who have been here visiting...she and loves it!

Splash party!

Olivia and the Elmo Cake

Eila, Olivia and Zach get wet

Olivia and Eila - masterpieces in the making

Sharing water with Maia in the kiddie pool

A very juicy, sweet spring peach!

Eila had a great day today at Olivia's (her Lang son buddy who lives in Baltimore) Birthday party. We met several other kids adopted from Vietnam who live in the area (which was very nice) and then spent time drinking wine, hanging out in the sunshine (the day was glorious) and letting the kids get wet and rowdy and eat pizza. Eila was caught drinking muddy outdoor pool water (oh well, maybe there are some nutrients in it) and she most enjoyed hanging/running with the wilder and older boys. She did spend some good (somewhat cooperative) quality time blowing bubbles, playing in the kid pool and eating snacks with the very sweet girls too.

Holiday weekend:)

What I regularly hear from Eila these days...
"Mommy, I need a worm NOW please!"

Eila and her worm

Hugs in the park

Exploration!

Introducing Winnie

Winnie and Eila

Kushang, Eila, Ben, Winnie, and Denise (left to right)

Eila and Winnie strolling with the geese

Sweet goslings

Eila's usual state of motion- running!

Planting with mommy

Eila flying her kite from school in the front yard

Eila showing her kitty the otters at the National Zoo

We have had a good long weekend so far...lots of gardening and a great discovery in the digging process for Eila....WORMS! She is somewhat obsessed- she coddles them until they go limp and then finally will return them to the earth and dig for another. Its kind of sweet and really great because it entertains her for long periods while I get things planted. We now have 10 kinds of heirloom tomatoes planted, arugula from Italy, cilantro seeds, zucchini from Italy, and basil. We will get the rainbow chard, carrots, and chiogga beets in tomorrow. We are a bit late in the season to just be puting seeds in the ground, but we can hope.

We got together with Ben and Denise and their daughter Winnie at the Brookside gardens for an evening stroll on Saturday. It was great to see them and catch up a bit. The girls seemed to like each other a lot and we even got some hugs and smiles from the two.

Utopia

Relaxing on the bench at the nature center

Third frozen treat of the day with cousin Keya (shirt off, of course!)

Coming

Eating cheese

Going

Promoting peace

Making pizza

Could the weather possibly get better than this? Eila and I are soaking up the absolute gorgeous days we are having...lots of outdoor time at the nature center, in the sandbox, at the park, everywhere as long as it is outside... today we found the occasion to have popsicles (twice) AND snowcones!

Festivals and Vegetables

Junior Guitarist

Shopping in Georgetown

Dragon boats on the Potomac

Prepping the garden plot for the new soil

Going "night night" on the stairs

Eila and Nadi (her fantastic nanny!)

at the park...coming UP the slide

We are racing through the Spring it seems and trying to get our vegetable garden planted before summer arrives. Eila has been digging and raking and planting seeds. She cannot wait to pick the first zebra tomato, which is now happily planted in the ground in the new garden thanks to Kushang, who moved 6 cubic yards of dirt from the pile on the driveway up the hill into the new garden plot. We also just got a new pair of rain boots/gardening boots for Eila at the secondhand store which are very cute and precipitated her to say "I'm very happy", with a squeal, when she put them on for the first time. I only wish I had moments like that on video. We also have some pics of our venture outdoors yesterday down to Georgetown to see the Dragonboats race on the Potomac as a part of the Asian festival this year. Eila enjoyed a strawberrry ice cream cone and some playtime in her favorite toy shop.

Out comes the sun for Mother's Day!

Hanging out with the dogs at the Dupont Circle Farmer's Market

Fresh apples and croissants at the market

Taking in the day

Mother's Day picture with Eila, Ba and Kari

Raking the yard for Mother's Day

Fertilizing with Papa

Silly Papa

Eila and Keya in the Rum Wagon

We had the most perfect of days this Mother's Day, both in terms of Eila being healthy and in a great mood and the weather- the rain clouds broke and we had cool breeze and clear skies. We went to the farmer's market and bought lots of heirloom tomatoes to plant in our garden- Eila's favorite were the Green Zebras. We also ate the very French croissants and listened to some Peruvian music. Kushang and Eila did lots of yard work-- very nice! The day was topped off by a BBQ at the cousin's house playing in the sandbox and riding in the rum wagon. What could be better?