First Birthday Celebration!

We had Alexandra's first birthday party the weekend before last (June 20th) at our house. It was so much fun! Although, I must admit that it's a lot of work hosting a kid's birthday party at your house. Christopher and I stayed up late the day before cleaning and moving the furniture around, and then late the day of the party cleaning and moving the furniture around. I completely understand why some parents prefer having parties at, say, Chuck E Cheese's instead.

This is part of the "spread" for the party. In addition to sandwiches, crudite, and pretzels, we also had strawberries and bread for my strawberry jam, and Alexandra's birthday bunny cake and cupcakes. The beautiful frame with photos in it came from my best friend, Charlotte. There's a photo of Alexandra for every month during her first year.

Although he had taken a few steps before, Will started really walking during Alexandra's party. How cool is that!

Alexandra and mommy openning some of her loot while our wonderful friend, Olivia, records it all for us.



After presents, Alexandra was ready for cake!

Daddy and mommy "help" Alexandra blow out the candle on her cupcake.

It's fun to be one!!

Thanks, Catherine!

My cousin Catherine made Alexandra an adorable hat that we got right before her birthday. It's so fun to have creative relatives who like to make things for my baby!

Visit with Evan!

Last weekend, we drove down to North Carolina, to visit Katy, Ian and Evan Davis. Evan and Alexandra are one day apart, and we had been looking forward to the two of them meeting for a long time! The Davis family recently moved back to the East Coast from Seattle, and we were excited to make the short car trip to visit (instead of long plane ride). Alexandra had a blast playing with Evan, and we really enjoyed catching up with Katy and Ian and seeing their beautiful new home.

As Katy said on her blog- Alexandra and Evan are a great compliment for each other. Alexandra is tall, Evan is short. Alexandra is very talkative and social while Evan just wants to move. Evan is a great sleeper. Alexandra is a great eater. They're a perfect pair.

We went hiking at Eno River State Park and got to try out our new frame carrier (a birthday present from GG and Grandpa). Here are the dads with their babies before starting the hike.

Alexandra loves hiking with her Daddy! And she even kept her hat on most of the time.

Evan and Rip enjoyed a dip in the water. Rip was very good with the kiddos. I was impressed - he was very fun for Alexandra to play with. And as an added bonus, he was a great help at cleaning up all of the food the babies dropped on the floor!!!

Here are Alexandra and Evan eating lunch at a yummy barbeque joint after our hike. Evan introduced us to these great table covers. We bought some for Alexandra and have already used them while eating out!

We also went swimming (see the first photo). It shouldn't have suprised me that Katy and I would buy the same floats for our kids. It has been a blessing to have had Katy in my life for the last 14 years - and so fun to now be experiencing parenthood at the same time!

We were very happy with how easy this trip was. Alexandra was very easy to travel with - only a small meltdown or two when we were caught in bad traffic. We have learned that listening to her kid music in the car helps. We bought one of the CDs that she listens to at day care a lot, and she instantly calms down in the car when we play it for her.

We hope to see the Davis family again very soon!

Happy Birthday, Alexandra!

She's one year-old today! I can hardly believe it! The day that she was born seems like so long ago and only yesterday at the same time. We are looking forward to having her little Harris Teeter birthday cake tonight (free - we love this grocery store) and opening her presents. We will have her birthday party this Saturday.

Here she is being held by her Daddy the day that she was born.

And here she is being held by her Daddy one year later!

We love you, Alexandra Marie!

Celebrate Fairfax

The weekend before last, our little family took a trip to the Fairfax Fair ("Celebrate Fairfax"). It was Alexandra's first time to go to a fair, and we had a lot of fun!

Here is Alexandra on her first carousel ride. Since we decided that she was too little to go on a real pony ride, she agreed that this was the next best thing.

Christopher got scammed into paying way too much money at the dart stand to "win" this stuffed animal for Alexandra. Let it be a lesson to all parents - a cute smiling kid is an invitation to get scammed into "winning" expensive toys!!

Here are Alexandra and Christopher at the petting zoo. It was so bright! We managed to keep her hat on for most of the day, though.

Here we are on Alexandra's first ride on the ferris wheel - what trip to the fair would be complete without that? We had a wonderful day, and look forward to another fair next year.

Grandma's 95th Birthday

We got to celebrate Christopher's Grandma's 95th birthday this last weekend! It was very nice to get to see Grandma and spend the afternoon at Grandee and Granddad's house. Alexandra showed off her stair-climbing skills. She is getting really fast at climbing up stairs!

I absolutely love this photo of Alexandra and Will playing together.

And here's Grandma with her two grandsons and two great-grandchildren in Northern Virginia.

We hope to make it down to South Carolina to visit sometime soon!

Ah, Organization!

After much internet research, we bought this sling bookshelf and baskets to hold all of Alexandra's toys that had taken over our living room. It's like a breath of fresh air!