NEW Site!!!

If you are looking for the new Bowers family site it is www.bowersdc.com

Lily at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Alexandria, VA

This was Lily's first parade while her friends Jake and Sadie were the experts and sat down. Nothing they had not seen a few times before...but Lily...best thing she had seen ever! It was so much fun! Mommy laughed the entire time watching Lily shake her butt and waving at everyone.

Tigers Love Pepper, The Hate Cinnamon

After seeing Lily attempt to say cinnamon 3 or 4 times after putting it on her oatmeal, I couldn't resist this quote from the movie "The Hangover."

February Trip to Chateaugay

For the past few years my parents have been getting hotel rooms for the families so that the kids can go swim and the family can all stay in one place for a night. Although it can be hectic to say the least, the kids have so much fun and we all get to visit. This picture illustrates how many of us there are to coordinate and get fed which is almost nearly impossible. Thanks to Grandma and Papa!!!


As a trek to Upstate NY in February can usually be a treacherous feat...the Bowers Fam welcomed the change as they BARELY had ANY SNOW! What the heck? We managed to build a snow cave in the snow on our back deck the few days before we left. Ok, last snow picture this year, promise...



So we woke up with the Burke clan on Valentine's Day so "Lily" had prepared little packages of cookies and homemade valentine's for everyone. The video below includes Lily giving them to everyone....a few highlights...



Cathy is sicker than a dog so she was hiding and Lily seemed to keep looking for her. ) :

Lily, only a few short hours later, was also sicker than a Cathy. Luckily, her Mommy and Daddy were snuggled away in a hotel in Sarataga enjoying their Valentine's Day while Grandma and Papa took care of her. Thanks again guys! (Suckaaaas!)

William, which you cannot hear in the video, was avoiding Lily's hug. I said William, she just wants to hug you. He said..."Ok, but THAT IS IT!" Ha ha, ok...

SnOMGapocalypsamania

This video pretty much sums up what we have been doing for the past few days of snow.



And then there were the WEEKS of activities since we have had more snow than ever in DC! (almost after tonight-we will see....another 8 to 12 inches expected..)

Daddy and Mommy doing their Richard Nixon impressions while sledding....


Lily kept saying.."Mommy and Daddy go SLOOOOOWEEERR! My don't like snow in my face."
Hide and seek from Mommy!

Obviously the finger paint was brought out more than a few times during the snow days...

And this was a scene that you would see quite often in our house as well....lounging on the couch watching the telly....we call it telly since it makes us feel more cultural. ( :

This is Mommy's favorite! She has been dying for the days to bake with her little girl. We do it all the time and she really enjoys helping and she is not to bad at it either. So far we have made muffins, 3 loafs of bread and about to decorate the cake we baked today! Our diets are not in check this week. I wonder what people did before kids during the snow? Oh yeah...now I remember. ( : This is still a lot of fun.

Come and Get Your Popcorn!

We are bit obsessed with the Soup making fun of Kate (from Jon&Kate plus 8) and how she looks ridiculous in one clip. We say, or rather scream it constantly. This is Lily's attempt....


If you would like to see Kate's check out here..

Playseum!

So I had never heard of this place but it is pretty cool. With 4,300 square feet of room for kids to play it is filled with different themed rooms. Although a bit packed with the parents and the kids, it was completely fun for only $5 per person. Thanks to Erin and Jay for recommending!

This was the "Grandma's Attic" room to which Lily said..."this is Grandma's?" Well sort of...
This was the outside nature room which Jack liked the best. Jay is reading a story about fishing.

The mini-grocery store to which Lily had in her cart....ice cream, bacon, cheese and hamburger helper. Mommy's little girl. ( :

Helping to run the register! She had an altercation with a boy earlier with the age old battle..."this is for boys and not girls." Of course, I only know there was an argument as I walked in since Lily had a look to kill staring down the boy. I said what happened and she said..."THAT BOY IS MEAN!" In typical mother style I told her he just has a crush on her. ( :
As we walked away we could hear the boy muttering over and over... "this is for boys and not girls" and loading his cart with every food item he could get his hands on. ( :
The photo below is NOT the boy.
And story time! Lily was great and really enjoyed her day! (FINE! Mommy had a bit of fun too.)


Daddy was there as well, but someone has to take the pictures....

Lily and ABCs

Merry Christmas! Daddy was taking the pictures...obvy

OK, I will start out saying that we have stunk it up with updating the blog lately. Please accept my apologies peoples. That being said, we are just now updating Christmas photos. I now understand how people with more than one kid have trouble keeping in touch. Of course, we still have no excuse since we have only one but whatever. Keep in mind, we have been having so much fun that the time we have is with each other and not updating. ( :

Anyway, Christmas was in DC which means, all people come to us, mostly. First, Uncle Drake came over (in his PJS of course) on Xmas Eve along with Glam-ma Mary, Grandpa G, Molly and Dre. Here are a few photos...

We had a great time leaving out cookies to which Lily says.."Santa...he's not SCARY? He gives presents." Always saying it like...right? right? He is NOT scary, right?

This is Grandpa seeing what Grandma Judy and Papa gave her. It is the only fish that this family can handle, let's face it. Good gift!

And THIS was the big present. Since we have had so much time to blog.....this thing is a nightmare. Daddy put all 400 plus pieces together and, naturally, all Lily wants to do is take it apart. Awesome. She does love it but in retrospect, perhaps a wood non-piece castle may be have been the way to go. Either way, she loves it and anytime she "talks on the phone" she brings up her castle. That is a hit right? Right.

And Grandma who really pulls Christmas together! Translation: Does everything. ( :
Of course, Lily's visit to see Santa. This was MUCH more successful than any other years. (ok, so it was 2 so far..) Anyway, the part that is not as transparent is the steps:
1. Sit on Santa's lap: success.
2. Ask Santa for a castle and a dolly: success.
3. Leave Santa because he will maybe give us that stuff tomorrow: FAIL.

What is not on the video is her screaming....A CASTLE AND A DOLLY! NO COLORING BOOK! A CASTLE AND A DOLLY!? Perhaps that is why our lunch wasn't as awesome as we expected.

Snow Time Fun!

Ok, so the weather called for Thundersnow....which I cannot claim to have seen but we did see a lot of snow. Daddy was GREAT and went out quite a few times to shovel so today isn't so bad. He even helped to push a cop car up the street! Lily had a great time although said "I am cold, this is cold.." quite a few times. This makes us think she takes after her mother's sensitivity to the cold despite mommy's upbringing in upstate NY. Mommy has a anthropology theory as to why the cold affects her so much and will bore anyone with the theory if they care to listen. ANYWAY, here are some photos of how we spent the days in the snow...(above is a picture from the next day, much nicer.)





That night we didn't venture from our couch. A neighbor stopped by and we had some nice conversation. Very opposite of our planned night which was a Christmas party at our house with tons of friends. Oh well, we enjoyed it all the same. I seriously love snow and am disappointed that it will go away almost as soon as it came.

Bring it on down to Chateaugay-ville....

This was probably Mommy's favorite night. The Cooks went to Disney World and brought back these novelty goofy hands. Oh boy. The family, mostly Mommy, reenacted the "Bring it on down to Homelessville" skit on SNL and had so much fun with the family.





Another night, making dinner with the sistas!
Thanksgiving Dinner...




Ok, so we stop to go potty but there ARE no potties. So..we improvised and laughed and laughed and laughed.....




And all the pictures....

Chateaugay November 2009

Lily at Ian and Chaya's Wedding-in a Sari!

I actually apologize for not getting a good enough photo with Lily in her beautiful outfit. She loved it and danced so much through the night. She loved all the beautiful dances that everyone put on and really really enjoyed herself. Of course, putting her to bed at 10:15 PM with no nap and taking her away from the party was not the most fun walking through a hotel as she screamed.."I WANT TO DANCE, I WANT TO DANCE!!!" She went to bed shortly after that and as Daddy said..."we can't blame her, its our fault." Lily does like/need her sleep. Oh well, it was a good time anyway.

This is cousin Ian riding a white horse on the way to meet his bride's family in front of the hotel in DC.



It was actually quite funny since all the tourist's came to see us walking through the streets. Pretty funny actually.

Skip didn't seem to hold back and Lily taught Grandpa a few good moves. She is trained in India dance....screw in the light bulb and pet the dog. Lily asked to put the flower in her hair....this was while we were watching all the great dancing.


"Namaste..."

Mehndi and Sangeet

After Grandma got her henna, Lily cut ahead of all the other ladies and sat right down. The other ladies didn't seem to mind since it was pretty cute. Lily actually sat there very patiently and got it done. She was also pretty careful until that itch above her eye which got the henna ink all over her eyebrow. It still turned out great and she is loving it this morning.

These events are so much fun. The families sing traditional Indian songs and everyone dances and the kids put on these elaborate indian folk dances. Its really quite impressive how the young ones participate so wonderful. It is really a great family community and we were glad to be able to participate as well....especially Lily.

I don't get to see Lily around other kids that often and so it is fun to see how truly outgoing she is. We even had to pull her off of the dance floor when two of the kids were about to perform. Heartbreaking as it was, Lily did not know the dance moves and could have gotten hurt. Lily then sat and clapped and watched. Below is her trying to play patty-cake with some girls. Two of the girls are the children of a guy that Mike knows through work and they brought us a sari for Lily to wear to the wedding tonight. So exciting!

Ben's Chili Bowl!! (And H1N1 vaccination.)

We finally took Lily to Ben's Chili Bowl for the first time. This establishment, for those that live outside DC, is one of best chili dogs around and has quite the history since it has been in business since 1958. The best one was when the owner Ben (RIP) wrote in soap on the window during the 1968 riots "Soul Brother" and the place made it through without any destruction. Bill Cosby goes there a lot and apparantly has some pull since there is a sign in there that said "Bill Cosby and family eats free. President Obama does not because Bill said so." Hey, what's his beef with Obama?


Oh, and of course, here are some phone photos from the H1N1 shot clinic. You know, I think Lily actually had fun. We basically hung and played in an auditorium for 2 hours before we finally went to the "stage" to get our flu shots. Turns out, they gave some to Mommy and Daddy too! Flu shot score--Daddy:2, Lily:2, Mommy:1





A cute video of her fist hot dog at Bens!