The Artist

Mia has a little white board and markers for drawing and the other day she made a little figure

Please Touch Children Museum

On Sunday we spent half a day at the "Please Touch" children museum in Philadelphia which was located in Memorial Hall a beautiful grand old building that was part of the 1876 world exhibition in Philadelphia.
There was so much for Mia to see and to play that we didn't have enough time to do everything.
There was a play area with water

There was a play area with an "Alice in Wonderland" theme

There was a store

There was a hospital

And many other things

Philadelphia

After Thanksgiving we traveled to Philadelphia for a little get-away. We liked the many different neighborhoods and museums and had booked a hotel right in Center City next to the Convention Center and China town.

For Mia it was already her second trip to Philadelphia but then she was only 5 months old when she was first there so she did not really remeber.
It was a bit chilly so we spend a Saturday morning at the Benjamin Franklin science museum

Mia liked the place and explored the train shed and tried to assemble a mars rover.
After this it was time for a nice lunch in China town

Helping with the laundry

Mia also wants to help with the laundry and helped putting the washed clothes into the drieer.

At the zoo with Barbara

On another trip to the zoo we first checked out the lion exhibit and a dinosaur skull.

Then we stopped at the Orangutan house where Mia showed a chicken a volunteer had given her at the kids farm

Then we met Barbara and had a little picnic

Preschool Thanksgiving

Mia's preschool had organized a very nice Thanksgiving feast.

Most of the children were dressed like the Jamestown settlers and they had a healthy lunch.

Unfortunately Mia was more interested in the desert part

After the meal it was time for some bingo

Frying Pan Farm Park

Sunday was an unusually warm and sunny day. So we decided to spend some time outdoors and check out a former dairy farm in Fairfax county that was turned into a public park so that children and adults can see some farm animals and learn about a farm. In short the perfect place for Mia.

 The rooster was really loud

 The piglets were only four weeks old and when not drinking milk from their mother they liked to all lie together under a heating lamp. In the same barn there was also a one week old calf.

Mia really enjoyed feeding the baby goats

To make things even better there was also an old carousel and a country store that sold ice cream

We probably come back in the near future

Baking cookies

Sylvia and Luca invited Mia to come up to their place when Sylvia was baking some cookies. Sylvia showed them every step and Luca and Mia could help

Doing the dishes

Mia sometimes enjoys helping with the household chores like doing the dishes:

On the video one can hear that car talk was running in the background

Sunday Afternoon with the Cousins

This Sunday afternoon we went to the Air and Space museum by Dulles international airport to meet Yilei and her family. Mia was excited to see baby Ella again and was pretty disappointed when her cousins didn't come back home with us for dinner because it was kind of late for Ella

Halloween Parade

Because of hurricane Sandy the Halloween parade at Mia's school was moved to Friday. It started with a parade outside. Mia's class walked together with the third graders

 After this all the children had story time, cupcakes and other goodies inside.

Mia liked everything

Halloween

This year Mia went to "Trick and Treating" for the first time. She dressed up as a pirate and joined Luca and Chloe for a tour of the neighborhood

After three days of wind and rain from hurricane Sandy and it a beautiful cool fall evening and Mia's purple bucket filled up quickly.
Some house had quite the scary decoration.

But Mia didn't get scared.

Now we are wondering what to do with all the candy