She's Got A Friend

We had a nice treat recently when we got to watch Chiara's oldest friend Magdalena.  This is a little clip of the two of them shortly after she arrived with her parents....

Chiara's First Charity Event

Chiara got up early this morning to participate in her first charity event.  This was to raise funds to help various homeless shelters and programs in the Washington, DC area.  

We joined our friends the Schwarz's out on the mall for this walk on what turned out to be a very beautiful day.  Our team was supporting Calvery Women's Services.  The event was a huge success.  We were told that Calvery Women's Services received an anonymous gift of $100,000.00, in addition to the funds that were raised by the walkers.  It always feels good to help people in need, particularly around the holidays.

After the walk, we decided to the National Gallery of Art to see the Arcimboldo Exhibit.  This is the second time we all came across his work.  The first time Chiara did not see much, but her parents did on their babymoon at the Musee du Louvre in Paris.  We have a feeling our precious Chiara may have looked a little like a miniature Arcimboldo painting while we were in Paris, since she was in her mom's belly.

The original poster child for V-8!  The exhibit was pretty neat and there were paintings from other galleries around the world that we had not seen in Paris.  It was more enjoyable this time around, as it was not 100 degrees, there were not thousands of people and we got Chiara's opinion of the work.  In case you are wondering, it just made her hungry!!

Which Purse is Mine?

While mom was away, Chiara realized....

This was not her purse!

So she decided to look for her own purse...

Have you seen my purse (she asked her dad behind the camera)... 

 Here it is!!

I think I'll stand here and wait for mom to get home.  Especially, because I can't walk and dad won't stop taking pictures!

"3" or "111"

Chiara celebrated her birthday since our last blog.  Luckily, she is too young to remember the standard that was set for this occasion.  Our little principessa celebrated her birthday not once, not twice, but three times!! When we asked her about it, she said she would be fine with one party, but her parents wanted to take this special celebration on the road.

Here she is at Birthday #1 at Grammy Sandy's :

Here she is at Birthday #2 at Grandma and Grandpa Lanzettis:

Here she is at Birthday # 3 in her own backyard:

This is her showing off her gift from her Mom and Dad (yes, that is a duck on her helmet):

As if children don't grow fast enough... we made our little girl 3 years old or 111 years old in just 12 months, depending on how you count the candles!!