Joey, Lorelei and Elliette came to stay with us for a few days. Unfortunately the only day I had my camera along was for a trip to Long Beach to visit the aquarium. Actually, we were initially planning on a whale-watching cruise, but fortunately we wised up and realized that Evie & Elliette might not approve of a 3.5 hour cruise with occasional whale sightings — so we went for the guaranteed, copious Nemo & Flounder sightings at the nearby aquarium instead. But first a brief harbor cruise, as we had promised them a boat ride…Elliette was feeling a little more camera shy…First mates! I guess you can’t really tell we’re on a boat, but we are. I didn’t get any photos of the very impressive and cute napping sea lions on the buoy — I barely had enough arms to make sure that Evie (a) could see them and (b) couldn’t launch herself out of the boat to pet them.Fish!!Good decision, adults…Evie does a little window licking.

Sometimes when I’m working at home, Evie is happy to go to the park with the babysitter… and other times she does everything in her power to lure me away from the laptop. This past week, her tactic was a picnic on the rug, with special guests Lenny, Elmo, and Cookie. She told me, patting the floor, “The rug is fluffy, Mummy, it’s cup of tea time. Let’s have a picnic!” How could you resist?

The highlight of Evie’s day is going to the lobby of our building to check for packages — she is ever hopeful that one of the envelopes or boxes waiting there will contain a Peppa Pig magazine or some other treat for her. Fortunately her hopes are frequently rewarded… like today, when she discovered a pair of Peppa Pig PJs from Muzzy & Granddad! (Even more fortunately for me, she can also be easily convinced to find a shipment of nappies fairly exciting, too, if that’s all that’s in the mail for us that day.) Here she models them… accessorized nattily by the shampoo hair band, also from Muz.

Just a few odds & bobs I found on my phone… Here’s Evie “working” and pulling her latest silly face.For really important work assignments, however, she puts on her collared shirt and turns to pen and paper…Relaxing to a favorite CD at the end of a busy day of work… Evie likes to pull up a chair and sit right in front of the CD player to really listen.Big bed, little girl.

If there’s a hammock in the house, you can count on Evie to find it. And hide in it so she doesn’t have to share…Who me, hog the hammock? Never!

Evie loves her little apron from Muzzy — especially the fact that she can fit a little book and a little Elmo in the front pocket while she cooks. Though I’m not sure what Health & Safety would say to the rest of the outfit (nappy + winter crocs + apron = ready to cook in Evie’s book).

Just another day hanging out at the beach — this time in the cabana at the Bel Air Bay Club. Evie shows off her old cowboy hat and her new Indian-style boots. She picked these out herself at Old Navy — she wouldn’t even take them off to pay for them! So Rob just had to rip off the tag and take that up to the till.

We found out today that we have to be here in L.A. for another few months, until the end of November — yes, you heard it here first: exclusive breaking news on QO! — so Evie and I decided to dig in and confirm our status as beach bunnies. Today’s trip was to the Annenberg Beach Club to meet up with the newly arrived Alicia, Jack and Sam. Not a bad day to be outside, as you can see…Evie was so excited to see Jack and Sam.The three of them entertained themselves for hours — literally! — on the beach while Alicia and I sunned ourselves.Evie would pause every now and then to point out a particularly note-worthy rock (and Jack and Sam were very patient later on when they were playing catch and she continued to show them each rock she found, causing them to pause their game):Snack time back at the pool. Tough life being the Bean…Lounging in the middle of a workday is hilarious!This is Jack and Sam waiting for Evie to finish her snack so she can come play with them again.Evie in the thick of things — and yes, moments after this photo was taken, the ball — not surprisingly — went plunging into the pool, just as everyone was all clean and dressed ready for dinner!We then drove over to Santa Monica to meet Steve & Rob — still in their suits — for dinner. Alicia’s and my verdict: So far, being WhoSay wives is a lot more fun than being Pump wives!

Evie and Gus Weber (a.k.a youngest son of Kara & Ben), just chilling out with lollies together in the Webers’ back garden.

Just one last adorable pic of Alexander that I found on my camera when I downloaded for the first time in a while. Come back, Big Al, we miss you!