Thursday, June 30, 2011

A New Frontier

Our Girl is a brave one.  Swings?  The higher the better.  Carnival rides?  No fear.  Big dogs at the park?  She'd hop on them for a ride if they'd let her.  But the one thing that has inexplicably always freaked her out is - are you ready for this? - grass.  Yup, grass.  The yard has always acted as a kind of invisible fence for Baby, effectively keeping her on the porch better than any play pen ever could.  Andy has made it his life's mission to change this, and finally a few days ago...



She ran back and forth chasing the dog for a solid 15 minutes.  Victory!  Now maybe we'll work on her fear of fruit.

(Do your best to focus on the joy in her eyes, and not her mismatched pajamas.  Laundry day.)

Friday, June 10, 2011

$10 bills are magical.

Not only can they provide water park-like fun right in your own back yard (see below), but they can help snag a rocking horse at a garage sale that moves its tail, shakes its head, and makes spot-on horse noises.  Score 1 for Mommy and the Magical $10 bill!!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Luck Be a (little) Lady

Ava's life is pretty cool. Scratch that - it's awesome. Let me give you a taste of what my lucky little lady has been up to over the last couple of weeks. Get comfortable, cuz she's been pretty busy...

Love came all the way from Iowa.
Grandma Pat and Hoppa spent a long weekend with us and Ava was determined to show them a good time.  She took them to the zoo and bought them some ice cream...



Showed them how much fun the botanic gardens can be....



She even let Grandma play with her doll houses and showed Hoppa how cute she is when she swings.



I'd say she made a pretty good case for a repeat visit!

Thanks so much for coming, guys! We loved every minute of having you here!

Heritage Square
Snuggled into the foothills not far from our house is a tiny little amusement park that's just Ava's size. She had a blast, and watching Andy try to fold himself into the world's smallest ride was worth the price of the tickets.

See what I mean?  Funny.

Check out Andy's hand.  Ava was determined to sit on the horse by herself and wouldn't let Andy touch her.  Such a brave girl.
Got the bounce house all to ourselves.  Talk about lucky!

She "won" these silly bracelets.  They were so big on her that she had to hold her
arm like this the whole time.  
We will definitely be making a trip back there soon. 

Party Time!
Ava's bud Brady turned 2 last week, so the kids hit the splash park to party like it was 2009. Ava had such a good time I was ready to move just to be near this place. I wonder if Hoppa and Grandpa Mac could build one of these in our backyard?  What do you say, fellas? 






After the sugar buzz from all the cake started to wear off, we put the kiddos in dry clothes and moved the party to Brady's house.  Ava gave him a tee-ball set, which proved to be the perfect way to fill the rest of the afternoon.   The all enjoyed it so much, I plan to give one to every kid I know under the age of 4.  Ava preferred the role of spectator.

"Um, Dude, I'm not sure you're doin that right..."


2 cups and a $10 plastic pool
What more does a kid need?


She spent an hour filling up these cups and dumping them out. Wish I was this easy to entertain.

There's so much more to tell, of friends, and parties, and days full of fun, but I'm beat so it'll have to wait until the next post.  Take care, all!