My Precious Cargo

Of all the things we lug around in our cars or minivans - these two are my favorite! (esp. when they aren't crying or whining ;)

Gage Park

For last week's playgroup we took a trip to Gage Park. It was actually a fairly mild, overcast morning - great park weather. We had about 8 moms come. I think we all enjoyed ourselves. (Above pic taken from train ride).

For $1, who can beat the 10 minute scenic train ride with a trip through a tunnel and everything?
It occurred to me as I watched Ava running from play equipment to play equipment, following many of the "big" kids, that Ava is becoming quite the "big" kid herself.

Had to get a pic of Ava posing as a character from The Wizard of Oz. The first one she tried was the Lion. It was funny because she didn't understand that you only put your face up to the opening. She kept trying to stick her whole head in and then got frustrated when her head kept getting stuck. She may have wanted to be able to see the character too...who knows. We were able to help her figure it out eventually. :)

Gage park has either the oldest or one of the oldest indoor Carousels around. We pretty much had it to ourselves so we enjoyed a couple of rides...also at a great rate - 75 cents. Ava didn't want to stop. She had got me to sort of chase her within and around the Carousel. Luckily, that didn't last long.
Here's Ava with her little friend Payton. They've enjoyed getting to do lots of stuff together lately. When we tell Ava that it's Sunday, she says, "I go to Nursery...and play with Payton!"

Sunflower Farm

We saw an article in our local newspaper about a sunflower farm not far from where we live. We decided to go and take some pictures. Many thanks to my sister Heidi who got some good shots despite a grumpy toddler who just wanted to play with rocks. Elise was happy to have her picture taken though. Here are some of the better shots (warning - lots of pictures!):

FAMILY PHOTOS:





PARENT-BABY PHOTOS:

BEAUTIFUL AVA:

PRECIOUS ELISE:

Summertime

So far this summer has been a good one. Ava is so excited to go places and learn new things so that has been fun. I'm also feeling better than I have in a long time. 2 babies in 2 years is quite a thing to undertake but I survived and amazingly so did Chris! (survived me that is). Elise is out of her newborn fussy stage and we are being blessed for sticking with her! She is such a sweet, happy child - huge, huge smiles all of the time. I think she just wanted to be able to see everything and interact with everyone.Ava is such a girl. Here's the trademark little girl in Mommy's big shoes picture...actually, these are Aunt Kelly's big shoes. Mommy pretty much wears flip-flops right now. I do like her expression. It's hard to get her to smile for the camera for longer than a nanosecond, so this is a rare treat.

Since Ava is an age where she can appreciate it more, we've been involved with playgroup more this summer. We had a pool party at our house last week which I think turned out to be a lot of fun for the kids. We had a large turnout - which is great. The kids had fun playing in 2 kiddie pools, the sprinkler, our swingset and lots of buckets of water for the kids who are into filling containers and then dumping them out. We took a break for popsicles and watermelon. At one point, I counted 24 children in attendance.
Ava decided to eat her popsicle in the swimming pool. I saw the popsicle go under a couple of times...Ava didn't seem to mind, except when she couldn't find the rest of it. She then reached out and wanted mine. I took a bite and gave it to her. Another gross thing is when Ava was eating watermelon. I had given her a piece and then a little bit later noticed her gnawing on a piece that was definitely a different shape and size from the one I gave her...hmmm. Then, I caught her in the act of pulling a rind out of the trash can that still had some pink on it. YUCK! Then came the lesson on how we don't eat out of the trash. Still later, I saw her pick up a rind off of the ground and start eating the pink again. !!!!! I offered her a fresh piece. Apparently, I don't feed her enough.

Projects!

I've been busy with various projects lately. I finally bought a sewing machine of my very own. My mom was letting me use one of her old ones which you can see is older and doesn't near as much as my new one. I went with a Bernina because I've heard great things about them and lots of people I know, including my mom, have one. Better safe than sorry I guess. Now I just have to learn how to use it!

My first project was to make flannel boards for a little preschool group we're doing. If you're interested, I used an 18x24in. artist panel/canvas, 3/4 yard of flannel, and tote bag strapping bought from the ribbon section at Hobby Lobby. I sewed the flannel like a pillowcase, making sure to make it fit really tight, and then hot glued the open end down neatly. Then, I used the strapping/trim to make a little handle, burning the ends to keep them from raveling, and stapled them to the back of the board.

Then, I decided I need to do some painting so I touched up this tulip painting that I painted a few years ago and have already "touched up" twice. I think I have to stop though, even though it pains me to look at it and see how I could improve it still. Ava saw me painting and said, "I paint too!" She then took a thanfully dry paintbrush and started to stroke on my painting. I quickly got out paper and paint for Ava to try for herself. She enjoyed it - her favorite thing was for me to make purple by mixing red and blue for her.

Cool Website

Have bored kids like mine? Try printing out one of these activities! Ava is currently playing with the kitty one.

http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/printables/

County Fair

I'm now helping to plan ourchurch's playgroup. For this activity, we went to our County Fair. It was raining lightly which helped keep things cool...and it really didn't matter too much since most everything we were looking at was inside. We saw part of the dairy cow show and lots of animals.

Gaia, Kate & William...Ava's aunt and cousins.

Here, Ava & her friend Payton are looking at the chickens.

Our frirend debbi held Ava up to get a better view. It was neat to see that several of the chickens had laid eggs.
When Ava saw the camel in the petting zoo they had, she was SO excited. "Mommy, a CAMEL! Look, A CAMEL!...Yummum, (how she says cousin William's name)A CAMEL!" Later, when telling Daddy about the camel, she said, "I saw a CAMEL! - like ALADDIN!" It's amazing the connections kids make!
Ava and her friend Mary at the petting zoo. We spent the perfect amount of time there and even got to pet a rabbit and chicken because we knew the girls showing them. (I think it sounds funny to say you got to pet a chicken...:)

Yumm-Yumm

Now that Elise has passed the 4-month mark, we've decided to let her sample a little bit of rice cereal here and there. She's definitely shown interest in eating. I feel kind of sorry for her, watching her watch us eat and look like she's ready for a bite too. She even put her hand in the popcorn bowl a couple of times the other day.
She really like whatever it was she thought we were doing to her. The only thing is that she's SO messy! She doesn't want to just eat it off of the spoon...she wants to taste it with her fists, rub in on her face and use it as hair gel too. Call it selfish or lazy, but, I'm not giving it to her very often yet because it is just TOO messy. Maybe if I swaddler her first??? kidding!

"A-nastics"

We signed Ava up for Parent/Tot Tumbling this summer. As you can see, she absolutely loved going. The class was very casual, pretty much consisting of us warm-ups & streches, free play, and a group activity at the end of the class. Much of our time was spent going around to all of the various equipment and helping Ava to try it out. Her favorites: the balance beam, vault and trampoline.

Stretches! Chris and I took turns helping Ava and watching Elise.

Balance Beam. I kept trying to get her to put her arms out at each side. At one time, I told her to point - so of course she does a full on point, looking in the direction of which she was pointing..funny to see. Sorry no pic of that.

Oh, she also really enjoyed going across the ladder. It led to the trampoline, possibly one of the reasons she liked it so much.
On the last day of class, they sit all of the kids down (some missing - couldn't get everyone to sit at the same time), and give them certificates. After getting her certificate, Ava found a spot on a mat nearby and lied down, looking at her certificate and just laughing - like she was just so happy. :) It was fun to see her in this class. She learned a few things but mostly just had some fun using her body in different ways.

Meanwhile, baby sister has a new favorite carseat toy to keep her occupied while big sis does her "a-nastics".