We're Back

Have you given up on me? I hope not but wouldn't blame you.

Summer has come and gone and I've hardly blogged any of it. Just haven't felt up to blogging but am ready now. With my rededication to blogging, I will be posting our summer album, month by month in the next few days here...starting with JUNE (and some end of May stuff).

END OF MAY 2008

PRESCHOOL GRADUATION:


This year Ava participated in a mommy's preschool. Here are the three girl graduates: Ava, Payton and Claire. Ava had so much fun and I enjoyed taking my turns teaching too. We're excited to be starting again very soon for the fall.

PLAYING AROUND
Had to throw in a quick picture of Ava with her dollhouse (her Christmas present). She's been having fun setting up the furniture and making her people talk in high-pitched voices. She's since received a couple more playsets to add to her dollhouse - a bathroom set and a mudroom/laundry room set.

STRAWBERRY PICKING:

We found a nice strawberry patch not too far from home. Ava and Elise LOVE strawberries and enjoyed helping themselves to lots of ripe and for Elise, not always so ripe, berries. Ava was actually a great picker. She took extra care to make sure and pick the red ones (not the white or pink ones) without any bad spots.

Elise probably ate over a dozen strawberries and has the juice on her face and clothes to prove it.


And one more for the road.

JUNE 2008

AVA's BIRTHDAY PARTY
June 7th

Ever since Ava had a puppy party for her 2nd birthday, she's been saying she wanted to have a "kitty party" for her 3rd. Every few months she'd either bring it up or we'd ask her what kind of party she wanted to have. Almost always, she'd say the same thing - A kitty party. So that is what we did.

We invited our guest to dress like a kitty, either wearing their own kitty "costume" or one would be provided. I made little ears with headbands and felt and my sister Kelly painted a nose and whiskers on their faces.

We did several activities. They did some dancing and played ring around the rosie. They also acted like kitty cats and put their paws inside of a fish bowl (a large blue vase with fish stickers on it) and pulled out a fish (in this case a plastic fish to paint). Here the kids are painting their plastic fish.

We then went outside and batted bubbles while the adults inside hid little white felt mice that I had made up for them to do a kitty hunt.

They came inside, crawling on all fours and meowing, hunting for mice.

The cats with their mice.
We then had lunch (hot dogs and meow mix) followed by a kitty cake and ice cream. I think the kids had a good time. Most importantly, Ava had a blast.

AVA's BIRTHDAY

June 9th

Here's Ava on her actual birthday, turning 3 years old! Her great aunt sent her a princess card with a special birthday crown. We tried to make it a special day for her full of things she liked to do like going to the bakery and the toy store and having chicken nuggets for dinner.
We decided to take Ava to get a special treat on her birthday. We asked her what she wanted and she said pie so we invited Grandma and Grandpa to celebrate with us. Ava got to open her presents from Mommy and Daddy.

She also got to eat some yummy Chocolate Pie. She was so excited when they put it in front of her and she realized she got to eat it all by herself. We sang to her and then let her dig in.

What a great day for Ava. Ava really wanted to try the grab a toy game. She bummed some change from her loving relatives and tried it all by herself. No luck. We had enough collective change to give it one more go - this time Uncle Eric did the maneuvering. HE DID IT! He actually won a toy. It was a little bear with angel wings. What a lucky girl! I had never seen anyone win a toy from one of the machines - until now. To top off her awesome day, the manager of the restaurant gave Ava a big bunch of balloons. Happy 3rd Birthday, AVA!


BATH TIME BLOWOUT
I was holding Elise on my lap while I was helping Ava do a craft. The next thing I know I have some you-know-what that had leaked out of Elise's diaper, on my pants. Already in the kitchen, I stripped her down and gave her her first bath in the kitchen sink. My mom and dad seemed to give us kids a lots of kitchen sink baths growing up - maybe for the same reason...who knows.
So anyway, I had to snap some pictures because she looked so cute and was totally enjoying the warm soapy water and shower from the faucet.
Bubbles!

And here's the ever popular mohawk trick.

FAMILY ADDITIONS:

Ava got two new cousins in about a month. The first, Ashley, was born towards the end of May. We were out of town and missed seeing her in the hospital. We did get to go and see baby Nathan in the hospital. He was born towards the end of June. Ava loves to hold the babies.

Here's baby Ashley.

Here's Ava with newborn baby Nathan.
We had to make a stop at Toys R Us while in KC. Vroom!

OKLAHOMA TRIP & GI JOE CONVENTION:

For those of you who don't already know this, Chris is a pretty big GI JOE fan and collector. He has quite a few GI JOES and has been collecting for a while. Unfortunately, he no longer has the GI JOES he got growing up...they are either lost or were blown up with firecrackers.

They were having their annual convention in Dallas this year so we decided to go. We also made a visit to see my Grandma Patty and visit with my cousin and her family in Oklahoma City. (more on that below).

The convention was interesting. Lots of oober-fans and some normal fans. I asked Chris what it felt like being the coolest guy there. ;)

They tried to do a few activities for kids and one of them was a parachute drop. If you look closely you can see a couple of silver parachutes that they dropped from some of the higher floors. The kids got to catch a parachute with a GI JOE attached.

After the convention, and after the girls finished their nap in the double stroller, it was my turn. The convention was right next to an IKEA. Until now, one would wonder why I would've agreed to go to a GI JOE convention...my reward was coming. IKEA was great. We finally got Ava's bed situation resolved and also pick up a few other fun things.




Our visit to my Grandma's house in OKC was nice. My cousin Karen and her family are staying with my Grandma while their house is being built. They assured us that it was fine to stay there and they kindly made room for us. It was fun to visit with my cousin Karen and her family. And of course, we also had a nice visit with my Grandma Patty, as usual.

On the first full day of our visit, Elise had been so whiny and didn't seem to feel good. She didn't have a temperature and wasn't super upset but she just wasn't herself. I started to notice a faint red rash that looked a bit too familiar to me for comfort. After a call to our Dr, our insurance, and a visit to a Prompt Care facility, we found out that Elise had a strep throat, ear infection and a scarlatina rash. Poor girl! I had no idea she was that sick. I guess she just needs to speak up a little more. Luckily, after a night of antibiotics, she was much happier.

Ava was especially excited because she had a friend to play with the whole time, her second-cousin McKinley, who is only 3 months older than Ava. They played really well together and even got to enjoy some sprinkler fun.
Elise had a lot of fun walking around the backyard, not really getting wet, but mostly exploring and just entertaining herself.
I love the little sun hat my sister Gina found for her...perfect for protecting her super blonde head.


Well, these were our JUNE highlights with a few more tidbits to come. July is next. Hope you have had a great summer too!