Here's what Chris has been doing:
For playgroup last week we went to Fieldstone Enterprises to pick some blackberries. (You'll see that Gaia and Livia also blogged about our adventures - links on right of blog). It is the only real thing we'll get to pick this year. Almost all of the area fruit and nut farms were hit hard by the late frosts we had in April. That means no apples, pecans, etc. :o(
We searched for the best, blackest, blackberries. Ava wanted to pick the bright pink ones at first. It was super hot and we lasted as long as we could. Elise was a trooper but Ava got tired pretty quick and most of the kids were starting to whine, so we called it a day.
The highlight for Ava had to have been petting the farm dogs or puppies as she commonly refers to them.
William & Jasmine seemed to be enjoying themselves...no, this is not an advertisement for Visa and Mastercard.
The busy, hot mommies.
I decided to try to make some jam. I have always thought of jam-making as a tedious, laborious, timely project...then I met freezer jam! I've often salivated at the thought of my friend, Camie's strawberry freezer jam. Well, now her secret is out! Freezer jam was so easy! I don't know why I thought it was so hard and never tried it before.
The finished product. I left chunks of fruit in it on purpose and even threw some small, whole blackberries in at Camie's suggestion. Yummmy! I think I'll try strawberry next. This time I'll get the berries from the store - although I did enjoy picking them.
Here's Kate and Ryan (1 month apart in age), playing the piano together. They were very sad when we made them stop...it was just too loud after a while. But they were cute!
Here's Ava and Kate playing outside with the lame legal fireworks: poppers and such. I was inside caring for Elise so I'm not sure how Ava was playing outside without shoes. Must be Daddy's fault. ;)
Speaking of Daddy - Here he is acting a fool, getting overly excited with the sparklers. Hey - if you're going to joke around like that - it just might end up on my blog!
Me & Elise. You can't tell in this picture...or most of them - but Ava and Elise had matching skirts on.
The boys (and Ava in back) having oh so much fun with the sparklers. We were all kind of sad we couldn't light more things off. Well, I'm not that sad now that I have kids who need to sleep at night and naptime.
Here's my brother Craig, his wife Vanessa and their son, Ryan.
Group Photo. 
Ava actually really did enjoy her sparkler.
Here's Ava asking for another sparkler. She had just finished saying, "Pleeeease???"
Daddy & Ava....with Ava wearing shoe this time.
Elise was having fun too. After our fun with sparklers and poppers, some of us decided to go to GR's, a guy from our church, to watch his firework's display. It was actually really good for a private fireworks show. I was impressed. We were sitting really close though...it got very loud and very bright. I had to look away a few times in fear I might have a seizure. ;p
I got one pic of the kids watching the fireworks. I love the expresions in this photo! We brought bean bags for the kids to lay on. It was cute how William & Ava snuggled up with the bean bags and blanket. This pic was taken right after the first few fireworks. Obviously, William loved them...Ava not so sure.
My sister, Heidi, is getting married in October! She's busy doing EFY this summer so we took the opportunity while she was around a couple of weeks ago to do some dress shopping. My mom and almost all of my sisters and sisters-in-laws and kids went.
Here's Ava wearing her lifevest for the very first time. She kept saying, "I do it myself!" Yeah, right little girl.
Covered UP! I'm loving the swimsuit that I got Ava this year from Old Navy because it has sleeves. She also likes to wear her hat so that makes for great sun protection. (Of course, she's wearing sunblock too).
Beep Beep! We bought some inflatables for the nieces and nephews to use. Ava liked the car - it even beeped when you pushed the horn.
Elise got to dip in for her first swimming experience -EVER. She didn't scream and seemed to tolerate it okay. It was kind of lame for me because I stood there with an umbrella to shade her while my mom held her. Don't feel sorry for me though - Elise took a nap shortly thereafter so I got a chance to jump in too.
Here's Elise before getting into the water too much...What a big smile!
I thought I'd post some recent pics of the girls. Here's Ava the day after her birthday (you can tell by the mess in the background!), smiling for the camera - something I'd almost pay her to do these days! She likes to say cheese really fast maybe or maybe not looking at the camera.
Elise is a very sweet little baby! We love that she is gracing us with her big smile and dimples!
Ava got an apron & chef's ensemble for her birthday. (thanks, Rebecca & girls). We decided to try it out and let her help us make cookies. She had so much fun baking for the first time!
Here she is mixing in the chocolate chips.
Making and placing the dough balls. (My pampered chef stone is pretty seasoned as you can see - they say this is a good thing).
And of course, the best part - eating the cookies! After this it was a mandatory tooth brush, hand washing and then off to bed.
Here are some pictures of them in the same dress...Resemblances? To each other? To mom or dad? hmmm...(Ava on top, Elise on bottom)
On Saturday, Ava celebrated her 2nd birthday! To kick off the day we put a candle in a twinkie (leftover from cake - see below), and came in her room singing Happy Birthday. She didn't know quite what to think...but enjoyed eating the twinkie. (Talk about morning hair!)
Our guests arrived and made little purses (girls) or a visor (boy). They turned out really cute and kept them busy for a few minutes while guests arrived.
Puppy Party Time! We talked about what puppies need: food, water, exercise, grooming, etc. and then started some puppy activities. We had an age range from 2-8, with most being closer to 2 so I tried to find games that would work okay for them. Each child got a puppy to take care of. We tied "leashes" around each puppy and went across the street to our big open field. We had a barking contest for warm-ups and then did puppy races. It was so cute watching the kids run with their puppies, making them bark the whole way.
We then played "Chase the Kitty". We passed a puppy and a kitty around the circle and tried to make the puppy catch the kitty.
We then went back inside and played "Feed the Puppy". Here's cousin William throwing the puppy some bones. My sister Gina and I painted the puppy.
Here's Ava with her huge puppy cake! My sister Kelly and I worked on this. It took much longer than expected but was fun. I'd never made a character or shape cake before.
Here are the guests waiting to eat puppy cake, ice cream, puppy chow and kibbels and bits (pretzel sticks, cheese cubes and carrot sticks).
Ava had lots of fun opening her presents. One funny thing I probably should've been prepared for was when at the beginning of the party, Ava opened a present as soon as her little friend gave it to her. Of course she doesn't understand party etiquette about waiting to open presents. Oh well. It was too late by the time I got there.
We gave each guest a bag with some puppy related contents: A doggy bowl with name and paw prints on it filled with Scooby snacks shaped like doggie bones, puppy stickers and a puppy coloring book that we made. Attached to the bowl and treats was their very own little puppy made from pom-poms. (My mom made all of these for us!) They turned out really cute.
Overall, I think Ava and her guests had a good time.
A few weeks ago, on a super nice day, we took Ava to the Zoo for the very first time! She absolutely loved it! Her favorite animals were the elephants - her eyes were huge when she saw them...she asked to hold one of them. ;) She also liked the hippo named Sue, the tiger that she called Rajah (from Aladdin), and the monkey family we saw.
If you look closely, you'll see how Ava was going, "ROARRRR!", referring to the sound a lion makes.
My sister, Kelly went with us. We wouldn't have braved it without her.
We were fearful that Elise would have a bad day but she did great. We came prepared with a baby carrier and umbrella for shade.
Ava had fun at the petting zoo they had. One of the goats was a little too excited for the feed and kind of surprised Ava at first.
Across from the zoo they had this train you could ride arond Gage Park. I'm sure it has a name but I don't recall. Ava liked it so much she didn't want to get off. I think she was just tired. She almost fell asleep on me during the ride.
We recently discovered Ready Rice by Uncle Ben's. You just microwave them for 90 seconds and they're done. I like giving Ava rice with her lunch - who wants to get out pots and pans at lunchtime...not this girl! I also love that I'm giving her brown rice and it tastes good. (I'm ignoring the fact that it probably has lots of sodium) Our favorites so far are: Chicken Whole Grain Brown Rice and Rice Pilaf. I'm not a fan of the kind with cheese in it. 
