Quickie Post! Ava had her choral debut in the Joyful Noise Angels last Sunday at the 9:30 and 11:00 services at our church. She really enjoys going to choir every week and she's taking it very seriously. She keeps asking me when they're going to give her a solo. : )
Here's the clip:
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
More Fall Fun October 11th-17th
As promised, here are some pictures of our family enjoying the season this week. Ava's class had Wednesday and Friday off due to parent-teacher conferences. On Wednesday, we met some friends at a trail near our house for a hike. While we waited for our friends to arrive, we hung out on the swings.
Here are some of Ava's best girlfriends who joined us on the hike. You may recognize this scene from pictures of hikes earlier in the year. This 3-mile, kid friendly hike is a beautiful trip and only "treacherous" in a couple of places, PLUS there's a waterfall on the creek, perfect for wading in warm weather. Definitely a favorite spot!
Here are some of Ava's best girlfriends who joined us on the hike. You may recognize this scene from pictures of hikes earlier in the year. This 3-mile, kid friendly hike is a beautiful trip and only "treacherous" in a couple of places, PLUS there's a waterfall on the creek, perfect for wading in warm weather. Definitely a favorite spot!
Love these girls!
Livin' on the edge!
The lil' waterfall.
Playing in the trees.
My mom came to visit for a few days last week. We went apple picking with friends.
The trees were loaded!
Ava and one of her "besties", Miss Anna climbed up to get some apples from the top.
Here's our haul of "the apple of the day", the Melrose. They are yummy!Thanks for the apples, Grandma Sally.
Sunday after church, we headed down to the national forest for a hike. I love that we live so close to a national park and all that it has to offer. Here Mike, Ava, and Emily set out for Blue Hen Falls.
It was such a beautiful day!
Daddy's girls
Here's a shot of the falls. The afternoon sunlight filtering down through the trees cast a sort of "magic" on the whole afternoon.
Miss Ava made the steep climp down like a pro (first one down)!
Awww. My girlies!
Emily loves to pose.
When did she become such a lil' blonde bombshell!?
Sweet sisters!
It was a LONG way down!
After climbing out, we passed the "Trail Ends Here" sign for some off-road hiking. So glad we did. The scenery beyond the trail was beautiful. Ava and I stopped along the un-official trail to "tight rope walk" across fallen trees while Mike and Emily continued on.
But always competitive, Ava had to catch up quickly. It didn't help that Emily was screaming, "We beat you! We win!" from her cozy spot in the hiking backpack.
We hiked back to the falls along the creek.
Once home, I raked up a big pile of leaves (per Ava's request) while we waited for the grill to heat up for dinner. Our yard is full of big trees, which means that I will have to rake at least 3 more times this fall...but truthfully, I didn't mind indulging a little more fall fun before the weekend drew to a close. Here's some footage of the girls playing in the first leaf pile of the season:
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Fall Fun!
Last week Mike and I took a fall getaway to Atlantic City, NJ complete with side trips to historic Philadelphia, PA and beautiful Cape May, NJ. For Christmas the last couple of years my parents have given us resort certificates, good for a week-long stay at any number of destinations in the US and abroad. Last year, we renewed our certificate and took the girls to Williamsburg, VA for an end of the summer trip. You can read all about that trip HERE. This year, Mike suggested that we use the certificate to go away together...just the two of us. I have to admit that at first I was a little hesitant to leave the girls for so long and indulge in a week away. Okay, truth be told, I was a LOT hesitant. We argued over the idea for a bit and I finally shared my dilemma with my parenting group at church. I really thought that they'd be on my side of the argument. Instead, I heard comments like this, "Are you kidding!? Your husband wants to go away with you. GO!" It's true that Mike and I have only been away together for just one night (on our 5th anniversary) since Ava was born. Once I got over my "mommy in control" issues, I began to embrace the idea of planning our very own couples retreat. By the time we settled on a date and set about choosing our destination, Atlantic City seemed to be calling because 1) It wasn't too far away (a little over 8 hours by car) 2) There was fun stuff to do near Atlantic City-like a visit to Philly or Cape May and 3) Most importantly...they still had vacancy. I am so glad that we ended up on The Jersey Shore. We fell in love with the region. The Jersey Shore is beautiful...even in the off-season AND in the midst of a tropical storm.
Here's the link to some more pictures from our trip:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbNnDlq4ZN2Nc
If you'd like to read more, check out some details on my other blog, Krista's Kitchen. A big thanks goes to my parents for the resort certificate and to Mike's parent's who came over and watched the girls all week for making this trip possible!
Of course, we were SO excited to see the girls after a week away. We spent the weekend catching up, making meals together, and snuggling. (Ava's new favorite family activity is the "group hug" and when she yells those two words, we all have to come together for a family bear hug.) Mike set up our tent in the backyard and the girls played under the canopy of changing leaves in the beautiful weather for hours. On Saturday, we had "family night" complete with sleeping bags, popcorn, and a Disney movie. And on Sunday, after church, we visited two fall fun destinations with some friends who also have two daughters. The first farm that we visited had a hayride, straw maze, corn maze, petting zoo, and corn pool (easily the favorite activity). Then we hit an apple orchard/pumpkin patch on the way home where we took another hay ride, picked our own pumpkins, and tanked up on cider, donuts, and ice cream. Click the link below to view the pictures from Sunday:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbNnDlq4ZN2Nv
We just love the fall in Northeastern Ohio. It's gorgeous here! This weekend is supposed to be nice too, so stay tuned for more fall fun!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Weekend at a Glance 9/24-9/26
Hi everyone! I'm behind on the updates as usual. From the month of September, I have some great pictures of our trip to the Purdue vs. Ball State tailgating party, Ava's birthday in Indiana, and Aunt Katie's baby shower, not to mention some shocking footage of Emily covering her whole body with an entire tub of Vaseline. Maybe all of that will make it on here at some point, but since I've just got a little bit of time today, I thought that I would focus solely on the happenings of this weekend.
Ava loved her Indiana birthday party and had a wonderful time, but she was still a little bummed on the way home. "I wanted a party with my friends at home too." She pouted as we drove across the state line and into Ohio. Being the occasional over-indulgent parent that I am, I caved. "Well, maybe we can have a couple of your friends over for cake and ice cream next weekend." Tough negotiator that she is, she came back with, "No cake. Just ice cream." The kid despises birthday cake. Why? She can't stand frosting. (Who is this kid?!) "Okay, just ice cream" I agreed. Hey-no need to spend hours constructing another Ariel birthday cake. Like I was going to argue. So, at the after school pick-up this week, I mentioned to some of the neighborhood moms that we'd be having a little ice cream social at our house on Saturday in honor of my daughter's birthday. I'm glad I indulged her this time. It turns out that a couple of her friends were a little miffed that they'd been excluded from the out-of-state birthday celebration she'd talked about all week .
On Saturday morning, we decorated the dining room with a couple of rolls of streamers.
Then, in the afternoon, a group of Ava's neighborhood friends arrived.
They made sundaes.
The kids all seemed to have a good time, first running off their sugar high in the backyard, then sprawling across Ava's bed to listen to Taylor Swift and the Camp Rock 2 gang on Ava's new boombox. After the dust settled and all of the kiddos were gone...including the guest of honor (she went to play at a neighbor's house), Miss Emily made a new friend. "Grasshopper". He chose her as a companion by jumping right onto her shirt. Have I mentioned that this kid is not scared of anything, including insects? Last week I stopped her a fraction of a second before her chubby little hand closed on a rather large and venomous looking spider!
Here she is with her new "friend".
And here's some footage of Emily and her beloved grasshopper.
Poor kid. I wonder if she just feels "left behind" by Ava and all of the other big kids. I mean, why else would she adopt a grasshopper as her best friend besides the fact that she feels a little lonely? Whatever her motivation, Emily was crazy about Grasshopper. He has escaped more than once, because Emily kept opening the jar so that she could "cuddle" with him. Once he disappeared for over an hour, only to re-appear in the middle of our family room floor. When she first found him on our deck, he only had one leg. I almost felt sorry for him...especially with the way that Em was manhandling him and toting him around everywhere. Within his first few hours in captivity, I actually watched him grab his remaining hind leg in his mouth and wrench it off! At first, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, reasoning that maybe he was just trying to re-establish balance in his life. But still, it was horrifying to watch! The more time grasshopper spends with our family, the less I like him. I don't really feel so sorry for him anymore either. He's clearly crazy. I especially don't like the way that he stares at me...even turning his head to follow my movements around a room. He has a tiny brain and a giant scary mouth, how in the world can this thing have such a personality?! I'm secretly starting to wonder if he tore off his first leg just so we'd feel sorry for him and take him in. What? Paranoid? Me? Nooo. Hahaha.
I didn't expect Grasshopper to make it through the night, what with Emily taking him out to "cuddle" every few minutes and the traumatic limb amputation. (If you ripped even one of my legs off, I'd probably die in a matter of hours without medical care...I'm just sayin'!). Of course, sadistic Ava announced "He's dead. He's definitely not moving!" every few minutes just to watch Emily burst into hopeless grief-stricken sobbing. ARRRGH! Surprisingly, Grasshopper lived through the night. (Sleeping atop Emily's nightstand and next to his detached leg). He even looked chipper this morning as he did a little dance on his 4 remaining legs. I'm pretty sure that this is payback for the baby catfish, lizard, and lake mussels that shared my room when I was a kid.
While the grasshopper thrived, our laptop completely died. The place where the power cord attaches has been busted for months and we've been "babying it". On Saturday, it finally refused to charge, and eventually died. I was pretty devastated. No laptop?! How will I "work"? How can I communicate with the world? What?! People actually used to talk to one another...on the phone and...in person?! Amazing. I know that I had the panicked look and demeanor of a crack addict without her fix. I appealed to Mike, "You can fix it tonight, right?" At first, he gave me a hard time,(something about the broken laptop being my fault because I wasn't careful enough.) But then he took our laptop completely apart, removed the hard drive, pulled out some wires, and scraped out a bigger hole for the "plug in thingie" before heading to Radio Shack for a new part. He came home and retreated to the garage where he soldered the new part to the laptop and reassembled the whole thing.
Guess what? He fixed it! I'm typing this from our new and improved laptop right now! He is my HERO! Seriously, I think that my husband's ability to "fix stuff" just moved up the list to #3 on the "Reasons Why I Married Mike" list. : )
Sunday morning, we participated in the Cleveland Autism Walk. This our family's second year to participate in the event. We walk in support of our good friends, the Lyman's, and their son Chase. As a teacher, I knew the basics about autism, and spent time with an autistic student for a few minutes to a few hours every day. Now, as a friend of a family affected by autism, I see the obstacles that the child and his family deal with on a minute to minute basis. This walk is important. Raising money for autism awareness and research is important. As Ava put it, "We are walking so that scientists can get money to figure out how to help kids like Chase learn to talk better...like me!" Wow. I was super impressed by her interpretation of my explanation about how a fundraiser works and why we were participating.
Some pictures from the walk:
Ava and Em, waiting for the walk to begin.
Ava's best buddy Anna and her brother Chase.
Ava and Anna.
And Emily, chillin' in the wagon.
We wrapped up the weekend with hot wings, a Colt's victory, and some housework. Life is good. And that's the weekend at a glance. Hope you all had a good one!
Ava loved her Indiana birthday party and had a wonderful time, but she was still a little bummed on the way home. "I wanted a party with my friends at home too." She pouted as we drove across the state line and into Ohio. Being the occasional over-indulgent parent that I am, I caved. "Well, maybe we can have a couple of your friends over for cake and ice cream next weekend." Tough negotiator that she is, she came back with, "No cake. Just ice cream." The kid despises birthday cake. Why? She can't stand frosting. (Who is this kid?!) "Okay, just ice cream" I agreed. Hey-no need to spend hours constructing another Ariel birthday cake. Like I was going to argue. So, at the after school pick-up this week, I mentioned to some of the neighborhood moms that we'd be having a little ice cream social at our house on Saturday in honor of my daughter's birthday. I'm glad I indulged her this time. It turns out that a couple of her friends were a little miffed that they'd been excluded from the out-of-state birthday celebration she'd talked about all week .
On Saturday morning, we decorated the dining room with a couple of rolls of streamers.
Then, in the afternoon, a group of Ava's neighborhood friends arrived.
They made sundaes.
The kids all seemed to have a good time, first running off their sugar high in the backyard, then sprawling across Ava's bed to listen to Taylor Swift and the Camp Rock 2 gang on Ava's new boombox. After the dust settled and all of the kiddos were gone...including the guest of honor (she went to play at a neighbor's house), Miss Emily made a new friend. "Grasshopper". He chose her as a companion by jumping right onto her shirt. Have I mentioned that this kid is not scared of anything, including insects? Last week I stopped her a fraction of a second before her chubby little hand closed on a rather large and venomous looking spider!
Here she is with her new "friend".
And here's some footage of Emily and her beloved grasshopper.
Poor kid. I wonder if she just feels "left behind" by Ava and all of the other big kids. I mean, why else would she adopt a grasshopper as her best friend besides the fact that she feels a little lonely? Whatever her motivation, Emily was crazy about Grasshopper. He has escaped more than once, because Emily kept opening the jar so that she could "cuddle" with him. Once he disappeared for over an hour, only to re-appear in the middle of our family room floor. When she first found him on our deck, he only had one leg. I almost felt sorry for him...especially with the way that Em was manhandling him and toting him around everywhere. Within his first few hours in captivity, I actually watched him grab his remaining hind leg in his mouth and wrench it off! At first, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, reasoning that maybe he was just trying to re-establish balance in his life. But still, it was horrifying to watch! The more time grasshopper spends with our family, the less I like him. I don't really feel so sorry for him anymore either. He's clearly crazy. I especially don't like the way that he stares at me...even turning his head to follow my movements around a room. He has a tiny brain and a giant scary mouth, how in the world can this thing have such a personality?! I'm secretly starting to wonder if he tore off his first leg just so we'd feel sorry for him and take him in. What? Paranoid? Me? Nooo. Hahaha.
I didn't expect Grasshopper to make it through the night, what with Emily taking him out to "cuddle" every few minutes and the traumatic limb amputation. (If you ripped even one of my legs off, I'd probably die in a matter of hours without medical care...I'm just sayin'!). Of course, sadistic Ava announced "He's dead. He's definitely not moving!" every few minutes just to watch Emily burst into hopeless grief-stricken sobbing. ARRRGH! Surprisingly, Grasshopper lived through the night. (Sleeping atop Emily's nightstand and next to his detached leg). He even looked chipper this morning as he did a little dance on his 4 remaining legs. I'm pretty sure that this is payback for the baby catfish, lizard, and lake mussels that shared my room when I was a kid.
While the grasshopper thrived, our laptop completely died. The place where the power cord attaches has been busted for months and we've been "babying it". On Saturday, it finally refused to charge, and eventually died. I was pretty devastated. No laptop?! How will I "work"? How can I communicate with the world? What?! People actually used to talk to one another...on the phone and...in person?! Amazing. I know that I had the panicked look and demeanor of a crack addict without her fix. I appealed to Mike, "You can fix it tonight, right?" At first, he gave me a hard time,(something about the broken laptop being my fault because I wasn't careful enough.) But then he took our laptop completely apart, removed the hard drive, pulled out some wires, and scraped out a bigger hole for the "plug in thingie" before heading to Radio Shack for a new part. He came home and retreated to the garage where he soldered the new part to the laptop and reassembled the whole thing.
Guess what? He fixed it! I'm typing this from our new and improved laptop right now! He is my HERO! Seriously, I think that my husband's ability to "fix stuff" just moved up the list to #3 on the "Reasons Why I Married Mike" list. : )
Sunday morning, we participated in the Cleveland Autism Walk. This our family's second year to participate in the event. We walk in support of our good friends, the Lyman's, and their son Chase. As a teacher, I knew the basics about autism, and spent time with an autistic student for a few minutes to a few hours every day. Now, as a friend of a family affected by autism, I see the obstacles that the child and his family deal with on a minute to minute basis. This walk is important. Raising money for autism awareness and research is important. As Ava put it, "We are walking so that scientists can get money to figure out how to help kids like Chase learn to talk better...like me!" Wow. I was super impressed by her interpretation of my explanation about how a fundraiser works and why we were participating.
Some pictures from the walk:
Ava and Em, waiting for the walk to begin.
Ava's best buddy Anna and her brother Chase.
Ava and Anna.
And Emily, chillin' in the wagon.
We wrapped up the weekend with hot wings, a Colt's victory, and some housework. Life is good. And that's the weekend at a glance. Hope you all had a good one!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Ava Goes to Kindergarten
Anyone remember this kid? Miss Never-Met-A-Stranger? Big blue eyes....big attitude to match, sweet lil' baby rolls, infectious laugh...
Well, this is her yesterday...outside of her ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!
I love that this school system hosts a test run day. I rode the bus with her, went to class, met the teacher, and carefully put away all of her supplies. It was apparent very early in the experience that this day was more for me than for her. She was the only kid who didn't sit with her parent on the bus. Instead, she sat on her own and made friends with the kids around her.
In a stroke of good luck, we found out that Ava's best friend, Anna, was accepted into her class (Anna's family lives in another school's area, but her older brother attends the Special Needs program at Ava's school.) These two together = double trouble!
The teacher must've gotten a heads up, because their seats are on completely opposite sides of the classroom.
Today, was Ava's first "real" day of school. All by herself. She was up early and in our bed with lots of questions in addition to wardrobe and hair ideas (she needed to wear a dress...with a curly pony tail) for the big day.
Mike stayed home from work to see her off. Emily thought it was all fun and games until her best playmate got on the bus and she was left behind. Of course, I was the picture of strength. Okay, so maybe I shed a few tears behind my dark, over-sized glasses. Whatever.
Truthfully, I didn't think about this milestone too carefully as I rushed around going over the supply check list, filling out paperwork and filling up her backpack. I find that keeping busy is the best way to indulge denial, don't you? But when that bus pulled away today...it felt like my heart had left with it for a few minutes.
Em seemed a little lost this afternoon. She kept asking, "When we pick Ava up?" I played it cool and answered her patiently, but I felt the same way. I kept hitting the keys on my cell phone to check the time. When the time finally came to walk to the school and collect our kindergartner, I was so excited to hear about her day. I stood at the school doors, craning to see her through the glass. And then she burst out...and right past me! "Hello!" I called after her as she hurried across the grass with her neighborhood friends. I knew that she had seen me. "Ava! Avaaaaaaa!" She finally turned. "Oh. Hi mommy! Can I go to Lauren's house?" I was dumbfounded for a moment. Clearly she had not pined for her little sister and I during her hours at school.
It turns out a small group of neighborhood school kids and moms were gathering at a neighbor's house, closest to the school, on the way home. I had envisioned us sitting around the kitchen table, sipping milk and eating the cookies that I had baked for her while going over the play-by-play of her first day of kindergarten. Instead, she bopped ahead with her "gang". A little later, I pressed for details, as she curled up on the couch and I began dinner. She just sighed, "Mom, I just want to relax for a minute." What?! You're 5...not 15! I tried again, but she was already absorbed in The Disney Channel.
I did finally get my chance to hear all about kindergarten at bedtime tonight. I included part of this conversation in the video below.
As I gave her "one last hug" tonight she said, "You know, my bus went all the way to the city today. I went into the city WITHOUT YOU!" And then she laughed. She was pretty proud of herself.
After we said our prayers together and I tucked her in, I stood outside of her room and said a prayer of my own. I prayed that she would always love learning. I prayed that she would continue her enthusiasm for school. I prayed that she makes good decisions and shows caring and compassion to her peers and respect to her teachers. I prayed that she is able to remain true to herself and her values and realizes what is really important in this life. I prayed that she knows how much her daddy and I love her. I prayed for the ability to make good decisions in the way that we parent this bright, shining child that we have been SO blessed with.
I said a kindergarten prayer. : ) It's a prayer that I'm sure I will repeat many times over the next 13-17 years.
I hope that all of your kiddos have a great year of school!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Our Week in Pictures July 5th-11th
We experienced a heat wave here in Northeastern Ohio, so we spent the majority of our week finding fun ways to keep cool!
Ava spent her mornings this week at Safety Town, learning about traffic, bicycle, and bus safety. She also visited the police and fire stations and learned about "stranger danger" too. I guarantee that she has taken stranger danger to heart because bedtime has been pretty rough since THAT session(she's scared that a stranger is coming into our house now). At least she did learn the whole "wrist-whip" technique if someone grabs her and she's finally more cautious about talking to random people in stores and on the street.
Also, on Tuesday morning, Ava's best friend Anna's great-grandma passed away. This meant that Ava had a constant playmate for most of the week while Anna's mommy was preparing for the funeral and incoming family. You'll notice Anna (the sweet lil' blonde) in all of the following pictures.
On Wednesday, Ava, Emily, our neighbor Maddy, and Ava's friend Anna decided to brave the heat and play in our shaded backyard. When they begged me to hook up the sprinkler, I obliged. Because of all of the shade, grass does not grow in certain places in our backyard, which means....when you add enough water you can create a whole lotta MUD! I was cleaning the kitchen because my sister Karla and friend Laura were coming for a visit the following day. I could hear the girls playing through the open screen door. I glanced up every few seconds to do a head count and make sure all of the girls were accounted for. However, I wasn't really paying attention to their chosen activity. What I saw was them running through the sprinklers, splashing in the puddles, and playing on the swingset. It turns out, I didn't "see" everything. They were painting themselves and the swingset with mud and creating a "mudslide". Lovely.
I sure had a lot of fun washing down my daughters and our guests before returning everyone to their mommies at the end of the day.
On Thursday, I had a nice visit with my sister and friend Laura when they arrived for an overnight visit. Friday morning, we all attended Ava's Safety Town graduation. This is definitely a cool program intended for all of the children in our community who will enter kindergarten in the fall. Ava has learned so much this week! It's much of the "stuff" that I've been telling her all along, but when other people present it, she seems to listen better. Hey, whatever it takes. This was also the day of Anna's grandmother's funeral. Anna decided to graduate with her class and meet up with the funeral party at the luncheon, so I took pictures and video of Both girls graduating so that I could share it with Anna's parents. Just for reference, they are shaking the hands of the mayor, police chief, fire chief, D.A.R.E officer, and their teachers at the ceremony. Here it is:
Finally, the weekend arrived! After a rainy Friday afternoon relaxing in the house, the girls weren't in their usual heat-exhausted state at bedtime. I finally had to resort to bribery to get them to be quiet and stay in bed. I promised that if they went to sleep that we could make pancakes together in the morning. Ava and Emily absolutely love to make (and eat) pancakes and they took the bribe. Here are some pics of how we began our Saturday.
In these pictures Ava is (logically) still in her pj's while Emily has opted for a swimsuit. It seems that our toddler's self-imposed dress code for the summer consists of dressy dresses or swimsuits. You will find her in either one at any given time of day. Functional shorts and tees are strictly forbidden with this child right now and she absolutely WILL NOT leave her room in the morning until she is properly attired in one or the other...regardless of how much I try to reason, beg, plead, or bribe.
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With the breakfast dishes cleaned up, I texted my friend and neighbor Chris to see if she wanted to get our daughters together for a playdate. Ava and Emily are right between her two girls age-wise. She was watching our backyard neighbor's daughter (another one of Ava's playmates), Sophie. After a quick call to my friend Staycie (Anna's mom) we agreed that she would drop Anna off before our outing so that she could join in the fun too. This is how Chris and I happened to descend into the woods for three hours of hiking, wading, and warding off mosquitos with 6 little girls. Quite an adventure. Just call me troop leader Krista! Consequently this is Ava's "gang" of girlfriends so she was in 7th Heaven! I was recently made privy to the pass phrase for their little club. Are you ready for this? It's "Girls rule, boys drool." Don'tcha just love it?! Give them a few years and I'm sure they'll change their tune. (I vote for 15 years!)
Here are some pictures from our time in the Metroparks today:
I like to call this one "Coppertone Baby". You can click on it to make it larger and see for yourself. It cracks me up...no pun intended, of course.
Tomorrow after church we will set up for vacation bible school. Next week will be busy! I'm the VBS "kitchen lady" and I'm in charge of feeding 150 kids plus volunteers. Should be fun!
I hope that all of you had a fun week!
Ava spent her mornings this week at Safety Town, learning about traffic, bicycle, and bus safety. She also visited the police and fire stations and learned about "stranger danger" too. I guarantee that she has taken stranger danger to heart because bedtime has been pretty rough since THAT session(she's scared that a stranger is coming into our house now). At least she did learn the whole "wrist-whip" technique if someone grabs her and she's finally more cautious about talking to random people in stores and on the street.
Also, on Tuesday morning, Ava's best friend Anna's great-grandma passed away. This meant that Ava had a constant playmate for most of the week while Anna's mommy was preparing for the funeral and incoming family. You'll notice Anna (the sweet lil' blonde) in all of the following pictures.
On Wednesday, Ava, Emily, our neighbor Maddy, and Ava's friend Anna decided to brave the heat and play in our shaded backyard. When they begged me to hook up the sprinkler, I obliged. Because of all of the shade, grass does not grow in certain places in our backyard, which means....when you add enough water you can create a whole lotta MUD! I was cleaning the kitchen because my sister Karla and friend Laura were coming for a visit the following day. I could hear the girls playing through the open screen door. I glanced up every few seconds to do a head count and make sure all of the girls were accounted for. However, I wasn't really paying attention to their chosen activity. What I saw was them running through the sprinklers, splashing in the puddles, and playing on the swingset. It turns out, I didn't "see" everything. They were painting themselves and the swingset with mud and creating a "mudslide". Lovely.
I sure had a lot of fun washing down my daughters and our guests before returning everyone to their mommies at the end of the day.
On Thursday, I had a nice visit with my sister and friend Laura when they arrived for an overnight visit. Friday morning, we all attended Ava's Safety Town graduation. This is definitely a cool program intended for all of the children in our community who will enter kindergarten in the fall. Ava has learned so much this week! It's much of the "stuff" that I've been telling her all along, but when other people present it, she seems to listen better. Hey, whatever it takes. This was also the day of Anna's grandmother's funeral. Anna decided to graduate with her class and meet up with the funeral party at the luncheon, so I took pictures and video of Both girls graduating so that I could share it with Anna's parents. Just for reference, they are shaking the hands of the mayor, police chief, fire chief, D.A.R.E officer, and their teachers at the ceremony. Here it is:
Finally, the weekend arrived! After a rainy Friday afternoon relaxing in the house, the girls weren't in their usual heat-exhausted state at bedtime. I finally had to resort to bribery to get them to be quiet and stay in bed. I promised that if they went to sleep that we could make pancakes together in the morning. Ava and Emily absolutely love to make (and eat) pancakes and they took the bribe. Here are some pics of how we began our Saturday.
In these pictures Ava is (logically) still in her pj's while Emily has opted for a swimsuit. It seems that our toddler's self-imposed dress code for the summer consists of dressy dresses or swimsuits. You will find her in either one at any given time of day. Functional shorts and tees are strictly forbidden with this child right now and she absolutely WILL NOT leave her room in the morning until she is properly attired in one or the other...regardless of how much I try to reason, beg, plead, or bribe.
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With the breakfast dishes cleaned up, I texted my friend and neighbor Chris to see if she wanted to get our daughters together for a playdate. Ava and Emily are right between her two girls age-wise. She was watching our backyard neighbor's daughter (another one of Ava's playmates), Sophie. After a quick call to my friend Staycie (Anna's mom) we agreed that she would drop Anna off before our outing so that she could join in the fun too. This is how Chris and I happened to descend into the woods for three hours of hiking, wading, and warding off mosquitos with 6 little girls. Quite an adventure. Just call me troop leader Krista! Consequently this is Ava's "gang" of girlfriends so she was in 7th Heaven! I was recently made privy to the pass phrase for their little club. Are you ready for this? It's "Girls rule, boys drool." Don'tcha just love it?! Give them a few years and I'm sure they'll change their tune. (I vote for 15 years!)
Here are some pictures from our time in the Metroparks today:
I like to call this one "Coppertone Baby". You can click on it to make it larger and see for yourself. It cracks me up...no pun intended, of course.
Tomorrow after church we will set up for vacation bible school. Next week will be busy! I'm the VBS "kitchen lady" and I'm in charge of feeding 150 kids plus volunteers. Should be fun!
I hope that all of you had a fun week!
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