Ava's 3rd Birthday!

Actual Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Yesterday I was staring at this...

I blinked.  And now I'm in awe of this.

When my kids were first born and people would say "Enjoy every minute because it goes too quick."  I used to smile and nod but inside I was thinking, "Yeah, come spend the night and get up for the 11:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. feedings and lets see if you think the same thing."

But now I see that they meant.  It does go way too fast.  

After we dropped Brooke off at school we headed to Target to get the supplies we needed for Ava's special Birthday dinner: Pancakes with Jelly Beans.  Per her request.

While we were there of course we had to cruise the toy aisles and it was at that point that we walked past the Sock Monkeys.  Grandpa Ron and Grandma Cindy had given her the big purple one (actually they gave her the pink one but she and Brooke traded) for Christmas.  But as we walked by them in the store Ava spotted something new.  Baby Monkeys!  

And if any of you have known Ava for more than 2 minutes you know she's all about Daddies and Mommies and babies. 

Seriously, once we were at my Brother and Sister In Laws house and she didn't have all of her toys so she made her own fun.  She gathered up rocks, ranging in all sizes.  Then she lined them up and told the whole family that the bigger one's were "Grandpa's, Grandma's, Daddies, Mommies.... and the little one's were babies."

When she is going potty and she takes a long time I ask her if everything is ok and she usually says "I just got my Daddy poop out.  I still have to get the baby out and then I'll be done."

She's such a modest child.

After that we hurried over to the gym for our Mommy Daughter pedicures.  Mine was a early Mother's Day present and Ava's was one of her Birthday presents.

I was a little nervous about how she would sit still because lets just face it, Ava is not really known for her ability to sit still.
  

But she settled right in,

and enjoyed every minute of it.

Mrs. Erica even gave her a special Chocolate scrub that is "only for Princesses."

Ava LOVED that.

Every two seconds she asked Mrs. Erica "What's that thing?  What does that do?  Why do you have to do that?"  She was such a trooper and played along with her 20 questions game.  

Soaking up the comfort of the warm neck towel.  She really savored every moment of that.

Time to paint!

We had just scheduled pedicures but Mrs. Erica said that every Princess has to have matching fingernails for their Birthday so she did her fingers for free.  Isn't she so sweet?  

Later that night it was time for the special Birthday dinner.  I tried to make her a happy face out of the Jelly Beans but it didn't really show up after I flipped it.  

No Jelly Bean Birthday Pancakes are complete without whipped cream and candles!

Make a wish!

After dinner we had some special Birthday cake Ice Cream; I was a little nervous that we would all be in a diabetic coma before the night was over with all the sugar we were eating.  But hey, a Birthday only comes around once a year right?

 Someone wanted to know what it felt like to be a "Birthday Girl."

And it wasn't just Parker...

(This is starting to become a yearly tradition.  Click here to see Ava's Birthday post last year.)

Present time!

Happy Birthday Princess!  Daddy and Mommy love you!

Continuing on with the tradition of Averisms, here are some great one's that I don't ever want to forget:

- "Mommy (Daddy, or whoever she's talking to) you know, I love you."

- "I have to put on my Ipads before I can ride my scooter!" (elbow pads) 

- Prayer at dinner: "Dear God, Thank you for my Daddy, thank you for my Mommy... my Sissy, my Bubba, my Kitty, my Chester and thank you for my Costco.  Amen.  Praise the Lord."

 - While watching the Wonder Pets save the Beaver Ava yells "Brooke!  That's like your Justin Beaver!" (Justin Bieber) 

I know there's more but I can't think of them right now.  

I'll be back later to add some as I think of them.

Happy 3rd Birthday Ava!  You made it.  I wasn't sure you would after this stunt.  Just kidding!

  We are so proud of who you are and who you are becoming.

Swim Lessons

Actual Date: Saturday, April 30, 2011

It's that time of year again.

Swim lesson time.

And the girls were really excited about it.  

As if you couldn't tell.

I was worried about Ava because last year she wanted nothing to do with it.

But I guess there was nothing to worry about because she is all about swimming this year!

Ava's class starts a half hour before Brooke's because they are at different levels.  The waiting was killing Brooke.

I let her hang her feet over the side a little and she was super excited.

At the end of class they get to do a cannon ball.  You know Ava was all over that. 

Here she goes.

Before we knew it, it was time for Brooke's class to start.  She had been so excited the whole time she was waiting and the next thing I know she was bawling crying.  

Apparently the instructor told her to hold onto the wall but she thought she could swim over by herself and decided to let go.  At that point she began to go under and the instructor saw her and brought her up right away.  But it was too late.  She got too scared and she didn't want to have anything to do with the water anymore.  

Finally we got her back in the water with the promise that Daddy would stay right near her the whole time.  But she was still very scared and fussing.

Towards the end of class she calmed down and started to get into it.  It helped that she had the same teacher from last  year and felt comfortable with her already.

There's a smile!

When it was all over she got out and we told her how proud we were that she pushed through her fears and stuck with it.

I asked her if she could smile so we could show everyone what a big girl she was and this is what I got.  She was so cold she couldn't even smile.  But I think it's cute anyways.

Her face makes me giggle.

On the way out the kids wanted to show off their cool bike rack moves for Daddy.

Everyday when we leave the gym the kids LOVE to hang on the bike racks.  They live for it.  Every two seconds I hear "Watch this Mama!"  

Unless it's Parker, he says "Daddy, watch this!"  For some reason he calls me Daddy and he calls Brian Mommy.

Here's Daddy, helping Parker get his arms all the way up.

Yep, my kids are super talented. 

With skills like that, we're thinking about signing them up for the Circus.