Rubber Ducks Game

Back in June, Ava's softball league was invited to the rubber ducks game.  

Before the game, the softball players and coaches paraded across the field.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but there is a little blue dot on the field next to a baseball player.  It's our little Ava!  Due to the fact that her team won the league tournament, each rubber duck player was announced with a girl from her team.  The girls followed the baseball players onto the field and stood for the National Anthem.

During the game the three boys and I sat together,

while Ava enjoyed the game with her team.

The next day we had a cookout with her team.  Ava recieved the "sleeping dragon" award because she was "a little quiet but you never knew what play would come out of her."  Ava had a great time at the picnic running around on the playground with her teammates and enjoying softball cookies.  An great ending to a great season!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to our Daddy!  I know this is a little belated, but we love you so much.  We had a great afternoon with you eating cake, grilling out and spending time together at the pool.  We wish we could spend every afternoon with you!  

The Best Day of my Life

Recently the kids ran up to me and told me they wanted to give me the best day of my life.  So they told me to go to my bedroom and shut the door.  GLADLY!!  I heard them running around the house and occasionally they would come into my room and ask me for cleaning supplies or the vacuum, but they would insist "We aren't cleaning Mom!!"  After about thirty minutes they came up to show me the surprise.  They had vacuumed, cleaned bathrooms and even unloaded the dishwasher.  What a great surprise!!

Then they made me a spa in the toy room.  Dawson sprayed water on my legs and wiped it off with a towel, Ava rubbed lotion on my legs and Carter gave me a hand massage.  Then all three of them did my hair (as you can see in this picture.)  Any day with the three of them is the best day of my life, but it was a very sweet surprise!  

COSI Fun!

On Sunday we drove thru Columbus and stopped at COSI to break up the trip.  We have museum reciprocity, so it was a cheap fun day for us all.

Dawson is being electrocuted in this picture.  And he adored it, no really.  When Mike tried it he lifted his hands off immediately, as did Ava and Carter.  But Dawson looked at us with a big grin on his face and said "keep doing it."

Mike is using a giant lever to lift a car!

They checked out a submarine

Stuck their faces in the water

We checked out the Game Masters exhibit which has a huge selection of video games to try ranging from the earliest to the very newest.  Carter loved it and was very disappointed that we couldn't stay there forever, but Dawson was bored and hated it.  Ava was really interested in the dancing and singing video games.

Eight year old Carter is so delightfully goofy.  I love him!

One of the main reasons we stopped was for the Big Machines exhibit.  Here is Mike being lifted up by a crane.  The kids also got to scoop some dirt with a mini excavator.  Of course this was a big hit!

A visit to Dayton

This past weekend we visited family in Dayton.  We needed to go to the Air Force museum because Carter needed a new satchel and he really liked the one we got there.  So in the morning we ran over to the museum to pick up a new satchel and check out the newly opened fourth hangar.

It's a pretty long walk to get all the way to the fourth hangar, but these kids were little troopers.

The fourth hangar contains space, research and development and the presidential wing.

Mike and I really enjoyed the Presidential hangar.  This is the plane that brought President Kennedy back from Dallas.

Then in the afternoon it was on to the Lion King!  The kids have been talking about it non-stop since we came back.  They loved it!  It's such an amazing show and this time we had birds flying over our head and a momma and baby elephant walk right by!

Ava was so excited to bring her stuffed Nala to the show.  Thank you Meme and Bob Bob for taking us to the show.  It was so amazing to share this experience with everyone!

We are the Champions!!!

This year Ava's team won first place in the tournament for her age group.  I was very proud of all the hard work that she put into softball and she learned a lot.

Ava is the girl on the far left

During the tournament they had a tough loss on Saturday.  Ava took it pretty hard, many of the girls on her team were upset.  This team that they lost to were in first place in the tournament and they had to play Tuesday, and then defeat the same team twice on Wednesday and Thursday.  They fought hard and won!

Way to go girls!!

Ava was one of the youngest girls on her team because they were first and second grade girls.

She is so proud of her trophy!

I just had to add in this little tidbit:  during one of the games that week Dawson was talking to my belly, which isn't unusual.  I told him that his brother could hear him.  But this time he was explaining to his little brother step by step how to make an arm fart.  Silly kid.

Summer Stories

We went to the summer reading kick off at the library, and waited in line waaaaaay too long for face painting.  They turned out really cute though!  Dawson liked the idea but he was asking to wipe it off by the time we got to the car.  He is so funny, because he hates anything touching his skin:  tattoos, face painting, stickers, band aids and even tags on his clothing.  But Carter and Ava enjoyed the experience and left them on for the rest of the day.

Yay!!  Dawson finished his reading book!!

The kids asked for blue hair!  It's summer time so why not?  It was just temporary, the regular blue hair required bleaching and I'm not ready to go there yet.  We let them keep it in for about two days, and they thought it looked so cool!

Ava got on a really good softball team this year.  She got some great hits, I think she was showing off for Grandma and Bo!  They have their next tournament game tomorrow night.  Unfortunately they lost one of their games, and she felt so bad because she got out at first base.  I thought we were over tears for getting out, but I guess not.  She has improved SO MUCH over the course of this season.  Her coaches have added a lot of nice touches likes water balloons and squirt guns after the game, not to mention trips to DQ!

This poor kid has really been missing the lack of baking in our home since the gestational diabetes diagnosis.  He has been begging to help me make pancakes for dinner, and he loved it.  He's getting really good at cracking eggs too!  Nary a shell to be found!