Pool Day!

Pool Day!

Popsicles all around.

Who's going to clean Ava?  Not it!

Oh, wait.  She's my daughter.

All right cousins.  Give me a silly face.

Ok, now a serious face. 

I guess that will have to do.

Today was fun, our last pool day with our cousins before they depart to Miami. 

We are going to MISS Brendan, Riley and of course Aunt Margie,  but now we have an awesome excuse for a florida vacation.

Carter was doing "Cannonballs" off the steps at the pool.  He is getting braver at the pool every time we go and he was letting his face to under the water!

Ava kept yelling to her cousin "Bendan, look at me!  look at me!"  She also re-named herself Avarella today (yes, after Cinderella.)

It finally felt like summer! 

 



Cake Class

Sorry the picture is crooked, I can't figure out how to change it.  Anyways, can you believe I made the cake on the bottom? Neither can I!  Although all this cake in the house has done nothing for my diet.  Feel free to comment about how amazed you are. 

Our Weekend

Can you tell that Daddy helped the kids get dressed this morning?  Wow.  White dress socks with pink crocs and black dress socks with tennis shoes.  I have my work cut out for me.

This little boy is the sweetest.  That is, until the teething pain kicks in.  Then nothing is safe.

Not even your chin!  Believe it or not, my chin has become his favorite teething ring.  He grabs my hair, pulls my face close and then takes the biggest bite of my chin!

Happy Roo

Funny story:  Carter has decided that Ava and he are twins.  I cannot convince him otherwise.  I guess it can be confusing when your sister is only 20 months younger than you.

Here is a little math for you:

3 kids under 3  +  2 colds  +  1 thunderstorm = 0 sleep for Mom and Dad

Anyone have any good ideas for helping the kids not be scared of thunder?  They are totally not buying the whole "God is bowling" thing.

Touch a Truck

Today we went to Touch a Truck!

The kids love this event, and we look forward to it every year.  How often do they get to climb in, touch and see fire trucks, ambulances, SWAT vehicles, cranes, diggers, police cars and street sweeps?

Here are the pictures from last year, in case you are interested.

Fire Trucks

SWAT vehicle

Hard to believe this precious little boy is all mine.

Carter squirting a fire hose

The moment he had been waiting for:  the soldier truck!

The crane

It's hard to tell from this picture, but this crane was huge.  We were really high off the ground.

Carter arranged this picture.

The police car was pretty cool too. 

Then we topped it off with a picnic.  What a great day.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

I'm a day late, but better late than never right?

Happy Birthday to the best Daddy and husband!  Thank you for everything that you do!  We enjoyed a "Daddy day" yesterday.  Mike stayed home with us.  The kids loved spending time with their Daddy, just playing cars and baby dolls.  Then we went to the local waterpark and had a ball in the water, even though it was on the chilly side. 

The afternoon before Mike's birthday the kids helped me wrap Daddy's presents and then we put them into the hope chest for safekeeping.  Both kids were under strict orders not to say a word to Daddy until the following morning.  As soon as Mike walked in the door Carter told him "Don't look in this chest Daddy.  There's nothing in there for you, just blankets."  That wasn't obvious at all, Carter!  So needless to say, Daddy opened his presents at breakfast time.  I don't think the secret could have been kept any longer!

It's funny how when you get older birthday presents become less about you and more about what the family needs.  We got Mike a blue ray player to replace the XBOX as our DVD player.  The XBOX would lose the picture on videos and the kids were complaining because they couldn't watch their shows.  Thus, Mike's birthday present!  Also, we finally replaced Mike's gym bag that he has used since high school. 

Ava enjoyed the cupcakes.  I did too, way too much.  I'm learning I just need to keep junk food out of the house.  I have no self-control, especially for baked goods!

Carter at our breakfast birthday bash

Happy Birthday Mike!

(Hard to believe that you are going to be turn the big 3-0 next year, huh?)





Lion King

What an amazing day we had today.  I have been waiting for months to take the kids to see the musical The Lion King.  All I can say is WOW!  If you ever get the chance to see it GO.  Everyone enjoyed it, including our little two year old.  Baby Dawson had a wonderful day with his Aunt Tiff and Uncle Jason while we brought Carter and Avery with us.  Thank you so much Aunt Tiff and Uncle Jay!  

Ava spent most of the performance in my lap.  We did have to take her to the back for awhile, but she was really well behaved.

Our Family

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for the amazing day.  I LOVED it.  (And I know Mike and the kids did as well.)

I think we need a weekend to recover from our weekend :)

Riley's Weekend

Today we had the pleasure of hosting our cousin, Miss Riley.  We were busy all day long, and now we have four sleeping kids.  Although it was drizzling we went to the zoo.  I had already registered Carter for a zoo class, so we all went together.  It was so nice because the drizzly weather kept away the crowds and it kept the heat down as well.

Gorillas!

This was the first time we got to feed the giraffes.  I think Mike loved it more than anyone else.  He was so impressed that the giraffes tongue was as long as Ava's arm.

We haven't had a chance yet to go to the YMCA waterpark yet this year so we decided to go for a quick dip.

To top it all off we had Riley's dinner:  cheese pizza and hot chocolate.

  
What a wonderful weekend, and it's not over yet.  Up tomorrow: THE LION KING!!!!

And now I'm going to brag for a moment because it's my blog and I'll brag if I want to, right?  Anyways this week I have officially lost 60 pounds since Dawson was born.  To be fair, it was 30 lbs that came off without trying and 30 lbs of weight watchers and now my fitness pal.  HOORAY!