Girls Day

On Saturday, Aunt Margie and I took Riley and Ava on a girls day for a little fun and pampering.  First stop?  Red Robin for pizza and milkshakes!

Always remember Ava and Riley, you may not have a sister, but you will always have each other!

Riley was so funny, can you see her green eye shadow?  Everyone who talked to her {the waitress, a cashier, Margie, Uncle Mike and me} was asked "Do you think I look just like a peacock in my green eye shadow?

I don't know about a peacock, but you definitely look amazing!

My sweet princess girl drinking a chocolate milk shake.  It's so easy for you to get lost in the shuffle of three kids and a demanding toddler.  It is wonderful to pull her aside on these special days.  I feel like I have a chance to really listen to all the little stories, ideas and thoughts that are floating around in her little brain.  

The other special thing about girls day?  We went to finally pick out her ballet outfit, a highly anticipated event by both Mom and Ava.  I'm so glad that I was able to leave the boys behind and just focus on my little girl, instead of trying to choose the right outfit all while making sure Dawson doesn't run away and Carter doesn't knock anything over.  She was playing it cool in front of everyone, but as soon as we got to the dressing room she started shaking saying "Mom, I'm so excited to try this on.  I'm just soo excited!"

Finally we capped girls day off with a little trip to Justice.  Or as I like to call it, the most obnoxiously overpriced store on the face of the planet with the ugliest clothes to boot.  But little girls love it, so they were each treated with a bottle of glow in the dark nail polish.

Wonderful girls day, my sweets!  Can't wait to do it again.

By the way, in case you were wondering about the males in our family they also enjoyed their day.  The kids begged Uncle Mike to eat at Taco Bell {yuck} and then they went through a walk in the big woods.  All in all, a very amazing day spent with our cousins!   

The very last Pittsburgh Post.....I promise!

Ok, I promise this will be the very last post about our Pittsburgh trip.  But we took a trip down to station square and rode the inclines.  Here is a cute picture of beautiful Auntie Margie with baby Dawson in his Pittsburgh Pirates onesie.

Why is he wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates onesie you ask?  Shouldn't the boy only be wearing Cleveland gear?  Well, after he sat in applesauce, spilled milk down his front and then leaked through a diaper, even Mike agreed it was time to buy a new outfit.  Even if it did have the pirate parrot on it.

The view from the top of the incline, beautiful!

The light at the end of the tunnel:  I asked Carter and Ava to clean the play room.  They did so without any help.  This was the FIRST TIME this has ever happened.  I had to include this momentous occasion in my blog because I honestly never thought this day would come, ha ha!

Petting Zoo

Do you remember how I mentioned that the kids loved to visit the McGann's house?  Well, this trip they got to see a petting zoo.  Their backyard neighbors were having a birthday party and invited my kids to come and see it.  Really, they think this place is the coolest.

Ava and her idol, Megan.  She did take a little ride on the pony, but I didn't get the camera in time.

Dawson looking at the goats

Baby Bunnies

Carter's pony ride

Feeding the baby goats a bottle

Yes, Dawson was allowed to hang out in the goat/chicken pen.  He liked it in there, and chased the chickens around.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Little Boy Heaven

What do you do when you have a little boy OBSESSED with vroom-vroom's and an Uncle that owns a tow truck company?  Beg and plead to go visit of course!  Although Uncle Bobby was wonderful and said yes immediately, so there really wasn't much begging and pleading necessary.

Mike driving the gator

I need to add there are at least three little boys in our family that were so happy to see the vroom-vroom's.

Dawson also got a chance to drive the gator.  He figured out how to beep the horn and LOVED that.

Carter and Mike in the tow truck

Our cousin Ryan took them for a spin around the parking lot in the tow truck.

Mike with Dawson and Ava

Apparently Dawson had a big smile on his face the entire ride.

This is the gigantic tow truck they took a ride in.

Checking out the flat bed tow truck.  See the little boy crawling under the tow truck bed?

The kids had a blast and are still talking about going to see the tow trucks.

Another Pittsburgh Trip

We had another busy busy whirlwind weekend with another visit to Pittsburgh.  But we were so EXCITED to go because Brendan and Riley {and Margie too} were visiting.  We haven't seen them in almost a year.

Carter with his idol, Brendan.  Brendan bought Carter a shark's tooth necklace, exactly like his own.

This is how baby dockie looked like for the majority of the evening:  just give me the oreo and I won't scream!

There was a LOT of girl power at the party, so Carter made sure to bring his hunting gear.  In fact the only two boys under the age of ten were Carter and Brendan.

Riley gifted Ava a hello kitty best friends necklace.  As you will see Ava was in little girl heaven.

I'm pretty sure that Ava's feet never touched the ground.  She stayed on Megan's hip, Aunt Margie's hip and 

Annie's hip.  Like I said, little girl heaven.  She disappeared upstairs for awhile and came back with curly hair.

Dawson with his godmother, Aunt Patty.  I wanted to get a picture of the two of them, but he was not going to go to anyone but me.

Ava and her Megan Buddy.  When we left she was in tears because she didn't want to leave Megan.  So we took a picture of the two of them and promised to put it in the frame in her bedroom.

Funny story:  Friday was the day of the party and it also happened to be Mike's 30th birthday.  That morning while Mike was golfing, I was talking to the kids and I said "today is Daddy's birthday, make sure to say happy birthday to him when he comes home."

Carter looked at me and said "What, did facebook tell you that?"

Um no child.  I do know Daddy's birthday.  And what do you know about facebook anyway?

We had a wonderful weekend, despite complete and total meltdowns from all three of them at different points.  Anytime I play fast and loose with schedules I pay for it.  Today everyone seems to be getting back on track.  Dawson slept in until nine o'clock this morning and then took a three and a half hour nap.  AWESOME!

Adventures in Bread Making

I am a lucky lucky girl and recently I received a bread maker for mother's day. Today I thought it would be wonderful to have some freshly baked bread for lunch {don't cringe, gluten free people} so I started to get it ready.  All it takes is dumping five ingredients: water, oil, flour, honey and salt into the machine and pushing the start button.  This should  be super easy, right?


Miss Ava decided that she wanted to help me make the bread this morning.  It is really important to measure the ingredients very carefully because even just a slight amount of difference in any ingredient can really affect how they bread turns out.  I agreed, and told her she had to be very careful.  First we put in the wet ingredients, and she dumped half the honey down the side of the machine instead of into the bread pan.  Ack.  So I had to wipe down the machine I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't affect the bread.  Then came the flour.  She managed to dump at least 3/4 of a cup into the heating element of the bread maker and onto the counter.  That really wasn't going to be good.  So I had to spend at least ten minutes disassembling the bread maker, cleaning out the errant flour, wiping down the flour off the counter, her and me.  I tried to eyeball the amount of flour that had been spilled and double crossed my fingers, hoping the bread would turn out.  Of course at this point, Dawson needs a diaper change, Carter stubbed his toe on a pair of shoes that HE left in the middle of the room and Ava is still insisting "No Mommy, I make the bread."


At least 45 minutes later those five ingredients are in the bread maker and I press start.  Carter had been begging for toast for breakfast, so I have to explain to him that we do not have any bread but when we return from swimming class the bread will be ready and we can have sandwiches for lunch.    Four is a very insistent age, so he proceeded to ask me at least ten additional times if he could please have toast for breakfast.  He was placated with oatmeal, we got dressed and made it to swimming classes.  After we return to the house, Carter runs inside and says "Mommy, someone opened the lid to the bread maker."


What!!!!  Sure enough the lid was opened.  I started to freak out a little thinking who came into the house and opened the bread maker.  But surely someone would at least steal something instead of just opening the bread maker and leaving.  So I asked Carter "Do you know who opened the bread maker?"


He admitted to performing the deed.  Obviously we have a half baked loaf of bread that I had to throw in the trash.  Carter explained that he only wanted to see the "ears" on the bread maker {it has tabs on either side of the lid.}


Goodness Gracious, the lengths I go to just to bake some bread.  


So the kids had Udi's {gluten free} bread for lunch while I had a salad.  And I'm hoping that the second batch that I threw in the bread maker after lunch will turn out.  I banned everyone from the kitchen and that seemed to work.  

Mike's 30th Birthday Celebration

What a fun day spent on the water with our family.  We love you guys so much and we LOVE spending time with you.

Thank you Bo SO MUCH for driving the boat.  Legally, Mike can't drive until he gets a boating license and I was a little too afraid I would wreck the boat.  Dawson had a ball sitting in Bo's lap and driving the vroom-vroom.

The view from the back:  Aunt Tiff, Dad, Ava, Carter and Uncle Jason.

Remember, he was wearing a hat to conceal his pretend bald head?

I was really surprised how much Dawson enjoyed fishing.  He spent quite a bit of time sticking his head over the head of the boat to stick Ava's barbie fishing pole in the water.  This of course made me understandably nervous with his little tip toes barely touching the seat, so I held onto his back.  Luckily we did not have to retrieve anyone from the water.  

Carter also enjoyed fishing quite a bit.  He was pretty dangerous with the fishing rod and I was really scared that he would get someone with the hook when he was casting.  But once again we were lucky and no one took a hook.   Well, except Jason, but that was Bo's fault.  And apparently fish spine are pretty prickly because Mike took one to the leg that drew blood.  But don't worry, that was the extent of the injuries. 

Ava enjoyed playing with the little fishing game that I bought Dawson.

She also liked looking out over the edge of the boat.

Carter and Aunt Tiffany

Daddy wants this to be HIS boat and HIS house.  The one on the right of course, not the left.

This baby found a bag of pretzels and gorged himself.  Of course, since I am an outstanding parent I allowed this to happen because hey, it was keeping him quiet and entertained.

Thanks to everyone for joining us on this fun day.  We came home to swimming at the pool and a dinner of ribs and mashed potatoes, Mike's favorites.  Couldn't be a better way to celebrate!