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Sea World

We had the best family weekend at Sea World!  It was a HOT Texas day, highest point of the day was 100 degrees but we still had a great sweaty time.  Austin was a trooper, I rigged a little fan to blow on his face in the stroller and Ava was her usual energetic self and didn’t let a little heat stop her! 

We made the very end of the Shamu show right as he did his final spins and waved bye with his tail. 

Here is the rigged fan, Austin’s eyes were as big a saucers staring at that fan… whoa!

I love his exasperated look in this picture

Daddy and Ava love games and rides.  Ava went on her first rollercoaster!  Greg said she looked a little shocked on the first lap around the track but loved the second one. They are the fourth car back.

Lunch break, chocolate pudding with sprinkles for dessert.

Tired little lady…..

Superhero day!

This past Thursday was Superhero Day at school and Ava got to dress up as her favorite superhero!  Of course we dressed up as Buzz Lightyear (totally wore our Buzz pajamas).  The character’s signature line from the movie is “To infinity and beyond” and somehow that has turned into Ava saying “Buzz Lightyear to the rescummme!”  She was excited to wear her jammies to school and had a good car ride there.  She is precious, she was optimistically reassuring herself from the backseat “I’m not going to cry, you will always come get me, I’m a BIG girl.”   As we walked down the hall to her classroom she was truly trying to hold it together whimpering “I’m not going to cry mommy,”  so brave.  She did end up crying when I left but her teacher said she does pretty well during the day.  On Tuesday Ms. Linda (we have a new teacher) said that about 30 minutes before pickup time Ava got her backpack and lunchbox out of her cubby and stood by the door waiting for me with a big smile and proudly announcing “My mommy will ALWAYS come get me, she is coming to get me from school.”  The funny part is as eager as she is to leave she raves about school all the way home.  She tells me all about her friends “Kafrine” (Katherine) and Ty and sings me the new songs from that day.  All in all it is still hard to drop her off but I think it is a good thing for her to socialize with the other kiddos.  The summer session is over at the end of July and she will start up the mother’s day out fall program on Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00-2:00 in September so this is a good way to get acclimated.  Love my sweet girl!

And the cake craze continues…

YAY!  I got to make another cake!! Here is the Gerber Daisy Cake that I made for Sarah’s Birthday (Gerber daisies are one of Sarah’s favorite flowers.)  I made the flowers out of gum paste and that was way fun to do.  Gum paste doesn’t have much flavor though so though so they looked better than they tasted!

I rolled the fondant a lot thinner this time and it smoothed on so much easier, plus the cake wasn’t crazy heavy.  I ended up not using the purple flowers, they were supposed to go in the cake pot that ended up collapsing.

This is the cake pot that was supposed to sit on the green striped bottom layer, it collapsed when I tried to fix the loose fondant on the bottom after stacking it.  I set it on the table and left the room and came back to a half eaten cake and a comatosed Boo Bear.  It was FOUR layers of chocolate, so glad Baylor was okay!

  

I really wanted to have the daisies coming out of a cake pot with Oreo cookie dirt. I was bummed that the pot didn’t work but the bottom layer turned out to be plenty because it was so rich.   A thick layer of chocolate buttercream and mini chocolate chips between two chocolate cakes covered in marshmallow fondant equals one rich piece of cake!

Happy Birthday Aunt Sarah!!

We L-O-V-E our Aunt Sarah or as Ava had named her last year, Aunt “RaRa.” She goes back and forth now between the two.  Sarah had her twenty-seventh birthday out at the houseboat on Lake Travis this weekend.  Ava’s highlight of the month was swimming and floating on the raft with her Auntie.  She has gone on and on since Saturday, “Mommy, I was NOT a little bit scared because Aunt Sarah held me on the raft, I’m a BIG girl to swim with Aunt RaRa!”  And Aunt Sarah brought Ava a toy story coloring book which Ava tells me so proudly when she gets it out “Aunt SARAH gave me this Woody and this Buzz!” We had so much fun with you Aunt Sarah and love you so VERY MUCH!

 

 

 

 

 

Spinach Shock

I’m in spinach heaven!  I get such a sense of satisfaction when my kids are covered in the dark green stuff.  Ava still loves spinach to this day and will eat it raw or cooked.  I think she had Kale or Spinach at least 4-5 times a week as a baby. Today was Austin’s first time to eat spinach and rice.  Poor little guy he is just so compliant, he didn’t cry but had the “seriously mom?!?” look on his sweet face as I shoveled in each bite (which as you can see a LOT got spit out along the way) Spinach is clearly not his fav food….

All done and time for a bath, now that’s something to smile about!

Little Miss Sticky Fingers

Last week after denying Ava’s request for a second cookie, I watched from just outside the kitchen (unbeknownst to her of course) as she scaled the pantry shelves and snatched daddy’s cookies off a high shelf.  She grabbed the ENTIRE bag , bolted to our room, opened my closet door and then hid behind my clothes.  Because I knew she must have been getting  a huge thrill of pulling off this cookie heist I gave her a few minutes to enjoy her victory while I grabbed my camera….

THEN a day later Greg opened the pantry door to this…..

 

She had pulled in the chair from the breakfast table and made herself quite comfy with her box of crackers. I still can’t figure out how she could see in that dark pantry,  AND we even have a child lock on the door handle, a lot of good that does for our little Houdini.

BLFL’s BEST LABS FOR LIFE!!!

Boo’s new BFF is Labby Rowe, Brad’s new pup!  She is the most beautiful little puppy ever and I am just crazy over my labby niece! She has an adorable, playful doggie disposition and is so very soft and snuggly! I was beyond thrilled when Labby and Brad came to visit this weekend, in fact I wouldn’t let them leave without setting up another trip to Austin, so guess who’s coming back in two weeks?! Boo and I will be counting the days! 

Boo and Labby were the best play pals and wore each other out!  Their favorite game was keep away with Austin’s stuffed toys.  I so loved seeing a smile on Boo’s face again!  Yes, I promise she does in fact smile, kinda crazy! We miss you sweet Labby and Uncle Brad, can’t wait to see you soon!

Back to School

I will definitely have to do a post about Ava’s first week, but for now I only have a few pictures because I am oh so tired and off to bed.  Today was Spirit Day and of course Ava wore her Baylor shirt!  Each time we put it on her she yells “Sic’em Bears!”  Here is her smiley self before leaving the house… looking much happier than Tuesday’s pictures!

First day of School!

Oh my, what a morning! We enrolled Ava in a summer mother’s day out program and today was the FIRST day! After lots of research and waiting lists, hoping for a spot in a fall program we were thrilled when we got in for both the summer and fall mother’s day out program at First Baptist Georgetown.  It is two days a week from 9:00-2:00. One of our best buddies, Caden, has been going to this mother’s day out and just loves it. I was thrilled to have a recommendation from trusted friend  and I just loved the school and people at the church when I checked it out myself.  Granted I was super excited for Ava to have some great play time with other kids AND I can’t lie and say that I wasn’t looking forward to having some one-on-one Austin time and several hours to be super productive. (Present example that I am blogging during the day not at 2 a.m., does that count as super productive?  Not scrubbing the floors or anything…hmmm)    Anyways I was pretty gung-ho about the whole thing until last night when started to pack her lunch and it hit me that I wouldn’t be eating lunch with her! I knew this of course but I felt it standing in my kitchen over her little lunch box… and then washing her nap mat, we always pray and sing before nap and I give her three kisses for “I Love You.” I was about to cry  putting her goldfish in a little princess snack trap in her lunch box. She always has a cute moment after her first goldfish- smiles with a delightful little “mmmm"  The two year old sitting by her at the snack table isn’t going to appreciate that moment!  Okay, so by this point I knew I needed a bit of a reality check and I married the right guy for that! He is the calm to my crazy.  Of course Greg reassured me that this was a good thing and it was going to be okay.

So here we go, today is the day.  I’ve been hyping school up all week and she has been beyond excited.  We’ve practiced our teacher’s name dozens of times, talked about nap time, lunch time, and how I will always come pick her up.  She’s told me a few times this week “I’m going to make new friends” and  “I’m going to only be a little bit shy with Miss Faris because you (mommy) will ALWAYS come get me!!!” Almost every day for the past month “Am I going to school today?”  and when we pull up somewhere new on errands she squeaks “Mommy is this my new school!?” 

Drumroll…..Here is our first picture before we left the house for our first day of school. I handed Ava her lunch box and said “smile!” CLICK-

“I’m staying home mommy” as she threw her lunch across the room.  Okay, time to talk about how fun school is going to be one more time

Ditty came over this morning which was a huge help because she stayed in the car with Austin while I took Ava to her classroom, and I mean if Ditty is coming along this must be something really special, right Ava?

Ava hopped out of the car. I think she was feeling better about things…love that posed pirate face!

We make it in the building with no fuss..  Take three for a good picture . Still a little unsure about this school thing… (P.S. Thank Aunt Carol for our cute lunch box!)

I LOVED meeting her teacher this morning. We had emailed prior to today about Ava’s peanut allergy.  Yep, no peanut butter and jellies allowed in that room.  Sorry parents!   Ms. Faris was so very sweet and had the warmest smile.  Ava did have a hard time saying bye and I held back a few tears. Though when I went back to peek on her after a few minutes she had stopped crying.

Firsts are hard, even firsts for exciting things like this.  When I was expressing to my mom on the way there that I was a little worried, you know hoping kids will be nice to her… hoping she doesn’t run out of water and not tell the teacher and and is thirsty or something, my mom said “welcome to the next twenty-nine years of your life!” HA! I just love my mom! So I know I will be having many more times where I have to trust others with MY baby…. so grateful that Ava is God’s girl and I am not doing this alone! Phew and Amen!

Okay it is almost 11:30. Wonder what Ava is doing? Usually on Tuesdays I have bible study, we are doing Beth Moore’s Breaking Free. This morning was a bit too nutty so I missed today.  I guess I’m off to play a bit with Austin, clean up, and workout (almost five months post partum, but better late than never!) 

Last week when Ava was running around the house making bigger messes than the mess of a house I was trying to clean up at that moment I yelled to Greg “AHHH, I can’t wait until mother’s day out starts next week!”  Now my song is “I can’t wait until 2:00 when I get to pick up my baby girl!”