Chocolate George

Tonight I made Ava’s cake topper from modeling chocolate.  I was trying to get a head start on her birthday cake.  Modeling chocolate is supposed to keep up to a week and seriously I don’t think anyone would want to eat George anyways (he has a support wire running through him and I’m kind of oddly attached to this personified little fella after spending all night with him)  I  did not find modeling chocolate super easy to work with, contrary to what I’ve heard (but then again I’m “hearing” all my caking things from the cake boss show…hmmm, really realistic Gina!)  I’d never used it before and I kept botching my batches but finally got it the right consistency.  So here’s my best attempt.  Next week I am making the modeling chocolate balloons and hopefully George and his balloons will top the cake well and look like he is floating up off the top.

I’m thinking he will be safe on the top shelf on my pantry until next week, but Ava is a fearless climber so hopefully she won’t notice him hanging out up there. Oops just realized I need to cover him up in plastic don’t want him to crack.  More caking to come….

Little Man

Here is today’s picture of “little man” as Karo so appropriately nicknamed him.  As a newborn he did look like a little man, full comb over and all, and the name stuck, ha! Love you little man!

The napping house

Ava, Austin, Greg and Boo all taking a Sunday afternoon nap.  Something so precious about a sleeping baby…..

Paps and Pups

So Pappaw’s name has changed once more. Ava started calling him Paps a few months ago and it stuck.  Greg started calling them Paps and PUPS, so thus Ava is now Pups when she is with her Paps! Right now they are playing grocery shopping in Ava’s room, I just went in to play with them and she said “Mom, you can’t be in here, just Paps.” Okay little lady, so thought I’d come blog about the pair!

P.S. Ditty said she thought Pappaw to Paps was cute as long as she didn’t become Ditty to DITZ!

My lil’ fish lips

Austin loves his cheerios and you can hear him smacking his little lips from a mile away.

Sissy

It would be an understatement to say that Austin likes Ava because He ADORES her… follows her on all fours now and responds to her in a unique way.  He laughs at her non-stop, just a smile from her makes him squeal.  Ava has been so great at helping too, thrills me to see this super caring side of her.  She says that Austin is “HER” baby.

Our new morning routine.  After Ava’s bath she feeds Austin breakfast while I make hers.

Ava is soon to follow almost every time when I put him in his pack and play.  Austin was totally fine in this picture, looks like she is about to sit on his head but no foul play she was able to climb and land on one leg.  For the record though (I was a little freaked out by this picture) she now asks me to lift her instead of blindly hurdling herself in on an unsuspecting Austin.

And she has been my helper for vacuuming.  The shop vac is her favorite chore, seriously asks me if she can use it a few times a day and goes after all my crumbs.  That’s Daddy’s girl!

This is my favorite NO NO that I happened to get a picture of. I mean with all this doting I have to post at least one little stinker picture. At least a few times a month she turns the computer off and we have re-run the set up.  Anyways I was getting a picture of Boo kissing Greg and while we were distracted here is little sneaky fingers turning it off… UH oh!

Mrs. Stewarts pictures

We have school day pics!! Ava’s teacher keep us posted with weekly pictures on her classroom forum. Our school’s policy is not to post pictures of the other children so I’ve cropped out her cute little classmates.

The one legged crawl

Baby boy is on the move… well kind of!

This is randomness at it’s best, but such is my life and I love it! I thought Austin’s crawl was funny, he now propels himself forward with his left leg, it’s the skateboard crawl.  No matter where I put him in the house he bolts to Boo’s water bowl.

Ava was so excited because her party invitations just came in the mail today.  Here’s the translation of the jabbering in the background:

“This is my card” (brings me invitation) for decorations!  Cause I’m going to eat cake and he’s going to fly over to my birthday party with ba-balloons. YES, Curious George with ice cream!” (I so love that she calls balloons “ba-balloons” that we haven’t corrected her and I’ll be sad the day she figures it out)

I have the sketch of her birthday cake on the fridge and seems Ava thinks this is truly going to happen, that Curious George is going to fly over her house on balloons!

Jumpstreet

This trampoline place is one of our new favorite finds, Ava just goes nuts.  She loves jumping with her Daddy!

Time for another summersault

Hey good lookin’ what you got cookin’

So in efforts to keep Ava from turning the top of her kitchen into a prime place to relax in her blue chair and read (totally made me nervous she was going to tumble off) we turned it perpendicular to the wall. Now she has decided it is “Ava’s Café.” She has been keeping her baby dolls, Austin, and her daddy well feed. 

I took this picture this morning and for some reason made me pause and realize how grown up she is looking these days!

A Happy Weekend

This was a wonderful weekend because Uncle Brad came to visit and we also got to celebrate Grandparent’s Day!  Brad came to town Thursday night and Ava was his little shadow the entire time, she just loved playing with her Uncle Brad!  Check out that Texas Size donut!  Ava exclaimed on seeing it “that is a BIG HUGE donut!”  For sure baby girl.

Yesterday we got to go out to the houseboat to see Karo and K-Bob!  Austin had some great laughs with Karo and lots of smiles for his Karo and K-Bob. He had a great LONG nap with K-Bob yesterday afternoon, such a sweet snuggle bug.  Ava’s favorite game to play with her grandparents is the "boatie boat” game, whoever utters those playful words gets a giant tickle! And what better place to play the “boatie boat” game than the houseboat!?

Ava had a blast swimming.   She did not swim per say but instead RAN through the water.  Her life jacket held her straight up and she just pumped those little legs a million miles and hour. She did the slide once and would have stayed in that water all day… she loved it! 

On the way home, one tired girl.

Of course grandparents day wouldn’t have been complete without seeing Ditty and Pappaw that night. Unfortunately our playtime got cut short without a picture today.  Ava wasn’t doing too well, she’s feeling okay now though, sweet baby.  We did get a round of indoor golf Ava style…we had our cute little clubs and were trying to have Ava yell “FOUR!” Instead she would yell upon hitting the ball “Four, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN!” Austin was all giggles too playing with Pappaw and Ditty. I’m so thankful on days like today and everyday that they moved to Texas.

So here’s our latest Ditty and Pappaw picture.  Thought I’d post all three to get a shot of each person’s smile (looks like Austin is getting kisses in the first picture!) Ava’s the smile winner, three for three!

WE LOVE you Karo, Ditty, K-Bob and Pappaw and are so very thankful for you all.

HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY!!!

The Sneaky Jelly Beans

Ava is on my lap now and I was just showing her the videos from my new post today.  She looked at me and asked “Mommy are those sneaky jelly beans?”

Back to School

Here we are on our way, I was trying to get her all pumped up about drop off. We were talking about how exciting it was that she has a new teacher in a new big kid classroom.  She was saying that she “probably will make some new friends” and “my mommy will always come get me.”  I love her little self pep talks.

Right before we dropped her off, apparently something is way more interesting than mom with the camera

Ava’s new teacher Mrs. Stewart! All the classrooms have an animal mascot and Ava is in the Elephant room.  Mrs. Stewart calls the kids her “eager elephants,” cute!

No tears when I left, here’s the last picture I snapped on my way out the door….

Ava was still napping when I came to pick her up and I had the hardest time getting her to wake up. She is a heavy sleeper like her daddy for sure.  Mrs. Stewart said she did a great job most of the day. She got a little weepy at nap time but all in all it was a WONDERFUL first day and she was worn out!

Thought I’d do a little interview:

“My First Day”

I asked Ava if she would sing the Ally Bally song if it was for Aunt Carol (Aunt Carol taught us this adorable song) Not only did I get a big YES but she said that she wanted to sing it twice!  Someone LOVES her Aunt Carol! 

A slow Ally Bally song

A little more like chipper cheer