Off To A Good Start

We have started summer out with a bang! It has been nonstop fun around here and we have partied until we have dropped....literally!

She is just so stinkin' cute when she sleeps.

We started June with a fun cousins trip to the zoo.

We had a delicious Sunday dinner with some great friends the Ramsey's, Johansen's and the Worthington's. It is so nice to enjoy and good meal that you don't have to cook and clean up after all by yourself.

The night was topped off by Rocky Road ice cream made by Tyson and wheel barrow rides courtesy of Katy Ramsey's dad.

 Claire and her twin friends: Abbey and Livy (she can't tell them apart but it is so cute)

We had our annual Neighborhood Summer Bash.
It was a hit and so fun.  The day started out a bit windy but it was warm and the kids had a blast soaking up the sun and going down the inflatable water slides.

The festivities continued on into the night at the Harding's corner.
We had snow cones, cotton candy, face painting, super hero mask crafts, a magician and a taco truck.

The taco truck was soooo delicious!!

The Magician had the kids captivated!

And Lola wins the award for the creepiest face paint compliments of her sister Mia.

The wind picked up later in the evening and we had to postpone the backyard movie at the Healey's until the next night. The girls were disappointment, but exhausted so we went home and the kids crashed. I went out for a late night movie with some girls in the neighborhood so I would say that things turned out quite nice. The kids had so much fun for so many days in a row that we went through withdrawals for the next few days. I am afraid they are going to expect to be entertained all summer.

The very next day Ava had to go see the dentist to get her two front bottom teeth pulled. Her adult teeth started to grow in behind them before the baby teeth had fallen out. She was excited for the tooth fairy to come and for how much she thought she would get since there were two teeth.

Later that night we went to the Annual Chark Art Festival down at the Gateway Shopping Plaza. Not all the pieces were finished but we got to see the artists working on them.
Ava was so inspired by the art work and it was so cute when she said she got some great ideas for her next project.

Katie and Ben met up with us for a bit and we had fun visiting. I ran into my cousin and his daughter Maddy who had entered the chalk art contest. She ended up winning 1st place people's choice in her age division.

 Her picture really was the best!
The theme for the festival was Western, however I could not always make the connection with some peoples art work.
One of Ava's favorites.

 One of Tyson's favorites.

We ended our night at the rescheduled backyard movie in the Healey's yard. We put the kids in PJ's, and got some blankets and pillows. They watched Wreck It Ralph and actually stayed awake...much to my shock. There was a popcorn machine and cookies which equaled my kids being in heaven.

and that was most of our happenings in June...except,

We didn't forget to celebrate our wonderful Daddy's and Granddaddy's on
Father's Day!
We had a little BBQ with my in-laws and Tyson made himself one of his experimental flavors of ice cream: coconut macadamia nut! It turned out delicious!
We are revamping daddy's wardrobe for Father's Day (I'm sure he is so excited).
We gave grandpa some goodies and a nice book called "How to Babysit a Grandpa". The girls liked the idea that they get to babysit grandpa two days a week and not the other way around.

We are very lucky to have such wonderful men in our lives.  We reminisced about papa and how much we love and miss him. We even drove by his house that has sold a few weeks ago. It seemed strange that we couldn't stop and pop a squat on the porch swing for a short visit. We talked about what a wonderful person Grandpa Scott is. The girls adore their grandpa and request to see him almost daily hourly. He is so fun and playful and loving and adoring and I can just see the self esteem he is building in my children as he makes them feel like the most special person in the world. I am so glad my kids get to experience the love of a grandfather. And last but certainly not least, our daddy and the love of my life, Tyson. We hugged and kissed him and told him how much we adore him. I couldn't survive a day without his love, support and encouragement. The girls pine for their father's return from work each day and we all live for Saturday when we get to see him all...day...long!! He is so involved in their day to day care and it is so evident that he is a slave to his love for his girls. That is the way is should be and I love my little world!

Happy Birthweek to Ava

Ava turned 6 this last week and we celebrated all week!

The last six years have been so wonderful. I love being a mom and I especially love being this girls mom. She is so kind, tenderhearted, thoughtful, silly, imaginative and creative. She is beautiful inside and out and I love her with my whole heart.

We started our week of celebration by having a little friends party for her. She wanted to go to build a bear so we decided to go with the theme of a Teddy Bear Picnic.

This was the picture for her invitations. We let her invite 4 friends and then she got to give an invitation to Claire too. Claire was so thrilled to think Ava wanted her to come and to get her own invitation. We got our own Build a Bear employee, named Virginia to show us around. I am so glad we did the party because she was wonderful with the girls. They picked their bears, stuffed them and then got to pick an outfit. 

It was so fun to watch the girls pick their outfits. It said a lot about their personalities and their likes. Some picked fancy dresses, some picked fairytale outfits and other picked shorts and a shirt. I actually loved to see how at this age they just picked what they liked and there was no judgements by the other girls. They weren't afraid to be themselves. All the bears were so cute in the end.

After Build a Bear we went to Evergreen Park (The Cinderella Park is what my kids call it) and had a picnic. We had teddy bear shaped PB&J sandwiches, watermelon, chips and cupcakes to celebrate her birthday. We opened gifts and sang happy birthday and had too much fun. It seemed unusually crowded that day so we didn't stay and play for long. It was too stressful making sure we could see all of the kids at the same time and I am hyper paranoid of losing anyone's child...even my own.

 

Ava's friend Ellie was an expert photo bomber! Too fun!

On Ava's actual birthday we spent the whole day swimming with friends and having so much fun. I am a slacker and didn't get any pictures on her actual birthday. When Tyson came home from work we gave her her main present which was a new bike that is more her size now that she can ride without training wheels. We ate dinner at shivers with my in-laws and Uncle Mark. The only pictures I got were of Talmage and it shows just how wiped out we were from a day in the sun. We went back to my in-laws after so Ava could open her present and just enjoyed a nice summer evening for a few.

 I can't believe I only got pictures of Talmage that night.

Ava felt special and she liked celebrating on the "actual" day she turned 6.

We ended the week with a family party at our house. We didn't theme this party but let Ava decide what she wanted to do. She requested a pinata and cheesecake for dessert so that is what we did. We had fun watching the kids attempt to break the pinata but that pinata was made of some sturdy stuff. We even took the blindfold off and let them have at it with full sight, but ultimately Tyson had to do some damage to the pinata so we could keep the party going. The kids walked away with literally a bag full of candy. 

The Cheesecake was yummy because it was from costco. Ava picked out the candles and we adorned the cake with her ripe old age!

What a fun week!  On a funny note, the next day Ava was sad that she had to wait a whole year to have another birthday.  I love how long a year feels to kids.  I wish a year seemed that far away to me too. Now those birthdays seem to come to fast.