When Daddy is away...

the GIRLS WILL PLAY!

And what better way to play, than to get messy?

I love to bake. I hope I can pass that love on to Ava as well. So, for some time now I've been wanting to bake cookies with her, I even bought a bunch of cookie cutters. Yes, I knew it would be messy, she's 2. But I also knew she'd love it. So Friday afternoon after Ava's nap we got everything ready and had ourselves a little bit of fun and a lot of messy.

just up from her nap, but dressed and ready to go

wearing Daddy's grillin' apron, too cute!

sugar cookie dough rolled out, cookies cutters at work.

Ava chose the airplane for Joshua.

After the baking and cooling we got to icing. Ava wasn't nearly as fond of this stage until she realized what the icing was. I ended up icing the cookies while she licked the icing off her knife.
ooo, sprinkles

LOTS of sprinkles! Oops.

she needed to try the sprinkles to make sure they tasted good.

showing off her masterpiece

Finally sitting down to taste the goods.

They must be good.

We took Joshua's cookies over to him afterwards, in hopes it would make him feel better. He and his entire family, minus his Mommy, are sick. Yuck! But an airplane cookie should help for sure.

Our first baking experience was lots of fun. We'll definitely have to try this again... shoot we have 101 cookies cutters to experiment with!

videos...

Our chatter box has taken off again, and it's too funny. The other night at dinner Ava was raving about how she liked the pulled pork we were having, so we had to capture it on video. It's a bit choppy, but you can still understand her. (camera may not get fixed.... boo!)

birthday girl...

On Sunday we had a little backyard party with our neighbors. Literally, I yelled out to Dan and Casey as they drove into their driveway... "Cupcakes and Ice Cream!" Of course Joshua was there, as was his brother Noah, and Mom and Dad, Kristi and Shayne.
*Please excuse the fuzzy pics, our camera is acting up

There was no question, this year we HAD to have an Elmo cake.... cupcakes really!

I wasn't fast enough to stop her,

the finger went right into the icing.

after lighting the candle, Ava wasn't too sure

she did it!

she blew out the candle all by herself

(with Daddy's supporting hand)

they enjoyed playing in the icing more than eating it... thus the missing shirts

they were much more interested in the sprinkler

opening presents...

there are more pics, but they are 1/2 nakey ones,

so we opted not to share those

playing with her new magnadoodle!

and a family picture for Ava's 2 Year Album

2 Year Pics...

This morning Ava and I went and had her two year pictures taken. She did a great job, and even got a new Elmo video out of it. We hope you enjoy this preview!

I'm rotten, can you tell?

Uh Oh!

I'm TWO!

the next few were taken for Daddy... shhh, don't tell him, it's a surprise!

2...

Happy 2nd Birthday

Ava Reese!

1 day old

1 year old


2 years old

Let's Count...

When you're trying to teach little ones new things, you never quite know they are getting it until one day they surprise you. We've been working on numbers and letters for a while and the other night while playing Hide & Seek, Ava suprised us both by counting all by herself. It was so much of a surprise I came out from my hiding place whie she was counting. Many times she'll be walking down or up the stairs and she'll say "1, 7, 9, 11" and I always joke, "you're missing #s 3 & 5." But there is no doubt now, she knows what she is doing.

(video is a bit rough, but the camera was acting up and actually shut off before Ava could finish...)

Ice Cream vs. Rita's...

Ava had her first ice cream cone a few weeks ago. It didn't go so well:

She took one lick and pushed it away saying "no!" So we thought a cup might be better, that lasted all of two bites.

Who doesn't like ice cream? It's a summer favorite... or if you're us, an all year favorite.

So yesterday while we were out, I thought I'd try something else. Around here, Rita's is a big deal. People stand in long lines on the first day of spring to get a free cup, and we're all sad when October rolls around and the shop closes.

We had talked about getting Rita's sometime soon, but I figured it would be easier for me to grab some and bring it home rather than pack us in the car after dinner sometime. I had no idea if Ava would like it, but I assumed she would... then again, I also assumed she'd like ice cream.

We went to the window and the girl asked if she could get us a sample. Raspberry is what I wanted so we had a sample of that to see what Ava thought. Ava took one small sip, then a whole bite. Seconds later she was holding the small cup up to the girl and asking for "Mor, Mor!"

We got a quart of Raspberry to bring home, and Ava and I enjoyed some outside where we could rinse off in the pool after we were done. So glad we found a summer treat that we all enjoy.

Yumm!

And one shot of our water baby... we had the whole pool to ourselves today, and had a blast.