Ava and Mommy Had a Date!

Oh, it was a fabulous morning and early afternoon!  My mom and stepdad came over to play with Brecken and I got to spend quality time with my best girlfriend!  First, we went to the Y to swim.  As we were walking up the already hot sidewalk, her BFF from school was walking up at the same time.  Ava and Cole played together for quite a while and she was swimming like a perfect little fish!  It was so fun to watch Ava and not have to pay attention to Brecken (much as I LOVE him) at the same time.  It was relaxing and wonderful. 
After swimming, I asked Ava where she'd like to go to lunch.  Her answer was McD's or Wendy's.  I had to say heck no to those places.  I told her this was a date and we were supposed to go somewhere fun to sit down and have someone wait on us!  So we chose On The Border.  She, of course, had chicken strips and fries but oh well.  Oh, and she had chips and salt.  Man, that girl and her salt.  She learned (from her cousins) how to just take out one chip at a time, pour salt on it, take a bite, pour more salt, take another bite, repeat.  She said it was the best restaurant ever.  It was fabulous to be able to take her somewhere and chat and giggle without telling another little someone (much as I LOVE him) to sit down, eat, sit down, don't touch, sit down, don't throw, etc.  Ava and I were finishing our meal and a complete stranger stopped at our table as he was leaving and said this: "I have to interrupt you two for a second.  I love to people watch and I just had to stop and say that you look like an awesome mom."  Wow!  I said thank you and that I really appreciated it and he smiled and left.  Then I kind of teared up.  I have been working my little (big) Mommy butt off this week and I needed that!    
Last, we went to the bookstore and picked out a few books--one for Ava, one for Brecken, and one for my classroom.  Ava loves the bookstore like I do.  We could've stayed for hours if we didn't need to go relieve Nanny and Papa from Brecken duty.
Ahhhh....a much needed date with my baby girl.  It was lovely.

Sunday Funday

The kids and I didn't go anywhere today and it was rather nice.  We took a nice walk this morning before it got too hot outside and filled up the pool in the backyard when we returned.  B-man played in the pool naked while it was filling up--talk about FREEZING.  I took a picture, but I guess I probably shouldn't post it.  His little white buns were pretty darn cute though!  Anyways, I bought a pool noodle the other day and I cut it in half (lengthwise).  I gave the Littles some marbles, we propped up the noodles and we had marble races.  Pretty fun stuff!  The kids then had sword fights with the noodles, rode them like cowboys around the living room, used them as "ropes" to pull each other out of the ocean (the floor) and onto the boat (the couch).  It was an imaginative day.  After naps, we played in the pool and splashed each other.  It was a great day at home!  Now we're ready to start another eventful summer week.  

  

Summer Fun!

Erick and I took the kids to the park the other day.  We brought our picnic blanket and ate some nice, fattening KFC.  The kids always think it's so cool when we have a picnic!  I love that something so simple makes them happy. 



Mouthful of food!



B just loves being outside!



After our picnic, they ran around for a while, pretending the sticks they picked up were swords and kicking the soccer ball around. 

They played on the playground for a while, but they both love the slide and it was so darn hot to go down! I still can't seem to find a playgroud around here that is perfectly shaded so kids can play on everything at all times of the day. Which means we always have to go early in the morning. Oh well! We had a fabulous time!

 

The kids and I met Erick's mom at the Children's Theather and saw Jack and the Beanstalk.  Here's the kids are standing with the Golden Goose.

Let's see, what else have we done so far?  Swimming in the pool in the backyard, playing more at Botanica, going to ballet, tap and swim lessons with Ava (kinda stinks that B-man can't do sports until he's three), playing with the animals at Tanganyika, going to Build-a-Bear, taking walks, watching movies, playing in the room full of TOO many toys in the basement, trying to take naps. That's about it for now!

This is an awful picture but I had to take one because it was B-man's first movie.

Whew!  That was a lot of pictures!  We have definitely been trying to keep busy!

  

Sprinkler Fun

I am definitely slacking in the blogging department this summer.  Oh well.  I'm not too worried about it.  I am having lots of fun with the kiddos--they make me laugh every day.  And sometimes they make me want to cry.  Ha!  We went to my mom's house last week and the Littles played in the sprinkler.  It was super fun to watch Ava spray Nanny!  There were lots of giggles!

Okay, I'm going to play with the kids and I'll post more pictures later! 

Dancing in the Kitchen

To watch, press pause at my music at the bottom of the screen and you can then hear the music in the video.  Dancing in the kitchen is a new favorite of the Littles.  This is just one of the many songs to which we have danced.  Happy watching!

 

Botanica with Nanny

My mom came in from Newton today and we took the kiddos to Botanica.  It was great!  It's so pretty and there is so much for the kiddos to do there (especially during the summer months).  I took some videos that I'll put on here later, but here are the pictures for now.
Thank you for spending the day with us, Mom! 

The Littles and Nanny Bananny



In the Butterfly Garden, Ava and I both held a butterfly.  B-man was too freaked out to try.  He just tried to poke at it.  Typical boy.



Doing a little water painting.

Playing dress-up.  Dinosaur head, butterfly wings, and yelling, "ROOAAAR!"

Beautiful girl.

Playing some music!  B loves the drums!  I'm thinking a drum set may be in his future.