You Know It's Finally Summer When...

There are adorable, wet, shirtless babies squealing in the backyard!  Hope everyone is enjoying this long weekend with your families.  I know we are soaking up every minute of it. 

The Bun

Simon has developed quite the little personality these days.  He loves to run through the house at full speed while Ava laughs hysterically.  He likes chewing on things, mainly pillows.  Ugh!  After he has run himself ragged, he finds the closest air vent and flops over on it.  He usually lays on the vent in Ava's room after he has drug out all of her little people.  He makes just as big of a mess with toys as Ava does.

Some of Ava's favorite things to tell Simon are...

"Get down, Bunny!"

"No, no, Bunny!!"

"Bunny fast!"

Apparently I scold Simon a lot because those are the phrases Ava has picked up on.  I just keep telling myself he is still a youngster and he will calm down.  I think I was just so used to Sweet Pea who would go back in her cage when you told her too and didn't want to chew on everything in sight.  Even with all the bun antics in our house, we love him dearly. 

Have a great weekend all and remember those who have served our country.

 God Bless You All!

Life as Normal?

The past day and a half has been rough.  My father-in-law went in for surgery yesterday to remove cancer from his body.  When the surgeon got in he realized it was much worse than he thought and removing it would cause more damage.  How do you deal with that?!  We were and are optimistic but that was devastating news.  My FIL is still young (57), active and feels great so all of this was surprising and shocking. 

I just want to cry and yell and be mad on my husband's behalf because he is trying to be so strong for his mom.  He's not letting his emotions get the better of him in front of her and I know that is not easy all the time. 

This morning I woke up tired and sad and angry all over again.  Steve got up and went to work feeling emotionally drained.  I fed Ava her breakfast, read her books, and have done everything like normal but somehow acting normal just doesn't feel right.  Sometimes life just sucks and there's nothing we can do about it.  It just sucks.

Swooning for Ribbons

Into the Woods at Lilla Lotta

Summer Ferns at Rainy Day Ribbons

Little Red Riding Hood at Chickadee Supplies

How great are these tapes and ribbons?  The gears are turning as to how to work them into some future project.  Any ideas??

Poor Baby Stella

Meet Stella.  She's soft, cuddly, cute as a button and always naked.  It's a darn good thing it's been 90+ degrees here because Baby Stella would otherwise be cold.  I don't know what it is with kiddos and their babies but the babies never seem to have clothes on.  Ava adores Baby Stella...naked.  I can dress that baby 20 times a day and Ava will immediately remove all her clothes.  I finally just stopped dressing her except for when company comes over :o)  If you are looking for the perfect baby for a little lady, I would highly recommend her.  We're thinking of getting another one with a little more hair to be the big sister for Stella.  I'm sure she'll be naked right along with Stella.

And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone who entered and Jenn K., just let me know which bag you would like and I'll get it in the mail for you with the Target gift card, too! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  The sun is finally supposed to make an appearance here...I hope!

MoBOT Fun

Once a month our playgroup tries to do a "field trip" with our wee ones.  Only 2 of us could make it this time but we still had a blast at MoBOT.  I warned you yesterday that there were lots of pictures and I wasn't kidding.  Get ready!!

The Children's Garden was fun for Ava but crowded and stressful for me!

Ava probably crawled through this little log 20 times and would not have stopped unless I made her move on to something else.

The 3 wee ones on top of what looks like a mulch pile but it was rubber.  Only one is semi-smiling and not looking at the camera and the other 2 aren't smiling...oh well!

Out of the Children's Garden and both mommies could relax a little. The regular garden was so much less crowded and peaceful.

Ava stomping through the rose garden.  At least it looks like she's stomping, ha!

The kids found this fountain while wandering the paths.  Look how happy Caeleigh looks playing in the water.  So cute!!

This was by far our favorite spot in the garden.  The 3 kiddos could play freely through the trimmed scrubs, we could see them at all times and there was rarely anyone else in this area.  There were several fountains to ohhh and ahhh over, too. 

Pretty pansies,

pretty baby,

and one pretty awesome day!

Don't forget the winner of the snack bag and Target gift card will be announced tomorrow at noon.  Yippeee!!