Miles' official last day of soccer practice this season. He went out with a bang! It was like someone slipped amphetamines in his sippy cup! He was wild, but having a ball!
1...2....3....F I R E F L Y S!!!!
Bringing up the rear and making sure Mama isn't too far behind.
Sitting on his ball like his coaches asked. He couldn't do this at the first practice (very funny watching him try though). So he has definitely made progress this season.
Obviously a bunch of 18 month-2 year olds aren't actually PLAYING soccer! But they do short intervals of running cones, running ladders, running obstacle courses and kicking the ball into the net....with VERY frequent water breaks, as it has been 98-102 degrees here for weeks now.
He had a blast at these practices and will take soccer again next year. I love this picture!
Group photo (partial group). It was Father's Day and very hot, so we were missing quite a few. Brad did a VERY good job of getting a photo with everyone looking this way.
I took the kids to Kinley's private gymnastics lesson and there were a group of cheerleaders practicing. This is a picture of Miles watching the group of them walk past him. He was in AWE! The expression (along with the shirt) was priceless!! Some ladies man.
Ava was very proper sitting just eating her apple and watching the whole time. It's amazing how much difference a year makes!
Kinley working hard on her back handspring. She landed it perfectly several times!!
YAY Kinley!!!!
Ava floating "like a starfish" in the water with her swim teacher, Miss Lauren.
This is Miles first year to take swim lessons and the water is so cold early in the season. He does OK, but doesn't like the cold water. He also is going through one of those "I can't be one freakin inch from my Momma or I think I might die" stages....which makes it a little challenging. Once I was in the water with Miss Lauren, he did a lot better.
Ava jumping in and going under. This is her third year to take lessons and she is really making progress this year. She has been putting her face under and blowing out her nose and jumping in without pinching her nose. She came up one time from under the water and looked at me and said proudly, "I'm so brave." God love her!
Kinley with the weird side bun that she says is "IN". I warned her that this could be her Mullet Moment and that maybe she should take my advice and rock the old-fashioned ponytail. She didn't. I will be saving the photos.
Going under looking for dive toys.
So proud of herself!!! Momma is pretty proud too!
The Girls!
Not enjoying the fact that I am out of the pool holding a camera instead of him. This was the best picture actually (the rest he is red-eyed, bawling with snot hanging from his nose.).
Miles kicking. He was actually very good at this from the get go. He also did good with "scooping" his arms or "monkey crawling".
Miles and Brad at Ava's Dance Recital. Miles did much better watching this year than last year. He LOVES music and will try to play drums (very cute to watch), do the "Stevie Wonder", and headbang. He actually had a good time this year.
Ava is the one with her hands over her eyes, "Trying to see where Mommy is sitting". This went on for about a third of the song.
Still looking....
Second from the left with her "fake hair bun".
She is the third from the right in this one. They did so good this year (compared to last year anyway). They were as cute as can be.
Can you believe that Kinley is 13 now?????? Crazy! We have a little teenager on our hands! AHHHHHH!!!!!
Kinley getting her iPhone. In her words, "Finally".
Modeling one of her birthday gifts!
Ava enjoying all the company!
Water babies.
I love this picture of Miles!! Always playing peek a boo....at what age does that cease to be fun?
Savannah, Kinley, Morgan and Ashley (where was Marissa?). Kinley had 3 of the girls spend the night after her party. Ashley had to leave for camp and couldn't stay. We also had Amber staying over with Hayden and Olivia (in Kinley's room). The girls decided to run around (Literally RUNNING through the house. I think THEY were actually playing freakin Peek a Boo!) until well after 2am, while screaming and laughing hysterically. I know there were cheering and acrobatics going on as well. These girls will cheer anywhere....Kroger, WalMart, anywhere. They woke all four of the babies/toddlers up multiple times AND their parents. Not good. Brad finally banished them to the playroom and warned them there would be consequences for their actions...... SO, somewhere around 8:30am, the bleary eyed parents commenced very loud music (Think: Gloria Gaynor's I will Survive and multiple songs from Aerosmith), opened all blinds in the living room where they all slept and began jumping on their air mattress singing at the top of our lungs...."Sing with me!!!! It's a PARTY!!!!!!!" Then Brad pulled the plug on their air mattress and sicked the 4 little ones on them. These four were relentlessly climbing on the girls and yelling for them to wake up....while the 3 of us smiled and drank our morning coffee/tea. Paybacks are truly a bitch.
Ava and her friend Nadia at Haven's birthday party. They all take dance together and Nadia will be going to school with Ava in August. They are both precocious little Scorpios....scary. There is NO telling what trouble they are going to get into. Here, they are trying on other peoples shoes (basically....shoe shopping) while everyone watches Haven open gifts!
Planning their next move. They kept running around the place yelling that they had to hurry and save the animals that needed to be rescued and they were the ones brave enough to do it!
Such a cute picture of them. Having lots of fun together!
Recital photos.
Trying to strike a pose!
They do a picture every year with the feather boas and the girls get to pick whichever color they want. Of coarse, she chose Pink.
Just hanging out playing in the yard. (You know, good old fashioned cheap fun like WE used to have in our sprinklers. Apparently this never gets old! Yay!)
Oh, the hair products he is going to require!!! The hot, humid summers down here are NOT going to be kind to him!
After telling Ava the story of The Three Little Pigs for the 7000th time, I told her that the wolf couldn't blow down the house of bricks again. This time she asked me, "Why Mommy? Was his DOOR made of bricks too?" Now why hadn't I thought of that? In the movie and the books their doors are, in fact, all the same. Smartypants.
Miles is talking a lot more and has recently hit his terrible 2's a bit early, like Ava did. The only good thing I have to say about this is that maybe they will end sooner too? Have mercy Lord.
Kinley and Morgan (who might as well be 'Morgley' as they are joined at the hip) decided to beat the boredom (my LEAST favorite word to hear right behind MINE and NO) with a lemonade stand. Our neighbor, Barbara came over and gave them some pointers. They ended up selling something like $32 that day! Of course, it helped that the roofers working on a house 2 doors down came and bought a whole pitcher for $10!
Making the sale!
We really have to watch what we say nowadays. (Hard for me) Ava repeats everything and can sometimes finish your sentences and knows what you are spelling a lot of the time. Great. Miles has already dropped the S word a couple of times. (oops) But it's not all about swearing.... Ava was hitting Miles one day and we told her that she is "teaching" him to hit her. She needs to "teach" him how to act nice. A few days later, Ava had her feet on the table at dinnertime. I asked her what in the HECK she thought she was doing, to which she replied, "Miles is teaching me to to this". See? She does this with EVERYTHING.
I told her we cannot wear pink everyday. Getting dressed each morning is a complete nightmare, which generally starts with me saying, "OK, let's go get this overwith". It's that bad. I told her that the other colors of the rainbow want to be worn too....nobody wears one color everyday.......
Dear Walt Disney, PLEASE put Minnie Mouse in another color for just ONE day. PLEASE. She now points out that each of the Disney princesses wear the same color everyday, so why can't she? She can argue her point about anything and leave me defenseless. You want your kids to be smarter than you....just not until they are 18!!
