Summer fun and Ava's first dance recital

These are a few of the "School Picture" the daycare took...

Ava had her dance recital at Robinson auditorium last week and was so excited to go out on stage. Backstage she kept saying, "They're finished. MY turn!" She was the smallest one up there and did her best to keep up, but was preoccupied with standing on "her mark".

This pose was my personal favorite (Nana's too)! We know this look all too well!! She sweetened up after a few minutes. In her defense, she didn't know anyone in the room. So they asked me to come in and get her to smile and she started to have a little fun with it.

Ava after her performance. She was already ready to go back and do it again!

See how proud her baby brother was of his sister!

Riding the escalator with Papa.

"Sissy" was in the audience watching.

We ordered a video and hopefully once we receive it I will be able to post a bit of it on here.

Miles after eating his first cupcake! Straight into bath he went!

Ava got a new dollhouse complete with t large shopping bags of furniture to go with it... I got it at my favorite consignment shop......for a grand total of $35!!! What a steal!

Miles tends to travel as the crow flies. He takes the shortest distance between two points, no matter what is in his way!

When we set it up she didn't look at us or even speak for two hours! SCORE!!!

Miles likes it too, here he is putting a table into the hottub!

We bought the kids a waterslide for the backyard and they LOVE it! Adults can get on it too....at their own risk of embarrassment!

Ava is fearless and wants to do everything Kinley and her friends do.

So far Miles just like to crawl around in the "pool" at the bottom.

Even Mommy got in on the fun! The water coming from the top of the slide is COLD and NO ONE told Mommy! (Total embarrassment!)

Brad built the kids a swingset that we ordered and the kids love it too, but it hasn't seen much action since the waterslide moved in. (It will get more attention in the cooler months!)

Ava was painting with watercolors and I guess she ran out of paper?

Miles stands and holds on and even stands unassisted, but won't take that first step yet!

Ava wouldn't even wait until Brad finished building it to get on it!

Miles...wanting to help so badly.

My last refuge is gone. The shower, that was it. But now Ava insists on taking a shower with Mommy. And now she is insisting on putting her hair up just like Mommy. My showers no longer represent anything relaxing. I now get to paint in the shower and play with shaving cream and sing songs.

Ava learning to share.

You can see the new fence Brad, Jim and Granddad built in the background here.

Playing out back before we were dealing with 100 temps!

Our littlest genius.

Yes, we have an indoor child containment sysytem!

Silly little bag lady! Ava loves to dress up and has two bins full of dress up stuff. She has also taken to calling me Tracy now. It is actually kind of creepy. She told me on the way to school yesterday, "You are making me crazy Tracy!". I lost it!

Little "Mickey" blue eyes!

Nana entertaining the kids while Brad is building the fence and I am taking pictures!

Ava will only play in the mud or water when she has her boots on. TG! She knows all her letters and now knows which sounds they all make. She tells us each letter sound every time she sees a letter. She is also trying to sign her letters. We can't figure out where that came from. Her teachers said that they didn't teach her any, but she wants to make letters with her hands, so we are going to start working on that.

Ava and Miles in their tent in the playroom. They ended up in there on their own. Ava can pretty much coax Miles to follow her anywhere. Danger!!

The building of the fence....all 436 feet of it!

Ava wanting to help Daddy so badly.

Nana reading "How to train your dragon" to Ava. She is obsessed with dragons, monsters and dinosaurs. We are waiting patiently for the movie to come out on DVD. She saw it twice at the theater. But she is afraid that a FLY will "come and get me". Go figure.

A rare quiet moment....

Look at me! I am blogging without being in a heated rush!! I am always so rushed getting photos up while batting away kids or shoveling food into someones mouth, that I never really get to write much. The kids are growing by leaps and bounds! (New photos are at the posting following this one)

Kinley has made straight A's all year so far!! She is going to be in all pre-AP classes next year. She also won 6th grade best Waltz/Foxtrot at cotillion! AND, she made 7th grade cheerleader!!!! What a great year for her! She is also going out for the volleyball team, so say a little prayer that she is able to make the team. What a terrific role model Ava and Miles have in her.

Ava started Tap/Jazz/Ballet and loves it. She has several adorable outfits (I couldn't decide, so I bought them all!) and loves getting dressed up. She really loves her black tap shoes for the noise they make when she walks in them. She has her first recital this summer. She isn't all girlie girl though. Lately, she has been OBSESSED with riding a dragon. She has seen How to Train Your Dragon at the theatre twice and LOVED it. She asks me every morning on the way to "school"/daycare, "Mommy, Ava go see dragons at movies? That's fun!". She begs me to let her ride the dragons and fly in the sky. I keep telling her if she can find one, I will let her ride it. She has all the dragon crap...all the happy meal stuff from the movie, the blanket, 4 sets of (boy) jammies (as the production company has been very sexist in their marketing to boys only....don't worry, I have let them know). She has the books, 3 applications on her iPod touch, the 3 foot stuff main character, Toothless the Night Terror Dragon (which Nana finally found after we tried about 6 other stores!). The movie won't come out on DVD until July, so until then......Ava is watching AVATAR. HAHAHAHA She watches the scenes where they ride the dragons OVER AND OVER AND OVER. She also has started breaking out into song constantly, no matter where you are, Church, Wal Mart, IHOP. She doesn't discriminate. She usually sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, 5 Little monkeys jumping on the bed or the ABC song. She knows them all word for word. Sometimes though she just sings her favorite part over and over again. EI: "(now) I know my ABC's, Next time won't you sing with me!" (imagine at top volume) (in IHOP).

Miles is really making strides. He has two bottom teeth and is busy keeping us up cutting more. He started crawling on Earth Day. He crawls on his hands ands knees on the carpet, but once on the stained concrete in the kitchen and bathroom, immediately goes onto his hands and feet with his butt in the air. (he has very sensitive knees! In fairness, Ava did the same thing) He actually prefers being up on 2 feet rather than all 4's. He pulls himself up all the time to stand. We caught him the other day standing on the hearth holding onto the fireplace cover (?). Ava had thrown his shoes and his popper (pacifier) behind it and he could see them, but couldn't reach them. But he was giving it his best try! He babbles a lot! ( We don't have a quiet one in this family!) He says Dada. We are working on Mama for Mother's Day. He was crying in his carseat recently and it did sound like naa naa. Ava said, "Mommy, Miles wants Nana!"

Ava and Miles are so anxious to be able to really play together. They both get so excited in the morning to see each other....I almost think I need to tape it to show to them for when they are fighting 24 hours a day in a few years! Ava can't wait to go "Get Miles" in his room at daycare when I pick them up. She runs over to him and hugs him, kisses him and says, "Hey Sugars!". She mimics me and Brad ALL the time now...probably going to have to clean up our acts now for sure. She has taken to calling Brad either Honey or Brad. He walked in from mowing the yard last week and she walked by him and simply said, "Hi Brad" and kept walking! If she needs him to help her with something, she yells, "HONEY!!!". She calls Miles "Son" about half the time. "Here's your popper son", "You need shoes on son", "Get your butt back in the bathtub son" (Miles like to climb out of his blow up tub). When she hears Miles cry she makes the most pitiful face and says, "Poor Miles!" It's priceless.

She has also apparently heard SOMEONE, somewhere using profanity. She was really constipated a few weeks back and was straining so hard. After a few tries, she hung her head and said, quite clearly, "Son of a bitch!" It took everything in me not to laugh. I had to walk away for a minute. We didn't make a big deal about it. We have replaced it with Son of a Gun. When Brad was putting a pair of Robeez on Miles feet and having a hard time of, Ava said, "What the hell Brad?". We have had to replace a few words now.