Gymnastics!

It's that time of  year again. Ava only does gymnastics from September until May and at the end of the session they have a recital or sorts that they put on for the parents so we can see what they've been up to. Last year we did a parent & me class so I was with her all the time. This year she was a big girl and went to the 3 year old class all by herself. I was so proud of her.

 They started by having the kids march out and then do a little routine with the teacher. I was so impressed by how much Ava actually did. She's very obedient to her teacher (if only it were so at home!)

 Ava doing a backwards roll.

 Forward roll.

 Water break!

 I had no idea she could do the balance beam so well.

 She still needs help on the bar but she's getting stronger.

 And they all love to do the high bar too, of course!

 At the end they each go their gymnastics medal and Ava was very proud.

 Sadie, of course, wanted to be out on the floor so badly that as soon as it was over she was off doing whatever she could.

Daddy helping the girls on the bar. We are out for the summer now so we can focus on swimming! Wahoo! We love summer time!

Catching Up

I am currently blogging regularly on 3 blogs. Unfortunately my personal one is the blog that gets the least amount of attention and time.  So I'm going to post a few pictures from over the last month to try and get caught up a bit.

We took the girls up to the fish hatchery a few weeks ago and it was a big hit. They loved feeding the fish.  And the fish food was free so it was great free entertainment for the kids.

 We've started having nice weather here and there so I've been trying to get out with the girls as much as possible. We've made several trips to the park now and this is my favorite picture. Ava is holding out her hand to Sadie and telling "let me help you". It was so cute.

 Ava and Sadie playing with a couple of friends at the park.

 We went to a small fair here in town with another couple who has a daughter Ava's age and it was so much fun. We put the girls on this little roller coaster and Sadie LOVED it. She cried everytime she had to get off and she probably rode it at least 5 times.

 We also did the Merry-Go-Round......

 And this spinning dinasour. Exactly the kind of ride I would never, ever, be caught dead on. But the girls had a good time. Sadie was too small for this one so I took her back to the roller coaster with Ava and Oakley went on this ride.

We've been having a lot of fun now that summer is finally here. We went to the new sprayground yesterday with some friends and it was also a big hit. And since it's free (and the pool isn't) we'll be spending a lot of time there this summer.  Can't wait!

I See Rolly Derby In Her Future

Ava has been asking me if she could go roller skating for a while now. She saw it first on a cartoon (thanks alot Kai Lan!) and so while we were in Medford and had a rink close by and a babysitter for Sadie I thought we'd give it a try.

 We started out practicing on the carpet. Much easier for a kid.

 Then we graduated to the mini rink. I have to say I was impressed. What she was doing was more like walking on skates instead of actual skating but she hardly fell down at all.

 Finally we moved onto the big rink. Unfortunately there were a few derby girls there going pretty fast around us and it made Ava nervous.

 So after asking a derby girl to take our picture we headed over to the arcades. Ava liked them better anyway.

And she knew exactly what to do.

Afterwards she fell asleep in the car. Roller skating is exhausting. I never did get to show her my skills on skates though. Oh well. Maybe next time.

More from "Easter Saturday"

Like I said in my Easter post we celebrated with our easter baskets on Saturday. We also did an easter egg hunt but the rest of the day was spent playing.

There was some jumping on the trampoline (every grandparent should have one because it's a big hit!).

But the most fun was when the girls and baby Ezra got to put their hand prints in Grandpa's cement. Ava went first. In this picture Grandpa is explaining what they are going to do.

Ava did pretty good.

Sadie on the other hand, well as you'll see in the final picture, she didn't do just a hand print she also did here forearms. It was pretty funny.

Baby Ezra sort of grabbed the cement with his fists but that's what babies do, isn't it?

And not pictured above is Molly.....the dog.

If you look closely you can see Sadie's forearms. So cute.

Saying Goodbye

I can't think of any other way to blog about my vacation than to do it in several different posts. It's mostly for my own sake, really. I want to have my vacation posted here (it's kind of my back up plan for pictures). So I'll start with first things first. We went to Oregon for two main reasons. #1 was to see my little brother David (I should say Elder Morgan) leave on his mission. 

 We took these pictures just before David was set apart as a missionary.

 I love how in the first picture Keith is the shortest and how he has magically grown three inches in the second one. (I think he has a complex!)

 Here is mom helping Elder Morgan put on his missionary tag. He is now officially Elder Morgan.

 And the best part.......waking up at 4:30 in the morning to see Elder Morgan off!

 You'll have to excuse my appearance. It was 4:30 in the morning after all and I had ruined my contacts and was forced to wear glasses. ugh.

 Seeing Elder Morgan hug his mom goodbye was the hardest moment for me. Even harder than when I hugged him myself.

 After he went through security we headed upstairs to see if we could see the plane take off. We happened to catch a glimpse of Elder Morgan through a window as he was getting ready to board. It was his final wave goodbye.

And we weren't able to see through the windows upstairs to watch the plane take off because they were covered in frost. Miraculously my mom was able to get her camera in some small crack and caught a picture of him boarding the plane.

I'm so proud! He's headed to Porto Alegre, Brazil. Anyone interested in keeping up with him can check out his blog at http://www.eldermorgan.blogspot.com

Easter

So I realize I am now almost two weeks late with these pictures but I have so many to post from our vacation that I need to do them in some kind of organized fashion. So here are some pictures from Easter this year. We celebrated with Easter baskets on saturday morning and the girls loved it! Then we did an easter egg hunt in my parents back yard.

Ava knew what to do and Sadie picked it up really quick.

Ava is obviously older as her basket as about twice as many eggs as Sadie's!

Sunday morning the girls got dressed up in their Easter dresses and we took a few pictures before we headed off to church.

I took probably 50 pictures and never did get one of them both looking at me and smiling. Oh well. They still looked adorable. Thanks Grandma for the Easter dresses!

So blogger just deleted two of my pictures. Oh well. Here is the girls together in at least one picture.

Happy Easter!

A Pretty Princess Party

Ava and Sadie went to a princess birthday party yesterday and it was so fun! Her friend's mom does hair and for fun she put a hair extension or rhinestones into each of the girls hair. Isn't that a fun idea!? It was definately a hit. Sadie got rhinestones but was not happy about me trying to take a picture of them. Ava got a pink hair extension and it's still in. I think it's so cute!

Oakley, the birthday girl, sitting on the table, and Ava taking her picture.

(Most of) the princesses who came watching Oakley open her presents. It was such a cute idea to have all the kids come dressed up as a princess.

Some of the princesses dancing on the trampoline. (Ava changed outfits halfway through the party....she knows where Oakley keeps her dress up clothes and insisted on changing into something else!)

Fun party! Happy Birthday Oakley!

Help Us Celebrate

In case you haven't noticed we have a new look over at The Best Me! To help us celebrate we are having our first giveaway! Come on over and check things out!

Thanks for all the support!

I think I've ruined my daughter

We love to play dress up around here. Anything and everything priness or ballerina related will do. Here's where I screwed up:

Every time Ava gets dressed up I will say something like "Oh! You look so beautiful!" or "Wow, I can't believe how pretty you look!" I thought I was doing my duty as a mother by being overly dramatic with my compliments. But now if I try to tell Ava she looks beautiful she'll tell me "no! not yet!" and go put on her "princess" clothes! Ooops.

Now I've had to try and undo what I did by telling her constantly "you always look pretty". I hope I haven't ruined her.

She also likes to have her picture taken a lot. She will actually ask me to get the camera and take a picture. This is one of them.