Ava's Last Week of 3K

Get ready to be inundated with pictures!!  This week was Ava's last week of 3 year old preschool.  She didn't start until this past February once I decided just to work part-time.  She dove right in though and absolutely loved it.  We did not have a moment's trouble getting her to go to school.  We would see quite a few parents every morning outside the classroom with their kids clinging to them and Ava would always just waltz right in.  She's my little social butterfly!  This Tuesday the school had their "Fun Day" for the kids.  Kevin had work to do but I went to hang out with her.  There were quite a few games for the kids to play.

Then it was time for face painting!  Ava chose a glittery, pink heart.

Afterward, it was time to go back to class and settle down with some coloring.

After the kids calmed down, Ava's teachers asked me if I would read a couple of stories to the kids.  It took me right back to my teaching days and the kids and I both enjoyed it.  After school was over, Ava and I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping.  We hit up Hobby Lobby, Sephora, Ulta, and Target--all of our favorite stores.  One lady that was also shopping commented, "Wow, your little girl really gets into shopping!" (We were in the shoe section of Target!)  To which I replied, "Yep, her daddy is in trouble!" Ha!  She is a great shopping partner.  We found gifts to give to both of her teachers.  We thought these cute and summery plates, bowls, and cups would be great to relax and enjoy a nice meal outside this summer.

I made some bags with her teacher's initials and we wrapped them up!

This Thursday was her last day of school and the kids celebrated with their end of the year program.  Kevin and I had no idea how Ava would do with this since she has never been up in front of a crowd before, but she sang her heart out and just grinned and waved at us.  Unfortunately, we had to wait in the parking lot for all of our family to get there so we didn't get the best seats for pictures. 

The program was all about colors and each class wore different colored tie-dyed shirts.  Here is Ava in her shirt as her class was filing out after the program.  She had to stop and vogue for Kevin.

After the program, Kevin went home to go back to work and I told Ava that we could celebrate her last day of school by doing whatever she wanted to do today.  I know she is my child because she said she wanted to go get mani's and pedi's and then go eat lunch!  Ha!  So off we went to the nail salon.

We now have pretty toes

and pretty fingers!

Then it was time for lunch.  

Me:  "Ava, what do you want for lunch?"

Ava:  "I want chips."

Me:  "Well, what do you want to go with the chips?"

Ava:  "A sandwich."

Me:  "Ok, from where?"

Ava:  "Quey's."

Me:  "Huh?  Ooooh, you mean Huey's!  Honey, Huey's is the hamburger place."

Ava:  "Well, it's that place that ends in y's."

Me:  "I think you mean Lenny's?"

Ava:  "Yes, that's what I said--Lenny's!"

When we got home, I started unpacking her backpack.  She had quite a few cute little end of the year papers including this one:

Look at that last sentence.  I swear I was fighting back tears as I showed it to Kevin.  I have never known a child to be so passionate about wanting a sibling!

Her teachers had also included a CD of pictures they had taken throughout the year and it was fun to see what Ava's life was like at school when we weren't there.  Here they are:

This picture was taken on her first day.  It was Clifford the Big Red Dog Day.

Team Spirit Day along with a visit from the eye doctor.  Go Tigers!  You can't see it in this picture but she also had on the cutest Tigers ponytail holder.

A visit from the dentist

And a policeman

With her class and a parent reader

Celebrating her 4th birthday (she wanted to take Howard's donut holes for her friends)

Riding with a Bartlett policeman to raise money for St. Jude at the bike-a-thon

Bring your pet to school day

She crammed a lot a fun into these past four months but she got some learning done too

I cannot believe in one year we will be starting kindergarten!  Time does fly when you are having fun!

A Busy Week!

The last few weeks have been so busy at the Daniel house!  We love staying busy but those days when you don't have anything you have to do and can just hang around the house in your pj's are nice too.  Those days have been few and far between lately.  I have been slacking when it comes to blogging too so this will be an entire week at once.  

Last Saturday, Ava had her first of three birthday parties to attend this week.  It was her friend Katie's 4th birthday party and we went to River City gymnastics.  Ava had such a good time running around and playing with her friends.  Unfortunately, Kevin and I didn't take any pictures--bad parents!  We ran some errands afterward and then enjoyed a late night dinner at Ava's favorite place, Swanky's, followed by dessert at one of my favorite places, YoLo.  Side note--YoLo is opening a Bartlett location in a couple of weeks so now I won't have to drive as far to get my fix!  Hmmm, this could be considered good or bad.

Sunday, we had my family over to celebrate my mom's birthday and to watch the Grizzlies game.  The cake and ice cream and celebration were good, however, the game was not.  I'm still proud of our Grizzlies though.  Again, Kevin and I forgot to take pictures.

Tuesday I decided to surprise Ava when I picked her up at school and bring her cousin Addison with me.  Addison spent the day with us and Ava was so excited.  I actually did get some pictures of this:

Playing in Ava's playroom

Addison absolutely loves Kevin.  He went outside on the front porch and she went to our front door and banged on it and whined until he came back in.  He is just as smitten with her.  

Ava did a great job feeding Addison her lunch.

Then after lunch we went for a walk.

We took Addison with us to Ava's gymnastics class that night and Ava was so excited to show off her cousin.  We had a meltdown when Addison had to go home but otherwise it was a great day.

Thursday night Ava had birthday party #2 to attend at Pump It Up for one of her friends from school.  Kevin was on his own for this one as I already had plans with friends.  I love being married to a man who strongly believes that raising a child is a full partnership.  He has always been so involved with Ava when it comes to everything including the small things like bathtime and bedtime stories.  I think this is the way it should be but unfortunately, I know there are some dads out there (and moms--don't want to discriminate) that just leave it all to mom (or dad) to handle.  He was sending me pictures throughout the night of the party and I kept getting these pictures without Ava in them.  When I replied, "Why aren't you getting any pictures of Ava?" he said, "Taking a picture of her in this place is like trying to get a picture of a hummingbird!"  Ha Ha!  He did manage to get one picture of the kids though it is slightly blurry:

That same night, I enjoyed dinner with friends at the Trolley Stop Market on Madison.  It was yummy

--I had a great BLT with spicy pimiento cheese.   After dinner, we headed downtown for the Bon Jovi concert.  As we waited for the show to start, we played with different apps on our phones.  Look what I figured out I could do thanks to the Doodle Buddy app:

The concert was great.  Jon Bon Jovi still looks and sounds great and his smile is just so adorable!  Even though he is almost fifty years old, he can still rock a pair of leather pants and a leather vest with no shirt!  

Friday night, we went to see our niece, Mallory, play baseball.  It was a great night for being outdoors and we enjoyed just relaxing with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.  Mallory is seven and watching those kids play was hilarious!  She is the only girl on her team and we were cracking up because she took it so seriously, crouching in her fielding stance in left field, while all the little boys played in the grass or stared up at the sky.  Unfortunately, her team did not win but we had fun and Ava got to play with her cousin, Leah, during the game.

Saturday brought birthday party #3.  Ava's cousin Lawson (Addison's brother) was celebrating his 3rd birthday.  The party was at my aunt and uncle's house and featured the Happy Times Farm traveling petting zoo.  We did cake and presents while the petting zoo was getting set up and then it was time to play with the animals!  Our entire family consists of huge animal lovers so this party was sure to be a hit.  

Ava feed the baby cow a bottle

 My cousin Brent's fiancee, Jess, volunteered to lead the kids around on the pony.

Ava feed and brushed the llama, Faye, until the llama feel asleep.  I steer clear of llamas--last time I was around one, it spit on my face.  No joke.  

We played with the cutest little pig, Jimmy Dean--I'm sure that is meant to be ironic :).

I fell in love with this pig.  Every time I scratched him, he would roll over so I would scratch his tummy.

The birthday boy is really into Thomas the Train so there was a train ride that Ava rode quite a few times.

The party wore her out, which is hard to do.

The ladies from Happy Times Farm were amazing and so good with the kids.  The kids had a great time and if you are looking for a cute birthday party idea, I would recommend them in a heartbeat.  

happytimesfarm.com  901-573-1384

We were able to relax at home last night and we all just enjoyed snuggling on the couch.  This post taught me two things:  we have to make sure to take pictures and I need to be better about blogging!

Mother's Day 2011

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!  Mine started off early this morning when Ava came in to wake me up because she was so excited to give me my gift.  Kevin had taken her to let her pick out a new charm for my charm bracelet.  She was so proud that she picked it out all by herself.

On the back is a place for me to put her picture.  Unfortunately, when I tried to put it on my bracelet the clasp was too small.  So Kevin said he will just have to go get me a new bracelet.  After this, the three of us went outside (Ava and I was still waking up so we were still sporting our pj's) to finish the gifts we made for our mothers.  I had the idea a couple of weeks ago to get some terra cotta flower pots and paint them as gifts for my mom and mother-in-law.  Kevin and I went and bought all the supplies and began our project.  I had never done this before so we were kind of experimenting.  Ava painted a small pot for each of her grandmothers, I painted my mom's pot, and Kevin did one for his mom.   We finished them last night and coated them with a sealant so that they can be used outdoors.  This morning before church, we got up to plant the flowers in them.  We went yesterday and got some really pretty zinnias to put in the pots.

Here are pics of the completed pots.  Ava decided to go with abstract on hers and we did a monogram and then added some fleur-de-lis to fancy them up a bit.

We had a lot of fun painting the pots and I think they turned out pretty well for a first attempt.  I bought three more that I am going to paint for us.  Hopefully, they will turn out well.  Then it was time to head off to church.  As a side note, I have to say that I am so proud to go to a church that does so much to help our community.  Hope Pres is acting as a shelter for those who have been displaced by the flooding.  When we got there this morning we noticed two huge trailers set up in the parking lot.  One of them was a mobile laundry facility and the other one was a showering/bathing facility.  They have been taking donations of time, money, and supplies for the past couple of weeks and the outpouring of help has just been tremendous.  As Rev. Smith said today, "We will pray for the best, but we will prepare for the worst."  Hopefully, the flooding situation will not be nearly as bad as many fear.  We are going to keep praying for the best!  After church, we took my parents out to lunch to J. Alexander's.  We had a delicious meal and a great time just hanging out together.  After lunch, we headed over to see my dad's parents.  They moved into an assisted living facility several months back and Kevin, Ava, and I had still not seen their new apartment.  It was nice to go see where they are living now and they loved having all of us over.  Here is our four generations of mothers picture:

My parents came back to our house after our visit so that we could give my mom her gifts.  She loved them and got a bit teary which she usually does when we make something for her. :)

Ava and I managed to squeeze in a quick hour nap and then it was off to have Mother's Day dinner with Kevin's family.  Ava had a great time playing with her cousins, Leah and Mallory, and we always have fun visiting with my in-laws.  It has been such a wonderful day!  I am so thankful that God gave me the mother that he did.  I could not have asked for a better example of strength, kindness, morals, and values than my mom.  When I was a child she was just my mother.  As I have grown older, she has become my best friend.  I am also so grateful that God allowed me the most precious gift of being a mother myself.  I think God knew exactly which child to give me and he blessed me with Ava.  She has my heart and soul and continues to amaze me and make me proud ever single day.  I am truly blessed.