A Girls' Weekend!

This Friday morning, Kevin left to go on his annual golfing trip with his buddies to McKenzie, TN.  Ava and I have had the whole weekend to ourselves so we decided to make it an all girls' weekend.  Friday night, I took her shopping at Target for a new float and things to play with in the pool.  Then, I asked Ava where she wanted to have dinner and she decided on Quey's (Huey's, to the rest of us).  I enjoyed my burger and she scarfed down her mac n' cheese.  It is so funny to me how stuff must just taste better to her at restaurants.  The macaroni was the Kraft kind from the box and I'm sure of this because it says so right on the menu.  About halfway through our meal, she looked at me and said "Mom, this is soooooo good!"  She has eaten that hundreds of times at home and never got that excited about it.  After Huey's, we headed over to the movie theater and saw Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Ava had a fairly lengthy internal debate between popcorn and "MM's" but finally "MM's" won out.  The movie was fairly cute and we enjoyed our girl time.  The next morning, I had to work for a few hours so Ava spent the morning with her Neena (my mom).  Mom brought Ava her favorite chocolate donuts from Howard's for breakfast and then they went to get their nails done.  Ava picked out a hot pink color for mom and red for herself.  They stopped by Sam's to get some stuff on the way home and Ava told my mom she was going to hold her hands out on the handle of the cart so that she could show off her nails.  They walked past one older lady who stopped and said, "Why sweetie, don't your nails just look so pretty!"  She then laughed and said to my mom, "She's sitting there blowing on her nails like she's drying them."  Ha ha!  She's such a girly girl.  After work, I went to pick Ava up and we all had lunch.  Then it was time to go over to my sister-in-law's parents house for my niece, Leah's, family birthday party.  We celebrated her birthday last weekend with her friends, but this time it was a family affair.  We had a great dinner and the girls had a wonderful time playing together.  Ava and Mallory were very curious to see what Leah got for her birthday.

Mallory and Ava also got a couple of gifts to open so they wouldn't feel left out.  

Showing off a couple of her little treats.

Today, we had a playdate with my best friend since we were nine, Amy, and her daughter, Hailey.  We went over the Botanic Garden as soon as it opened and spent most of the day wandering around in the fresh air and nature and getting our exercise.  I took the new camera that Kevin got me for Christmas and took tons of pictures which I am about to share :).  I have been intimidated by it because it is a nice Canon digital SLR camera and it has a lot of features which means lots of buttons.  I couldn't do anything too fancy with it yet but at least I am practicing.  

Posing with the roses on our way to My Big Backyard

Playing on the treehouse

Working on their balancing act

Playing on the "spiderweb"

Amy and I were sitting at a picnic table, enjoying our pink lemonade, by the spiderweb when I happened to glance up and see this:

It scared the mess out of me!  I actually grabbed Amy.  Spiders are one of my worst fears--I am terrified of them.

The girls played in the wormholes

Stood in a bird's nest

Dressed up as wizards

Sat in a rowboat

Had a sack race

Played instruments in the music house

Relaxed in the hammock swing

Watched the fountains

Played in the "thunderstorm"

and went to the pond and fed the koi

These are just pictures that I took that I thought were pretty.

I thought this was interesting...this is how a pineapple grows

When you pay your admission at the Garden, you get a map showing you where all of the different flowers are on the grounds.  I dragged Amy and the girls all over the place looking for the hydrangea displays because they are my favorite flowers.  We finally found it after wandering around aimlessly to the point where Ava asked worriedly, "Are we lost?"  

We decided to go in and cool off and have a fancy lunch at the Garden Cafe, Fratelli's.  We had a lovely meal where Amy declared their signature "tea tasted like perfume and their pasta salad tasted like bottom".  Appetizing, right?  The girls enjoyed their sandwiches and fruit.

At this point, we were all tired and HOT.  So we decided a trip to YoLo was necessary on the way home.

We had such a fun time!  If you have kids and haven't been to the Botanic Gardens, I highly recommend it.  Admission is inexpensive ($8 for adults and $5 for kids) and there is lots of stuff to do.  It's also a great place to take photos.  

Ava and I have had a wonderful weekend but we are ready for Kevin to come home!  Only about 3 more hours until he arrives and we can tell him all about our fun weekend!

A Fun-Filled Father's Day Weekend!

Another busy week for us here at the Daniel home!  I told Kevin the other day I feel like we are only home long enough to sleep then it's time to get up and go again.  I have no idea how I ever managed to work a full-time job!  We are getting the opportunity to spend so much time together and do so many fun things because I am not working all the time and I am LOVING it!  

Ava went to Vacation Bible School at our church, Hope Presbyterian, this week and had a great time.  She got to meet "Boomer" the panda bear and give him a high-five one day and then give him a hug the next.  I was a little surprised that she told me she did that as she has always been afraid of the mouse at Chuck E. Cheese and the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus and countless others...but she told me "It's just somebody in a panda costume, it's not a real panda, mom."  So maybe we are getting past this fear?  Here she is posing with a cardboard "Boomer".

We got the opportunity to go baby-sit for Ava's favorite baby, Kirby, on Thursday after VBS.  Kirby was so good and he and Ava had fun hanging out together.  Ava set up a tea party with Kirby's stuffed animals and Kirby didn't even complain and say that that was girly! :)  Here are a couple of  cute pics of the two of them:

 We also discovered while hanging with Kirby, that our 4 1/2 year old Ava still fits in a Bumbo (or Bamboo or she calls it)

Friday after VBS, we decided to check out the new Bartlett location of YoLo, one of our favorite froyo places.  We're excited to have one close to us now and I foresee lots of trips to YoLo in the future.

After YoLo, we met my cousin Brittany and her husband TJ and their kids at my aunt and uncle's house to swim.  We had lots of fun and got lots of exercise to work off the YoLo!  When we got there the pool had some leaves in it from the previous night's storm so Kevin volunteered to be the "pool boy".  

Ava absolutely loves being in the water and she spent most of the day jumping off the diving board.  Brittany and TJ are cheering her on here.

When she got tired from diving, it was time to relax on a float.

After swimming, we went home, jumped in the shower, and then it was off to Swanky's for dinner.  Our friend, Jeff, was in town from Michigan and we met up there to see him.  Our friends, Doug and Stephanie, had dinner with us as well.  Ava loves her "Uncle" Doug and "Aunt" Steph and they love their "Peanut Butter Cup" as Doug calls her--since her middle name is Reese.  Here they are at dinner--Doug is being his usually silly self which Ava finds highly entertaining.  

Saturday, we celebrated our niece, Leah's, tenth birthday.  We have pictures of us at the hospital holding her when she was born and it is so hard to believe that she is ten!  Ava adores her cousins, Leah and Mallory.  Here is Ava with the birthday girl.

Ava and Mallory looking on while Leah gets ready to blow out her candles.

After the birthday party, we took my parents out to dinner at Jim's Place to celebrate Father's Day.  Jim's is one of my dad's favorite restaurants and we enjoyed spending time together and eating good food!  My dad is great--he is literally the most laid-back person you will meet.  Kevin tells me that when he asked my dad if he could marry me, my dad's reply was "Sure, okay.  That would be good."  And that was all there was to it.  Kevin has always said that he liked not feeling intimidated by my dad.  When I was younger, I was a lot like my dad in that regard but as I get older, I think I am becoming more like my mom.  People have also always told me that I look like my dad.  I've heard it so much that my mom jokes that she didn't even have a part in it.

After dinner, Ava wrapped her Father's Day gift for Kevin.  She got Kevin some Legos.  When Kevin was little, he absolutely loved building things with Legos.  Even now, when we go shopping to buy birthday or Christmas gifts for boys, he always is mesmerized by the Lego aisle.  I thought that if Ava got him some, he could share his love of Legos with her and they could build them together.  Ava and I do crafty stuff together all the time, and I thought this could be their version of crafts.

She picked out Cars wrapping paper "cause it's for boys."  She did a great job.

When she was done wrapping, she decided she wanted to go on and give Kevin the choice to open his presents Saturday night or wait until today.  It was obvious she was excited for him to open his present so he opted to do presents last night.

Oooh, Legos!

They started working right away...

And....the finished product

For Father's Day this year, I gave Kevin a Bible.  He did not grow up in church and I was not sure if he had ever been given a Bible.  I am so proud of him for becoming involved in our church and the great example he is setting for Ava.  He is becoming a true spiritual leader for our family.  He was so exciting when he opened it because I had his name imprinted on it.

Here he is reading the message that I wrote inside.

He was very pleased with the gifts he got from "his girls".  I've talked before about what an amazing father Kevin is to Ava.  They have such a special bond.  I could not have married someone that I didn't believe would make a good dad but he has just blown any of my expectations away.  After teaching for so many years, I had unfortunately seen so many poor examples of father figures and it makes me so proud that Kevin is exactly the opposite.  When Ava was born, Kevin was such a natural.  He just took right to it.  My maternal instincts did not kick in right away and I was soooo nervous about taking care of this tiny person.  Kevin would patiently show me how to change Ava's diapers and just reassured me every step of the way.  When Ava was just a few weeks old, it was the day before she was supposed to go get her first set of shots and I was standing in the kitchen holding her.  Kevin walked by on his way to fridge and just casually stroked Ava's head.  He immediately said "She's really warm.  I think she has a fever."  Sure enough, we took it and it was approaching 105 degrees.  We tried to get in touch with my mom, who is a nurse, but it was a Sunday and she was in church and didn't hear her phone.  We called our pediatrician's answering service and were told to immediately take Ava to the emergency room.  I lost it.  I was terrified.  We loaded up and drove to the closest ER which was at Baptist East.  By this time, we were able to reach my mom and she hurried over.  The doctors were concerned about meningitis and wanted to do a spinal tap.  They saw what a mess I was and suggested I leave the room.  Kevin and my mom stayed in the room and held Ava's hands while they did the spinal tap and I stood outside and listened to the screams.  It ended up being a virus and after an ambulance ride from Baptist to LeBonheur, we spent four days there.  To make a long story short, Kevin is my rock and my strength and I am the parent I am today because of his help.  

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Kevin and Ava:

Happy Father's Day, Kevin!  Ava and I appreciate you and love you with all our hearts!

Swimming Lessons and Summer Heat!

Wow, triple digit temperatures have already arrived!  I can only imagine what temperatures will be come August.  This last week Ava had swimming lessons.  My aunt and uncle built a new house last year complete with a gorgeous backyard and pool.  Since our families spend a good amount of time together, my aunt wanted to make sure that the kids (Ava and my cousin Brittany's three kids) all had swimming lessons for safety reasons.  My Aunt Carolyn works with a woman who teaches swimming and she was nice enough to meet us at my aunt and uncle's house each day last week for private lessons with Ava.  I had a bad experience swimming when I was a small child and consequently didn't learn to swim until I was ten years old.  I was also terrified of putting my face in the water.  I was a little nervous about how Ava was going to handle the lessons.  It turns out I shouldn't have been because Ava took to it like a duck to water (ha ha!).  She was not afraid at all and just was so excited each day to get in the water.  She gets her fearlessness from Kevin because I am generally not a risk taker.  Ava's teacher, Miss Allison, was great because she was okay with us sitting outside and watching and Ava loved being able to show off for us.  This way we were also able to get pictures throughout the week.

This is the first day of lessons and Ava is practicing just putting her face in the water.

She also discovered that she can stand up in the shallow end and walk back and forth.

Miss Allison taught her about "motorboating"(which made me laugh because I kept thinking about one of my favorite movies, Wedding Crashers--"You motorboatin' SOB.  You old sailor, you.")  "Motorboating" is just blowing bubbles in the water with your mouth.

She was so proud of herself!

In the afternoons after the lessons we would sometimes hang around and all swim.  One of Ava's favorite things to do was put on a lifevest and then go jump off into the deep end.  The vest still let her go completely under but would quickly pop her back up.  She did this over and over, never holding her nose or worrying about keeping her eyes closed.  Here she is in the background climbing up the ladder to get out and jump back in.

Practicing kicking...

And learning how to use her arms...

Miss Allison gave Ava a beach bag at the end of the week with a beach ball, goggles, sand pail and shovel, and a bunch of other swimming goodies because she did such a great job.  Kevin and I let her pick out two new swimsuits, a couple of cover-ups, and a new float.  We are so proud of her!  We plan to continue to practice as much as possible this summer so that we can enjoy all the pools at the resort we are staying at on vacation.

The swimming lessons weren't until the afternoons and the heat was just unbearable even in the mornings.  So we decided to break out Ava's new slip-n-slide (and let me tell you, slip-n-slides have come a long way since Kevin and I were kids!) and cool off that way until heading to the pool.

Ava couldn't wait to get it all set up so she could start sliding.  Here she is striking a pose in her Jackie O/Audrey Hepburn sunglasses.  She is such a ham!

Waiting patiently for the pool to fill up...

And finally, time to slide!!!!

Such a fun week in our busy summer!  

My Mother's Day present has arrived!

Each year for Mother's Day, Ava makes or picks out a gift for me and Kevin also gives me a gift that is just from him.  This year on the Saturday before Mother's Day, Kevin told me that he was taking me shopping for new living room furniture for my gift.  I had been complaining the last few weeks that our furniture was looking really worn out.  We bought a couch, love seat, and chaise when we first bought our house 7 years ago.  This is what they looked like a few weeks ago:

The chaise actually looked really good but that is because we never sat on it.

Love seat is looking pretty raggedy...

Couch is looking real raggedy...and this is why:

Patton is a snuggler and he loves to be comfortable.  When I was on bedrest for the last few weeks of my pregnancy, this is where Patton and I hung out all the time.  This is his spot.  If you were sitting there, he would literally sit right in front of you on the floor and stare at you until you finally felt so guilty you would move.  Allie has never shown an interest in getting on the furniture and is happy to lay on the floor.  Patton, however, is on the couch or the bed or wherever he can squeeze his 100 pound furry self.  We had the couches steam cleaned all the time but eventually they got grungy again.  

So, off we went to the furniture stores.  I wanted to change things up a bit and try to find some furniture that would fit into the space better.  After visiting several different stores, I finally found what I wanted at The Great American Home Store.  Their service throughout the whole process was exceptional.  I ended up deciding on a sectional and a chair and ottoman combo.  The sectional could be delivered within the week but I had the chair and ottoman made from a custom fabric and it was going to take about 6 weeks to complete.  So I wasn't able to actually have my gift on Mother's Day but no big deal.

The day the sectional was to be delivered, we cleared out the room.

We got the sectional a few weeks ago but my chair and ottoman came today and now the room is complete!  Here are some pictures of the new room:

Ava was helping me take pictures by using the camera on her DS.  

When they brought the chair in, I realized that the fabric I had picked was extremely similar to the fabric on my curtains.  I guess I really like that fabric!  Now I'm trying to decide if I need new curtains though.  

A couple of different angles:

And I have to include this one.  Look closely at the bottom right part of the picture.

That's right...Patton is on the floor!!!  Poor thing is so confused as to why we won't let him get on the couch now.  We have one of those big, cushy dog beds for him but he just refuses to use it.  I guess he is on strike!

I am very pleased with the new furniture.  I think it suits the room a lot better and opens it up more.  Kevin and I love the sectional because we can both lay all the way down on opposite sides and be completely comfortable.  

I've been taking all the pics for my blog on my phone because it is so convenient but I am not very happy with the picture quality.  The colors just look so dull and washed out.  I guess I am going to have to break out my actual camera and learn how to use it!   Something to add to my to-do list!