I'm a Soccer Mom!

So, I've recently become a soccer mom.  It seems so suburban.  However, I still don't plan to ever drive a minivan. ;)  Ava decided that she wanted to play soccer for the first time this fall.  We have been practicing for the last two months or so and she loves it!  There are six kids on her team, four boys and two girls.  One of the little boys is also in her class at school and they have become fast friends.  A couple of weekends ago, she had her first game.  

Warming up and so excited for her first game!

I love the looks of concentration she gets.

And then the whistle blew and it was time to play!  Kevin and I are pleasantly surprised that Ava is pretty aggressive when it comes to playing.  She definitely does not shy away from getting right into the middle of things.

 Her coaches have been great!  They both really seem to enjoy working with the kids and are super encouraging and give out tons of positive reinforcement.  There are lots of high fives going on amongst her team!

Ava started the game so after the first period she was able to come over to the sidelines for some water and snuggles from her Nonie.  Our family is such a great support system for Ava.  My grandparents have been to just about every practice and game and my mom and Kevin's parents make sure they are at all of her games too.  This past weekend, Ava was so excited because her Uncle Doug and Aunt Steph came to watch her play!

Cheering on her teammates

During each game, Ava also gets a chance to play goalie for one period.  She did a great job--nothing got past her!

Unfortunately, we lost the first game but I believe we have won all the others since.  The kids congratulated each other on a great game.

 Time to relax now and enjoy their after-game snack!

We are all really enjoying watching Ava play and soccer is a great way to get exercise.  All of the other activities Ava participates in are not team oriented so this has been a great learning experience all the way around.  I think she will want to continue with soccer after this season.  So now dance, gymnastics, soccer and she just decided the other day at the Bartlett Celebration that she may want to try karate!  There are just not enough hours in the day to fit in all the fun!  

Our Little Flower Girl--The Sequel

Back in December, Ava was the flower girl in my cousin, Brent, and my new cousin, Jessica's, wedding.  Didn't she look pretty?!

Well, it turns out that my cousin, Lindsey, had just recently gotten engaged to her boyfriend, Matt.  My new cousin, Jess, has a twin sister, Becca.  Becca is Lindsey's best friend.  You got all that? :)  Becca mentioned to Lindsey that Ava had done a fabulous job as a flower girl.  So, Lindsey asked Ava if she would like to be the flower girl for her wedding as well.  Ava was so excited!  When I was little, I absolutely hated being the center of attention but Ava is the opposite.  She always loves hanging out with her older "big girl" cousins--Lindsey and her three sisters:  Allie, Courtney, and Jordan.  

Lindsey let Ava pick out her own dress.  Kevin, Ava, and I spent a fun afternoon at David's Bridal trying on beautiful flower girl gowns.  We found quite a few that we liked.  The one Ava liked the best was, of course, the most expensive.  But all she had to do was bat her big, blue eyes at her Daddy and do some cute twirls in the poofy dress as she wrapped him around her finger. ;)  

We had fun going to wedding showers and before we knew it, the big weekend had arrived.  The day before the wedding, Ava went with the bridal party to get her nails done.  She had her own special pink butterfly pedicure chair.

One of the wedding colors was purple, so she got purple polish.

Visiting with Jordan as their nails dry

That night, we went to the rehearsal.  Ava got to hold the practice "bouquet".

The day of the wedding arrived and Ava was able to spend some time playing with the toys in the bridal room.  

All dressed up and almost go time!  This is the dress she picked out.  She picked it due to the exceptional twirling quality.  

Our girl looked like a little princess.

The wedding was beautiful and Ava did a great job posing for pictures afterward.  Here she is with bride and groom.
Two beautiful ladies!

After all of Ava's official wedding duties were over, it was time to go have fun at the reception.

The first dance of the bride and her father, my uncle David.  She is the first of the four girls to get married and I know this was a special, emotional moment.

Kevin and I had fun dancing with Ava. Our child is a huge ball of energy.  

As my uncle emotionally told Kevin that night, "Enjoy every moment, because in the blink of an eye, this will be you."  So, so true.  It seems like Ava was just born and time just moves so quickly.  Here is one daddy who loves to spend time with his baby girl.  

Two peas in a pod.  

And one blessed mommy.

2012 Small Fry Tri

Last weekend, Ava competed in her very first triathlon!  She competed in the 5 year old heat.  The race started with a run, then a bike ride, and ended with a "swim"--actually a run through a fancy sprinkler setup.  It was a rainy morning but that didn't stop lots of families from coming out to take part in the fun.  Ava was allowed to have a "trainer" accompany her during the race so Kevin decided to assist her.  She did a great job during the run portion and left Kevin in the dust.  He caught up to her on the bike ride and jogged along with her encouraging her all the way.  My mom and I were on the sidelines and I was able to snap a quick picture as they zoomed by.

After they passed, mom and I kept watching for Ava to appear in the sprinklers.  When she didn't, we started wondering what happened.  We spotted her walking along and Kevin pushing her bike.  We couldn't figure out what had gone wrong but Ava finished strong through the sprinklers!

When we caught up with her and Kevin, they told us that the rain had made the asphalt slick and Ava tried to take a turn a little too fast on her bike and fell.  That is what slowed her down.  But our tough girl got up, shook it off, and finished her race--bloody knee, elbow, and all!  I took a picture of her "war wounds", as we called them.

We wrapped her up in a warm towel and some face painting is just what she needed to distract her from her injuries.

Pretty rainbow on a rainy day!

She also had fun in the moon bounce.

Ava had fun visiting with her friend, Ryan.  Aren't they the cutest little triathletes!

Time for the medal presentation.  These are the kids from Ava's age group.

So proud of our girl!

Close up of her medal.  Kevin told her to bite it for the pic like the Olympians do but she wasn't really down with that. :)

This was such a fun way to promote fitness and a healthy lifestyle.  We will definitely take part again next year.  Hopefully, without any injuries!

Our Painted Lady Butterflies

A few weeks back, I ordered a butterfly habitat for Ava.  I love educational activities that are fun and that our whole family can enjoy.  This was a perfect summer activity.  After a few days, we received 8 tiny caterpillars in the mail.  They lived on our mantel for several days just eating their food and getting ready for their transformation.  We were surprised at how fast they grew!  In only a matter of days they had tripled in size and one by one they moved to the top of their enclosure to form their chrysalis.

Once they were all cocooned, we carefully transferred them into the butterfly habitat.  We all found ourselves checking out the habitat several times a day to see if there was any action.  After a few days, we noticed that we were near the habitat, the pupae would begin to vibrate rapidly.  Apparently, they could sense our presence and this is how they ward off predators.  Pretty cool, right?  See, that's making  education interesting right there. ;)  One night as I was cooking dinner, I took a minute to check out the habitat and saw that our first butterfly had made its appearance.  When the butterflies emerge, they do not move for several hours because their wings are still wet and they are unable to fly.  As the wings dry, they unfurl and the butterfly can take flight.  

Now that we had some butterflies, it was time to feed them.  They company we bought them from suggested soaking paper towels in sugar water and also feeding them oranges.  They loved the oranges!

We discovered that although these butterflies are called painted ladies, only the top of their wings are colorful.  The underside is dull similar to a moth.

Aren't they pretty?

After a few weeks, the time came to let our butterflies be free.  Ava said goodbye to her eight little summertime pets.

We opened the habitat

and only one butterfly flew out immediately.  The rest just hung out.

The red stuff you see on the side of the habitat is not blood but rather the liquid that is on the butterfly's wings when they emerge from the pupa.  We left the habitat on our front porch and checked back occasionally.  It was several hours before all the butterflies flew away.  I guess we had made them a pretty nice home!  We really thought that we would see the butterflies out in our yard for a few days afterward but when they left, they completely took off to the wild blue yonder.  I guess they felt they had a whole, wide world to explore.  :)

This was a really fun summer project for our family.  We enjoyed watching the entire process up close. And aren't you glad I just provided you with this science lesson?  Ha!  If you are interested in checking this out, I purchased the habitat from Amazon.  Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Insect-Lore-Live-Butterfly-Pavilion/dp/B00004U5UF/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346030425&sr=8-2&keywords=butterfly+kit

Weekend Fun in Nashville!

**I have to start this post with praise for both Kevin and Ava.  I am a planner, especially when it comes to vacations (no matter how big or how small).  I like to have all the details worked out--a daily itinerary including places for fun family activities, places to eat, places to see, and places to shop.  I even schedule in relaxation time! :)  I just have this need to make sure that we squeeze in every single bit of fun that we can and I LOVE researching cities and planning our trips.  Fortunately, Kevin understands how I work and he just willingly goes right along with whatever I come up with.  I really appreciate that.  I am also fortunate that Ava is the kind of child who loves to be on the go and she never complains about the sometimes fast pace.  Also, I love that she has become so accustomed to me taking pictures of her everywhere we go for our blog.  She has gotten to where she just automatically strikes a pose whenever she thinks she is doing something picture worthy.  I may be excessive sometimes with the picture taking but it is so worth it when I read back through these posts.  We will enjoy looking back at this blog for years to come!

Anyway, we just got back from a long weekend trip to Nashville.  We thought it would be fun to get out of town for a few days and just visit somewhere a short distance away.  Ava had never been to Nashville so we headed up that way.  We left Thursday afternoon and stopped in Jackson at Casey Jones Village for dinner.  It had been years since Kevin and I had eaten there but he thought she would enjoy the trains and the restaurant.  It was a fun stop--the food was decent but nothing to right home about.  

By the time we made it to Nashville, it was about 9:30.  We decided to go down to the pool and hot tub for a swim before bed.

The next morning, we got up and met my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nieces at the Nashville Shores water park.  I hated that I couldn't take my camera in without fear of it getting wet or stolen because I would have gotten some great pictures.  I managed to take just a couple on my phone.

Ava and our niece, Mallory

 See the lake in the background?  Ava had to test out the kiddie swings.

We were there for about 8 hours and had a blast!  Nashville Shores is situated on the lake so it is a really pretty place.  You can ride banana boats, jet skis, or play beach volleyball by the lake.  The water park has a lazy river, an awesome wave pool, a really nice playground area for the smaller kiddos, lots of slides, and a bunch of other stuff.  Ava, our little water baby, was totally in her element.  We all played in the wave pool until we were pruny.  It was a really great day of family fun.

This is what happened as soon as we got in the car to head back to the hotel.

Kevin says that is when Ava resembles me the most. ;)

Unfortunately, when we got back to the hotel to get showered this is what we discovered.

Poor Ava's very first sunburn!  She was a trooper about it.  We had reapplied SPF 70 on her at least 3 times throughout the day but I guess she was in the water so much it just wasn't enough.  This required an emergency trip to CVS for aloe vera.  

We had planned on eating that night at a restaurant exclusive to Nashville but it started to storm badly.  There was a J Alexander's right down the street for our hotel so we just headed over there due to the close proximity.  The hostesses were so sweet to Ava and gave her an etch-a-sketch to play with while we were there.  Our waiter hooked her up with a fancy, three cheese grilled cheese sandwich so she was happy.  After running back to the car through the rain, it was time to head back to the hotel and continue our night swimming routine.  

At bedtime, Ava said her pj's were rubbing on her sunburn so we put her in one of my t-shirts so she could wear something loose and she was out like a light!

First thing Saturday morning, we made our way over to the Adventure Science Center.

Ava fished with magnets

Added a roof to a house

Learned about chain reactions with dominoes

Explored electricity

Lifted a car with the weight of her body (really!)

Visited the moon

learned about the importance of healthy portion sizes

petted a baby duck

watched how blood flows through the body

played "Dr. Ava"

and "Paramedic Ava"

traversed a cargo net three stories high

and climbed a tower structure to the tip top of the building

Kevin and I climbed too though it was a little bit more difficult for me to manage the tiny, narrow spiral staircases with my camera and my huge, bulky camera bag.

Made it to the top!

After the science center, we drove over to the newly reopened Opry Mills and scored some great back to school clothing deals for Ava.  Our little fashionista has put on three different "fashion shows" for various family members since we have been back.  Kevin already knows he's in trouble because she loves clothes shopping just as much as I do!  We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  These guys watched over our table the entire time we were eating and they were quite vocal!

And these guys stalked us to the restrooms!

After we left Opry Mills, we drove over to the Green Hills mall because I never pass up an opportunity to go to the Cheesecake Factory when I am in Nashville.  I got some chocolate mousse cheesecake to go and enjoyed it later back at the hotel.  Yum--heaven in a clear, plastic box!

We were pretty worn out from the days activities so we went for a swim and then had pizza delivered to our hotel room and lounged around in front of the TV for the evening.

Sunday morning we ventured back over to Opry Mills so I could do some more shopping and Kevin and Ava could spend a few hours playing games at Dave and Busters.  It was a pretty leisurely day and then we headed back to Memphis.  We had such a great weekend that we decided to make the water park/back to school shopping trip a tradition each summer!