merry kisskiss!

It's styro-snowing!

Santa

Ava hopped right on Santa's lap and told him exactly what she wants: A ballerina doll that she saw in a toy magazine.

Zoe wasn't interested in going near him, so we sat her on his lap. No tears, but she wouldn't even look at him.

She gradually slides off.

All she wanted was her coloring book and she was ready to go. Ava was cozy and could have hung out on Santa's lap all day.

We have seen large, heavy, white-bearded old men all over town this month...out to dinner, at Target...they're wearing regular clothes, but Ava's theory is that maybe it really is Santa and he's just checking up on kids to see if they should be on the naughty or nice list. I think she's right.

Gingerbread House

We built a gingerbread house this year.

Ava enjoyed decorating it.

Zoe enjoyed sampling it.

Icicles hanging off the roof or finger trails?

By the end of the day, this is what the house looked like.
I think we can confirm that they were finger trails in the previous picture.

October & November

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The girls have been dancing daily, geared up in tutus. We experimented with a hairdo for Zoe's Halloween costume, with her short hair it was just right for a Muppet (she was Zoe from Sesame Street). The girls loved the snow in October! Frosty also returned briefly, he stayed for a day or two. Ava has really enjoyed cutting at school, as demonstrated by the 3 ziploc bags of "work" she brought home. If anyone needs confetti, I'm sure she would be thrilled to share her talent…she can cut them very, VERY tiny too. :) We celebrated Grama Joleen's 50th birthday in October and visited Grampa Jeff and Grama Donna for Halloween in Sioux Falls. Hits of the weekend were the pumpkins, Grampa Jeff's manicure with princess fingernails, trick-or-treating at the mall, and testing out cousin Gavin's 4-wheeler. We went bowling and Zoe enjoyed the shoes more than anything. Ava got her much requested "rotten eggs" (deviled eggs) for Thanksgiving.

Summer 2009

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We had a busy summer filled with dancing, fishing, camping, sparkler, splashpad fun, water hose fights, a wet parade, chalk drawings, bikerides, sandbox play (and some in the kitchen...Zoeee!), a birthday party (Ava is 4!), Ava and Daddy's trip to Grampa Jeff's, the houseboat vacation, and Ava started preschool.

Memorial Weekend

Last weekend the girls and I went up to Wilderness Park to go camping with Grama Joleen and Grampa John. We slept in a tent in sleeping bags and at one point in the night it was sleeping BAG, we were all in my sleeping bag! We had fun swimming, three-wheeling, sitting by the burn-fire (Ava's term for bonfire), walking, and going to the pig races.

Zoe snuck a morning snooze in Mommy's favorite place. I love holding a sleeping baby and Zoe doesn't usually settle in enough to do this, so it was a nice treat for both of us!

Zoe wasn't too interested in swimming without Mommy, and Mommy didn't want to freeze her butt off, so Zoe mostly just hung out on the side of the pool with us.

This would be Ava's version of hanging out on the side of the pool. Ava never left the pool. I swear if she hadn't shown me her feet, I'd have thought she really was a mermaid.

Ava got a good view of the pig races in Leader. At the bar in town, they have pig races every weekend. They have a track around the outside that little piglets (with numbers on their backs) run through and they race around it to see who wins. I think they draw names and those people get to pick a pig or something? Not sure exactly what the drill is, but it was fun to watch. In between the pig races they have fun games for the kids (and adults) like racing on bouncers, hula hoop contest, or Ava's favorite: the dollar dive! The audience threw dollar bills out to be burried in the saw dust and then the kids get to dig for them. She came out with $2!

On Sunday afternoon we went to the splash pad at Lake George for some more wet fun in the sun. We packed a picnic dinner and played in the water. Ava is actually interested in getting her hair and face wet this year, which was quite the surprise because she still resists getting her face wet in the bathtub. Zoe wasn't quite sure what to think; she mostly just followed Ava around. At one point she was crouched down getting an up-close look at some sprayers on the ground that weren't on at the time. I was just waiting (camera in hand) for it to go off and surprise her, but they didn't...I'm evil, aren't I?

Surprise!

Ava has been working really hard this month to get dressed in the morning (without whining and complaining and stopping to do 20 other things in the process of getting dressed). The last 2 mornings she surprised me by getting completely dressed before she even stepped foot out of her room! Getting dressed is often a 20-minute ordeal in the morning. We now have a tray on her dresser and every night after bath we choose an outfit and hair accessory and place it on her tray along with her toothbrush & paste. And there is no switching outfits in the morning! We call it her get-up-and-go tray. So far, so good! I hope our mornings keep going this smooth!

(I didn't get to her hair yet...was too excited!)

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Zoe found the pink cowgirl boots and won't take them off! She is also being a little daredevil and standing up on things she's not supposed to stand on.