Ava at 4

Ava's birthday is coming up on Saturday and our house and my head are full of plans for a Frozen party.  She has been saying for a while that she wants one and I thought she would forget maybe and I would get out of it.  Wishful thinking!  She loves Frozen, knows it all by heart, and how could she forget when it is everywhere?  So we will give it a shot.  I did a superhero party for Jack, so I have to at least try for the Frozen party.  For some reason even though I'm a girl, I have a harder time with the girly girl stuff. I was a tomboy growing up, and I feel that I can handle boy stuff a little easier.  But it's starting to take shape, and that's all I will say for now!  It will be fun!  I love birthdays and I love planning and decorating, so parties are fun for me too.  

I have been trying to take notes for a few weeks of things she says and does at this age.  She is still the more reserved of the two, but it's fun to see her come out of her shell more with people. 

Big girl!  She can -

Put on her own seat belt.  

Swing herself. 

(Tries to) bathe herself (but I still help).

Brush her teeth.  

Can go potty with no help and doesn't have accidents.  (PS. It's so nice to be diaper free!  It's like a $20 gift every time you go to the store!)

Next:  hair!  That will probably take a while longer.  She always cringes at my brush. One time she said, "OW!  That howts that howts that howts!  Why ow you doing that?"

Tries to be grown up - at least in conversation and with her not being able to pronounce everything quite yet...well, it can be pretty cute.  I'm the mom.  I can say that every now and then right?

She says, "Yeah sho!" For yeah sure. 

To Jack:  "I'm not mad at you, Jack.   I'm just sad.  God doesn't want us to be mad at you."

When you hug her, she pats your back.  

Aah little girls!  

Food

Her favorite thing to eat is peanut butter and jelly or as she says "peat buttow and jeyee". She doesn't mind veering off it for a couple of days, but even faced with McDonald's as an option sometimes, she will say "No, they don't have peat buttow and jeyee."  She even asked for it at Downtown Disney.  And sadly, they didn't have it!

Anything green that she doesn't like is a pickle.  

She loves corn and almost any fruit.  

Entertainment

She loves to sing and read and make up stories. It's really amazing what they can learn so early!  But we may have to work on the ABCs.  This is how she sings the end of the ABC Song:  

q ow s y and z 

m o s y and z

Now I know my ABCs

Next time won't you sing with me. 

She loves to take baths and takes all of her little princesses and characters in with her and makes up stories.  It's fun to listen to!

She loves Jack and really looks up to him for the most part, but she can be a feisty stinker of a little sister.  And of course, he's had much longer and more practice at being feisty and a stinker.  So we have some battles every now and then.  If they're apart for a few minutes, there's usually a big hug at least before pulling out the boxing gloves!  

Ava is a girl and a little more sensitive.  She can feel defeated pretty easily and can pout for no apparent reason.  She likes to pretend she doesn't hear you.  I guess there's no obligation that way.  At least in her mind.  But she hugs and loves and smiles and sings, and I hope to see her grow into a kind and loving lady who loves God and others.  What a responsibility and also a privilege and honor to have these few short years to impact her for the Lord.  I'm so grateful for her and for the opportunity.  I know there's so many things I could do better, but God gave her to me because I'm the one He wants to influence her in this way.  Kind of scary and exciting at the same time!  Oh and a bonus!  She loves to shop with me!  She's always up for going in the "cow" (car) with me wherever I happen to be going.  I will hold onto that as long as I can.  

Cake toppers.  She's excited to play with them but only after the party. 

At the pet store

With Daddy

They passed!

Swimming lessons are over, and they both passed from Aquatykes I to Aquatykes II!  So that will happen next year maybe.  They are excited about going to the aquatic park just to play now.  We will probably get a family membership next week when the price goes down to half price.  Jack is excited that he is tall enough to go on the waterslides now!  We are getting a little tan from being out there every day, and we definitely want to take advantage of the outside as much as we can!  

Auntie Judy!

Our friend Auntie Judy was here for a couple of days!  It was so fun seeing her and getting to show her our town and house and church.  She is a blessing to our family and loves the kids like her own and always has.  She has had them both in her nursery Sunday School class from birth and has spent many extra hours with them in choir practice and also in babysitting.  Jack also used to sit with her in church while I sang in choir.  So we have lots of good memories that involve her!  She brought treats and a birthday gift for Ava.  Thanks for coming, Judy, and we hope you come again! 

Uncle Brent and Guns

We got to visit Uncle Brent at his second job at Dick's Sporting Goods.  When you spend time with Uncle Brent, you are probably going to talk about guns at some point.  So guess which department he works in?  And guess what the kids wanted to do?  I think it made Brent a little nervous and me too!  Not because they were holding guns, but they are expensive and I think any mom is worried their kids are going to drop something expensive and break it in the store.  But no dropping or breaking happened.  This time!  

Happy 4th!

We stayed over from the dentist appointments to have the 4th of July celebration with our family at my cousin's house and saw lots of family on my mom's side.  We had a great time, and the kids got to go through an obstacle course of a watery soapy slip and slide, walk on a balance beam, crawl under a volleyball net and dig for marshmallows in a popcorn filled kiddie pool.  It was entertaining to watch!  It was so entertaining that Ava just sat down by the popcorn pool and ate popcorn while the rest of the kids worked!  Those sillies!  

Then we headed home to Fairmont for music in the park and fireworks by the lake.  We did get rained on, but it was still worth it!  We did it last year and loved it so much that we didn't want to miss it this year.  We saw some church friends and were able to spend time with some of them making a memory in the rain.  So now we have a tradition although I think we would be ok without the rain next year!

Here's Ava squeezing a baby duck.  I was so nervous for that poor little thing.  But it survived.  

Haha!  Got one!

The Dentist

Well we all had dentist appointments after a year of sugar and probably not the best flossing and brushing happening.  Going to the dentist always brings a little guilt!  But we made it through, and poor Jack had two more cavities.  It was Ava's first time and although, she was a little nervous at first, she did great!  I was concerned about her front two teeth that she had hit on the living room chair and chipped - OUCH! - since one looked a little gray a few weeks ago, but apparently, you can bruise your blood vessels in your teeth and they will discolor; but since she didn't burst them, they returned to the normal color just like when a bruise goes away.  So here she is all clean and happy with a "popo pwincess toothbwush".  

And later...exhausted!  Sometimes you just need your daddy.  Here's a couple of good ones of her and Matt.  He's singing to her in the second one, and she has loved that from day one.  

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib

I love these books written by Maud Hart Lovelace about her childhood and her two best friends set in Mankato (aka Deep Valley), Minnesota around the turn of the century, my favorite time period.  I was able to visit her home and take a bus tour around Mankato to see many of the places found in her stories.  It was so much fun!  I love children's books, and these are some of my favorites.  I also love houses, so it was a double bonus!  We started off our tour at the library in the Maud Hart Lovelace wing.  

This is a mural hanging in the Mankato library which depicts Maud and many of the scenes in the books and the artist who painted it.  

Tacy's house is right across from Betsy's.  Tacy's name in real life was Frances "Bick" Kenney.  Bick was her nickname because she had bright red hair and her little brother couldn't say "brick".  Betsy watched Tacy's family move in from her house across the street and was hoping for a little girl her age to play with.  Tacy was invited to Betsy's 5th birthday party and brought her a tiny glass pitcher which is displayed in the house.  And they were best friends all of their lives from that point on.  They meet Tib a little later who also was a lifelong friend and who lived on the next block.  

This is Betsy's house and the last maple tree living planted by Betsy's (Maud's) father.  

I love these old doorknobs!

The master bedroom

The bench where Betsy and Tacy would meet on the "little hill".  

I bought a poster of Maud's first four Betsy-Tacy book covers, framed it and will hang it in our school room.  

This was a delightful experience, and I would love to volunteer here just to learn more and to be a part of such history and endearing stories.  One thing I loved about them is that her childhood was a happy one and her family was happy and she truly loved her friends.  If there's anything negative in the books, it's about herself and growing up.  And we can all relate to that!  The books take her from that 5th birthday party all the way to her wedding and marriage to Joe so it's easy for young girls to relate and to grow up with her.  I'm so happy I was able to do this and have wanted to go since I moved to Fairmont.  So anyway, next post: dentist appointments for us all!  This was a much more fun experience to write about, I can tell you!