Bowling!

Yesterday, we took the kids bowling. They loved it, and Avery is actually a pretty good little bowler, I think she bowled an 82. I only bowled a 92....

Avery's socks were the best part of her bowling ensemble.

Dono was obsessed with this blue bowling ball and freaked out whenever anyone touched it.

I had nothing to do with this...

Yesterday, I got out of the shower to find my baby with no hair:

Cute, but I think it makes him look much older, and I had been getting excited that his curls were just starting to grow back. But he looks even more like his daddy, don't you think?

Meet the teacher

Last night, we went to Avery's school to meet her teachers, Ms. Evans and Ms. Swan. I have not been very excited about her going to kindergarten, but after sitting down and hearing all about what they'll be doing this year, I am very excited. For starters, there are only nine children in her class. NINE!!! And two teachers, so it is an unbelievably great ratio and each kid will get tons of individual attention. They'll be doing tons of hands-on learning, lots of field trips and other fun stuff. Her teachers are really great, and I think they'll be a good fit with Avery. They seem ready to challenge her, which is something I have been worried about. Earlier, I was feeling not 100% confident in our choice to send her to a private school (especially when I wrote the first check! Public school is free, after all), but after last night, there is no doubt in my mind that we made the right decision for her. I'm so excited!

Adios, Summer!

Today, we threw summer a goodbye party. We went with 8 of my funnest friends to the beach on the bay. And what a grand goodbye it was! We:

Swam in the ocean

Built sandcastles

Collected jellyfish in buckets - and only got stung by one (Avery)

Found alien looking sea creatures (this is our friend Trent and what is apparently a horseshoe crab, but I think it looks more like the space creatures from "Independence Day" than a crab)

Rolled around in the sand

Sunbathed with our best girlfriends

Posed for cute pictures

Sailed on a pirate ship

Raced down the slide 97 times (and landed on our bum 96 of those times)

And hugged our siblings

Farewell, dear friend. We will miss you, summertime!

Twins!!!

No, I'm not pregnant with twins. But something almost as exciting has happened to me. Yesterday, at the spraypark, I was eating a hardboiled egg and it happened to have twin yolks in it. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to hardboil twin eggs. I have cracked many twin eggs in cake batter or scrambled eggs, but never in hard boiled form. Thankfully, my friend Trish reminded me that I should document this momentous occasion. Now I can cross it off my "to do" list.

Chocoholic

Here is my picky eater. At least he'll eat chocolate. It's got antioxidants, right?

Sock hats

Last weekend, we went shoe shopping. Avery and Donovan thought the nylon socks made very funny hats.

Avery's reward day

(Warning: Potentially annoying braggy parent post ahead. Don't read this if those kinds of posts annoy you!)

At the beginning of the summer, Avery decided to make the goal of reading 100 books before kindergarten started in the fall. I encouraged her to make a goal of reading some books, thinking she would maybe set her goal at 20 or so. After all, she is a fairly new reader. She suprised me by setting her goal at 100. I was a little leary because she doesn't have much experience with setting goals, and I didn't want her first experience to be one where she failed. She insisted on 100, and I finally agreed. We decided that if she reached her goal, she could go to the water slide park. Well, this week, Avery read her 100th book! I am kind of in shock at how well she has done, with very little prodding from me. In the beginning, she was reading mostly short, easy books with only a couple of words on each page. But by the end, she was reading some pretty hard books - the longest of which was 62 pages!!

Today, we took Avery to the water slide park. It was fantastic fun, and was especially rewarding as a parent to see her reach a goal and really enjoy the prize. She told me it was more fun than Disneyland, which of course isn't true, but I think the fact that she earned it made it more fun. She went down the really big water slides 4 times. On the 5th time, the lifeguard told her she was too short and wouldn't let her ride again. Boo lifeguards!

We love the wave pool!

And the waterslides!

Waterfalls are awesome!

Being too short stinks!

Avery's reading chart:

This was the best day ever!!!

After the water park, we went to the "Pink Pizza Place" (aka Generous George's Positive Pizza and Pasta Place) for dinner where Avery got to out on a chef's hat

and make her own pizza

while Donovan got to eat noodles

and straws.

I'm so proud of you, Avery!
(PS, after this we signed Avery up for dance class and then went to the shoestore to get her ballet shoes. This is what I was doing when I lost track of time and forgot my date with Emily. I'm sorry again!!!)

Back from Rio

(words from Scott)
I just got back from a week of travel for work in Brasil. We have one client there and we're hoping to generate more. Not just because of the hotels we get to stay in when we travel:

This gem is the Copacabana Palace Hotel, and as you would imagine is true of a hotel with that name, it really is right on Copacabana beach. Here's the view from the hotel's front balcony, looking to the right:

Here's the view looking left:
I ran along the beach one morning to stretch out some tired muscles from the 9 hour flight from Atlanta, it was great. The downside is that the number of people trying to get away with the dental floss swimsuits that have no business stepping outside in a bathrobe, let alone a dental floss thong bikini was disproportionately high. And seeing fat Europeans' crack fuzz hanging out of their man-kinis wasn't great either. I'll never figure out why grown men think it's okay to wear a swimsuit made out of less fabric than a sturdy handkerchief, but I guess that's what Iget for growing up in the good old USA. We may be hated, but at least we don't moon everyone at the beach by accident (on purpose, maybe).

But I do have to say that travelling with the CEO doesn't suck. Here's the view from where we had lunch one day, at the Iate Clube (Yacht Club) Rio de Janeiro. Food was pretty good, too.
There aren't any pictures of our day in Sao Paulo, but the view from the hotel wasn't much to write about. I did almost get carjacked in Sao Paulo, which was fun, but I didn't get any photos of that either. Makes for a good story though.

We love the Olympics, yes we do!

For the past week, we have been riveted in front of our tv for the Olympics. Avery is especially into them. Last weekend, she decided that the Olympians needed a cheerleader and appointed herself. She wore this getup everywhere we went, and did her "cheer" for pretty much anyone who asked.

Give me a U!

Give me an S!

Give me an A!

What does that spell?

I have no idea who she gets this from. Scott, probably.....

I've had my time...

The end summer seems to be just around the corner. I have been feeling a bit sad lately that summer vacation will be over. We've had a great summer. I feel like summer vacation for a stay at home mom is like tax season for an accountant - it is your busiest time of year, you feel like you might be going a little bit crazy, but it's really why you went into the business in the first place. I have also been thinking a lot about Avery starting kindergarten next month. The other day, I was talking to her and telling her that I was excited for her to go to kindergarten, but that I was going to miss her so much. She will be gone every day of the week, so I don't feel like I have a day where she is just "mine" for the day. I told her this, and she said "Mommy, you've HAD your time with me." I, of course, nearly burst into tears at the truth of this statement. The past five and a half years were mine. I was the main influence in her life. She spent the majority of her time with me. Starting next month, this will not be the case. While I'm excited that she'll be learning new things, meeting new people and having wonderful experiences, I'm just sad that OUR time is coming to an end. I'm already counting down the days until next summer, and this one isn't even over yet!

Vampire

In honor of the Breaking Dawn release this week, Avery turned into a vampire.

Actually, it's just a cherry popsicle, but it looks a little creepy, right?

Our Busy Thursday

Scott has been out of town for the past several days. First in Seattle, and now in Brazil. He's coming home tomorrow, and we couldn't be more excited. To keep from strangling each other in his absence, we have been keeping as busy as possible. Today, we:

Snuggled in the living room while watching cartoons:

Went to the beach (and then got rained out):

Rode the train at the mall:

Ate dinner at Chick-Fil-A and played in Buzzy Bees, the mall arcade:

These pictures are from my camera phone, so it may be hard to see, but Donovan had an allergic reaction to his sunscreen. He has to wear a special kind, and when I got to the beach today, I realized that I had forgotten it. I thought I was doing the right thing by putting the other stuff on him instead of letting him get sunburned, now I'm not so sure. Check out the rash. Poor kid. At least I had a valid reason for knocking him out with some Benadryl, right? Kidding.... Kind of.

Terrific Tuesday

Today, the kids and I ventured out to our Ward playgroup at Lake Accotink Park. We don't go to playgroup often, and I have made a goal of going more, thinking that if Donovan gets to know the kids in nursery better, he may like it better. We arrived this morning a bit late (shocking, I know) and found that not one person showed up at playgroup this morning. We decided to play anyway, and had a great morning on the monkey bars (warning, grainy cell phone pictures ahead):

in the tunnel:

and watching the workers pull this boat out of the water with a giant crane:

We were pleased that this mom and her daughter standing right underneath the boat being lifted by the giant crane did not get crushed:

The highlight of our morning was definitely finding this butterfly in the grass on our way out. I knew immediately that it was an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Well, to be perfectly honest, I knew what it was about five minutes after coming home with a little help from google. I also learned that this particular butterfly is a female, and it is our state butterfly (who even knew we had a state butterfly?). It was easily the biggest butterfly I have ever seen. Its wingspan was probably around 5 inches.

Avery loved it:

Donovan tried to step on it. We later tried to get him to hold it, but he was having none of that, but at least he would look at it. He's not much of a bug person. I think it's a learned behavior. Whenever I see a bug, I scream and grab the nearest shoe.

In unrelated news:

• Our renters finally moved into our condo. It's a big relief to not be making two house payments every month.
• I'm about ready to give up on potty training Donovan and resuming in a couple of months. He's just not getting it. Avery was potty trained basically within a day, and I'm now realizing that is not the norm. Everyone always says that boys are harder to potty train. I'm not sure if that's the case, or if he's just not ready. We had a good couple of days, but it has all gone downhill. He has several accidents a day, and cries when I try to get him on the potty. I'm not sure it's worth my sanity and his to push it right now. Plus, the whole reason I was potty training in the first place was because I was tired of changing dirty diapers, and let's face it, dirty diapers are much more pleasant to change than dirty underwear. I'll just leave it at that.
• My friend Sharon Pomeroy sent me message today to let me know that there is a Pinkberry knockoff place in town. (Thanks, Sharon!!) I packed up the kids and headed there this evening. I was disappointed that it wasn't open yet, but they look like they're all ready, so I know it will be soon. It has a lot to live up to, but if it can be even close to Pinkberry, I may be able to feed my addiction.
• We took dinner to two of my girlfriends, Bri and Shawna, who just had new babies. I love taking dinner to the new moms, mostly because I get to see the new babies and hear the birth stories. Seeing those sweet little babies almost made me want one of my own sometime soon. Almost.