A sad, sad day.

Jemma's done with her morning nap.

This is one of the childhood milestones I particularly dread (seriously right behind potty training). I work really hard very early on to get nap times set (and I mean set in stone) and I hate when it's time to reschedule. She was done a good 4 months ago but I have put her off as long as possible by a variety of tactics and now, since it's the first day of summer and time for a new schedule anyway, we're finally doing it.

So, one of the first steps is teaching her to watch cartoons. My children are not natural TV watchers...they have to be trained. Today was Jemma's first try with Word World. I strapped her in, gave her a bowl of Kix and left the room. She made it a whole 15 minutes (really just till the Kix ran out) before hollering to get down. Our goal will be 30 minutes of cartoon-watching by the end of the summer (without food!).

And yes, I'm dead serious.

( I like her leg sticking out of the seat here.)

School's out for summer.....

and it's pouring like crazy!

Ava celebrated last night with dinner at China Buffet. I'm the only she could talk into going there so we went out by ourselves and had a great time! No one else in town makes General Tso's as good as them so I stick with that while Ava has a heyday in the buffet line. I love watching her do this! She always tries a little bit of everything and she has the best running commentary--she could seriously be a food critic. I branched out and tried some "Delicious Chicken" (yes, that's what the sign said) and it wasn't too bad but when I wouldn't try Ava's mashed potatoes she said, "maybe they should have said 'Delicious Mashed Potatoes'!" I'm not sure it have helped.

Now it's cold and rainy and not feeling an awful lot like summer but the Casebolt kids are coming to spend the night so things are looking up for the little people of the house.

Here's to summer!

Jack asking if he can please, please use the scissors....

it's hard to say no to this face!

(especially when he brings his sister to vouch for him)

22 weeks.

The baby is now the size of a spaghetti squash and weighs 1 pound. He's a mover and a shaker and Jack was the first to feel him! To those of you who have been nice enough to say I'm not big yet, just you wait. This is the point where my belly starts growing at least an inch a day so by the next update you will not be disappointed!

Last day of school (woo hoo)

First Day!

Last Day!
Wow, she's grown! And lost a bunch of teeth!

We are so proud of Ava this year!

She loves school and it shows! She got her final report card today with "excels" in all her subjects and comments like, "she is a pleasure to have in class...she is an excellent student who is eager to learn." Even better, she is kind and thoughtful and such a great helper...it will be nice to have her around all summer!

Cause she's so darn cute

Early kick-off

Ava's summer vacation starts later this week but she has today off for one last teacher workday so we started the summer celebration a little early with dinner last night at Qdoba: and a slumber party in Jack's room:

Do ya love the sleep mask? Necessary when sleeping with mister cuddly, let me give you one last kiss in the middle of the night!

Soaking up the daddy time whenever we can get it.

No one seems to mind that he always falls asleep!

The last first grade presentation!

Ava's class did a final show for us with all their history facts and songs--it was fantastic!

Here's George Washington and his lovely wife Martha!

Jack said, "wow Ava, I didn't know you had such a big part...I'm really proud of you!"

Gearing up

Ed's busy season is starting to rev up although it won't be in full force till June. This means many, many daddy-less nights at our house for the next 6 weeks. The only good thing about it is that he's rarely gone overnight--just well past bedtime. We have a sort of routine when he's gone that includes lots of short trips to wherever we can think of going, lots of french toast for dinner in front of a movie, lots of bubble baths with popsicles, and, especially when I'm pregnant, lots of me laying on the couch watching the kids crank up the music and run wild around the house. Our first Costco dinner of the busy season...there will be many more.

(Jack can actually eat that entire hot dog--it's amazing!)

Jem's learning to appreciate Costco's fine cuisine.

Her little feet were kicking the entire time--the excitement of Costco starts early at our house...these kids are pretty easy to please!

Party season

has begun.

strawberry and lemon cupcakes

strawberry champagne punch

leftover party food...our favorite part of any event!

Mmmm we love her!

Running to give me a hug! AND she says, "I la you!" What's better than that?!

Outside!

We had amazing weather this weekend and we had so much fun I didn't take any pictures till last night...right before it started raining!

Last week, after weeks of icky weather, Jack said, "I'm getting an inside sickness from being inside all the time!" I hear ya!

Why do they even bother making skirts for this age?

Flowers!

My tulips have been blooming for over a month now so I have had a huge bouquet every day of my very favorite flowers. I was sad to pick this last bouquet which should last me through the week:

but then I discovered these:
which should keep me going till lilac season. I love flowers in my house--the one good thing from all this rain!

fat and happy

P90X with daddy

Can't get workout buddies this cute at the gym!

Turkey hunting with Bubba

She even makes a pretty good shooting sound.

Ultrasound

Ava having an ultrasound two years ago, just after going to Jemma's.

Ava having an ultrasound last week after going to the Boy's. (I see our technology has advanced!)

We hadn't planned to take Ava to this ultrasound mainly because it was during school but the morning of, we found two sweet little notes in the car that said, "Dear dad, Please keep mom company and safe today. Love, Ava" And "Dear mom, Hope the ulchersound goes well! Love, Ava" And we realized we didn't want to go without her!

20 weeks.

I forgot to post this one last week (but still I'm doing pretty good getting these up, huh?)

The baby is now the length of a banana and weighs 10 ounces. Last week at the ultrasound we saw the four chambers of the heart pumping away, measured the kidneys and lungs, got a great shot of all the fingers and of course saw a chubby little profile (and yes, my babies are officially chubby even at this size!). And we found out It is a Boy. Which was somehow (even after I have been wrong every single time) super surprising to me. Which is probably why I still call the poor peanut It instead of He. Paula called the morning of to see what I really wanted and I honestly did not have an opinion one way or the other. We do like our boy an awful lot so I'm happy for another but frankly I'm a little disappointed I don't get to use my pretty girl name and all my fantastic girl clothes and shoes! And, while we got rid of almost all our baby stuff last summer (goodbye swing, bouncy seat, maternity clothes, etc.) the one thing I do still have is a lovely pink bumbo.

Let the shopping begin!

IT'S A.....

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day started with some sweet little monkey faces waking me up and then Ed and the kids made me french toast (I was too lazy to take a picture!) and presents. And then we eventually headed out to the greatest fishing spot (Thanks Sarah!!). It was tricky to find but worth it. (Side note: Ed's truck has GPS, a nice British lady, and we call her Gaby. The kids love Gaby and are always amazed at how she knows where to go. So on the way to the pond, Jack says, "Ava, Gaby knows everything...is she God?" and Ava, nicely horrified, sets him straight but he doesn't believe her until we come to the end of the road and still no pond in sight and Gaby has nothing to say and Jack, disappointed, says with a sigh, "I guess she doesn't know eveything.") We found it!

Ava caught one on her first try!

Jack followed soon after.

Ava caught so many we lost track (must be the pink fishing pole!). She eventually chilled in the sun and had some curry chicken. Jack, on the other hand, fished the entire time and only had a few chips for lunch.

Jemma sat right here and ate the whole time!

Fishing buddies.

I cannot believe she is getting so big!

Heading home.

Jemma woke up from her nap like this...puffy eyes, fever, rosy cheeks, and nasty nose so we canceled our big going-out plans and ordered pizza and watched Iron Chef instead.

After cuddling the pudge, I came out to find these two here:

I love them.

I love this life.

The Little Red Hen

Friday was Grandparents' Day at Ava's school and her class did a performance of The Little Red Hen (a musical!). It was dee-lightful!

My little chick.

Cute costumes, great singing!

Ed's dad came up for the day and after the play took Jack out for the morning. They hit Starbucks, the game place, and McDonalds....all of Jack's favorite places. Then he took Ava to (guess where??) China Buffet for lunch. Later that night we headed back to the school for an open house and spring concert. Busy day and we only have one in school!

Jemma has learned how to climb on the furniture...

getting back down has proved a bit trickier:

(this picture does not even begin to do justice to the hideous colors and size and feel of that thing!)

Back to reality.

Although, can it really be called a chore when you have that cute little buddy following you around?
I finally packed up Jem's winter clothes (why bother when it's still snowing like this morning, huh?) and hauled out the tub of Ava's clothes from this age, washed everything, and cleaned out her closet and dresser. Two things occured to me:
1) I am immensely sentimental when it comes to my kid's clothes--each item I pulled out had a big important memory of my sweet Ava when she was just a little monkey.
2) How is it even possible to have this many clothes for just a short six month period of your life??

One more...

The last night we were finally on our own so we had some Chinese and went to a dueling piano bar and then we walked all the way back down the strip pretty much just looking at people--a fulltime job in Vegas!

First stop in Vegas:

Margaritaville!

*******************

We walked a ton that afternoon, and when I started whining Ed bought me a blended lemonade from Starbucks (my go-to drink when pregnant) and we sat by the pool for a bit to recharge. If I'd known what the weather was going to do the rest of the week I wouldn't have moved but we got up and kept on tourist-ing with the rest of them.

That night we had an awesome $200 a person (with 12 persons!) dinner at Smith and Wollensky.

Ed had meetings the next day so I shopped and wandered and eventually hit the pool:

and yes I'm in jeans and a huge turtleneck sweater.

It was freezing. Maybe (maybe) 60 degrees with so much wind (and I live in the PNW so I know wind) that the chairs were flying in the pool. I eventually gave it up and bought one of these:
and headed to my room to see this view:

But really, who cares? It was quiet and clean and I read a whole book that afternoon (five total for the trip). That night we had another super pricey, super yummy dinner and then went to Love, the Beatles Cirque du Soliel. It was amazing! Although there were parts that totally made my stomach hurt (they were literally flying around without any harnesses or safety straps! And I could just see them smashing their heads!). It was a very Vegas show--perfect!

Friday morning was still cold and windy but Ed was done with work so we headed out to wander some more.

And we saw (of all the people to see in Vegas) Pete Rose! Signing autographs of his book, which you had to purchase first for $90! Ed's a huge fan but was to chicken to get closer and made me take his picture which was funny till I looked around and saw that of all the gawkers, all of the guys were hovering in the back making their wives take pictures....cracked me up!

That afternoon the wind finally died, the temp hit 70 and I literally ran for the pool where I sat right here till dinner:

While I was lounging, Ed was being much more productive, hitting the poker tables where he came up with this:

Nice to come home from vacation with some cash, huh?