Dance Recital

This past week was Avery's dance recital.  She has been taking dance classes every Tuesday in her school.  If you ask her what she enjoys more, dance or soccer; she will say whatever was the one she last attended.  Laura and I both attended her recital in the morning and I don't think she could have been happier.  If we think back to the happiest that we have ever seen Avery, this would fall slightly behind her birthday and the football game, somewhere around the zoo level of happiness.

I don't think this ballerina could be any cuter.

This was the grin that she had on her face the entire time.

After receiving her certificate.

Same grin.  Some of the other kids were a little shell shocked by it all.

Mommy brought our little performance artist some flowers.

A hug for her good friend Hunter.

I think this picture is after Avery slipped during the routine.  I love that the other kids are focused and Avery is still smiling behind her hand.

Ear to ear grins.

Our happy family.  This is Avery's "CHEEESE" face which makes a goofy smile, but we still love it.

And without further ado...

Weekend at The Farm

This past weekend we had a family get together at the farm in Vass with Laura's parents and grandmother with the associated cousins, aunts, and uncles.  Avery loved being at the farm and definitely being the center of attention.

Relaxing around the circle with the adults.  It is funny how she has her legs crossed mimicking on of the adults.

 Of course she had to be on the trampoline many many times.

 Laura just had to show off.  I am betting she was pretty sore after this.

 Of course we had to go see her Bucky and talk to him for a while.

 She won several games of cornhole, although she did bend the rules quite a bit.

 Chilling in the hammock.

The next morning she helped Stephanie feed the horses and fed a few carrots to Vega.

 Then she said she wanted Mimi to take her to go ride her Bucky.  I am surprised it wasn't the first thing we did when we got there, but there were so many people to talk to she got distracted.

 A big smile for our little cow girl.  When we called her a cow girl one time, she corrected us and said "NO! I am a horse girl!"

 Papa found her a lasso to play with so she pretended to be Sheriff Callie.

 Helping Mimi with the chores.

We setup a cooler and she pretended to lasso it.  Watch how she runs like a horse after it.

Mothers Day Weekend

This past weekend we celebrated Mother's day weekend by not going anywhere outside of Charlotte for once.

Nothing like hanging out with my two favorite girls on the back porch.  Avery now requests to sit out there and listen to music when I am the one that picks her up from school.  She has been adding some bluegrass requests in with her 70's funk requests.

 This was taken on Thursday before the weekend of Avery watering the flowers that Gigi got for her.  Avery did a good job helping me to plant them.

On Saturday, we went out to Mexican for lunch (no pictures) and then Laura and I went out for dinner and a concert and left Avery to play with her baby sitter.

Sunday morning Avery and I got up and made mommy bacon and waffles for breakfast (no pictures) and started to wash her car.

 Avery's job is to wash the tires and the wheels.  I am not sure when she will be ready to wash the car, but it will be under close supervision so that she doesn't use a brillo pad to get the bugs off (like David and I did to Ru's blazer).

 Here's a picture of me.

When we got done washing we decided to head off to the pool so that mommy could take a nap.  The air was hot, but the pool was coooooooooold.  Avery didn't care, and I was happy to get some alone time with my buddy.

 After nap time, we took Mommy out for some burgers for dinner and to walk around Target and the fountains.  If you have never been with Avery to Target, it is a hoot.  She loves talking to strangers, talking about things in the aisles she sees, and being loud.  Yes....we are those parents with that kid.  This time it was funny because she picked out something in the dollar aisle (a magic princess wand) and was going to buy it.  She said that she had money in her pocket to pay for it (she didn't).  When I asked her for it, she would reach down in her pocket and dig around until she pulled out an empty hand and said "Here you go Daddy!"  I gave her a dollar and she must have told Laura 100 times that she had a dollar and that her magic wand cost a dollar and she was going to buy it.

Hanging out by the fountains.

 She saw some other kid walking on the fountain wall and had to do it.  It is hard to tell, but she is gripping Laura's hand pretty hard.  She is not a daredevil at all, but wants to be like the bigger kids that she sees.

Playtime with Austin

When we got up on Sunday and pulled Avery off the playground set at my parents, we headed down the road to Drew and Ashley's new house.  They moved a couple miles from my parents from a half dozen different places near Mebane.  They were pretty happy to be in a house that was theirs and we were happy that they are closer.  

We also got to see Austin who we hadn't seen for a while.  I think Avery was the happiest baby we had ever encountered, but Austin was pretty close.  He usually had this big grin on his face and was happy so many people came to see him.

Avery seemed pretty happy to play with him and to certainly enjoyed all the new toys that she had not seen before.  She kept on running off to his room by herself to play with all the baby toys.

 Avery gave him a big ol smooch.  Easton may not be too happy about that.

 We then took the kids to a playground down the street and Avery showed off her climbing skills.  She is slowly losing her fear of things and starting to do more things on the playground and around the house.  Hooray for toddler independence!

 Austin was pretty happy about the swings.

 He is just on that verge of walking.  He will take a couple steps forward, but really prefers to have someone hold his hands for support.

 Luckily, Laura was there and willing to help out.

Avery took Austin on a slow airplane ride. 

 The Dads swinging their kids.

Weekend at Gigi and Ru's

We headed up to Greensboro this weekend to celebrate Mike's birthday and visit Gigi and Ru.

Avery was pretty happy to hang out with them while we snuck out to go to a baseball game.

Ru was really good at the swing. 

I don't know what this sad face was about.  Maybe Laura told her she couldn't go to the baseball game. 

The next morning we were getting ready and Avery wanted us to come outside so she could show us how she could play on the playground.  She needed a little help, but she was pretty good at the monkey bars.

She also could do the rings by her self once Ru helped her up onto them.

 Her first dismount. 

She kept on going until her hands wore out. 

A much better dismount. 

BFF Playdate

After leaving Easton's house and taking a good nap, Avery and I went over to Lily's house for a play date.  These girls have been wanting to play together for a while now because 5 days a week at school is just not enough :)  Lily's family lives basically across the road by our house so I can see lots of bike rides back and forth in our future.

It was pretty warm that afternoon so we turned on the sprinkler in the backyard.  Lily had a swimsuit for Avery to borrow from last year that her mom said she never wore because it had a tutu.  Lily is a tomboy - see the trucks the background.  Her mom just loves that Lily has rejected all the hand-me-downs from her older sister, Kaleigh due to the pink princess styles.

After dinner, the girls found a "muddy puddle" to jump in which led to a bath party.  Another borrowed princess item (Avery calls it a nightingale) and I had to pry her away before they jumped in the bed together.  I'm sure they would have went to straight to sleep (ha!)

I don't think play dates normally involve dinner and bath time, but they were having so much fun and Lily's mom and I were enjoying "mom talk" over a beverage of our own, so I'm sure we will do it again soon.