More Kids Say

Last the selected topic was robots.  Avery was still thinking about the cookies she wants her Daddy to make.

I'm on a Boat!

The first day of our weekend on the farm was actually on the lake!  My grandparents live at Woodlake (just 5 minutes away) and they have a dock, but haven't had a boat in many years.  Well boys will always love their toys and my mom didn't want want the boat slip to go waste so my parents bought a 1989 pontoon boat, the "Party Barge" to be exact.  We packed a picnic lunch, blew up the floats, and headed over to let Avery break this baby in!

 Hey Everybody, I'm on a boat!  (I don't know what the staple gun is for)

Move over Papa - Let me show you how to drive this thing!

 "I see waves!"

 Hot diggity dog!

It was a quiet day on the lake - I don't know if the clouds scared people away or I'm just used to the traffic on Kerr Lake, but it was easy to find a good floating spot.  

Avery really enjoyed the boat, but her favorite part was just swimming in the lake.  We kept having to call her back closer and of course she didn't want any help.  Now if we can just get her to keep her mouth closed...

Back to the Farm

Since Robert was away on his annual male bonding golf trip, Avery and I made plans to go see my family.  This time, we made sure to get a ride in.  After a quick hello to Vega (the big horse), Avery and Mimi brushed Bucky and then tacked him up.

Now over to the mounting block -- get a little closer Bucky....

Happy girl on a her mini horse.

Thanks for the ride Bucky, now you can go eat some grass.

Summer Days

Avery and I were watering the plants one evening and she handed the hose to me and ran inside.  I assumed it was to use the potty, but when she came back out, she was naked!  She has a big smile and said "Ok I"m ready!"

Pretty sure it had something to do with her visit to the farm this past weekend.  Robert and I got a last minute chance to go the U.S. Open in Pinehurst.  We have some friends that live in the village and some great babysitters (thanks fam ;) near by so we couldn't say no.

 Aunt Stephanie took Avery outside Saturday morning and she started out in her bathing suit.  (I wish they had turned the sprinklers on at the gold course too).

But Avery thought Harpo was having more fun and he wasn't wearing any clothes, so why should she?

At least Stephanie moved her to the shade and of course applied more sunscreen.

All the water play (and Papa play) really wore her out (she also woke up at 6:30 that morning, but did have an afternoon nap) because when we came back Sunday morning she was still fast asleep at 9:45!!  I'll let you know if that ever happens again :)

Play Date

Avery does have a few other friends besides her Lily-bo.  Last Sunday, Hunter came over to play.  The girls were so excited to see each other.  It's sweet to see them interact and amazing how the energy (and noise) level goes up when this age group is together.  (Again I have so much respect for their teachers).  I had planned for them to run around in the backyard with the sprinkler on, but it turned out to be stormy that afternoon so we did about a hundred other things instead.  Hunter gets bored quick.
Here are some pics of some of the things we did: wagon ride, story time, snack time, painting.  Not pictured is bubble blowing, doctor/patient play, bike riding, pretend cooking, golf, chasing Charger, dancing in tutu, and one meltdown over who was using the purple marker - favorite color of both girls.

Kids Say

This past week they must have been learning about aquatic life.  As usual there are some pretty good answers.  Reagan sure does seem like an interesting kid based on the Fathers Day answers.

Avery writes a thesis paper on jellyfish despite the question being about mermaids.  I like how she developed her own question, then answered it completely.  She definitely has some lawyer/politician in her.

Kids Say Fathers Day Edition

I think this will have to be a series or something.  

Ruby's dad sounds awesome, but I am not sure about eating at Reagan's house.  And I have never made Avery cookies, so her reply is funny as well.

Friday I got to pick out "Daddy's favorite shirt" for her to wear to school.

What a happy person.

Airplane!

As a continuation of Air Transportation week, we took Avery to the Carolinas Aviation Museum on Saturday.

Her first words were "THIS IS AMAZING!" She continued to repeat that for the first 10 minutes or so.  She then started pointing out the different parts of the airplanes (propeller, engine, wings, tail, etc) that they had learned about in school. 

They had several interactive displays.  You can see from her face how happy she was getting in an airplane for the first time.  "Daddy, that airplane is red! Your favorite color! But it is small like me!"

The guy was asking her questions about the airplane as she was pretending to fly it and she had some pretty cute responses.  She told him he would fly to the lake, but she wasn't big enough to fly by herself.

They also had a larger engine cockpit that she could go in and press the buttons.  I didn't get to take a turn, but it looked like a lot of fun.  I flipped as many switches as I could while I was in there.

This is her dropping Bombs over Baghdad in the cockpit of a fighter jet.

At the end of the tour we got to walk around a couple larger airplanes on the side of the runway.  There were planes taking off in the background so it was a pretty cool experience.  If she keeps up this love of airplanes (I hope so) we will end up with memberships at this museum.

Happy Anniversary

10 years ago, I got to be the luckiest person in the world by marrying the person that would drive me home from every football game, travel the world with me, become my best friend, and most importantly give me the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Here's to the last 10 years and looking forward to the next 60.

Air Transportation Week

Since Avery picked Air Transportation as what they wanted to learn about this week, the teachers asked the kids where they would go if they had an airplane.  As usual the responses were hilarious.  Avery would go "To Target with the round ones (the logo)".  It must have been a rough day when they asked this question because a lot of the kids wanted to go home.

Prisoner of the Week

Avery was picked to be student of the week for this week at school.  Before the grandma's go and get a bumper sticker on their cars, it means that Avery gets to pick the topic that they learn about and she has to make a poster about herself.  Avery chose to learn about balloons (which has evolved into "air transportation")...  Laura got to make a poster (and did a great job).  Avery then had to hold it up in front of the class and tell everyone about it.

This one is for BP.  Laura took a picture of Avery Monday morning when she dropped her off with her poster.  Avery was not too happy about it because it was A-Monday and B-morning.  She may look like her father, but she definitely has her mother's outlook about mornings...

Weekend at Home

After a long week, it's time to get back to blogging.  This weekend we decided to stay at home for once.  Saturday we headed to the pool after naptime and had a blast.  Avery managed to get me in the water and swim around with her.  We have a pool that is pretty shady, which is great in the summer, but freezing in May.

On Sunday, Avery and Mommy went and ran some errands while daddy did yard work (more on that later).  Apparently she got a hold of Laura's phone and took a few (10) pictures of the adventure (of her feet).

On Sunday afternoon, I decided that I could not stand to get in the cold water again so we decided to play a little golf in the back yard.  First, I had to show her how it was done.

 She tried her best with her 3 year old attention span.  We are going to keep trying because she doesn't have the genetics to be a basketball player or swimmer to get that college scholarship.

 Golf quickly devolved into a tea party in the backyard, so Laura ran and got her some real food to eat for dinner.

"Did you really think that was going to work??"

 Cute as a button and getting bigger everyday.

So the yard work...  We decided to improve our backyard and get a patio put in.  Hopefully they are coming to put it in in the next couple of weeks so we had to move some bushes out of the way.

Before..

And after...  I think it looks 10x better already.