Flourish + Fun

We get to have a special slumber party with this special girl this week, and we are SO excited. She is just precious to us... a tender heart, kind, silly, fun, crazy smart, and just such an incredible singing voice. We love her.

We had the best, long weekend! We packed it in, and LOVED every minute of it. :-) Kyle ended up taking a day off because we realized that we have been so inundated with work that he needed (and deserved) a break! So we started the weekend off right, relaxing and going to bed early on Thursday night, yay for sleep. Friday we went to the community pool with some friends, Em and Ava now both love the water, which is awesome. And after Ava's afternoon nap our friends from Seattle came to visit and stay for the night. It was such fun seeing them and catching up. We headed out to Baileyana Tangent Winery for some lawn games, vino, and dinner. They had a live band and the weather was ridiculously warm (way too hot for my jeans!). Later we took them out to Avila Beach for some sand time and for their Friday night Farmers Market. Saturday we got to see an old friend (we go all the way back to Jr.High!) we met up at our local toy store for the Frozen sing-a-long! Em was pummmmmpppp...

We had a Birthday blowout this past weekend (I'm still recovering!) from Spa day, Brunch, Wine tasting, out of town guests and a big dinner party! We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and this week has been nothing short of busy, busy, busy. Em's preschool is closed for the week, so we've had lots of playdates and friends over for dinner... it's been fun, but we are pretty tired too! ;-) We did stop to smell the roses, too... kind of amazing! Oh and this girl caught some air and loved it!

Earlier last month we made a Summer Fun List. And I let Emma come up with 75% of the items on it. It was pretty cute for her to brainstorm what was fun to her and what we should do together. We are slowly but surely going to cross these off, this weekend we're collecting shells at the beach and I think a Jamba Juice stop, along with riding the escalator are happening too!

We are trying to embrace Summer, despite the fact that we aren't going on the annual family trip to Tahoe. So we signed Em up for swim lessons at the local community pool. It's a grueling thing for any parent, lugging your kids to and from the pool every day at the same time. Getting in and out of wet clothes, sunscreen application, and tons of laundry. But despite the riga-ma-roll everyday (what, oh yes I just did!) it has been so fun!! We have been going early for free play an hour prior and get to enjoy the pool and all of the crazy kids that jump in! Ava is a total nut case during Em's lessons. She runs straight for the pool every single time I let her out of my arms (she LOVES the water, unlike Em, who is slowly learning to like it). So it makes the seemingly short 40 minute lesson feel very lonnnnnngggg! She does everything she can to try to get in that kiddie pool, it's pretty hectic and at the same time definitely pretty cute, too.

She kept going back and forth for a while, then she finally gave in....

We started up dance classes this week. Em was thrilled. Posing in her new sparkly leg warmers!! It is so fun for her to dress up learn ballet positions, hop, twirl and just dance around with her little buddies. She told me last week she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up. So Juilliard, get ready, because this girl is seemingly pretty serious!! ;-) After dance class, pre-Mommy fixing her hair... Post-Mommy fixing her hair! ;-)

We had such an enjoyable 4th of July, it was soooo much better than last years {last year: leaving early, barely seeing anyone b/c of nursing all the time, so incredibly sleep deprived, car seat meltdowns, etc}. This year was the opposite! Ava did awesome in the car, she is notorious for melting down and crying till she pukes almost every time she's in her car seat longer than 20 mins (unless it's night time)! But she did great, didn't fuss and was super happy. We slept through the night prior which is rare with this one too. And we saw family, friends, and had an off the hook fireworks show at my brothers house. The homes behind his are by a field and do some gigantic, loud and beautiful displays. Ava had one brief upset and threw up, but after that she went right to sleep in West's crib and with the monitor in tow, we were able to stay for the whole fireworks show!

Someone was super excited to finally allow mommy to put a big ol' bow in her hair. :-) I mean, come on... I can't stand the toothy excited grins this sweet girl gives me!  {Ava @ almost 15 months}

Despite it being Summer, this girl can't get enough of Frozen. We have the movie and seriously I think half of my days are spent dancing and singing around to the soundtrack (uh, I don't mind a bit!). If you know me well, you know I would love to live my life in a musical, isn't life one? Kyle calls me an unofficial Disney princess because I just might be singing and dancing most of the day away. We like to pretend to "...build a Snowman" and "let it go" while pretend building our ice castles. I LOVE it! :-) More, more and more dress up, all day with this silly lady. She put on the hat all by herself. Cute huh!  My little love!  Em and her patriotic artwork. She thought she was SO funny putting 3 M's in her name. She told me right away "Mommy, what is super silly and funny about my name on my art?" Then I acted like I didn't know... until she finally (in hysterics) giggled "Look, 3 big-M's! And my name is...

Ava loves dress up... like really really loves it, at just barely 15 months she is always trying to put on necklaces, hats, and everything else in between. Em rarely did that, but Ava is all about it. She seriously cracks me up! Just the other day she put on her own crown and grabbed an apple, started chomping down on it and gave me the sweetest little grin. :-) I LOVE being her mommy.