Ava's First Sleepover

For the past few weeks, Ava has been asking to spend the night with Alina at Gigi's house. I'm not sure how or when she got this idea in her head, but she kept bringing it up every few days. Alina was so sweet to play along and we finally came up with a date that would work for everyone's busy schedule!

Gigi picked Ava up and all of her bags on Friday afternoon. Ava packed her sleeping bag and pillow, several snugglies, her DVD player, 3 movies, snacks, games, princess dresses, several changes of clothes and pajamas. She was ready for anything!

Ava was so excited to go spend the night, I was not worried at all that she would want to come home- plus Alina, the best aunt ever, was there to keep her occupied. I have her to thank for all the pictures she took :)

Picking flowers for Mommy with Gigi :)

Telling late night ghost stories- spooky!

I am so impressed- Ava even got a bath!

Popcorn and the Twelve Dancing Princesses- two of Ava's favorite things!

Snuggling with her favorite aunt

Getting sleepy...

Bright eyed and ready to play Saturday morning!

Girls Night Out

My best friend Lauri and I go on girls night outs every couple of months and every time I leave, Ava begs to go with us. Finally, we planned a girls night out for Ava. Ava picked the restaurant and what she wanted to do. We went to Johnny's pizza and Coldstone for dessert! At dinner we talked about school and boys and her girl friends at school- I think Ava really enjoyed being the center of attention and hanging out with the big girls. After ice cream, we walked around the Avenues and shopped. Ava loved Charming Charlie's- one of the new accessory stores at the Avenues. She picked out the boots below and tried them on for us- if they had them in her size we would have bought them :)

Ava is already working on a shoe obsession- aren't they cute??

I can't wait to spend many more Girls Nights Out with Ava!

Now we just need Caitlin to get a little older so she can join us :)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Princess Isa!

On Saturday, we went over to the Malcom's to celebrate Isa's 3rd birthday with a princess party! Ava spent most of the time outside with Isa and the rest of the kids in the bounce house and Caitlin had fun playing inside with Lillian, a little girl who's only a few months older. After most of the guests had left, Ava and Isa put on their princess dresses and played with all of Isa's new toys. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture above, but those are purple and turquoise extensions in their hair! They looked gorgeous :)

Ava has my sweet tooth and gets really excited when the cake time comes at any party- this picture made me laugh because you see Ava licking her lips at that huge princess cake! Yum!

Caitlin loved playing with all of Isa's toys- peekaboo!

Rob and Colleen- still cute together!! I'm not sure if they will appreciate their picture on the post, but I love that I captured such a sweet moment.

The girls were so sweet playing together- Caitlin followed Lillian around for most of the party. Lillian was my cake icing buddy- I was sitting on the floor eating cake and she kept walking up to me and signing "please" for another bite of icing. What a sweetheart!

Caitlin didn't have a princess dress, but she was sporting her princess-in-training t-shirt!

TRAIN at Chastain!

Chastain is one of our favorite concert venues and we love Train! We were able to get tickets at the last minute and all the pieces fell into place for Jason and I to enjoy a date night out. We were both laughing on the way down to Buckhead that this was the first time in over 3 years that we had been in the car together with no kids and no car seats! It was strange looking in the backseat~ it felt like something was missing.

Following our Chastain tradition, we stopped at OK Cafe to pick up some food for dinner to accompany the chocolate covered strawberries and wine that we brought with us- yum! Train put on one of the best concerts I've seen since Billy Joel and Elton John. Maybe it was the wine, but we were both standing on our seats singing at the top of our lungs with everyone else in the audience. What an amazing concert and a fun night out!

Thanks honey for being the designated driver :)

Caitlin is 14 months old!

Caitlin continues to amaze me at how much she can learn and change in just a few days. Several times this month, I have gone into her room to get her in the morning and I swear she has grown overnight! She loves hugging and kissing her baby dolls and her little Mickey Mouse. She carries them around from room to room and they usually ride in the car with us. She is into everything she can get into- drawers that are not tot-locked, the pantry, the refrigerator- and pulling out or re-arranging the contents. She keeps us on our toes!

She loves spending time outside swinging, coloring with chalk or just taking Heidi for walks in her little red wagon. Often, she is running around after Ava trying to join in all the big girl things that Ava and our neighbors are doing. She loves giving high-fives to anyone that will indulge her and she is becoming so expressive with her hands when she "talks".

Caitlin continues to be a great sleeper. She is into a solid routine of an hour nap in the morning and an hour nap in the afternoon, going to bed at 8 and waking up at 7am. Several times this month, I tried to stretch her out in the morning and skip the morning nap, hoping for a longer afternoon nap, but to no avail. Once she fell asleep in her high chair during lunch and the other time she only slept for an hour and then was super cranky for the rest of the afternoon. I guess she is pretty set in her routine for now...

Eating is a constant adventure. She refuses to be fed by anyone but herself and wants to eat like a big girl like Ava. We have some very messy meals around here! She is getting good about poking her food with her fork and scooping with a spoon.

She babbles and talks and screeches all the time! She is getting good at mimicking words and expressions and loves to walk around "talking" on my cell phone. Some of her favorite words are "Hi!" and "Daddy" and she says "What's that?" and points to the item.

Sitting in the refrigerator is one of her favorite things to do. She takes the juice and milk out of the door and re-arranges them over and over until I get worried about the other food going bad. I keep a bowl of washed grapes in the fruit drawer and she will go into the drawer and pick the grapes off of the vine herself.

As each month flies by, I am hoping to find a way to slow time down. Every day is different and crazy but so much fun. I am so grateful that I am able to spend everyday with this sweet little girl~ I love you Caitlin!!

Happy Shower Lauren!

My friend Lauren is expecting a sweet little girl this October. I had so much fun attending a shower for her and baby Isabel. Lauren is quite the fashionista, so she was inundated with adorable and stylish clothes- Isabel will definitely win best dressed!

Some of the other moms that were attending the shower and I had fun sharing little bits of parenting advice with Lauren at the shower. There were quite a few grandmothers at the shower and they were amazed at all the modern "gadgets" we use today :)

I can't wait for little Isabel Marie to arrive!

Our Little Dancer...!

...started ballet today!

And she is sooo excited about it! I'm not sure if it is the influence of Angelina Ballerina or The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but Ava has been asking for a while to take ballet classes. She was finally old enough to start this year, so we signed her up! We took a trip to Center Stage on the square to get professional dance wear and get her fitted for ballet slippers. She thought it was so cool to be at Center Stage and see all the older girls that were there getting fitted for toe shoes. Ava was too excited to sit still for any pictures, but hopefully I'll get some good ones to post later on.

I was always in gymnastics growing up, so this is a totally new world for me. I will have to learn how to put Ava's hair up in a proper bun and I am nervous about just dropping her off to go into a class behind closed doors. I have to wait until November to be able to watch a class! Ava will dance in her first recital next year in May and I am so excited to see what she has learned. At the very least, maybe ballet will teach my sweet clumsy girl to have a little more grace :)

So excited... she was rocking back and forth in her new ballet slippers waiting for the doors to open!

Happy 4th Birthday Christian!

On Sunday, we got to join Christian in celebrating his 4th birthday at the Stars Soccer Club in Alpharetta. It happened to be one of the hottest days so far in August, but none of the kids seemed to mind. They would stop long enough to drink a juice box and then go back to running after the soccer ball. Ava had a blast, she was so excited to wear her soccer socks! Maybe she will be a future soccer player, who knows?

Happy Birthday Christian! We Love You!

Christian and Ava in action

Caitlin loved the soccer ball- she wouldn't let it out of her hands

This was the best I could do for a picture of the two of them together- they wouldn't stop long enough to get a decent picture!

After eating cake, most of the guests went home. Ava wanted to stay and help Christian open his gifts, she was the official toy tester. Notice their poor little red faces :)

I had to get a pic of Caitlin's sweaty faux-hawk- I loved her new do!

Finding Nemo with Friends

On Friday night, Ava and I met with Lincoln and his Dad for another chaperoned date night. This time it was for a showing of Finding Nemo at Lincoln's church. Lincoln also invited another couple from their school, Addison and Luke. Addison has been one of Ava and Lincoln's friends since she was an infant. It was such a fun night of shared popcorn and fruit snacks!

Luke didn't make it past the first 30 minutes of the movie- he finished his bag of popcorn and told his mom that he wanted to go home. So, for the rest of the show, Ava, Addison and Lincoln played musical chairs and talked and laughed. Thank goodness there were only other little kids in attendance so no one seemed to mind the extra soundtrack.
We tried to get a few pictures of all three of the kids after the movie was over, but Lincoln was either too tired or tired of being the third wheel to these giggling little girls- he refused to get in the picture. Check out his pose in the picture below! I'm sure when he is older he will realize his mistake- not to have gotten picture proof that he went on a date with two pretty girls :)

Camping Day

This summer, Ava has had an amazing pre-school teacher! Ms. Debbie has created all sorts of new and fun activities and themes in her classroom. The first two weeks was Under the Sea and she actually built an aquarium that the kids could go into and then they had an ice cream week where she built an ice cream truck that the kids on Friday got to "sell" ice cream and popsicles to all of the other kids at school. Ms. Debbie has such a tremendous passion for teaching these kids in a fun and exciting environment!

This week is camping week and yes, their classroom is decked in floor to ceiling pine trees complete with a campfire and even a play Coleman grill to cook on! I wish that I had thought to take my camera to school so you can see Ms. Debbie's set design :) On Friday, the kids are asked to bring in their sleeping bags and pillows so that they can roast marshmallows and tell stories around the campfire.

Of course, Ava wanted a sleeping bag for camping day and of course it had to be princess! She was so excited that we even got her a little purple battery operated lantern to take with her. The pictures I took don't really do the story any justice. Ava has slept in her sleeping bag instead of her bed the past few nights, she has napped in it, and now she just wants to lay around in it when she watches TV. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't think about using it to slide down the stairs like I did when I was her age :)

You can see the little purple lantern at the bottom of this picture- it has to follow the sleeping bag wherever it goes and it is on day or night!

Family Pizza Night

For a long time now, Friday nights have been designated Pizza Night. I'm not sure how or why we started having pizza every Friday night, but Ava really looks forward to it and Caitlin can eat two pieces by herself! We usually end up ordering Papa Johns, but this week Jason bought some fresh pizza dough from Publix to try something different.

Jason has a secret talent of pizza dough tossing- doesn't he look like a professional?

If his other job doesn't work out, at least we have a back-up... :)

Ava is always a huge helper in the kitchen-

here she is crushing some pretzels for the dessert like a pro

Decorating the pizza was Ava's favorite part! She loved sprinkling the cheese and spreading the pepperoni, olives and mushrooms.

Caitlin wanted in on the cooking action- however, she was more interested in the pot holders as leg warmers than in the pizza

Tada!

Our final product turned out delicious and the crust was surprisingly crispy. It was such a nice change to our Friday night pizza tradition and hopefully we will attempt it again. Yum!

Best Friends

Today Ava told me that Caitlin was her best friend... How did we get so lucky to have such sweet little girls?? It's on days like today that it feels like all is right in the world...

Mommy's Big Helper

Is it a wonder that I get anything done around here? :)

You should see how she 'helps' with the laundry!

Happy 1st Birthday, Sydney!

This Saturday, we were double booked with birthday parties so Jason and I split up and took the girls their own separate ways. Caitlin and I went to celebrate her friend Sydney's first birthday. Caitlin had a blast- there was a bucket full of bubbles and bubble wands, sprinklers, and lots of water toys. It was so much fun to watch these newly walking girls toddle around and play with all their friends. Happy Birthday Sweet Sydney!

Caitlin and Sydney have been friends since the very beginning :) Her mommy, Megan and I had many playdates at Monkey Joes while we were both on maternity leave!

Sydney and her mommy, Megan

Eating lunch at the table like a big girl

The birthday girl right before she started digging into that smash cake :)

Lucky 13

Another month- totally flying by and Caitlin seems to change just as quickly! She is picking up new skills daily and really growing in confidence and personality. She doesn't say very many words yet, but she can definitely communicate what she wants! or better yet what she doesn't want. We read several stories before nap times and bed time. If I choose a book she doesn't want to read, she shakes her head "no" and pushes the book away, if she is done with her meal she has been known to push her plate and the rest of her food off of her high chair! She is completely opinionated... I wonder who she gets that from?? :)

She has taken several steps, but is still pretty wobbly. She is getting bumps and bruises all over from her falls- I have forgotten how scary it is to watch your child try to walk!! At first, I thought that Caitlin was just more of a klutz than Ava was since I couldn't remember Ava having such dramatic falls as Caitlin and then I remembered that we used to hover like helicopters over her to catch her before she fell. Poor little second child... :)

Caitlin is down to one bottle at night, I am anxiously waiting for the first night that I don't have to wash any more bottles, but I know that it will be bitter sweet since that is a major part of her turning into a toddler and no longer being a baby. She still has no teeth and I adore her toothless grin!

She loves to blow kisses, even though she won't perform that trick on command. And, my favorite thing is that Caitlin adores Ava and wants to be doing whatever Ava is doing. She follows her around the house and wants to play with every toy that Ava has- even the one in Ava's hand! We are still working with Caitlin on not grabbing toys and we are having to explain to Ava that it's actually a compliment that Caitlin keeps taking her toys- Ava doesn't quite believe that explanation yet...

Another month gone in a blink of an eye and I am loving every minute of it. I am so grateful that I am able to be at home to watch Caitlin grow and change. What a joy she is to us and I am so blessed to be her mommy. Love you sweet girl!!