Celebrating 12 Years of Joy

We were blessed this year to have Ava actually with us on her birthday day. In addition to lunch out when her Mimi arrived, we also had a little family get together a couple days later.

Mom and I were so happy to be able to host it~making the most of our new backyard...the kids played outside, we all ate dinner out there, and later that evening Van showed off his baseball skills going one-on-one against his dad!

Mimi Lori got to Dante for the first time.

 Later, Dante was able to crawl around in the grass for the first time. He has really started getting around~and quickly at that!

Ava spent some quality time with each of her cousins since she was leaving to go home to CA in just a couple days...

Balloons!!!

Dante kept trying to catch a balloon and they kept bouncing away~much to his chagrin!

Mom made carnitas for dinner~our house smelled incredible for 2 days as she slow cooked the pork!

Gifts

We gave Ava funky socks and a couple packs of gum for her gift~she was cute 'cuz she was excited about them...but more so when we told her to check the insidesof the socks, where she discovered a necklace, bracelet, earrings, and a ring. But it was cute that she would have been happy with socks and gum!

Tiff, Mike, and Teagan gave her two of her favorite things: clothes and a gift card!! What girl doesn't like that?!



Tom, Shelah, and Van special ordered her clothing and other items from the local baseball team, the Aquasox: she went to a game with them and later declared the Aquasox  to be in her top 5 favorite teams list!

Are we sensing a them here? Money, clothes, and jewelry!

But the best part was the card that Van made to go with the gift: Shelah said he labored over it for hours and he was so proud of it! He was almost jumping out of his skin with excitement when she got to their gift!

How cute was Van? And Teagan's reaction was so cute!

While we were doing gifts, Teagan went inside by herself~we later learned what she was doing. I had told her we would do cupcakes after dinner and after gifts. The gifts being nearly done, she took it upon herself to go inside to fetch the cupcakes, which were (fortunately) still in a container. Of course, being shorter than the counter the cupcakes were stacked on, did make her task difficult...she was doing ok til she got caught and got flustered and dropped everything!

No worries! The cupcakes survived and candles were lit, song sung, wishes made, and flames blown out:

Yummy Fun!!!



Ava, my love, you have grown into a lovely young woman and I am so very blessed to know you and have you in my life.

I love you!

~Auntie M

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby...

Happy 12th Birthday to Miss Ava Celeste! We love you!

Ava's Mimi Lori arrived just in time for your birthday today! After picking her up at the airport, we headed out to Kafe Neo for lunch...yea for Greek food!! Ava enjoyed her first taste of gyro meat and tzatziki sauce....

And Kafe Neo's wondeful mini desserts! Double chocolate fudge cake with whipped cream!

Yesterday we did a pre-birthday luncheon at Olive Garden...she had never been there before and had been asking to go all summer. :-)

Ava announced that this was the first time she'd had a breadstick! Too funny. Of course, lunch was followed by a mini dessert...strawberry cheesecake for Ava....

...Lemoncello mousse cake for Gramma Cindy and Auntie M:

Sunday we are doing a little family get-together to celebrate summer and Ava's birthday with James & Danielle & Dante, Tiff & Mike and Teagan, and Tomo & Shelah & Van.

Tueday Ava and her Mimi wing their way home to CA. While we will all miss her, Teagan is going to be devistated when Ava is gone. And how do you explain to a two-and-a-half year old that the friend she idolizes won't be back till next summer??? She adores Ava and loves being with her. :-)

I Miss Dante

I miss Dante!!!! It's been too long since we've seen him!!! Now he is fully crawling and pulling himself up on things.  As you can see here or here or here. Is he adorable or what?!?!

Adorable!!!!!!!

Can't wait till Sunday...It's Ava's birthday party and Team DJD will be in attendance!!! Yay!!!!!!! As will Teams TMT... And TSV.

In other words, Dante, Teagan, and Van will be here, along with their parents. And Lori!!!! (Ava's Mimi from CA.) Can't wait !!!

In the meantime, I have to content myself with reading about Dante on his mommy's blog... Dang, he's cute!!!


(Thanks, Danielle, for letting me steal pix and videos from your blog!)

Wild West

We visited the Wild Wild West again today...when this cowboy and (formal) cowgirl weren't wrangling horses, they were wrestling against one another. These 2 are tough! They were throwing each other all over the living room~I'd be dying of the pain!

 These 2 were more sedate: sitting and watching all the action!

Things were a bit more sedate yesteday...unless you counted the wild hairstyles Ava gave Gramma. (Av was going for the redneck  look, I believe.)

Crazy Ava, hair-stylist extrodinaire, even had her own receptionist:



We introduced Teagan to the Disney Beauty and the Beast...she liked it but she really tuned in to sections I thought she'd ignore versus the scenes I thought she'd really like (eg the song Be Our Guest). The little princesses came out to play~and Teagan realized that the teapot and cup was actually Mrs Potts and Chip and was amazed. So cute.

Again, I am always impressed with Ava's patience and creativity with her younger cousins. I love her even more for it!!!

Patterpillers

Museum Review

So last Thursday, it being the 1st Thursday of the month and therefore admittance was free, we took Ava to the Burke Museum located on the U-Dubb campus.

Their website made it seem rather large...and cool. It even mentioned a ethnobiotanical garden. We thought this sounded really cool. I had visions of the Huntington Library.

The Burke is NOT the Huntington!!!!!!!! Frankly it was one of the most boring museums I've ever been too. And it was too hot. And it was super small. And the garden???? Basically ethnobiotanical means plants natural to the area: so it was a small patch of weed-like plants that lined the sidewalk leading up to the museum...you know: blackberry brambles, ferns, etc. So, unless we missed the rest of the garden somewhere, the garden blew. Unless somehow we missed the real garden.

The displays that they did have were well done~especially their display on Celebrations of the People of the Pacific Rim. They had some interesting histories and beautiful carved pieces from learn about seventeen different Pacific Rim cultures and how they adapt and remain vibrant in a changing modern world. They have exhibits about the revival of a dying language, hearing the teachings of tribal elders, and has variety of interesting artifacts from Washington State and around the Pacific Rim.

Our favorites were from New Zealand: We didn't know whether to be awed or scared!

They even had masks we could try on....

So I guess it wasn't so bad after all!