Girl Power!

We have been busy! The weather was so beautiful for the second half of April. We were able to work outside on our yard. Ava and I had such girl power, I was so proud. We cleared large rocks out of a particularly ugly part of our yard. Ava was a trooper and insisted on helping me. We filled this tractor bucket 3 times! I told her to play while I worked, but no can do! She also helped me rake, pick up sticks, and weed. We let the Spring sun kiss our pasty white skin and it was wonderful!

As a treat, we did manicures and pedicures. For the first time, I let Ava do the painting. She did an excellent job and had so much fun doing it. We paint her nails whenever they need to be cut. It's the only way I've figured out how to get her to let me trim her nails. If she can pick out the nailpolish, she'll sit still for the trimming. She took this job so seriously and tried to keep it off my skin. We weren't close to perfect, but you have to start somewhere!

Other things I've been letting Ava try . . . Feeding Bowe! I actually got this idea from Natalie. I'd never thought to let Ava help with that before. She did pretty well, but lost interest before he was done. What a great help! It keeps them both busy while I make dinner, or lunch, or whatever! The best part is that Ava absolutely loves to help. She wants to be just like us and do what we do, even if it's boring chores. I wish I had a video of Bowe laughing while Ava fed him. They both thought it was so funny and I can't help but laugh when they do.

Other pictures of fun Spring days. Flying a kite in our now rock free yard. So fun!

The tulips are up! We see colorful flowers out all of our windows. I love Spring!
We dusted off the big red wagon. It fits two nicely with plenty of room for snacks and toys. I'm guessing this'll get plenty of miles this Summer. We can actually afford the gas for this bad boy!Todd and I took Ava to the circus last weekend. It was a smaller circus than I remember going to, but she had a great time. She loved the clowns. I thought they were a little disappointing, but what do I know? When we got home, my mom (who was watching Bowe) asked what her favorite part was and she said, "Sitting on the clown's lap." What? My mom looked at me a little funny and I quickly said, "That didn't happen." I don't know where she comes up with this stuff, but she certainly has a mind of her own.

This did happen . . .

Should this happen? It's a bear walking on his hands down some stairs. It is really weird to see big brown bears riding bikes and walking around. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture.
Here is Ava trying to create our very own circus at home.
And just because he's cute. . . Here are a few pictures of my big boy, Bowe.
The beginning's of crawling. He can spin around 360 degrees and inch forward by somehow using his head. I'll have to get that on video.
The newest discovery . . . a tongue! We've seen it sticking out quite often these days.