Girl time

On Monday Liz and I took Ava up to the nature center while Aiden was at school for some quality "girl time." I didn't get any really great pics, but I thought I would share them anyway. I definitely need to take both of the kids up again this year to get some with Aiden too.

Birthday fun!

We're having an awesome visit with Liz! The weather today finally cooled off and we had a lot of fun playing outside and at the park. I even scored this cute double bus for the kids at a garage sale this morning for $3, and they are in LOVE with it! Ava sat in it all afternoon singing "The Wheels on the Bus." So cute!

Happy birthday to me and my dear sister! I have such an amazing family, truly wonderful friends, and an incredible life. I feel so very lucky!

Housebound and down...with the flu

I have been sick with the flu for seven days now. SEVEN DAYS of aches, pains, a hacking cough, a pounding headache, a fever and a sore throat. It has been no fun at all. The kids and Chuck just started coming down with symptoms yesterday. I can only hope that it is shorter in duration for them and we are all well again next weekend for Aunt Lizzie's birthday visit! (We are turning 29:)

So this week has been very uneventful. We've literally been housebound. I finally busted the kids out yesterday and ran to Michael's to get some things for us to do inside (it's also been raining every day, of course, so playing outside hasn't been possible at all). I've always wanted to buy Aiden one of those fancy lacing sets, but then decided to just go ahead and make him one instead. I bought a pack of colorful laces and used the covers of various coloring books to cut out different pictures for lacing. Punch some holes and voila--homemade lacing cards! It is hard to tell because of his awesome "cheese!" face, but I promise, he likes them! Lol.

I also bought a giant bag of colorful beads and we spent most of yesterday afternoon making bracelets and necklaces, or as Ava calls them, "Pretties!" Nothing like feeling fancy to make you forget you have the flu:)

Here's to hoping that the flu leaves us very soon so that we can rejoin the land of the living! There's nothing I hate more than being stuck at home!

Pixiebows plug

Just a quick shameless blog plug for my friend Holly's bow website, www.pixiebows.com. She and her friend Sharon make the most ADORABLE bows for babies and little girls. The first picture here is a new bow that should be showing up on the website very soon--I absolutely adore it!

Just a few pictures of Ava in some of her cute bows! I get compliments on them wherever we go. Keep up the amazing work Holly and Sharon!

Zoo Atlanta

Yesterday we once again took advantage of our zoo season passes and spent the day in Atlanta. We had such a fun time. The older the kids get, the more fun we have on outings like this. Overall they were both really good and had so much fun seeing all of the animals. For the first time EVER Aiden actually wanted to ride the train at the zoo, and the look on Ava's face was so priceless. She couldn't get over it!

Enjoy the pics. I especially love the awesome "cheese" faces near the end, lol.

Hut, hut, hike!

Aiden is getting really good at catching and throwing a football. Chuck has been practicing with him in the evenings inside and it's finally cooled off enough outside to get out and toss the ball around. The kids had such a blast tonight! Aiden really did great--it was awesome to see him in his element. Chuck was a proud daddy! (And Ava did great too:)

(Most of these are blurry because they are action shots, but I love them all the same!)