Sophia's Pool Party!

Sophia had the perfect summer party - a pool party! As much as Avery loves the pool, we thought she'd jump right in, but she decided she had to check out these new surroundings first!

Finally Avery got acclimated to her surrounds. She enjoyed the little slide for a while with daddy catching her. Then, she attemped climbing up the big slide a couple of times without going down. Finally, with about five minutes until the end of the party, she decided to venture down with daddy! The smile below says it all, pure joy! This girl really is a little fish!

Take a listen to the video below, she really does have a great time and proceeds to get about three more runs in!

Thank you Sophia for having a super fun party, exactly what summer should be all about!

Cousins Overnight

Avery adores her cousins, and we got to have them overnight last weekend to give the grandparents a break. Phil and Amy went on a mission trip to Guatemala, so all three kiddos were at the grandparents.

We picked up two of the three and traded cars - another need for a bigger car - and headed out. We had hot weather, came home and spent some time in the pool and then playing and visiting the big park in our neighborhood.

The next day we ventured out to the Bellevue Arts Fair and then to a pizza lunch. These pictures crack me up, I think playing with dough was more fascinating and interesting then eating any kind of lunch!

After lunch we took advantage of the wonderful summer weather and headed out to Grasslawn park, such a fun place! They actually have two play areas, one with this amazing rope structure that Corbin just immediately gravitated towards and scaled immediately!

Chef Avery

Avery came down from bath the other night and was insistent on helping mama cook. She really does love being involved with everything we are doing and this was the perfect task for her. I was toasting some Israeli couscous for a recipe that I've basically memorized and now just alter based on what we have in the house. Here is my favorite version by Giada, and this is my second favorite version. If you look at the recipes you'll see that the trick is in toasting the couscous before you start adding the chicken broth. It is a great recipe, makes a lot and the noodles are a super kid friendly shape. More cooking adventures with Chef Avery to come!

YaYa Playdate!

It is always such a great time to get together with good friends. One of the things we've realized with this group is that as much as we all love getting together just us girls, we do not get our kiddos together often enough.

We got a date on the calendar and thankfully there was no sickness and it was so great to see everyone! Photo courtesy of Inglin Photography, and I just adore it. The kids look like models - and we don't think we are biased. From L to R, Caelin, 2.5 years, Sophia 3 years, Sebi 20 months, Charlie 2.5 years, Avery 3 years. It has been over five years since we all met planning our weddings and it has been a joy to get to know these lovely ladies, as well as now see that we all have kiddos - with two more that didn't make it into this pic, Finley 8 months and Marlo 2 months.

Avery did some experimenting while we were there and climbed this huge rope structure, we are so glad that she is at an age where she is pretty fearless and for a girl so happy that she has the confidence to do all these great things!

Then she ended the day as one happy girl on a hammock swinging back and forth! We all look forward to continued adventures with this group of friends, between spouses and kiddos we are lucky to call you all friends!

PEPS Annual Summer Picnic

We had our annual summer picnic with our PEPS group in July on one of the hottest days of the year so far! Lake Boren was the spot and it was perfect with a great covered area right near the play area! It is so amazing and fun to see all these kiddos since we've known them for three years! (L-R, Brynn, Avery, Jackson) We had a couple friends missing from this pic, and not as many outtakes as pictures before, but it was a fun afternoon!

Kellen is a new addition to the group, Jackson's little brother and was having so much fun on the swings!

Tyler was one hot boy that day! He wouldn't take that hat off and just kept going and going....no pictures of his face, but you can see how much fun he was having all day long!

Jackson was hamming it up for the camera with his beautiful smile and enjoying some swing time. I'm sure the slight wind of the swing felt great.

Sweet Avery, she had so much fun too and enjoyed running around with all of her friends.

We are lucky that we have gotten to meet and become friends with all these families. Some of them we see each Saturday at The Little Gym and others we catch up with a few times a year based on where we all live. I don't think we all would have made it the first few months without this group. Shingo is missing from our pics as he left a little earlier, but we can't wait to get your smile at the next gathering!

Ice Cream Truck

The ice cream truck is one of those childhood "feel good" memories. I can't honestly say I remember it a bunch, but I do know that music and remmber a few times. The ice cream truck has come through our neighborhood since we have lived here, but today was a first, Avery got ice cream!

She promoptly sat down in the front driveway (how summer-esque is that?) and chose which ice cream delight to embark upon!

I think her choice of digging into the ice cream sandwich was a good one - she loved and and still ate her dinner. Our neighbor warned us that now she would always associate that music with ice cream, I do think that is the point, and can't wait for more sunshine indulgences!

Easter Weekend

What a fun Easter weekend we had! Family, friends and fun! Let us remember why we celebrate this important of all holidays.

We had a lovely time on Saturday at the Rainier Club Easter festivities, complete with indoor pony rides! Avery was timid at first, but after a few minutes took the opportunity to ride all THREE ponies because there were no other kids in line!

Sunday morning we headed off to early church service, which was great. There were several baptisms and despite that being the portion of service that Avery got scared about, she did really well and enjoyed the music best. That afternoon, the Ballard clan came over for a lovely Easter dinner. Auntie Amy had the great idea of hiding eggs out back and the kids had so much fun hunting for eggs - showing off their impromptu baskets and collectibles here!