Ava loves Malory and Ethan!

We have been having such a fun summer with Malory and Ethan at our house a couple times a week! Ava LOVES to have them around and they love her. Ethan is always showing her good places to "hide" and he dances with her to her fridge d.j. without fail.

Malory is my helper and likes feeding Ava her breakfast or lunch. She is also a French Chef and makes delicious meals on her kitchen on our back deck. (I am pretty sure Ethan is the Chief Dishwasher.) Ava just follows the two of them wherever they go, imitating every move and every word.

Yesterday we made the mistake of using the new Crayola Sidewalk Paint on our walk in front of the house. Beware! It's fun but it stains! We had a really hard time getting it off the concrete. There are still some spots that are a faded neon pink. So much for "removing with water"!

Ava and Isaac

We got to meet a new friend last Saturday. Isaac Braaton is the son of my friend Elizabeth. They were home in Sioux Falls visiting from Oregon and we were able to spend a few days playing with them. Elizabeth's mom Wendy has been my mom's friend since they were in grade school so I have known Elizabeth for as long as I can remember. It was neat to see our kids playing together, especially since they were so very happy together!

Isaac is just 6 months older than Ava and the two played so well and were utterly adorable together. Ava kept giving Isaac hugs and kisses. But they were also sort of fighting over this chair and at one point trying to run each other over with Ava's doll stroller. :)

We went up for supper at my mom and dad's on Tuesday and both kids loved playing fetch with the dogs. Isaac was really good at taking the tennis ball from Tom (Dad's dog you see in the pic) and throwing it. Ava liked watching but didn't need to get too close to the dogs. She likes petting them but only their rear or side. If they are facing her she keeps her hands to herself. Scary teeth, I guess.

Never mind the girl behind the curtain...

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent some time at the campground here just outside of Brandon on Memorial Day weekend. Jeff took our camper over on Friday night and stayed but Ava and I just visited because we were both a little under the weather. Speaking of the weather, it wasn't so great. Note the heavy clothes and hats. But we had fun despite the rain. Here are some pics of our family and then some of Ava and Austin Studenski coloring in the camper and Ava,Wendy and Malory cuddling by the fire. Ava thinks camping is great because there are rocks EVERYWHERE! Plus little kids to follow around and so much to see at the campsites. We're hoping for warmer weather for our next camping trip but this year all weather bets are off!

Ava can read!

I was able to catch Ava reading a book today. She's reading a "Peter Rabbit" colors and shapes book and I swear she says "Peter Rabbit" at the beginning of the video. I'm sure it probably was just jibberish but let's just pretend she says it.

We want to wish Jackson Paul Anema a Happy first Birthday today! And Happy Birthday to my brother, Luke! And belated happy birthday to Samantha Leigh!! We love you!!

Look who came to visit!

We were so happy to have Uncle Roy and Auntie Erica home for TWO weeks to visit all of us here in South Dakota! Levi and Erica got to go out to the Black Hills where Erica saw Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial for the first time. They went with my parents and had a great little vacation within their vacation. They came for Zac's High School graduation (Congrats, Zachary!!) and stayed till the last weekend in May.

Erica, Ava and myself spent a day together hanging out while Levi was busy doing something else. Poor Erica had to "babysit" both of us as I had woken up on Memorial Day Monday not being able to turn or tilt my neck to the left. Ouch! So she drove us straight to the Chiropractor on Tuesday and then drove us around doing some errands and then lunch after the chiro. Despite a stiff neck it was nice getting to visit with Erica. I wish that we could see more of them! And they couldn't believe how much Ava had grown in the 10 months since they had last seen her! She had gone from a baby to a toddler, hardly rolling over to running all over!

Our Future Dordt Student

Is Ava going to follow in Auntie Amy and Uncle Paul's footsteps? She's got the right sweatshirt so I guess we'll see where the future takes her. We think that she's college material, she's smart as a whip and a real social butterfly. Our neighbor and friend, Mary Lou, told me one day, "I'm sorry, Kari, but I REALLY believe that Ava is extremely smart! I can't get over the things that she does! When I was watching her one day she was looking at a magazine and would lick her fingers to help her turn the pages! She was really doing it!!" I told Mary Lou she didn't need to apologize, we think Ava's very intelligent, too. :) I mean, she is my child, right? (HaHaHaHa)