Sunday, September 27, 2009

Back to School

Ava started Pre-Kindergarten at Immanuel Lutheran School in Washington, MO on August 24. Here are some pics of the big day.

"Back to school" fog in the valley next to our house:The kids posing on the patio before our departure:Ava in front of her cubby in her new classroom:

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Random Messes and Cuteness

Just a few examples of the messes and cuteness that occur on a daily basis at our house. . .

Bringing a little of the outdoors inside (cute):Bad boys! (more cute):Cookie fingers (mess!): And finally, what happens when a two year old gets into the baby powder? You guessed it, BIG mess!

Monday, August 3, 2009

St. Louis Zoo, 2009 Edition

Hello, poor, neglected blog! Does anyone even read you anymore? :)

Back in July the kids and I, honorary "Aunt" Margaret, Aunt Karen and cousin Kyle, and some of Karen and Kyle's friends spent a morning at the St. Louis Zoo. This has become an annual event for us, and as usual, it was tiring, but a lot of fun!

Ava found a friend right off the bat. Do you think if Princess Ava kissed him, he'd turn into a prince?First stop: the Children's Zoo. Ava really liked these guinea pigs:Then we ventured over to see the hippos. It was a nice, cool morning and they were very active, running circles around the bottom of their tank:Here's cousin Kyle. He's about 1.5 years old, and a bundle of energy!Here's Dane. He's a bundle of energy AND mischief! Not a good combination.Ava, elephant-watching:Elephant, Ava-watching:Dane was determined to stay hydrated that day!He also found lots of places to climb: Next on the agenda was the Penguin & Puffin Coast. We got there just in time for a feeding, which was fun to see:Hungry penguins!It's really cool to watch the penguins swim in the tanks and jump onto the rocks.Puffins!Ava, camel-watching:Camel family:Our last stop of the day was to see the primates. Ava and Dane feel a special camaraderie with the monkeys. :) These are chimpanzees:
Hopefully more posts to come sooner rather than later!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Water Babies

Has it really been almost a month since my last post? The summer is flying by!

The kids both took swim lessons at the New Haven Pool in July. Dane was in the Get Acquainted Class, and Ava was in Level 1. They both had fun swimming, but it was COLD!! That's a really strange thing to say in July, I know, but they even cancelled class one night because it was so cool.

All ready to go with beach towels and flip flops:Ava did GREAT! She loves the water, and did everything her teachers asked her to do. She passed Level 1 with flying colors!Dane, well, he was a different story. It took some convincing to get him in the water at all the first night. Once he worked up the courage to get into the baby pool, he decided the water was a lot of fun. After some getting used to, he would even jump into the pool holding onto my hands. However, he did not like it at all when I tried to help him float or "swim" around in the water. He kept screaming "Baby pool! Baby pool!"

Here are some pics of Dane post-lesson. His were right before Ava's, and I don't have any of him in the water because I was in the water with him.Little Miss Fish waiting in line for her turn on the water slide - it was her favorite part. She even went off the diving board into the deep end a few times later in the week. Can you tell all the kids are shivering? This was even one of the "warm" nights!Splashdown!Brrrrrr, look at those purple lips!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Father's Day Fun

One of the grocery store bakeries in our town hosted a cake-decorating session, where kids could come and decorate a cake to give to their dads for Father's Day. The kids and I went, and Ava decorated a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for her Daddy.

Ava getting ready to decorate the naked cake:
Ava picked the icing colors, and I helped her pipe it on. She put the sprinkles on all by herself. Her philosophy is the more sprinkles, the better!Dane supervised the cake decorating project - right up until he fell over the back of the chair. Fortunately, he's partially made of rubber, and bounced right back!After the sprinkles, Ava added as many plastic picks as possible for the finishing touch. In her eyes, Daddy is a guiter-playing, basketball-shooting, handyman lucky star of a dad!Dane was happy to clean up the extra icing:We delivered the cake to Daddy at his farm on Father's Day. But before the kids presented him with his cake, they helped him water the heifers that live in the pasture next to his house.Moo! The heifers were grateful for the drink:Daddy thought the cake looked great, Ava was very proud of herself, and Dane couldn't wait to dig in (of course). We shared it with the Oelrichs side of the family after dinner that day, and everyone thought it tasted great, too!

On the agenda for this week: swimming lessons for Ava AND Dane, and a trip to the zoo!