Alex's first birthday!!! Friends, family and FUN!

We had a fabulous little birthday party for Alex who turned 1!!  It was Easter weekend, but it seemed to work out for everybody.  Bobby, Heather, Aiden, and Bridgette came down from Dallas for the weekend, Andy, Leslie & the boys came up from Clear Lake, Ally was in town for Easter, and Matt came over with Athan, Becket, and Anna Tess.  Of course Voovoo and Vovo, and Grammy and Grandpa came too - they never miss these milestones :) 

We had cupcakes, rice crispy treats, brigadeiro, fruit salad, sausage, bean salad, all of which the kids seemed to enjoy as well.  We decided on a theme of balls and bubbles, and it was a hit!!!  Alex had quite a bit of fun testing out his new walking skills, while Ava really enjoyed hanging out with all the kids.  We had the Gaworecki's over the night before for some pizza, and Ava was delighted to have more kids to play with.  It was quite amusing to see her with Asher, walking around the yard, holding hands and stargazing. :)  Too cute!!!

Pictures always tell it best though... :)

Easter at Vovo and Voovoo's house

Oh how I love creating traditions! Just like the past couple years, we had a wonderful Easter egg hunt in Vovo and Voovoo's backyard and the kids had a blast.  These pictures capture it all! :)

 

  

  

The things that Ava says...

I am often surprised, amused, in awe of the things that Ava says.  I often cannot believe she knows so much, or just how much she delights in the small things.  This, of course, also makes me fully aware of all the little blessings in our life - it is impossible not to feel grateful everyday.

Yesterday, while I was cleaning, Ava exclaimed:
Ava: Mommy, I'm helping!
Me: You are? Thank you!
Ava: I'm organizing my shoes on the window.

Sure enough, she had placed her shoes very carefully on the window sill with the pair in an alternating color pattern.

Me: You know the word 'organizing'?  What does it mean?
Ava: Organizing means to clean.

Me - dumbfounded that she knows how to answer that question.


Later, when looking at the mail, Ava said "Mommy, look, it's the letter 'u', but if you turn it upside down it looks like the letter 'n'!"  Sure enough, she was looking at a lower case 'u' and it did look like an 'n' upside down... I really need to check with Daddy to see if they worked on that, or if she came up with it on her own!

Easter egg hunt!

We ventured out to our neighborhood's Easter Egg Hunt again this year (last year I was in labor with Alex, so this year was a little more laid back).  Ava had a blast seeing the little kids from the neighborhood that we had met before at the park, Daddy and I even made new friends, and Alex loved checking out the petting zoo - the kid has no fear.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, with great weather and just some good ol' family fun! :)

 Are you ready Mr. Goat?

You never know what your family picture will look like when you are only paying attention to the person taking the picture!  Looks like Alex was happy to get close enough to touch/kick the goat! Haha!