First Hair Cut

For quite some time now, Ava's hair has been, long, tangly and out of control. There has been no real shape to it, and since Ava nearly bites my head off if I even consider putting her hair in a pony tail, I have been at quite a loss as to what to do with her golden curls.

So today, I got my hair cut, and I brought Ava along for the ride. While my hair was being washed, cut and dried, Ava sat in a stroller, played with some toys, ate some snacks, and kept an eye on what was happening to me. Then, when I was done, it was her turn. Leslie, my fabulous hair stylist, had Ava sit on my lap. Leslie then brought out a special cape, just for Ava to wear. As Leslie tried putting the cape around Ava's neck, Ava flipped out and all I could see in the mirror in front of me was cape fabric flying in all directions. We skipped the cape, and after that one freak out, Ava did just fine.

Although, she kept looking in the mirror, trying to figure out exactly what was happening to her hair.

When Leslie was finished, my little girl looked less like a little girl, and more like the big girl she is turning into right before my eyes.

What a cutie! It is hard to see the back of her new do in this picture, but just know it is simply adorable!

Easter Weekend, 2012

Easter weekend was packed full of holiday traditions, visiting with family, traveling and celebrating the resurrection of our Savior!

We started the weekend by dyeing Easter Eggs, or as Ava called it, "painting the eggs."

When the first batch of eggs was done, Ava wanted to examine each and every one. For the most part, she followed directions, and was very careful with the hard boiled eggs. The little orange egg you see pictured below, fell to the floor about 3 seconds after I took the photo.

Why not use this teachable moment to show Ava what is inside a hard boiled egg? So, I did. After peeling off the vivid orange shell, I handed Ava the egg that had been left inside. Ava had never seen a hard boiled egg before that morning, so she wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. "Eat it!" I said. But she proceeded with extreme caution. She smelled the egg. Pressed it to her mouth. And even licked it.

Then, finally, she took a bite.

And quickly realized that unlike me, but just like her daddy, Ava is not a fan of hard boiled eggs.

Like the southern lady she is, Ava politely spit out the egg and said, "I don't like it."

Not wanting a perfectly good hard boiled egg to go to waste, I took a bite and tried to convince Ava that it was worth giving another shot. To my surprise, Ava was curious about the yellow yolk now poking through the egg. I asked her if she wanted to try it, and was shocked when she said yes. Instead of taking a bite, Ava carefully licked the yolk... And I'm guessing you can tell by the picture, that she didn't like it any better the second time around.

Here is a picture of Ava's Easter Eggs.

And the batch of eggs I dyed after Ava lost interest.

Friday afternoon, we hit the road and headed to my parent's house for the night. Ava enjoyed some time snuggling up with Oma while Opa serenaded her with her favorite songs.

During the day on Saturday, Ava got to take part in her 2nd egg hunt of the season. This hunt, unlike the one at Marc and Lauren's house last week, had only one participant... Ava. She did not have to fight other kids for the eggs, nor was she rushed for time in collecting all 40+ eggs. That's right folks, 40+ eggs. There was some major bribing happening toward the end of the hunt, just in an attempt to get Ava to finish finding the eggs.

Wouldn't you think that after all of the eggs had been collected, Ava would have wanted to see what was inside? That's what I thought, and clearly I was wrong. Instead of looking through her egg basket, Ava threw one of the most epic screaming fits I have ever seen. Why the fit, you might ask? Because I wanted to take her picture. Sheesh! Oh, and in case you're wondering, Matt got every second of Ava's fit on camera. I have a feeling that video will resurface at some point in say, 13 years or so. Muah ha ha ha (evil, blackmail mom laugh)!

Ava's fit resulted in time out. Which clearly did not make her happy either. Live and learn, baby girl. Live. And. Learn.

Eventually, Ava pulled herself together, and we spent Saturday afternoon celebrating my Dad's birthday. My mom did such an amazing job putting together a fantastic dinner for my dad, she forgot one of the most critical parts of a birthday celebration... the candles. Look closely at the cake. Yup, that is most definitely a tea candle. Doesn't my dad look thrilled to blow out the vanilla scented, home decor candle?

After spending great quality time with my family, we headed back to Greensboro Saturday night. Sunday morning, we headed to our amazing church to worship our resurrected Lord with friends and family. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly and how much Ava learns from the Bible. As a family, we read several pages in Ava's children's Bible each night before bed. We have already made our way through Ava's Bible, beginning to end, several times and she becomes increasingly familiar with each story each time we read it. I know there are many more details surrounding the Easter story than Ava is aware of right now, but what a refreshing reminder that while the details are significant, the most important part of the story is able to be recognized by such little children. Jesus died on a cross. He died for my sin and yours. Jesus was buried, but the story does not end there. 3 days later Jesus rose from the dead, conquering sin and the grave! Praise God that Jesus is alive and lives in me today!

Following church, we headed over to Tim and Kathy's house (Matt's aunt and uncle) for Easter lunch. Tim and Kathy have a beautiful backyard, so we took advantage of the scenery and took a family photo.

Ava may not have appreciated the beauty (and no doubt, the hard work) of Tim and Kathy's backyard, but regardless, I was able to get some pretty adorable pictures of her taking everything in.

Got to love a cheek smashing shot.

I love the following picture of Matt and Ava. I love everything about it... except the fact that while looking simply adorable, Ava is gesturing that she would rather be doing anything other than taking a picture. What is even more frustrating is that I took about 7 pictures of Matt and Ava, cheek to cheek and Ava has the same gesture in every. single. one. Happy Easter, everyone!

Fortunately, Ava got her fingers back in line and managed a precious, and non-profane picture with Mimi and Poppy.

There is nothing classier than a little girl wearing a beautiful Easter dress, fancy shoes and dolled up hair. Oh wait, there is something classier... Take said little girl and watch her dig for some Easter gold.

Sunday evening, Ava got to dig through her Easter basket. She found the "Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" movie (the first movie we took her to see in the theater), a chocolate bunny, a new pair of sunglasses, and the thing one thing she had been asking for, "frip frops."

Mimi and Poppy came over for a sunset picnic and egg hunt. Ava searched the backyard, while wearing her new frip frops and my latest sewing creation.

Thanks to 3 egg hunts in one week, Ava officially has more chocolate candy than she knows what to do with. I guess Matt and I will have to pitch in and help her get rid of some.

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Easter!

The Boys Are Back in Town

Matt, Ava and I had a special treat this past week... Matt's sister, Erin, and her three handsome boys were in town! They live about 5 hours away, so unfortunately, we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. So when they're in town, we take advantage of every opportunity to sped time with Erin, Jack, Finn and Charlie.

The weather has been so pretty lately, we decided a picnic lunch at the local playground would be a perfect way to kick off the week. There are few things Ava loves more than swinging, so getting to swing in between the 3 most amazing cousins in the world simply made her day!

Mimi and Poppy had us over for a spaghetti dinner the other night. Spaghetti + 3 children feeding themselves = 3 shirtless children at the dinner table. I love this picture. Jack is paying attention and smiling. Finn is trying really hard to look cool. And Ava is stuffing her face with food. Way to be a lady.

While the older kids were making messes of themselves, Charlie was looking as handsome as ever... All while keeping his messiness on his bib. Hmm.... Makes me wonder, when does one become too old to wear a bib? 2... 4... 6? Seems to me we could have avoided a lot of spaghetti stains if the older cousins were as smart as Charlie.

After dinner, we all dug in to Mimi's famous bunny cake!

Since we had a picnic at the park earlier in the week, we decided to have picnic #2 in our driveway.

When everyone was done eating, we headed to the backyard to play.

I saw an opportunity to get a cute candid picture of Matt and Charlie. But somehow, they both managed to do something that made each of them look equally ridiculous, and not quite the 'candid' I was going for.

Take two. Much better.

We ended our week with the Ussery boys by celebrating Gammy's 85th birthday...

And getting in just one more group hug. I feel pretty safe saying that Mimi loves having all of her grand-kids under one roof!

2nd Annual Holbrook Easter Egg Hunt

For the second year in a row, our Life Journey Group had an Easter Egg Hunt/Cookout at the house of our good friends, Marc & Lauren... And for the second year in a row, our plans to have the Egg Hunt on a Saturday were rained out and we rescheduled for Sunday after church.

The sun came out, the grass dried up, everyone showed up and the party was ON! After everyone ate, the kids played in the back yard while the front yard was covered with brightly colored, candy filled eggs.

After counting to 3, the kids were off... It was hysterical to see the different egg-hunting styles between all of the kids. There were the "I am going to run around faster than lightening, and pick up as many eggs as humanly possible" kids. And then there was Ava... She gradually made her way over to a egg (and may I note Ava passed about 50 eggs before settling on the perfect one), picked it up, shook the egg to see if anything was inside, and dropped it into her basket. When the hunt was over, Ava had collected a dozen or so eggs to take home and enjoy.

The Egg Hunt may have been done, but the playing had only begun...

Ava got a chance to drive a Power Wheel for the first time. She loved it! Too bad she is almost too big for it.

We had a record 75 people attend the Egg Hunt & Cookout. Everyone had a great time, and we are all looking forward to the 3rd Annual Egg Hunt next year!