Avie the tiger!

As I'm sure many of you remember, Avalon was a pretty cute tiger last year at Halloween. Well, the tiger is back! We received another tiger costume from our neighbor in Santa Barbara. Avalon has discovered it about a month ago and loves to wear it and chase us around the circle.
Avalon has been working on her roar too. Pretty scary! :) Just watch her Daddy jump...





She is a cute tiger and scary too! Just check out the look on her mommy's face...
You also get a glimpse of the full costume with the hood up, which she doesn't keep up for very long. Although, if (or should I say when) it's cold on Halloween, she may decide to keep it on.

Avie can do a Sommersault!

Avie started a gymnastics class this fall and she loves it! After the first class, I asked her what she did and she said "I didn't want to do the roll like this (using hand motions)." I asked her what her favorite thing was and she said "hanging from the bar."
After a few classes the instructor said she still didn't want to do the forward roll, so we decided to work on it at home. And it wasn't long (actually just a few rolls with my help) before she was doing it over and over again all by herself. The idea on being on mom and dad's bed was a big motivation, but I think the reason she wanted to keep doing them again and again was the mirror that she could see herself in.

Kids...everything is a toy!

Yesterday afternoon I was making a snack for myself (yes, mom's try to eat sometimes) when I realized it was a little too quiet downstairs. So I go downstairs to see what the kids are into and this is what I found...
Archie was having a blast! Finally, he got to play with one of the things I always take away from him. Avie had opened the bathroom door for him and he was happily playing with the water in the toilet bowl with the toilet bowl scrubber. He was soaked from head to toe and he even had bits of toilet paper in his hair. Needless to say, it was time for a bath.

I did let him play a little longer to get a few pics.

About an hour later, Jarad came home and we were talking upstairs when again things were just too quiet downstairs. I had put a lock on the bathroom door, so I knew they weren't in there. Again we headed downstairs to find this...
Avie and Archie had emptied the bottom two dresser drawers of all of Archie's clothes. They were having a blast! How fun it is to play when the parents aren't around.

Avie pushes Archie on the swing!

Back when we were still in Santa Barbara, Avie met a friend at the park and her friends Grandma spent a long time pushing them both on the swings. She would say "one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go (or go Avie go)." Ever since then, I often use this saying when pushing Avie on the swing. Here is Avie pushing her little brother on the swing in just the same way. Too cute! Archie loves it too! This video was taken back at the end of June.



She also learns some fun tricks from her Grandpa too! Grandpa loves to push Avie and Archie on the swing making noises to make them smile and laugh. :)

Avie singing

Avalon has always loved to sing! She is constantly singing all kinds of songs that she has learned. My favorite is the They Might Be Giants song that starts "the sun is a mass of incandescent gas." But since I haven't captured that on video yet, here she is singing "baa baa black sheep" microphone and all. And as an added bonus you even get to enjoy a bit more of Archie's dancing.

Archie dancing

Archie has turned into a pretty cute little dancer. See for yourself...

Great Ames Adventure Race Winners!

Jarad and I competed in our first adventure race together and we took first place. Well, it was sort of a modified triathlon and there were only two teams in our division. But we had a great time! Thanks for Mummi and Ukki for watching the kids!

The race consisted of a 2.7 mile kayak, 15 mile bike, and a 5k run. We did the race as a relay team where Jarad did the kayak and bike and I did the run. Maybe next year we'll both do all three parts.

Niemi Speedway

Since moving into our place in Iowa, we have discovered a new raceway right here in our own home. Avalon and Archer love to race around the circle in our house. This is a video from the very first night we arrived. Thanks to Mummi, Ukki, and Uncle Grant and Aunt Marie for the noisy props! The kids had a blast! And still do almost every day.