Avalon's pictures...

On April 9th, we gave Avalon the camera and let her take pictures of whatever she wanted.  And her pictures turned out really great!  Take a look...

 

 What a cute little brother she has!  :)

Milestone...Avalon rides her bike with no training wheels!!!

When we were in Duluth on May 15, Avalon saw a bike that Mummi and Ukki had bought for her and wanted to try it out.  It didn't have training wheels, so Mummi was helping her out.  She was able to go a very short distance on her own, which was very exciting!



Mummi thought if we went somewhere with more room that Avie would pick it up really quickly and she was right!  Back in Ames on Wednesday, June 5, Daddy took the trainings wheels off her bike and helped her get started and off she went!  First she went about 10-15 feet.  In this video she probably would have gone farther, if Archer wasn't in her way.



And then by her fifth or sixth try, she went all the way around the bend with no help!  Amazing!



Thanks for Mummi and Ukki for the knee and elbow pads as I think those gave her confidence that if she did fall, she wouldn't get hurt.  Also, she had been to a birthday party earlier that day, which is why her face is painted like a puppy!

Things the kids say...

Avie:  "Mommy, can I take my pants off when we get home. I'm hot."
Mommy:  "You can, but you'll have to put shorts on."
Avie:  "Why do we have to wear pants or shorts?"
Mommy:  "Because that's what people do."
Avie:  "I'm a different kind of people."

Brainquest: Which picture starts with S? Pictures of a knife, spoon, fork

Avie:  "I will pick all of them, so at least I'll get one right."

Brainquest:  Archie is doing a maze and Daddy says "if you go that way, you'll run into a monster."
Archie responds:  "Jump over the monster."

Babysitter:  "Archer, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Archer:  "A firetruck."
I guess Avalon then proceeded to tell Archie that he can not be a firetruck.

Archer:  "When I say 'more pancakes,' you have to get me milk first.  More pancakes, now get me milk," while pointing his finger in the air.  His communication in what he wants is getting much better, but now we have to work on adding 'please.'

Archie is always telling me things now, since he has to keep up with how much his sister talks.  And after almost everything he tells me, he says "right Mommy?"  Which would be fine, except  I often have no idea what he says and therefore what I am agreeing to!

On the morning of Archie's birthday...Avalon said "Hey Archie, it's your birthday today."  Archie replied "I get to go to Mummi and Ukki's."  We have told Archie that we are going to celebrate his birthday with cake and presents at Mummi and Ukki's house, so he thought we got to go on his actual birthday.  So sweet!

Archie on his 3rd birthday: "the snake got to the top of the mountain (the stairs) without my help.  How did that happen?"

Avalon's second dance recital

Avalon performed in her second dance recital on April 21 and she was amazing!  She did so well remembering all her steps!  And she had fun too!  The song for her dance was "Somewhere Out There,"  and she loved the song too!  We even practiced at home a little bit!  It was such a cute performance and a cute costume!  We all loved it!  And Daddy got some great pictures this time!

We also had fun before and after the recital too!  Avalon did some coloring and running around and played with her good friend Elodie who was in the performance with her!  She was a bit nervous before the show, but she was so excited to see us when she was finished!  To celebrate, we took her out for ice cream afterwards.  It was a really great day!