Stay-at-Home Moms are My Heroes

Gabby B. and Avery at the zoo- Manatee Springs.


Gabby B., Avery, and Addy at the gorilla exhibit.

Avery and Addy at the zoo (Avery in a not-so-ladylike pose).

Avery worn out after the Hillenmeyer Crawfish Boil.


We were patriotically decked out for Flag Day! :)

Our friends the Hillenmeyers had a super-cool "Crawfish Boil" for Flag Day- flew in live crawfish
from New Orleans and the fun ensued from there- Avery was fascinated to say the least!


Avery and Addy at the zoo.


Avery and a new friend at the Crawfish Boil- Avery's first experience dancing with
a boy- we're in trouble for sure :).


Okay...so full-time moms are AMAZING and have my complete respect forever. I don't know how they do it! I am literally exhausted at the end of the day- more so than when I am working part-time and taking care of Avery the other half of the day. Weird! Anyway, we've been filling up our summer days with tons of stuff- every day we either go to Gymboree, story time at the library, the park, to play at a friend's house, etc. Or if we're home we play outside for the majority of the time. It has been lovely weather so that has helped- not too hot! Avery is talking up a storm these days (although she's about 30% understandable). Here are her favorite words:
-NO
-Mama, Dada, Papa, Nana, Mimi (Grammy), Mpa (Grandpa), Sadie, Addy, Cott (Uncle Scott), En (Aunt Jen)
-Bubbles
-Bath
-Gain! (again)
-Dog
-Cat
-Turtle
-Capiller (caterpiller)
-Bee
-GO!
-Car
-Hi!
-Byeeee or Bah bye (bye bye with a very thick southern accent- funny)
-Shoes
-Door
-Ouside (outside)
-Phone or Call
- One (holding up 1 finger)

She will pretty much repeat anything else you say as well...or at least attempt it. It's amazing how much of a little girl she is becoming as opposed to a toddler. Oh so opinionated and she has the limp legs/ spaghetti arms thing down in public places if you've asked her to do something she doesn't want to do...She is also fundamentally opposed to being restrained in any sort of manner- stroller, car seat, cart. The other day we were Krogering and I let Avery get down from the cart (moment of insanity). The next thing I knew I was picking up a bunch of bananas and Avery was taking a huge bite out of a tomato. She looked at me with panic when she realized that it was not in fact an apple as she had thought. So right back in the cart she went:). Ahhhh, exciting moments in suburbia.

So we are having a lovely summer thus far. I have some severe senioritis as I'm supposed to be getting my final presentation of my research together for my Masters. I'm done July 23rd (look for me that day with a big old drink in hand). It's just too tempting at the moment to hang out with Ave in the backyard rather than work. :) Hooray summer!

Miss Liberty/ Dr. Doolittle

Ave had a ball on Memorial Day at Nana and Papa's and of course she had on a Little Miss Liberty outfit provided by Nana (she would be running around naked if it weren't for her Nana and Grammy B.). Grammy B. came to visit and watch Avery for a few days to help me out as I finished up the school year- whew- my hat is off to all of the working moms who do their jobs full-time and the are moms full time. I only had to do it 9 weeks and it was tough! Working mommies are super heroes for sure (and stay at home mommies are too- I just started summer vacation with Avery home all day today and I am markedly more tired then when I was working full-time- sheesh!). Anyway- we are oh so grateful to Grammy B. for helping out as well as Nana helping out on some Fridays so that I could make it through the school year without too much mommy guilt. This weekend we found a hidden gem- West Chester lawn and garden center- they have animals! A turkey, alpaca, rooster, emus, goats, sheep, a huge ram, donkey, white peacocks, and more! Avery loved it!

New Water and Picnic Tables- Also, watering the flowers!

Thanks to Nana for the awesome water table, and to Grammy B. for the awesome picnic table. Avery loves both, and has taken up a new pasttime- watering the flowers1

Racing at Gabby Beerman's House

Except Ave doesn't really get the concept of racing- ha! It was fun to see the Beerman's awesome new house and Avery loved playing with Gabby!

More at the Beerman's New House

Pigtails...and at the Beerman's New House

Oh jeez, we can finally do pigtails and man are they cute (which is good, because

man is Little Miss Avery rotten these days! :).

Grandparents Galore

Avery has been spoiled rotten in the past few weeks with all of her

grandparents showering attention on her! :) Great Grandma and Grandpa

Finney were in town to visit, and then Grandma and Grandpa Beeching

came down to watch Avery for a few days (this full-time teaching is

tricky!). We had a nice mother's day brunch with Nana and Papa and G and

G Beeching! The Lazutas came down to visit from Cleveland this Sunday as well!

Other pictures include Avery in a very fancy dress to celebrate the recent

royal wedding- hee hee! You can't see it in the picture, but the dress had

pictures of Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and the Tower of London all over

it (and the fur-lined color sweater just set it off perfectly- so funny!)...There's also

a picture of her smearing her face with blackberry "war paint" and striking an

ever-so-serious pose with me:). Oh, why is she growing up so fast? She is so

cute these days.

..

Easter

Hmmm...kind of bummed because I had some really cute pics of Avery and her
cousin Addy at Easter and I can't get them to load! Oh well! We had a great time
for Easter with G and G Beeching, who came down for the weekend and cooked
a lovely Easter dinner for us! The whole family came over and Avery just loved
having Grammy and Grandpa and Nana and Papa around!

Mahalo, Hawaii!

They had the neatest little playground on the hotel grounds...

Visit to Waimea Plantation cottages...

Our "garden view" from the hotel (time share) room...

An endangered monk seal- they had him roped off from the public...

Avery LOVED Hawaiian Shaved Ice!

Our view from the baby pool we hung out at...

We took walks in the mornings to watch the sea turtles riding the waves...

First time actually putting her feet on the sand...

Next door at the Hyatt- gorgeous!

Feeding the Koi fish at the hotel...

Spouting Horn- a natural "hole" where the sea water shoots upwards of 60 feet...

Avery was OBSESSED with the many roosters on the island...she was on high alert all the time...

Hanalei Bay- South Pacific, Blue Hawaii, and many others filmed here...

The Napali Coast- mostly inaccessible and absolutely amazing...

Waimea Canyon- Mark Twain called it the "Grand Canyon of the Islands"

These are the falls from the movie Jurassic Park!

On our helicopter ride (just mom and dad) over Kauai.

At one of the waterfalls at our hotel.

On a sunset cruise- we saw a few whales!

With Grandma and Grandpa Beeching.

Grandma and Avery in one of the many pools.

Ahh....Hawaii. What a beautiful place! We had a fantastic time this week in Poipu Beach, Kauai. Ave did a great job on the plane, although we had a couple of rough moments on the flight from L.A. to Kauai. Let's just say Chris and I looked at each other and said "What were we thinking?" We got over that pretty quickly when we saw where we were staying with Avery's Grandma and Grandpa Beeching- amazing! Avery loved spending time with them (and we loved having Grandma and Grandpa so willing to spend lots of time with her so mom and dad could go on a boat ride, a helicopter ride, a nice dinner out, etc.). She is such a lucky girl to have such wonderful grandparents! The weather was perfect the whole time- Low 80's and sunny, sunny, sunny! While Ave remained white as snow (due to the tons of hats and high spf from her neurotic mom), we managed to get a pretty good tan (first tan since before I was pregnant with Avery!). It was just such a lovely trip! I've posted tons of pictures, and then there are lots and lots of videos from the trip below this post- check those out- none are too long! Mahalo to Grandma and Grandpa Beeching for such a neat experience, and Mahalo, Hawaii!