June - Swim Lessons and Gymnastics

We started doing lessons in early June. Around the 3rd swim lesson something in Avery just clicked and she lost some of her fears and started going under and swimming to the side of the pool all on her own. We have had 2 different instructors and both are excellent in different ways. Our latest instructor pushes her pretty hard, which I think is really working for her. We've also decided to join a pool this summer to get as much exposure as we can in the water. I am trying to get her to the pool 2-3 times a week. It seems like we are out until 9 every night, but I guess that's summer...


With her first instructor, Coach Sy. We really liked him, but he was enlisting and moving out of state.


Here she is with Ms. Jen - Jen is making her work hard. She tries to distract her, but Jen is on to that game.




This one cracks me up. How hard is she trying not to put her face in the water?


Avery trying to distract Jen with looking for bugs in the pool.


The end to a great lesson.



Gymnastics twice a week with Ms. Tammy. Avery surprised me and LOVES gymnastics. She asks me almost every day if it's gymnastics day.


At her first lesson doing a rollover.

May - First Road Trip

Avery and I took our first trip in the new car on my birthday weekend to see Grandad and DD in SC. My cousin Bobby came over for the weekend and we all celebrated my birthday in true farm style.

Avery got her hands on a roll of pink tape and tied it on anything she could.




She even tied it on cousin Bobby's legs. She is sticking her hands in the iced cooler and putting them on his legs. She thought it was hilarious.


Avery and DD in the sunset.


We had a great photo shoot together.

May - Friends come to Visit

Our friends Chris, Amy and their little cute Ava came to visit on their way down to Orlando. It was a hot weekend, so we picked up a pool for the girls to splash in. They also had fun with the sprinkler. Ava is such a sweet girl. Avery enjoyed having the companionship. As always, it's great spending time with them all.





Avery trying to spray the guys.

Avery painting Ava's toes.

May - Mother's Day Present

The time had finally come-----MY NEW CAR! :-) I can't tell you how much I love having this car. It is amazing. We've taken a few long trips and everyone has been happy. It's much smaller than my other vehicle, but it really seems to have the same amount of interior space. It feels more like a car to me - not as heavy as the X and I can zip around town very easily.

I have been informed that this car takes care of all my presents at least up through next Valentine's Day.

May - Lake Trip

We've been going out a lot lately with our friends on their boat. This time we were out of Lake Santa Fe. We usually pack lunch and spent the day cruising. The water warmed up quickly so we decided to do some tubing. Avery was terrified of the water (as you can see in the pics below). We decided this is the summer that she needs to learn to be comfortable in the water and the next week we signed her up for swim lessons all summer long. It really is a shame we don't have space on our property for a pool.

This was my first time tubing in a loooong time. Loved it!


Scott and Avery tubing.


They just flipped over. She decided at that point she was done with the tube.




A forced smile for sure.

May - Avery gets into make-up

I knew this day was eventually coming...

Avery had the leftover make-up from her Disney princess makeover somewhere hidden in her room. I completely forgotten about it until she came out one day and told me she did her make-up. I guess I should be happy mascara didn't come in the kit.

Check out the blush application.






Right down the the sparkle lips.

May - End of School Program

At the end of each school year the class put on a parent appreciation program. This year they did the Tikki Tikki Tembo. It was a classic Chinese children's story about a boy with long name. It was cute. Avery can be shy at times, but she really does a great job singing in front of a group. She takes it very seriously.


The Program - Avery is on the front left.


Waiting before the show.


Avery played the part of a flower. Her little flower hat was hanging in her face the first part of the show.


Avery with her teacher of the past two years, Ms. Christina.

May - Flowers around the Yard

More beautiful blooms in May.

Cardoon in bloom.


Can you smell those orange blossoms? :-)


My go to flowers for pics.

Late April - Disney Trip

We wanted to do another trip to Disney - more as an adult weekend, so we brought our sitter and stayed out in Epcot and had a few nice dinners/evenings out. The weather was gorgeous again and our hotel was right on the back entrance to Epcot, so we could walk right in. During the day we went for a few hours to a park, but then we splashed in the pool and hung out at the cabana at our hotel - the Dolphin. W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L!

I took a lot of pictures, but the only one worth posting was of Avery's face paint on Sunday morning before we left. We always get her face painted and this time she wanted to be the unicorn.

April - School Birthday Party

Avery's friend from her class had a birthday party at a local kids play place. We seem to miss most of the class birthday parties, so when we were in town for this one, we made a point to go play with her friends for the afternoon.

The party started off with a treasure hunt. They found things like you would find in a treasure chest.



Avery hunting - she is in the light blue shirt on the left side.



Carrying all her jewels.



After the treasure hunt the kids moved down to climb the cheese wall. That's when I looked over and Avery had burst into tears. She was terrified. She would not do it at all.



Here they are waiting to do the obstacle course. She was so worked up over the wall that she didn't want to do this either! I had to ask the instructor to please talk her into it. I knew she wanted to, but she was scared - maybe because it was all of her classmates. (?)



Here she is very gingerly doing the course.



And the balance beam.



After this party, we decided that we needed to get Avery into some type of group sports so she could get over that fear. We have since joined another type of kids club and are now taking swimming and gymnastics (pics to follow). Her self-esteem had gotten so much better and she is really enjoying these types of outings now. However, she still has the fear of the bounce house. :-)

April - Impromptu Beach Trip

One late Sunday afternoon we decided to head to the beach to have dinner and spash in the waves for a couple hours. It was a blast - as are most impromptu trip we take.

Avery playing right beside our table at The SB Grill.


Thumb Wrestling

There was one of those great little low tide pools that was perfect for skimming with the boogie board.


Youssouf pulling Avery.





Mr. Starfish