July Randomness

Hanging out the McFaddens

Grocery shopping  (she now has her own list that she is responsible for and she loves to shop with me!)

Playing with cardboard boxes

Enjoying her school supplies.  She was excited when they arrived and can't wait for Kindergarten.

Summertime fun

Saw this activity on pinterest.  Just need a water bottle, dish soap, sock and a rubberband.  Ava loved it!

Later that day, I turned around to find that Ava had dressed Ryan up.  Poor guy!  Good thing she doesn't have makeup yet or I am sure he would have been even more dolled up. (Oh and check out my new rug that I stitched together...4 IKEA runners with twine to make one giant dining room rug - cute & inexpensive! Still working on painting the dining room set though)

And here's the kids at Target...tried this cart out today and it was a success.  Wasn't sure Ryan would stay in even though he was buckled.

More of Ava's fashions...this time she took pajamas and dressed herself up.

And then gave Ryan a little skirt too.

Future Fashion Designer

Cousin Time

Just some photos of the kiddos and cousins from one of the many times we have hung out this summer.  And hey! I made it in a photo too.

Date Night

Darren and I headed out to Verde's for a much needed date night.  We went to see Cory Morrow play and it was amazing! Not only is Cory one of our favorite musicians but it was also an intimate show since it was at this local restaurant.

We also invited our friends Jen & Eric to come and made it a double date.

The best part, I think, was that it was a pared down show with just Cory & his guitar player.  He sang a lot of his old songs (which are my favorites) and told little ancedotes in between.  I added one of my videos for your listening pleasure.

It was fantastic and I am looking forward to the Jack Ingram show at Verde's in Novemeber (another of our favorites!). 

Camp O

When G&P came to Austin for their short visit, they offered Ava the chance to go to Camp O with them.  Camp O is what they call their house when they have the grandkids (but not the parents) there.  Ava decided to go even though she was unsure about whether she would miss us too much.  I'm so happy she did because it was really fun for her and was good for her to be away from us for a little bit.

I will say that not having my little chatterbox around was hard...gave me a taste of what it is going to be like in a few short weeks when she starts kindergarten...very quiet and a little bit sad.

Anyways, G&P took her swimming, to the library, fished and a lot of other fun stuff.

Ava got to help cook breakfast

and have lots of picnics.

 She definitely missed us and we definitely missed her!



July in a Flash

Here's what's been going on around here in the month of July.

Backyard water fun on the 4th.

 Ava learns to do some hand sewing...loves it!

 Watching fireworks with the triplets.

 Front yard golf and horsing around over at the McFaddens.

 Styling cousin Griffin.

Keeping on my toes with this guy.

Cheeseball showing off the new 'do

G&P take us to Hula Hut.

Ryan falls asleep multiple times in the car (just doesn't happen!) while we transition to one nap. I LOVE sleeping babies...so cute.

Daddy & kiddo time.



Girls' Weekend

This is a rarity...pictures of me and my friends.  I never take them anymore but for once I had a reason to.  We decided to have a little girls' weekend in downtown Austin and spent the day having lunch at La Condesa (yum!), enjoying some drinks, shopping (Anthro anyone?), sitting poolside and finally ended the day with dinner and hitting up the Rainey street area.

It was a great day and I am so glad we decided to extend our typical girls' night into a day and half affair. Especially since our friend Amanda is moving to California in a few short weeks. :(

Waiting for the clouds to clear so we could get some sun...Jen & Dara do not look to happy that I am taking photos.  Not sure that I blame them since we are almost in our swimsuits...I would not want to be in a photo (notice that I am not in any of these!)

 Amanda lounging (and Audrey & Tory trying to figure out the drink situation)

 Frost bank as seen from the pool at the Hilton.

Jen, Audrey, Dara & Amanda

 And same shot but with me in it...guess we should have had someone take a photo of us.

Uh I swear this chicken friend steak I had at Moonshine was delicious but for some reason upon seeing this photo again, it makes me feel sick.  Bad photography! Note: for once I ate only like a 1/4 of this.

 Jen & Dara on our very scary pedicab ride...we though 90 lb Jen (kidding but she is tiny) was going to fly off of us.

 The girls & I at Bar 96 in the Rainey Street district (which I highly recommend). 

What's up with my hair in my face...oh wait.  As Darren will tell you I do that a lot in pictures...ruined it!

 And when we got back to our hotel, an alarm was ringing and the elevators were closed off.  So we waited until they reopened it (false alarm or something) but the alarm was still going.  Somehow we thought it was a good idea to get on an elevator when an alarm was still ringing.  Jen & Dara were a bit freaked out and of course Audrey & I were laughing hysterically that we were riding up in the elevator at this time.  I'm actually really surprised that Dara got on seeing as we learned on this trip that she has "elevator fear."

Anyways we had a great time and I can't wait to do it again. The part I don't want to do again?  Leaving Ava.  She had a really hard time with me leaving for just one night.  I didn't think she would since she never has had a problem in the past but I guess I did not realize it has been 2 years since I have had a night away from her.  I felt horrible leaving her as she was crying.  Even worse was when I had a bedtime call with her and you could tell she was trying not to cry talking to me.

Darren did tell me she was fine while I was gone and had fun.  She was a bit sad and told Darren that she was "not used to being away from Mommy."

Anyways, once again the family dolls came in hand.  I watched some TV with her and had popcorn apparently. :)