saturday silly billies

saturdays are family days at our house...a traditional saturday starts with allen taking avery to breakfast at mcdonalds. that's been going on for almost two years now and she loves it. it's their special time each week when it's just them, and when addison gets a little bigger she can go too! we normally meet up after that and spend the day as a family, doing whatever...which we've appropriately named ourselves the saturday silly billies. today was no exception. we broke out the sprinkler and the slip-n-slide and all took a turn....even addison....even mommy. we were so wet and having so much fun that we didn't even notice it was raining! bear was the only one who didn't join us and he was super sad about it.....maybe next time.

seeing double?

okay friends, funny story for you. i've now been stopped not once but twice by random strangers who have asked if my girls were twins. no, you don't have to re-read that sentence. you read it correctly the first time. hard to believe, i know. the first time was at church, the second time was in the grocery store. both times i've probably had a look on my face that answered their question (and maybe questioned their sanity) but always smiled and said "no, they are just sisters," without stating their obvious age difference. there are days when i think my girls look a lot alike in a lot of their features, especially when i pull out avery's old pictures, but there is a distinct difference in them too...they each have their own look. now, maybe i see the difference in the two and 1/2 years between them....clearly that's a given. maybe i'm the mom and i just see two different girls.




you tell me, looks aside, would you mistake an almost four year old and a 17 month old for twins? come on.................

a little perspective on their size difference....i'm just sayin'

olympics 2020

avery started gymnastics last week and she LOVED it! seeing her in the little leotard made my day and part of me wanted her to stay that little for a really long time. this has been such a fun age and her confidence has grown so much. i think if we would have tried this a year ago she would have struggled ... but she was so excited to go in her class. the class was a little more technical than i thought...they actually taught gymnastics techniques, so i'm not really sure what i expected. we love gymnastics!

airplane arms on the balance beam

rollllll overthat, my friend, is what we call jumping

the balance beams got progressively higher off the ground and she had to do knee lifts as she walked across this one and kicks across the one to her left. she did great with a perfect 'toothpick' dismount

and....ACTION

today was avery's first trip to the movie theater. some of you may know that the RAVE theaters are offering free childrens movies on tuesday and wednesday throughout the summer....and, what's better than a free movie? so i planned a 'day of fun' as avery called it, for just the two of us....addison stayed with aunt fun. we met lindsey and hadyn and the girls had a blast. the movie was cute ~ alvin and the chipmunks ~ but a little over her head. i can't wait to take her back and let her see something that holds her attention...or gives a full storyline that she can follow. she did, however, love the flashing bulb of my camera in a room that was super dark...she kept asking me to take her picture as she posed....maybe she thought she was the STAR of the movie!

wow, that intro was loud

she thought it was hysterical every time the chipmunks sang

the pitter patter of little feet

addison finally took her first steps! last thursday she decided to let go and take off on the adventure of walking! she's been steady enough for quite a while but unwilling to let go of hands, furniture, walls, whatever....but last week she went for it. she's so proud of herself and we make sure we give her lots of encouragement, especially avery, who has held her hand walking across the playroom for weeks now. we're so excited!

one step at a time

she's making sure avery can see her.... concentrate...all that looking made her fall
and, we're up again avery the encourager