Smarty pants and playdoh birthday

Today Ava was playing with play-doh at the table while I was folding laundry. She told me she wanted to show me something so I told her to bring it to me. It was a cupcake she had made out of playdoh. There was even a toothpick on top acting as the candle and she had put a small piece of orange playdoh on the top of the toothpick to act as the flame. I oohed and ahhhed over the beautiful cupcake and then she said (in her pretending voice) Happy Birthday Mom and proceeded to sing me Happy Birthday. Here is my birthday cupcake.

After she sang she told me to blow out the candles.  Wanting to play along in the best way possible I did a large, dramatic breath followed by closing my eyes and blowing with all my might.  When I opened my eyes, this is the birthday playdoh cupcake I saw. 

Do you see the difference? While my eyes were closed blowing, Ava replaced the small piece of orange playdoh with black.  So now instead of a flame, she had a blackened wick at the top of the candle.  Such a smarty pants!!!  Totally (no pun intended) blew me away and I had to do a double take to make sure I was seeing a different color.  Pretty clever that sweet 4 year old of mine.  I sure love her and all her silliness and creativity.  Happy pretend birthday to me!

Blue Bonnets 2012

Blue Bonnets are the state flower of Texas.  They come in all their glory once a year and only last for a couple weeks so it has become a tradition every year to get the kids pictures taken in them.  We found a new spot this year that was on a hill with thousands more blooms than where we usually go.  When we started, Ava sat right on top of an ant hill and literally ended up with ants in her pants.....er, panties that is.  She got bit several times but was still a trooper for the pictures.  Charlotte went in and out of a cooperative mood as you can see. 

The only way we could get LE's daughter Ellis to smile - put her on Ava's lap.  She loves Ava! 

HEY! I'm done with this crazy stuff!

Ava and her best friend Ande.

Why God made big sisters

So when the little sister is scared and can't go to sleep, there's a big sister to lay on the floor in front of the crib to ease her fear.  Found them like this one night after Charlotte was super upset about being put to bed.  Love these moments as a mom where they watch out for one another and take care of each other. Sweet things.

It's that time again....

So these "what we've been up to" posts are starting to feel a bit like some segment on the David Letterman show like Will it Float? or the Top Ten list. Whenever I get ridiculously behind in blogging then ladies and gentleman, it's once again time for a little segment we like to call "what we've been up to lately" also known as "oh shoot I have 654 pictures to blog but only 5 minutes to do it."  So without further ado, here ya go:

Family movie night. The movie was obviously super entertaining to Rob.

The next three pics are Valentines day breakfast: heart shaped pancakes (pink ones), heart shaped , pink ice cubes in milk and orange slices.

Right after this bite Charlotte said "Mmmmmm, dis nummy."

Not the best pic of Ava but just showing you she was here too on V-day.

Playing with play-doh.......in pajamas.  Must have been a rough morning for mom.

We had a last minute visit from my sister Breea and her cutie pie Elizabeth.  Here her and Charlie are playing in rice.

Pretty sure Elizabeth just finished eating some of the rice in this one. 

Dancing queens

Partying in the playroom

Sweet Aunt Bubba (who happens to be a little bit preggo in this pic...yay!!)

Elizabeth was totally toasted and ready for bed but needed a bath so I threw her in the sink.  She liked it .  And she really liked the mohawk!

Breea brought this tutu of Elizabeth's and my girls were obsessed with it and by my girls I mean Ava was obsessed with getting a picture of herself wearing it like this so she looked like a flower.

And then I had to take another one so she could be serious and make leaves with her arms. (Did I mention she was wearing something entirely different but wanted to change into all green so she looked like a real stem? How cute is she!)

And of course, then Charlotte wanted to pose with her  arm as a leaf. 

Ava is always asking me if we can do a science experiment. Here they are after I taught them to blow bubbles in milk til bubbles over the side. (I'm sure there's something scientific about this right?)

Charlotte amazed at the bubbliciousness of it all!


And there you have it, our recent adventures in pictures.  Stay tuned for  another installment coming your way soon. 

They pray

So for the past few months or so we have been teaching Charlotte to pray.  This age is so fun to watch how quickly they learn.  It started with us saying short prayers with her like "Heavenly Father, thank you today, thank you family, bless family, bless daddy, name Jesus Christ Amen" which she would repeat after us word by word.  We have now graduated into full sentences though much of it is a bit garbled as she tries to fit in all the words.  The other night she wanted to say the prayer and I said okay you can say it and then just waited.  She got the "Heavenly Father, thank you this day" all by herself before she was stalled and asking for help.  Such a sweet process to be a part of with them and what a blessing for me to teach her something that will prove to be so valuable fro her for years to come.

Ava says prayers all on her own now of course and she used to pray for similar things in every prayer she said and they were mostly all things that she has heard us say.  Lately however, she has started making the prayers her own which sometimes make for very tender moments like when she prays that her and Charlotte can both try harder to do what's right and also for very silly moments like when she prays for Charlotte to stop talking during the prayer or prays that mommy will let us watch t.v. today.  Either way, I love that she is developing a sense of the conversation she can have with her Heavenly Father and thinking about all the things she can tell him.  Because even he, I think, enjoys the silly.