4th of July (well, really the 3rd..)

We had a wonderful 4th of July this year. The day with all the festivities was actually the 3rd.. It was a really hot day, but we made the most of it. The day started off with the neighborhood bike parade. Evan was all decked out and Ainsley liked watching the other kids. My brother Chad biked from his neighborhood (8+ miles) to see the parade - which was really cool!



The hot afternoon was spent playing in the backyard pool with Avery next door. Later in the evening, we headed to the Mason 4th celebration. We met up with our niece Mya and the girls got to play.

Evan got a really cool Scooby Doo balloon animal..
Ainsley tried to play some games..
and she got to watch the crowd from up high...

As we were walking out, Evan saw laser tag and at the last minute decided to play. At first he was telling us the gun was too heavy and that he couldn't do it...

Then, by the end, he was really into it..
We headed home around 9, and everyone got showered. After Ainsley was in bed, I asked Evan if he'd like to go back and watch the fireworks. Doug stayed home, and we went and parked in the back of the Mason High School. I let Evan sit on the roof of my car. He was so excited, I could tell it would be a fun night! As the fireworks started - he kept saying, "Wow, that one almost touched me" and we played that's my favorite. On the way home, Evan asked me if there were fireworks in heaven. Priceless.. what a wonderful day!

Mini Trip #1: Columbus

We've recently taken several mini-day trips and had so much fun! Doug has taken off a few days, and we've been able to do so many fun things. Plus, Ainsley's car ride tolerance seems to be 2-3 hours, so it's been working out well.

First, over Memorial Day, we took the kids to Columbus. We went for two days and pricelined an awesome hotel. The hotel had a indoor and outdoor pool that connected, so you could swim between the two. (I missed pictures of this!) Evan was in heaven at the pool! We also took a tour of the Anthony Thomas Chocolate Factory (also missed pictures). Evan was super interested and it was fun to watch the chocolate being made. We even got free Buckeyes at the end!

The rest of the time, we went to Cosi using our Cincinnati Museum Center pass. So much fun!! Here are some pictures from our two day visit:

First up - the water table in the Kid's Zone. We spent the most time there - Evan playing with the locks and Ainsley spraying water:


The kids also loved the Kidspace - it was for little ones 5 and under and it was strictly enforced, which was really nice:

Evan tried to pull himself up using a pulley system:

And lift lots of heavy weights: Of course, there was the big kid water area too:


And lots of fun to be had playing on the bed at the hotel:



We had such a great time on our little adventure!

Butterfly Show & Ross's House

Then, we did a great little day trip to the Butterfly Show with Grandma and Grandpa Ross. We had a wonderful time - the kids loved the butterflies and they were landing all over them.



After the show, we headed to Five Guys for a late lunch (Evan loves the cracking peanuts) and the headed over to Grandmas and Grandpas. Of course, Evan had to play water balloons, with Grandma and Grandpa. Ainsley even got to do a little swimming in the little pool. We ate dinner and had Grandma & Grandpa's slushies!! Yum!

At the end of the night, Evan needed a bath, so he took one in the Grandma & Grandpa's big tub (with jacuzzi jets). Grandma added a little bubble bath, combined with the jets, made a crazy amount of bubbles everywhere. Evan was completely covered!! He was squeeling and having so much fun. I don't think the pictures even come close to showing how full it was.

We had another fun day trip and made lots of great memories!!

15 Months

Little Miss A is 15 months old! We are having so much fun. Ainsley is full of personality!

She is now saying so many words, maybe 50+. Some of my favorites are brush, baby, up, all done, night night, bye guys and whoa. She has also expanded her animal vocab - elephants, roosters, birds. Another favorite is "Twinkle, Twinkle" where she will sing "up above the world". So much fun! She is going to be my chatty one for sure.

Ainsley is finally sleeping through the night (yeah!!) and has transitioned to one nap a day. I just got her down to nursing twice a day - morning and night, and she loves regular milk as well. I though we'd be done nursing by now - but she looks as me with those big brown eyes and says/signs mama milk - if I say yes, she gets so excited.

She loves to try/do anything Evan does - which is sometime good ;) Ainsley loves to bounce (and say bounce) in the tramopline. She even likes to bounce with Evan. She also loves the water - and has no fear. She will walk right into a pool! We'll have to watch that. She would watch Baby Einstein all day if I'd let her - but she usually only gets 15 minutes every other day. Ainsley also loves to dance whenever the music is on.


Ainsley is also getting strong. If Evan takes something from her or we tell her no, she defitinely lets us know she doesn't like it! It's going to be interesting disciplining the second child!


We are so in love with Ainsley! She cracks us up on a daily basis and is always quick to smile with those big dimples! Now, if I could just freeze time for a little bit...

Too much water??

Seems like everything that we've been doing this summer involves water. Evan is obsessed. It might be why we are on third round of really bad swimmer's ear! Hopefully we can figure out how to stop it from developing.



We have been going to KI water park, the pool, slip-n-sliding, running through the sprinkler, water balloons, water table, and making waterfalls. I can't imagine what our water bill is going to be :) It's all worth it!

Animals...

Ainsley loves reading her books. Some of her favorite lately are the ones with animals. She's been practicing her animal sounds - check out the video!



We have also been going to the Mason Library story time with Miss Alice. Ainsley LOVES it! It's so cute to see her moving along with the songs and listening to the stories. She gets so excited for the shakers at the end and the bubbles!

Walking & Talking

Ainsley is a little over 13 months old now, and what a transformation we have seen over the last month. It's been all about walking and talking!

She took her first few steps a few days before her birthday and now she's a full time walker! She can get up from sitting down without holding onto anything, so, anytime, anywhere, she's ready to walk! It actually is nice in some ways - when we are outside, she's not stuck in a stroller or being held. However, my life is much busier now! She loves to get into everything - especially Evan's tiny toys!


The other big change with our little one is her language! She is definitely talking! It's so amazing that she can now really communicate with us. She says lots of words - mama, dada, pat pat, ball, go, baby, uh-oh, wing (swing), bird, bro (bother), down, up, tickle - tickle, bub (our word for paci), woof (for what a dog says), and all done. She also lets us know what she wants by pointing and smiling.

One fun thing that we did with Ainsley was to let her ride on one of the big kid rides at Kings Island. It was the cars that go around in a circle. We would have never done it with Evan, but it's going to be a long summer there, and she should have some fun too. She absolutely loved it, and rode 3 times with her big brother.

Ainsley is still so sweet. She gives us hugs and kisses and will even walk over to greet Doug at the door. It's been fun to see her growing and getting to see her personality more and more!

Mother's Day Tea

I had the privilege of going to Mother's Day Tea at Evan's school this week. I will definitely remember it for a long time. I arrived at school and got the biggest hug and kiss from my little man. We then did a craft together and we got to look over this sheet about me. Here is what Evan had to say about some of my favorites:
The kids then sang us a special song - You Are My Sunshine. There where definitely a few tears. I got a video of the whole thing, but it's too big to uplaod. We then got to have tea and cookies with the other boys in his class, followed by lunch with several classmates and McDonalds. It was such a special, sweet day with my little boy. I am so blessed!

Swimming Class

Evan just finished up another session of swimming lessons. He has really been improving! He will now put his head completely under water for several seconds - something he would never attempt in the past. He has a ball in the water too! It was so fun to watch him swim and I'm really looking forward to this summer!