May

Avery & her bunny

May is a pretty important month for our family.

On Monday, the 2nd, my little baby turned 2 years old. I can't believe she's getting to be such a big girl. She's talking a lot more and doing all kinds of things by herself. She's into all kinds of mischief, too. She's a handful but she's still my snuggly baby.

Scott and I will be celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary on Friday, the 13th. My mom will be here so we can go on a real date, without kids. :0)

Ryann turns 4 on the 16th. We'll be having a party for both girls this coming weekend. We've got a plethora of princess stuff for the occasion. Ryann has requested another princess castle cake this year so I'll be busy getting that ready as well.

Both girls get to go to the doctor on the 17th. Happy Birthday...here's your shots. :0)

A Day at the Zoo

The Birthday Girl

In honor of Avery's birthday, my friend, Annie and I took the girls to the Phoenix Zoo. We all had fun walking around and looking at the animals. Ryann rode the merry-go-round, and actually enjoyed the first and last 15 seconds of the ride. We had a picnic with a variety of feathered friends. The girls got to play in the Little People farm area. Aside from a couple of scraped knees and my slight sunburn, things went well.

Ryann & Avery Taking a Break

Scott was out of town this weekend. He went home to Washington to make his return to the Bloomsday 12K race in Spokane. It's much colder than he's used to. He said they were hoping for the 40s today. Brrrr... He texted me that he finished the race in under an hour. He must have taken Ryann's advice. Last night on the phone she said, "Run very fast, Daddy." We're proud of him. :0)

Easter

We began our Easter festivities last week with an egg hunt and Easter Bunny encounter at an event for employees in my school district. That was ok. The girls found a few eggs among the gazillion other kids seeking them. Avery found a "golden ticket" in one of hers. She won a chocolate bunny, which her daddy was happy to eat for her. Meeting the bunny didn't exactly go well. It was much like our Santa meeting. Both girls were terrified of the huge rodent. I thought he was cute.

This Saturday, we colored eggs. Well, I colored them and the girls fought with each other then went outside to play while I finished. That night, we all headed to church. After church, we quickly got the kids to bed with promises that the Easter bunny would know if they weren't sleeping. I filled baskets and eggs as Scott and I watched a movie together. We're a bit wild & and crazy because we stayed up until almost 11:00. The night before we were asleep by 9. That was awesome!

I had planned to get up around 6 and hide eggs for the morning hunt. The girls usually get up between 6:30 and 7. Ryann decided to come in around 5:45 asking to snuggle in my bed. Hmmm.... That posed a problem. After a few minutes of snuggles, I sent her back to her room so I could sneak downstairs and to the backyard. Surprisingly, she went willingly and I crept down the stairs and to the back door. I quietly opened the sliding glass door and BEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPP!!!!!! I had forgotten to turn off the alarm. I ran to enter the code and slid out the backdoor. Just as I got outside, the phone ran. It was the alarm company following up. Wow! I hid the eggs and went back to bed. I told Scott that I was super sneaky. He agreed that no one would ever notice me. I guess I wouldn't be any good as a private detective or something. Either way, the girls slept through it and were pleasantly surprised to find filled baskets and eggs in the backyard.

The girls spent most of the day today eating jelly beans and fighting over other things from their baskets. Avery even stole some candy from Daddy's basket. It was nice to have a day for the four of us to be together. We tried to go swimming this afternoon. The pool was 75 degrees. We went in but Avery and I were too wimpy to get wet all  the way. It was sunny, breezy and warm, but the water felt super chilly. Maybe May will have warmer water for us. I'm sure our friends and family in NY and Washington couldn't swim today, either. :0)~

Spring Break

Well, I made it to Spring Break. It was quite a hectic week leading up to it. We had visitors in town. Scott is working Spring Training every day. I had report cards and a ton of work to do. By the time break started, I was pretty tired. My mom was in town to watch the girls for us. We took her last day, Monday, to go to the Phoenix Zoo. The girls got to see Koala bears, among other things. It was fun except for Ryann's refusal to ride the merry-go-round. She asked about it all day but when we got in there, she had a fit and asked to go home. Ugh! Mom got them koala shirts to commemorate the day.

The first week of break is gone now. Scott and I both worked Tuesday through Thursday. We played hookie Friday morning to take Scott to a birthday breakfast before he went to work. Having his birthday during Spring Training puts a damper on the festivities, especially on a day with a night game. We'll have dinner on Sunday to celebrate.

Ryann had her first friend sleep over Friday night. There was no sleeping until after 11pm. Ryann is a bit of a menace at bedtime. She likes to run up and down the hallway frequently. I have to gate her in or make her sleep in her top bunk without the ladder. It may seem extreme but she stays in one place and doesn't seem to mind. Last night, she also found it fun to torment her friend by covering her friend's head or taking her stuffed animal. I banished her to the top bunk at 11 so I could sleep. It was smooth sailing from there.

Avery has reached a milestone this week. She is now in a toddler bed. Last week, she was in her crib for a time out and ended up on the floor. I decided it was time. She's done well so far. She still sits in it and calls for me in the morning. I kind of like that, but I'm sure it won't last long.

Scott and I will be working all next week. Then, school opens back up on the 28th. Our state tests are 2 weeks after that so there's lots to do. I'll be looking forward to June 7th, our last day of school for the year. :0)

Time to Swim!

After more than 2 years in our house, we finally put the swimming pool in the backyard. No more looking out and seeing nothing but dirt out back. There's still plenty of dirt, but now there's a pool in the middle. Our next adventure will be landscaping the rest of the yard.

Here are a few pictures of construction.

 The finished product.

Keelan was the first brave soul to test the waters. 68 degrees is way too cold for me, or "a bit brisk," as Keelan said. I'm thinking I'll get in by May. :0)

February Fun

It's been a busy month so far. We've had soccer on Saturdays, birthday parties, work commitments, and more. Scott managed to get me the perfect Valentine's gift this year. It was an Edible Arrangement. It was beautiful and delicious! Since I'm on Weight Watcher's again, it was very thoughtful.

The girls, however, are not dieting. They each had a goody bag from a birthday party on Saturday. Sunday morning, Ryann gave Avery a crash course in lollipop eating. It was quite humorous to watch. We had to follow it up with bath time. :0)

You'll notice that Avery has pretty short hair nowadays. I had to give her a buzz because she had pulled so much out. Since the trim, though, she hasn't touched it. I'll keep my fingers crossed that she's done with that bad habit.

Cheerleading

Since November I've been one of the coaches for our school's cheerleaders. We had 22 girls that really wanted to go to competition. The basketball season ended a couple of weeks ago but we kept practicing to get ready for competition. Unfortunately, we had 3 girls leave the team and pretty poor attendance from the rest in the last few weeks. That caused us to have to redo things several times. I was pretty frustrated and swore off coaching for many years. However, competition day arrived yesterday. It was stressful but exciting. Our team won 4th place out of 12 teams. It was the first middle school competition that I'd been to. Now that I know what it's like, I have the bug again! Who knows, maybe I'll try again next year. :0) Ryann loves it she always begs to go to practice with me. I think it would be awesome to coach her someday. I guess we'll see what the future holds.