Spring Break and More

With spring in the air and a week off of school, the girls continue to enjoy their outdoor time. We seem to be at a park at least once per day…

Ali and Ava are good at sharing the “bike” at the park closest to our house.

And Ali loves playing in the sand…she’s becoming a good digger.

Spring in Arizona is when our farmer’s markets are best. While the moms shopped, Ali and her friend Grayson helped out pulling the produce.

For the week that Ava was off, NeeNee came to visit. A haircut for Ava was the first order of business….she seems to have aged a few years just with the shorter haircut.

We took the girls to the train park, starting with the carousel.

Ali was being photogenic….

After riding on the train, we went to the frontier town to play. Both girls like to be up high - Ali on top of the town…..

And Ava on top of the stage coach.

 

Another day the girls took turns showing off books. Ava loves her Disney book.

And Ali (aka the Pirate) is busy trying to color her book.

We did a family bike ride on the greenbelt…

And played with Pepper in the pool…amazingly the girls went in as well (unheated pool in March is too cold for the parents).

Sometimes there’s nothing more fun than just running up the street…

One day we had some amazing wind…perfect for flying the kites. Ali tried her little one.

While Ava got pretty good at the butterfly kite.

Click on the image above for a video of Ava flying the kite.

 

The girls had lots of fun with NeeNee!

 

Another day we took the girls over to Sarah’s house. Ava (aka Anna) and Sofie (aka Ariel) had fun playing dressup.

Ali got in on the act as well.

Now Ali is a dress up girl…and Ava is asking for Frozen dresses!

February Update

While most of the rest of the country has dealt with a colder-than-normal winter, in Arizona we’ve had one of the warmer winters of late. We’ve been taking full advantage of the good weather by being outside.
After a few days of the girls (mostly Ava) begging to go swimming, we took the girls to the heated community pool. Like her big sister, Ali loves going up high.

Click the image above for a video of Ali in the pool

After a while in the pool the girls went to the hot tub to warm up a bit.

Ava and her friends McKenzie and Lilly went hiking one day.

The little siblings were interested in the maps and the displays of desert plants.

We love to take advantage of our great library system. Ava saw the singing cowboy and his trick horse Dusty on one Saturday afternoon.

And the whole family did shake, rattle, and roll another weekend…Ava brought the cat from school.

While Ali shaked the shakers…

On President’s Day, Ava’s school had the ice rink near our house reserved. So Ava laced up the skates and went out on the ice.

Click on the image above for a video of Ava ice skating

The girls went to a birthday party at AZ Air Time, which was full of trampolines and foam pits for the girls to play in.

Ali found the cupcakes to be “finger licking good”.

The next day Ava and Ali took a ride with Bradley (the birthday boy) in his new jeep..

Later in the weekend, Ava found another neighbor’s motorcycle.

The girls like hanging outside with Pepper.

Ali had fund rolling down the driveway in a dump truck.

Ali also found the tractors at the tractor park.

And she is working her way up to full somersaults.

At home, the girls love playing with each other.

Click the image above for a video of the girl's jumping

Off to catch the girls…

January Update

A month after Christmas and the girls are still loving all their new toys. And while most of the rest of the country has suffered through a cold January, we’ve been lucky to have above average temps…which is perfect for spending time outside.

For New Year’s we got 3 families together – 5 girls and a token boy. Ava and Ali and crew enjoyed playing together…here there are with a brief bit of downtime watching a movie.

Ali was festive with her party hat.

Which she traded in for the cowboy hat.

Ava had her princess crown on for the evening.

The families all had fun as we welcomed in the new year!

The next adventure was the Butterfly Wonderland. Somehow Ava was afraid of the butterflies. Meanwhile Ali was fascinated by them.

Ali getting up close and personal…

And just chilling among the butterflies.

There was also a great coi pond – Ali wanted to grab the fish, so Dad had to hold her back.

Now that Christmas was over, it was time to take down the Christmas decorations. The girls were a lot of help…especially with the Santa Bears.

After all that work, Ali took a little rest (notice the theme here with Ali and hats)?

With the warm weather, the girls have been outside a lot. Sometimes we play tennis (or ride in the ball pickup mower).

Click the image above for a video of Ava and Ali with the tennis ball mower.

Other times, “Captain Ava” takes her toy dog and doll for a stroll.

The girls share the see saw.

and on the slides.

And Ava likes to wear her new hat.

While Ali loves to stroll on by.

The girls did some hiking – Ali did amazingly well for almost 3/4 of a mile.

Click the image above for a video of the girls hiking

And occasionally the girls will hold hands together.

And we now have the official “bike train” consisting of Dad’s bike, Ava’s CoPilot, and Ali’s trailer.

Click the image above for a video of the girls walking and riding to the park

Click the image above for a video of Ali playing catch with Pepper

Of course sometimes you just need a dance party.

Click on the image above for a video of Ali dancing

We’ll leave you with some typical shots of Ali (at 5AM). Here she is with a little bedhead.

And catching up on a little Baby Einstein.