Ponytail Girl

I guess all parents have the trouble of the "what the heck happened to your hair?" For some reason Ava can go to sleep with nice combed, newly shampooed hair, and then wake up looking like the Rats of Nimh was filmed in her hair. Honestly, some mornings I don't even try to run a brush through it. We'll just let Nana look at it for the day! ;) But seriously, it is a mess. I am so torn because I want it to grow out, but at the same time, it is begging for a trim. So tomorrow after school Ava is headed to the beauty shop to have a good trim before vacay. So in honor of Ava's haircut tomorrow, here are some pictures from one afternoon when I was tired of the crazy hair and stuck it up in a ponytail.

March comes in like a...blizzard?

March here started with a freak snowstorm that came through on Saturday night. We were home and at Joe and Anne's during the snow. It was beautiful, but by Sunday afternoon most of it had melted away. Our church's services were cancelled due to the weather. They say that our area got 6-7 inches, but I don't think our yard got quite that much. Ava actually enjoyed the snow this time. The funniest quote came on Saturday night when we got home during the middle of the snowfall. We came inside and she said, "Mommy, I have a snowman on my shoes!" She was really concerned for the poor snowman. I had to explain that it was just snow and not the actual snowman on her shoes!

And these limbs you see poking out are the remains of the ice storm way back in January!

10 on Tuesday

Here's this week's installment of 10 on Tuesday:

1. We leave for Disney in less than 3 weeks! That means I need to get started on my packing lists!



2. No more will the answer "The batteries are dead," work on Ava because she knows where the batteries are and knows what to do with them. We have a horrible habit of just turning off her toys and when she asks, we just tell her the batteries are dead. So the other day I told her that about Lulu the Letter-Spinning Spider because I could not take another minute of "Spin with me, spin with me, spin with me, WHEEEEE!" only to leave the room and return to Ava in the floor with batteries and A SCREWDRIVER! She was planning an operation on Miss Lulu!







3. Another trip note: In preparation for our trip, we are watching as many possible Disney movies to get Ava revved up and ready. So why, oh why, can I not find a DVD copy of Beauty and the Beast? We have it on VHS which does us no good because we no longer have a VCR. Darn you Disney Vault! Why do you steal movies away and lock them up for years at a time? It's not even on Netflix!




4. Nana made Ava a hat to match her scarf that I posted the other day.






5. Ava has been wanting to sit in the big chair at the table as opposed to her highchair lately.






6. We (Bradley especially) have become obsessed with playing Wii lately. He plays almost every night and Ava's favorite game to watch is pool.



7. For some reason Ava has really gotten into a PBS show called Word Girl. It is a little advanced for her but she asks for it all the time!



8. Whenever I get a picture order Ava knows that there is always a special surprise in the box for her. The company I print with always includes a sucker for the kids. What customer service!






9. As I type this Ava is downstairs watching President "O-Mama."



10. She tried Jell-O for the first time and it wasn't a success!
    
    
    

Just not a lot going on...

Things have been pretty boring here at our house. We have just done a lot of lazing around lately, I have taken almost zero pictures. So this is a pretty random post with some pictures actually taken around the end of January. Words cannot even express how ready for spring I am.

Here is Ava watching Aladdin (hence, the costume).

Ava with the scarf Nana made her.

Looking out the window for Nana who had dropped off the scarf during Ava's nap.

Making brownies.



Just dang cute!

Collage

Mom, Is this what you want?

Valentine's Day Wrap-Up

Bradley, Ava, and I did a little bit of early Valentine's Day celebrating on Friday night. We went into town and headed to the bookstore where I picked up a couple of magazines, Ava got a Disney Princess magazine, and I also got a book (Revolutionary Road). We were planning to eat first, but the restaurants were so busy that we browsed at the bookstore for a little while. Since it was Valentine's Day Bradley let me choose the restaurant, so Mexican food it was and we went to eat at Los Portales.

On Saturday, we got up and at the last minute did the Miss Sweetheart pageant and for the rest of the day, we enjoyed a low key time of just togetherness. Ava had a few Valentines (Thanks Aunt Bethy and Nana and Pop) to open and a box of Garfield chocolates from us. We had made cupcakes on Thursday night for my classes at school and Ava enjoyed one of those for lunch. We also made cookies and just hung out. Ava's Valentine gift from us ended up being a copy of the movie "A Bug's Life." (We're trying to cram all the Disney in that we can because we leave in less than a month!)

So, it was a pretty uneventful, but enjoyable weekend. Just our little family enjoying each other and hanging out. Right now my little Valentine is laying in her bed reading to herself and trying to postpone the nap that she doesn't want to take. It's little moments like this that I want to savor and remember forever.

500th Post Contest Winner

This morning Ava drew the name of the winner for the 500th post. Here is the story in pictures. (The names are of people who responded to the 500th post.)

Your prize is a custom designed storyboard that will come ready to hang on the wall. This will be an example that I photograph for use on my photography blog. Please go to my photography blog and look through the storyboards posted and choose a design you like (3 pictures on a 5 x 10, 4 pictures on an 8 x 10 or 11 x 14, or 8-9 pictures on a 12 x 12). Also decide from the gallery which Ava photos you want or if you have other photos you want used.

Thanks for playing!

*Disclaimer - I promise that this contest was not rigged. Ava just happened to pick my mother's name, but all 4 names were in the bowl and had an equally likely chance of being selected.*

Valentine's Day Pageant

All week long my friend Stacy has been onto me to put Ava in a pageant that the Junior class from school was sponsoring. I had kept saying no because of this pageant last time - http://rogershouselife.blogspot.com/search/label/pageant and because earlier last week Ava had said, "I no want to do a pageant, Mommy." (This was said after an emotional episode of the TLC show Toddlers and Tiaras) So I stopped there. But Stacy was no quitter and she called me a little before 10 and wanted Ava to be in the pageant, but she had to be there by 10:45. Now at this time, Ava hadn't bathed and I had just showered. I asked Ava if she wanted to go to the pageant and she agreed because she wanted to see JonThomas who was helping with the trophies and crowns. So in a little over 20 minutes, we bathed Ava and got her ready, I got ready, and I even printed off a picture for the Miss Photogenic pageant. It was very rushed, but we made it with a few minutes to spare. Since we hadn't talked about it, I just told Ava when she was onstage to smile, and just have fun.



So this time around, Ava got to be escorted on stage by JonThomas and she did great. She smiled at the judges, but was more interested in the balloons than the judges. She was hilarious. Her is a rundown of her announcement.


"Contestant Number 2 is Ava Rogers. Her favorite food is chicken nuggets (?) and her favorite color is red. She enjoys singing, dancing, and coloring. She is described as silly, funny, and high-strung. Her future goals include learning to use the potty."



Yeah that is totally what I wrote and I got a kick out of it! The second time she went out, she went out with a fellow teacher who told the little girls to blow kisses to the judges, which Ava did while proceeding to very loudly tell the judges, "I blow you kisses!" It was hilarious. She stole the show. All she cared about was the balloons!


In the end, she won Most Photogenic, Best Smile, Best Hair, and 1st Maid. She received some certificates and a trophy which she loved. Best of all for her, she got a balloon (which she popped a few minutes after we got home). It was so funny because all Ava wanted was a balloon and all the winner wanted was a trophy. She didn't want the crown she just wanted a trophy! It was cute.


But for us, I don't anticipate this being something we do very much. I did this one to support the school, but in my heart, I know my little girl is the most beautiful and I don't need someone to tell me that. I did this for fun and Ava enjoyed herself and had fun with JT and that is what mattered. Oh, and that she got her balloon too!


Special thanks to Jonathan for taking these pictures and Stacy for doing video. Since this was so rushed and last minute, we didn't have any family with us. Bradley and his dad were working on cutting some limbs in our yard, so it was just Ava and I. I appreciate them documenting this for us!

See, she wanted balloons!

Look closely at Ava, she is blowing kisses.

And back to the balloons. (Her back is obvously on the judges too much! LOL!)