Splash Time

Emily Recites "The Pledge of Allegiance"

Bicycle Riding Big Girl Style

Every now and then the girls and I will venture outside to play; I say every now and then because it is scalding outside now that summer has appeared.  We usually go out to the front yard since the girls don't like messing with the dogs.  Last year dad got them new big girl Barbie bicycles with training wheels.  They tried them out a couple of times and then decided that they weren't comfortable enough on their big girl bikes, actually Avery couldn't really rotate the pedals well enough to ride.

So to my surprise, Emily made the decision to finally try her bike out and Avery rode the tricycle.  Our neighborhood recently expanded and the street was finally finished.  It made a perfect oval with the street behind us and no houses built meant no through traffic yet, it was perfect.  Emily had a little trouble at first but as soon as she got the hang of it she was off on her big girl bike and so proud of herself.  Poor Avery realized she had to pedal twice as hard to keep up with her big sister.  We had a wonderful time and soon the girls were asking to go out again.

Avery remembered how hard it was to keep up with Emily on the tricycle so she decided the very next day to try out her big girl bike.  She started out a little slow but after she got the hang of it she was right next to her sister.  I was one proud mama!  Emily saw a little girl and her brother doing tricks so she decided to be "brave" and do some tricks as well so she took her legs off her pedals while it was still going and yelled, "Weee, look at me mom!"  It was so cute!  I see lots of bike rides in our future.

Family Night at Chuck E Cheese's

We finally decided to venture out into the world of game places for kids.  The girls saw a commercial for Chuck E. Cheese's and were asking everyday for a week to go to this place before we caved in and accepted.  Emily was a little nervous when she learned that lots of kids like to go to this place because she thought they would be screaming.  She was pretty close in her assumption, but thankfully we decided to go early on a Friday and were luck enough to be one of the only people there.  We ordered our pizza and got our tokens and then decided to start in the toddler section to acclimate them to their new exciting environment.  Avery went straight for the rides and Emily, of course, decided to opt for the games.  When they both learned they got tickets for playing games it enticed them to see who could get the most tickets.  It was pretty funny to see how excited they were at the idea that they "won" every game they played.  I tried to encourage Emily to try the rides but she refused to try any of them.  She did love this one baby game, which was basically a telephone attached to a small booth, and when you placed your coin in the slot it would make the call to one of the characters and they would have a short two sentence conversation with you.  Emily loved it!  She repeated that particular game at least four times until we decided not to let her play anymore.  It was, in my opinion, a waste of coins.  Most of the time, both girls played all the games they chose to play, and then there were those times when dad wandered off only to come back with tons of tickets.  He was a kid again when he played those games and was having just as much fun as his girls.  When it was almost time to go, Emily finally decided to take a chance on a small toddler ride.  Once she saw that it was calm and it wasn't going to throw her off she decided to get on a bigger ride.  She enjoyed it so much that she rode the thing four more times.  Avery has a blast and loved the action games the best especially the fighting games.  Unlike the Chuck E. Cheese's I went to as a child, this new updated place didn't have a ball pit, thank God, and it didn't have those creepy characters dancing on stage.  It did have one mechanical mouse, Chuck E. Cheese himself, who would dance every so often and blink.  He was situated right by the restroom area so when I passed him with Avery in tow she was delighted and actually waved at the thing.  On the other hand, when I took Emily to the restroom, she practically attached herself to me and said, "Mom, I want to go home!"  I had to calm her down and tell her he didn't get off the platform.  I was quickly made a liar when a employee came out of the back dressed in the mouse outfit and walked around the place getting people to follow him to get more tickets.  Luckily we stayed clear of him and Emily was good enough to finish all her tokens before she decided it was time to go home.  After being such well behaved children and I beaming with pride over my great parenting, we reached the prize counter where all hell broke loose and the devils came out of them.  Not really, but they didn't understand that I couldn't get them that bake set for just 200 tickets or that princess jewelry set.  We finally settled on some fun dip and a toy car, which was about the size of a strawberry.  After all was done we all attested to having a great time and will go back for more fun.

Mother's Day Weekend at Cinnamon Shores

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Summer!

I Want to be a Supergirl When I Grow Up

Our youngest child is unlike her older sister in many ways.  She isn't into princesses and castles or dresses and bows.  Avery instead loves dinosaurs and horses and wants to be a supergirl when she grows up.  She enjoys watching the 1970's version of Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and also likes to play with the boys.  At 3 and 3/4 year old Avery is at a phase where she hates to have her hair pulled up and despises ruffles or frills on her clothing, although anything that sparkles is okay in her book.  I wouldn't say she is a tomboy quite yet seeing as how her favorite color is pink, or purple depending on what day you ask her.  I got a progress report from Avery's teacher at school and she said that Avery was one of the best and smartest students in her class.  She was one of the only students in her class that answered most of the questions on the assessment.  Number and letter recognition is one of her strong points.  Her best friend at school is a little boy named Michael, although she recently told me she kissed a little boy named Lane.  I don't think daddy would love to hear that she is kissing boys so early.  Avery's birthday is a only a couple of months away and she has already asked for a My Little Pony party.  Let's see if she changes her mind from here until then.