Let's Go to the Zoo!

Sadly, our very good friends (and neighbors) are moving to Chicago soon, so we felt that it was our duty to take them to the zoo before they moved.  The weather was great, so it made for an awesome day at the zoo.  

Avery and Shay Shay checking out the elephants:

Anna decided the best animal viewing spot was on Daddy's shoulders:

 Photo op for Avery & Baby Archer:

And of course no zoo trip is complete without a carousel ride:

 I think it was the highlight for Dave:

... or maybe Becky - she was pretty excited too:

 This was our first time to feed the giraffes - I had no idea that's what a giraffe's tongue looked like!

Anna needed a little push to get close enough.  The poor giraffe was choking himself on the fence trying to get the lettuce from Anna.  

Always love an excuse to hit the zoo, but we will miss you Lewandowskis!

Easter is still not over!

One more Easter pic from Anna's egg hunt at school.
Love her excitement!

Good Friday... Great Weekend!

After living in the Houston area for 10 years, we decided to FINALLY make a day trip to Galveston and hit the beach!  It took us long enough, but it was worth the wait!  We made it to Galveston just in time to eat an early picnic lunch on the beach and had all afternoon to play.  The girls loved it!  It’s amazing how much happiness a little sand and water and bring!

Daddy who gave his two little princesses mermaid tails:

Anna gave herself some “tights”:

Saturday morning, we headed to Atkinson Farms to pick strawberries!  Anna was not quite as discerning with her strawberry selections, so we have 8 ½ pounds of strawberries currently sitting in our fridge. 

Annual Easter church picture
(we cheated and went Saturday night!):

And then the Easter bunny came and helped us get ready for summer:

After our egg hunt, we headed to Jannie & Pops’ house for a nice big lunch, followed by a nice big nap. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

'Twas the night before Christmas...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night... 

THREE!

 Happy Birthday to my...
super sassy,

oh-so-expressive, 

very demanding, 
born to keep her momma on her toes, 
hand on hip posing,

lollipop eating, 
"long" hair wearing, 
boppy and blankie obsessing, 
pat her back and fast kisses requesting, 
roller coaster hating, 
ballet dancing, 

yellow loving, 
color everywhere but on her paper, 
cuddle bug.

To my best Christmas present ever...

Happy Birthday Anna Jo, we love you! 

Santa!

TWO smiles on Santa's lap - definitely a Christmas miracle!!

Amigos!

I have been meaning to do a post on our sweet neighbors who moved away this summer for years (let’s be honest, I’ve been meaning to do LOTS of posts lately!).  A little history…

My girls (and our whole family) just latched on to this family – they moved to The Woods 2 ½ years ago from Trinidad and Tobago.  Lucila (Lucy), Juan & Juliet became fast friends with our crew. Juan would even knock to see if Mr. Ryan could “come out and play”.  Avery and Juliet were close to the same age, but it was Anna and Juan that formed a special little bond.  There aren’t too many little 9 year old boys that would stop playing with his friends in the street to come say hi to a 2 year old little girl. 

He loved to make her laugh, and she gave him a nickname that spread throughout the neighborhood.  Before Anna turned 2, Juan tried so hard to get her to say his name.  We were working on English at the time, so learning a Spanish name was just not in the cards. ;) One night while playing outside, Juan was determined to get her to say his name:

Juan – “Anna, can you say Juan?”

Anna – “Two!”

Juan – “No, JUAN…”

Anna – “TWO!!”

(Read it aloud if you didn’t get that. ;))

So precious – so from that moment forward, Juan was always “Two” – both in our house, and on our street!  We were so very sad to see them go, but so very happy they recently came back from Spain to visit (or Speeen if you ask Avery).  Even though it has been 6 months since we saw them last, everyone seemed to pick up right where they left off!

(Not pictured - Lucy.  She made a special trip just to see Ave.  Someone happened to be throwing a fit at the time, so we did not get a picture!)

Kindergarten!

So much for the lazy days of summer... it flew by!!  I can't believe that school is already here, and I can't believe that I have a Kindergartner!  

First day of school pic!  New school for Ave, new class for Anna!

Avery was VERY excited to ride the bus today - she's been waiting for the day when she was "big enough" to ride!  Seriously, how grown up does she look with that backpack??

A few of the neighborhood kids ready to get on the bus!  There are seven kiddos starting Kinder this year from our neighborhood!  

Red-eyed mommy with her girls. :)

Off she goes.  I thought she'd be a little shy when it came time, but she surprised us all - she was the first one on!

She was smiling and waving from the window - so precious!

And sweet little Anna... she was waving and enthusiastically shouting, "BYE, AVERY!!!" over and over.  As soon as she got on the bus, she asked, "Avery's gonna come back?" in a very concerned little voice.  On the way to school, she could not quite figure out where Avery and "all our friends" were.

Here's to a great year!  Go Greyhounds!

Goooooaaaaaal!

Now that summer is here and our activities are over, I finally feel like I have time to blog about them! 

This was the first season we signed Avery up for soccer, and we joined a league called “Upward” through our church.  It was a great, Christian-based program that was very positive and was a great first experience for my shy little girl.  She played for the "Stingers" and had an awesome coach!  She even managed to score 2 goals this season - the first was totally accidental (but we still counted it!) and the second was legit... 

Here you are coming out of the tunnel:

Starting lineup!

Big kick!!

Making your move…

I would describe your style of play as “polite”.  This picture made it look like you were far more aggressive than you were, considering that you probably skipped more than you actually ran…

Your sister enjoyed “watching” you while playing on Daddy’s iPad.

And while you assured me that loved soccer and want to play again next season, I’m pretty sure that you were in it for the skipping and the snacks. :)

Cinco de Avery!

This year’s theme was easy – birthday on Wednesday, May 2^nd – the following Saturday was Cinco de Mayo, and the little senorita turned cinco. Cinco on Cinco de Mayo - done and done!

Always excited when we can get a somewhat decent family pic!

I simply could not have pulled this party off without the Mr., and it helped that he was beyond excited about the party theme.  In case you don’t know the Mr. very well, he takes a costume party very seriously, even if it’s a 5 year old one:

 The details…

The party was great, but the weather was HOT.  You know, we like to keep our parties authentic – right down to the Mexico weather.  Thankfully it didn’t seem to slow the kids down one bit!

The piñatas were a big hit (pun intended)!!  Almost all of the kids took a swing or two, and Daddy busted it open for the grand finale! 

Piñata number dos was this little lady, or should I say big lady… she was almost 4 feet tall!  

On the count of “CINCO”, everyone pulled their string to get more junk prizes!!

One happy little señorita!!

Feliz Cumpleaños Señorita Avery!