Summer in PHX

 Since it is SO sweltering hot nowadays, we are staying indoors a little more. Averi loves to draw and write (now that she realizes she can). She actually has a pretty short attention span for coloring, but she can write for quite a while and still enjoy it.

Practicing letters and drawing houses :)

The girls had their "bath" outside in the kiddie pool a couple times.

 Trip to Cabella's with friends. The kids loved looking at all the animals.

 Averi and her good friend McKenna playing in the kiddie pool. I LOVE having her over to play with Averi because they can play for hours and not even bug me :) It doesn't get much cuter than these two!

 Kadence gets frustrated eating certain things (like rice, in this picture) and just puts her face right in it and tries to eat it like a dog. Love that silly baby!

 She saw me mopping the floor so she took it upon herself to find a wipe and start "helping me". So considerate :)

 I have been playing in a volleyball league the past couple months...Here we are: league tournament champions!

Community Pool Party

 Each year our FHA puts on a community pool party and this year was no different. They are always really fun. They have free lunch fresh off the grill, a huge inflatable water slide (on the grass outside the pool area), a face painter/balloon master, giveaways for the kids, and a raffle for the adults. We won a free beach towel in the raffle, and we waited in line for almost an hour for Averi to get her face painted and to get a balloon. It was actually pretty ridiculous. Face painters are supposed to come to INdoor parties in Phoenix. It was so hot! Averi wasn't even that excited about it and said she didn't want to do it when we got close to the front. But by that time, I wasn't about to give away my spot in line after 40 minutes to standing there in the HOT sun. So she finally got her face painted and got a balloon shaped like a flower. Of course she rubbed her cheek almost immediately and smeared the rainbow he had painted, then her balloon touched the hot ground and some of the pedals popped! So much for that! This is how she felt by the end of all  that:

 

But the second she got in the water she was all smiles :)

 

I wasn't going to let Kadence get in the pool so she didn't even have her swim suit on. But once she saw the water, there was no stopping her. I finally gave in and let her get in the pool with her clothes on. She was in heaven!! She would stand on the edge and start giggling as she stepped off into the water. I would catch her and then we would do that over and over again.

Memorial Day 2013

 I had to make a last minute trip to Fry's to get some things. Averi loves going there because they have these carts with "cars" attached that the kids can drive. Each girlie got their own steering wheel! It was Kadence's first time in one and she thought she was pretty special.

 We had a pool party / BBQ at our friends the Moffit's house with a few of our other friends. It has become a tradition now since we have done it the the past two years. Love it! They have an awesome backyard and a gorgeous pool so it's always fun to hang out outside over there.

The party was during Kadence's nap time so I tried putting her down at their house and that lasted about ten minutes! She didn't want to miss out on the fun. Here she is chowing down on some watermelon.

 Averi spend the whole three hours in the pool with a 15 minute break to eat some dinner. That girl is part fish! She would swim all day if I let her.

A shot of the girls before we left:

 These pictures demonstrate their relationship pretty well. Kadence loves Averi and tries hard just to get some attention from her. Usually Averi just gets annoyed and pushes her away but they are getting better every day.

Bowling

We took the kiddos bowing with some friends a few weeks ago. It was Averi's second time in her life and she loved it!

Doug showing her how to hold the ball

Watching and waiting patiently as the ball slowly crept towards the pins. Thank goodness for gutter bumpers :)

And then there's Kadence. She occupied her time by eating food (most of which she stole from her friend Cove) and flirting with the people behind us. Judging by the look on her face, I'm guessing that she is well aware of her "cute" factor!

We polished off the evening by dining in at In-and-Out Burger. YUM!

Preschool Graduation

  Averi had her last day of preschool in May, and along with that came their preschool graduation program. They (meaning all/most of the kids BUT Averi) sang some cute songs with actions (think "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed") and we got to watch a video recap of their year at preschool. I know Averi enjoyed going to preschool but she definitely didn't manifest that at the program. She would have preferred to sit on the stairs behind everyone, and she pretty much refused to speak. But who could blame her, it was a pretty big audience :)

Here is Averi dancing with Doug after the program. That was one thing I loved about her preschool is that Mrs. Sterr (her teacher) always had music to dance to when they were done with everything else.

Averi and Kadence looking through her end-of-the-year scrap book that Mrs. Sterr made for her. SO cute!

 Kadence is not so good at the whole "sitting still and being quiet" thing so she stayed entertained by wandering around, playing with keys, and trying to get into other people's bags.

 Snack time! ~Thanks for a great year Mrs. Sterr!

Summer is under way...

Now that we are well into June, it is too hot most of the time to hang out outside unless you are submerged in water or at least partially wet. However, back in May we had a few really nice weekends when we were able to get together with friends at the park. One weekend we had a big pot luck dinner at the park with a few other families and played some killer sand volleyball. :) 

Here are the kiddos playing in the sand 

 Kadence sporting her official picnic shirt... yes she does love watermelon!

 

With 113 degree days already behind us, I'm afraid there is no turning back now! Welcome sweaty car-rides, high a/c bills, and LOTS of swimming!

Look who's walking!

Kadence actually took her first steps around 13 months. She took 9 steps in church (in tights on the slippery gym floor) over 3 weeks ago But it wasn't until recently that she has actually used walking as a main mode of transportation. She still crawls about half the time but she is getting more and more confident in her walking skills and it is SO cute! :)

A few weeks ago we camped out in the yard in a tent. Averi walked all over the yard with Kadence trying to get her to walk.

 Kadence has also become quite the climber and thinks she is pretty cool in this pic when she climbed up on the chair.