Happy Hour
Fridays around here usually find us doing happy hour nearly as soon as everyone returns to the casa. Ava loves happy hour (although she looks sort of bored in this photo) and enjoys laughing at all the jokes and joining in the conversation.
This Friday, in preparation for a party we were throwing on Saturday, we tested a recipe to recreate one of our favorite appetizers ever. The Dublin Pub in Dayton, OH, offers cheesy pub fries on their appetizer menu and they’re awesome. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to the D-Pub, so we tried them out ourselves. Our replication isn’t exact, obviously, but man….they were awesome! I see many more very happy hours in our future with this treat!
A Walk in the Desert
We’ve been making an effort to get out and walk more, especially on weekends, since the new year began. About a mile from here, near the park where we hosted Ava’s birthday party, is a horse park. It’s wide-open desert space on which horses are allowed to be exercised. The park also has a few miles of sidewalk-type trail – perfect for stroller or unrestrained toddler walking.
It was a beautiful day and Ava wouldn’t stay restrained in her stroller very long. She easily ran a mile and a half. The best part of the walk? The three hour nap girlie took that afternoon. 
Potty Trained Princess
Just a quick update on potty training. I think it’s fair to say we have a graduate! Ava has been doing great going on the potty, both at school and at home. And, I have to say, it was a relatively painless experience. She was ready, we had plenty of time, and we were lucky things worked out so well. We haven’t tackled nighttimes yet, but school nearly has naptime under control.
All that glowing news aside, I wouldn’t really be a mommy-blogger if I didn’t ever post some “will be embarrassing in high school” pictures of my kid. Ava did have a few accidents during the first couple of weeks and, sometimes, if it was close to bedtime, we didn’t bother with more clean clothes before her bath.
On this particular evening, our very beautiful princess had wet herself, but then decided running bare wasn’t going to cut it. So, naturally, she chose the only scratchy skirt in her dress-up arsenal to put against her bare skin – the skirt she won’t wear over clothes because it bothers her. Oh, the logic and hilarity of toddlerhood!
Our pretty, potty-trained princess checking herself out in the mirror!
A New Year: Inspired
Here we are starting a new year. As it happens, tomorrow is this blog’s one year anniversary. Couldn’t start a new blogging year without a new post!
2010 will be a year of creativity for this family as we learn lots of new things and take on new challenges. Here’s a little glance at what we’re going to be up to….
~Ava is continuing to grow in leaps and bounds and has most recently taken on the challenge of potty learning. She’s doing a fantastic job (lots of stamps on the potty chart!) and somehow manages to squeeze in some book reading and imaginary play with all the trips to the bathroom.
~After so much success with Ava’s kitchen and easel (a glance at the finished kitchen project below), Matt has decided to leave his car’s side of the garage set up as a woodshop. Several projects are already in the queue for the coming year. A bed and dresser for Ava, and a wine cork case for me are among the items on the list. He’s also got several digital media projects planned as we’ve found that we take quite a lot of photos and video. Matt’s set an ambitious visitation schedule to nearby national parks for the family, so we’ll all be busy on weekends too!
Matt’s set an ambitious visitation schedule to nearby national parks for the family, so we’ll all be busy on weekends too!
~I’m heading into my final semester of my masters program and am excited to begin working on my final project. Work should prove to be interesting, as well, as we look toward the exciting launch of our new center.
As we look forward, 2010 looks to be a year of opportunity, challenge, and creativity in so many areas of our lives. We’re looking forward to rolling up our sleeves…
…and, clearly, we’re not afraid to get messy in the process.
Here’s to a new year and the many adventures that will fill it!
Christmas 2009
This Christmas was awesome. We had so much fun with lots of visits from good friends and tons of yummy food. It was sort of a two-day, marathon adventure. Of course, that’s not to mention the hours and hours of preparation in stores, the kitchen, and, of course, the woodshop.
We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner celebration with the Hoffmans and Brooke. We enjoyed a steak & twice-baked potato dinner, yummy apple pie and lots of great conversation with friends. It was a wonderful way to prepare for Christmas festivities the next day.
The big gift for Ava this year was a play kitchen. Matt built it all of his own design (but I picked out the faucet!) and it turned out absolutely beautifully. Of course, it was a down-to-the-wire creation, so it was still being constructed at about 2315 Christmas Eve. Regardless, here’s a few shots of Santa’s elf in his workshop.
As I said, Christmas this year was amazing…mostly because our little girl sort of undersood what was happening. Ava loved opening her presents (although all she wanted to do when she woke up was watch Clifford dog) and we were delighted to watch her have so much fun. We got to enjoy that fun for several hours as it took four hours to work through the mountain of gifts under the tree. We never seem to learn to stop opening each toy as it’s unwrapped. We played with everything for a while before we moved onto the next present. Guess that’s good for extending the merriment!
The kitchen Matt made for her was a total hit and well worth the many hours (and couple of late nights) in the garage to get it done on time. Thanks to all our friends and family for the many wonderful gifts…knowing and loving you is indeed the best present!
We took almost 300 pictures on Christmas, so here’s a little collage to sum up the big day. Present opening videos will arrive in another post.
Wishing you all the merriment of the season and lots of joy as we look forward to ringing in the new year!