If I'm ever tempted to leave John all alone again for a week...

Please remind me what happens...

John and I debated back and forth over whether we should get Ava a kitten or a pony for her birthday.

While I was in Florida, John took a trailer of goats to one of the largest livestock auctions in the East Coast. He assured me that the trailer came back empty.

He lied.

Just look at his face. It's not often you see a dada so excited to spoil his little girl (although we have made it clear to Ava that this is a FAMILY pony, not just her own).

So welcome Midnight, into our menagerie of chickens, kittens, goats, sheep, and whatever else Dada might happen to stumble across at an unbeatable price at the auction (FYI, this pony only cost $195 - dirt cheap in pony terms). She's actually a great little pony and seems to have been around the block with kids before. Ava can catch her and attempts to mount the pony by herself in the field, although the pony just walks away.

Yesterday was our 8th year anniversary, and for my present, John took all three little kids to the livestock auction an hour away. They ended up being gone for 7 hours, pure bliss to me as I cleaned the craft and junk rooms. Nathan told me that night at dinner that they had wanted to bring home a pig for me for our anniversary present, but luckily, John told them he thought that was just what Mama DIDN'T want. Thank goodness this time he really did bring home an empty trailer.

Ava's 6th Party

Ava turned 6 with a rocking pool/ocean/wet party theme. I love summer birthdays!

Ava Facts:

She's tall - the tallest in her class although one of the youngest. Ava's favorite things are ponies and cats and she's obsessed with stuffed animals. She has over 60 of them in her room and it's often hard to find her under them at night. She's an awesome babysitter and helper - the other day she got herself and the boys ready all ready for bed, including SHOWERS, teeth brushed and pajamas - entirely by herself! Wow! She loves nature and is a total tomboy, but cleans up pretty. We cut her hair again this summer since it's not so fun to have to fix your hair each day and fight snarls. She can out eat any of us in breakfast foods and she's obsessed with vanilla ice cream. She's awfully sweet and is always giving up whatever she has to make her little brothers happy. She's tenderhearted and doesn't like conflicts. She loves to draw and took art camp this summer. She has an incredible imagination and is constantly helping her animals while they're "giving birth." When she grows up she wants to be a veterinarian or a shelter owner. Oh, and she's lost 4 teeth - soon to be 5!

Florida

A few weeks ago I was on Facebook way too late and happened to catch the comment my little sister, Dolly, made about everyone in our family ditching out on her trip to Florida to see our other sister Leanne. Offended at not being asked to go at all, I told her she was a bum and why wasn't I ever invited. Just cause I have kids doesn't mean I'm no fun. In fact, I think that might add to my fun level.

She quickly realized her mistake, begged me for forgiveness, watched my kids for me for 2 days straight, and in return, I provided the vehicle to Florida. True, it was a minivan full of 3 little kids and all their paraphernalia, and yes, we did have to drive 14 hours straight through the night so those kids wouldn't drive us crazy, but all in all, I think we had a fun trip.

We took these beach obsessed kids to Honeymoon Island

and spent a day fighting off the seagulls (brazen things stole my cookie out of my hand and bit me enough to bring blood - it was war, I tell you!),

playing in the waves (even Nathan got brave this time!) and building sand castles.

We also had a two-fold purpose in going to Florida. I wanted a piece of this baby!!! This is the beautiful, chunky, good-as-gold, sweet, sweet, sweet little hunk of love from one of my oldest friends and old college roommate, Erin. I took off in December of last year to visit Florida for her baby shower and I've been waiting to meet this baby ever since. Addy is 6 months old now and we had a great time holding and kissing her.

Nathan especially liked this baby and I can tell, would be a much better helper now than he was when Lias was born.

Technically, Erin's a high-falutin lawyer but really, can anyone be high-powered when pictured in a swimming suit holding a tub of lard that she produced? Probably not and I like it that way!

Last time we went down to Florida, John was busy in meetings, so I took the kids to Downtown Disney and they loved it so much we decided to do it again. Ava and Nathan were so excited they started hugging each other as we were driving up and say, "We're going to Disney Land! We're going to Disney Land!" Nathan was so funny, pointing to Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and saying, "Oh, look! It's that mouse. And his friend the duck!" I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed or proud that my kids don't know who Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse are. But I do know that it means I can pull off Downtown Disney (entry fee = $0) as the real Disney World (entry fee = $85 a day). That is some mighty fine parenting if I do say so myself.

Lias quickly latched onto Uncle Bubs and didn't let him out of his sight. He played football, watched TV and wrestled around with him the entire time. Luckily, Lias is still pretty dang cute so I think he made up for his screeching when he didn't get his way. He came home full of new saying, especially "Web-E?" (Ready?) and "Oh Man". He almost drowned Bubs at one point by not asking him if he was "web-e" before he jumped into the pool in the deep end with him. Bubs pulled out a pretty cool trick and held Lias above his head while he himself sank, till he got him to the edge. I watched the whole thing, thinking "What a cool hold" until the last 2 seconds when I realized Bubs was drowning. Ah, the bonding moment for the two.....

We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, which was a big hit with the kids. Nathan was especially excited about the lighting and thunderstorm and they all liked the monkeys swinging around. And my boys also got some pretty short haircuts, which ended up even shorter as we tried to fix them. I like them but John told me never to shave them off so I'm not classifying this as an actual shave.

After the dinner, we walked around looking at the stores, watching the impromptu dance contest, eating Ghirardelli's chocolate ice cream and enjoying the Red man. Doesn't he look just like Val Kilmer? Dolly tried to get a kiss but ended up with just an arm.

And somehow, on the last day right before we left for our drive back, we ended up in our swimsuits for the bagullion-th time and went swimming with like 6 other moms, all somehow related to this awesome gal in the blue. Leanne went and found a great friend, so I've decided to latch on too. Sarah's a spunky, fun mom that writes a great blog that I spend a ton of time reading and gaining inspiration from. She's also an awesome photographer that took Lias's pictures when he was little and takes all kinds of fun pictures of her 4 little girls.

She and I caught glimpses of conversations in between saving drowning kids, bandaging hurt toes, nursing babies and teaching kids to swim. It's always nice to meet a kindred soul - I just wished she lived closer.

And then the trip was over, and we hadn't taken any pictures of the three of us girls, so Sarah convinced us to snap one. This is just before our drive home and just after our swimming party so obviously I was not expecting pictures. I guess Leanne and Dolly didn't get the memo cause they both still look great! We really did all have a good time and, other than the 14 hour drive, I do it again in a heartbeat.

Pretty cool website...

Have you all seen this website? It lets you read full length books with your kids and then it donates a hard copy to the charity you choose from their list of literacy based causes. The books have great illustrations since they're DK or Penguin titles. Just thought it might help a few moms who might be stuck in the summertime rut... not that we are over here or anything. Happy reading!

Six.... and Spoiled Rotten

Just look what the cat dragged in for Ava on her sixth birthday....

We had a little bit of a rough go with Cinnamon the first week, hence no photos of her right away.

But she's eating now, which makes her happy, which makes her cute and playful, which makes Ava happy.

What makes Nathan Jump for Joy?

A surprise birthday party trip to the beach with his favorite family in the whole world - the Ryan boys.

For Nathan's 4th birthday we packed up the car Thursday morning, drove to school and grabbed Ava, then proceed to slowly tell them where we were going during the 8 hour drive down to Litchfield, SC and the purdiest beaches on the East Coast (actually, really the only beach we've been too on the East Coast - FL doesn't count).

Ava was way too smart and guessed the surprise immediately, but Nathan was still confused after he opened the presents we had brought as clues - goggles, inner tube, beach toys and squirt sword things. He got pretty excited, finally, about 6 hours in to the drive.

Piggy Wiggly made a beautiful beach cake that added many pounds to all of our physique. We had to eat it all in 2 days, dang it.

Noah thought about paddling everyone but then decided he was out numbered. These poor kids are exhausted after a intense day at the beach and pool but we made them enjoy a birthday party. Ava may never forgive me for putting this picture of her up on the web. They were sunburnt, tired and ready to drop.

I especially was in the best mood after getting about 5 hours of sleep and realizing at 1:00am when we pulled into the resort that my bag (including all my swimsuits and all the bathroom stuff) was the only bag that didn't get packed. I spent 2 hours of quality time at the Goodwill and $27 dollars later I was good as new. Kinda. Here I am telling Jayme that she WILL eat WHATEVER kind of cake I put on her plate. I made the mistake of ordering a marble cake for 6 little kids that all wanted white cake.

Luckily the ice cream was white and well received.

And so were the presents - a beach creature set from the Ryans, a new space puzzle, a bouncy ball making kit, a football and color changing cars.

Nathan was having a tough time thinking he wanted to leave his old number 3 behind, but I think he decided it was more fun to be at the beach so he'll take the number 4.

If my computer had been more cooperative, I'd have posted more and told you more about this trip. For now, I'm dead and I'm at least 2 weeks behind - today is actually Lias's birthday but Nathan's finally getting his dues. And the wedding did happen, it was beautiful, I'm wading through 700 pictures from it and waiting for the good ones from the real photographer to post something. Good night!