A Little Fall of Rain

Today its been raining nonstop. During our lovely thunderstorn we had a visitor trying to sell us some videos, which Avery saw as the perfect opportunity to run outside and play in the "showers." I couldn't help but laugh when I saw her and couldn't bring myself to make her come in. Lincoln and her had a GREAT time.

Avery wasn't too happy I was making her come inside for this last picture...but she was to the point where she was shivering uncontrollably so I decided it would be best to come in. But she had a fantastic time for about 15 minutes or so.

Tommy the Turtle

So we've had a little friend staying at our house for the last week or so. Avery and I were out playing by the pond and found this little guy. Avery hasn't been able to stop talking about him, wanting to hold him, or trying to take him for a walk. She is so happy this little turtle came into our lives.

Here she is petting Tommy's head. Key word here is "SOFT!"

A shot of little Tommy.

Here she is trying to kiss him. Heaven help us.

Here she is being very gentle holding him. And you can get a better idea of how small Tommy the Turtle is.

She really is so happy about this turtle.

And here is a picture of Avery after she fell asleep with Greg's hat still on. Now did she have this hat on when she went to bed? Nope. She got out of bed, got it out of the closet, and put it on and fell asleep.

In My Easter Bonnet

Avery had a fantastic Easter. She loved waking up to a basket full of treats the Easter Bunny left her.

She soon discovered her room was full of hidden eggs.

But upon seeing her basket she went straight for the chocolate bunny.

Then she saw the sunglasses and those soon became the fun thing of the day.

Now that she was accessorized she could hunt for those eggs she'd been hearing about.



And try out those yummy jellybeans.

And stuff a whole Reese's egg in her mouth.

And since she had a little time on her hands, Avery decided to play with her Gumby bunnies and have a little dance party.

Pardon my horrible filming skills and please turn your computer sideways to actually enjoy the video. HA!

Here she is trying out her Blue Steel face.





Once she realized she could put her bunny slippers on herself she really enjoyed them.

A couple quick shots before church.



Then straight to Grandma Hawes' house after church for an Easter Egg hunt. Avery's main goal was to find her eggs so she could jump on the trampoline.

There were 5 kids there and this was the best we could do for a group shot.

After a long fun-filled day Avery went straight for the glasses and slippers when we got home. Then we watched the Chronicles of Narnia in mom and dad's bed and said night night to all.

Como to the Zoo

So I found out that every Thursday in March and April the Como Zoo does a storytime for the kids. They pick an animal and read the kids a story about it and then let the kids come up and either pet or at least see the animal they were focusing on. This sounded like Avery heaven. So when I found out Thursday was "Fantastic Frog Day" we invited our friends Jack and Lincoln and Tyson and set out.

As soon as you walked in they had a bunch of fun activities for the kids to do. Coloring stations, water splish splash stations, matching games, and good ole fashioned stuffed animals to play with.

Avery found the snake and started walking around saying "ssssss" at random strangers.

Here she is learning about tadpoles and frogs at a matching station.

They had these fun wooden frogs that when struck with a wooden mallet would make different sounds. Avery really enjoyed that.

Then it was time for story time. They read a fun story about frogs eating flies and such and we counted along with the book. Then they brought out the real live frogs....I was a little curious to see how Avery would react. We had recently found out that Avery only loved cartoon frogs and that the real thing were a whole different story. So upon first seeing the real frogs Avery started crying and shaking a little bit, but once she realized they were contained in jars/aquariums she calmed down and even wanted to take a closer look.

Then it was on to the monkeys. Avery, Lincoln, and Jack all loved the monkeys. There were some cute mustached monkeys (sorry no pictures of the actual little guys) that played with the kids, putting their hands up to the glass and interacting with them.

Then it was onto the gorilla. This guy was creepy. For one thing he was HUGE, and for another he would eat something, then throw it up in his hand, and pick out what he really wanted to eat and eat it again. GROSS, but the kids thought it was hilarious.

We played in the kids area for a while and then visited the lions, tigers, and the cougar. The cougar fast became Avery's favorite animal and she talked about it all the way home. "Cougar, again?"  I found it fitting seeing that both Greg and I graduated from BYU.