Swim Date at Ivey Kate's

Saturday we went to the Brands' house to swim with Hollie, Ivey Kate, Summer, and Autumn. They all took swimming lessons the same week.

Here are the girls enjoying their "tea party".

Ava is jumping off the diving board all by herself now. She does it over and over again. I didn't try to get her on it. Right after we got in the pool, she got out and pointed at the diving board. She said "jump diving board" and walked right to it...got on it...and jumped off.

Zoo

This is the toddler play area at the Nashville Zoo. She had the best time running around it and jumping since it is totally padded. It did slightly resemble a psych ward (just as safe).

She is pointing out a giraffe. It was hard to tell her favorite. I think it was a tie between elephants, giraffes, and monkeys. She blew them kisses and told them bye. She's still talking about all the animals she saw at the zoo.

Apres zoo. Nothing like kicking back with a cheeseburger.

Froggy!!!

Ava loves her her froggy towel. Here she is pretending to be a frog.

Centennial Park

We went to the park after dinner (it was right down from our hotel). She really enjoyed limbing the steps of the Parthenon.

She was running to an outdoor concert, stopping along the way to dance a few times.

The last few moments the geese were safe before she pounced on them.

Dinner with Pa

We went to Nashville on Monday and had dinner with Pa that night.

Here she is patting a spot for Pa to sit next to her. She is very bossy.

Swimming Lessons

Ava finally got to take her first swimming lessons last week after all the cancellations last year over ear infections. She never was excited about going, but she always had a good time while she was there. On Friday, the parents were invited to come watch and encouraged to get in the pool and participate. Obviously, I got in with her and Daddy and Gigi got to watch. (thanks Gigi for taking pictures).

I couldn't believe how excited she was to keep putting her head in the water and kicking her little legs and swimming. She would be horizontal for about two feet before getting vertical and needing to be picked up. As soon as you got her she would take a breath and put her head right back in to swim again. She wouldn't take any breaks.

There she is swimming to her teacher, Haley.

Just having a little fun.

Here she is "jumping" off the diving board.

...the end result. She eventually kicked her way up to the surface.

She requested "mo mo" (translation: more more) diving board. I think that was her favorite part. She jumped about 20 times. She also got pretty upset when some of the older kids were trying to skip her in line for the diving board. She pointed to them and said "no no".

Swim Date

On Saturday, Autumn came over to play with Ava in her pool. They were preparing for swimming lessons on Monday. Ava adores Autumn and wants to do everything she does.

Taking turns sliding down the whale.

Even Autumn's little sister, Riley, came to swim.

Ava's Class Photo

Here is Ava's class (room 3). She is on the first row, first from the left. You can tell she was sick that day...she went home immediately after the photo with 102.4 temp. She's been able to name all the kids in the class for more than 2 months now.

A whale of a time

Since we nixed the summer plans for a swimming pool, I purchased this cute number with an attached whale slide. Ava tried it out for the first time today. She really enjoyed it. She isn't crazy about the slide part, but does really like the blow hole. She did a good job keeping her sun hat on too. Tracy will be happy about her time in the sun (even though she is coated in SPF 50) as she has suggested many times that she needs a baby tan.

You can notice the sad little watering pail is missing some of its pieces thanks to Ellie.

Goggles are apparently much more fun when not on your face.

New Slide!

Ava got a new slide today. She was so excited! She doesn't like swinging...she only likes climbing and sliding, so no swingset yet. We also took her downtown to the Elvis Presley Festival complete with Elvis impersonators of all ages. At one point, it was basically Elvis karaoke...she clapped for them all. We did not stay for the showings of Blue Hawaii and Viva Las Vegas.

Pretty Toes

I was painting my toenails and Ava was saying I had pretty toes. She wanted me to paint hers as well. Then when I put her sandals on she said "pitty toes, pitty sues" (translation: pretty toes, pretty shoes).