A summer treat

Avery has found his new favorite food. Once we introduced him to corn on the cob, he wouldn't eat anything else at the picnic.

This week has been a lot of fun for Avery and I. Two of my high school friends, Janna and Sarah, have been staying with us. Sarah brought her two kids ages 3 and 6. It was nice for Avery to have other kids to play with and nice for me to have another adult around all day! We were quite busy going to the zoo, the pool, on walks, to the park and having a pizza party. Thank you Todd for the pizza! Layna enjoyed a craft day, rummaging through my craft bucket and Issac loved playing with Elmo and reading Elmo books. Sarah, I'm still finding glitter everywhere! In the evenings Janna came back from her class and we went to music in the park, went for blizzards, and played with Avery. By the end, Avery was exhausted and ready for a quiet house again!

We even invited Avery's friend Isabella and her dad to join us at the zoo.


Layna


Avery loved how close the goat was to him.

Cows, llamas, and rabbits- oh my!

Today we enjoyed the nice weather and went to the fair. Avery enjoyed the animal exhibits, especially the rabbits. There was a great kids area where there were a lot of hands on exhibits. I loved holding the baby ducks and Scott said he liked sitting outside and eating fried cheese curds! You can't go to a fair and not have something fried, although we both passed up the fried candy bars on a stick. There are some things that just shouldn't be fried.



He was so excited when he saw the rabbits that he couldn't get out his favorite sentence, "What's that?"


Who wouldn't have fun playing in a big container of soybeans?





I thought the llama was pretty cool.


The llamas had funny haircuts.

Avery's 1st Birthday!

It's been a great first year with Avery. There have been so many fun moments that it would be hard to list them. At least you can look back through the blog to see them. My favorite part of being a mom is watching Avery discover something new. It's so fun to watch his reaction when he figures out how to do something. His excitement is so contagious sometimes. The smallest things make him happy. Scott's favorite part is watching Avery play and laugh. I love watching them play together! Venus' favorite part is definitely the extra food she gets at every meal. The worst part of parenting so far: those long car rides when he's screaming. They are getting a little better since we turned him around; he's more content because he can see us. We had a birthday party for him on Saturday at a park back home. It was a monkey theme to go along with his blog and banana pictures. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed all the company! Thank you to everyone who came and made his first birthday a special one.

Monkey cupcakes


He was full from all the other food, so he just played with his cupcake


Avery playing with his friend


Playing at the park


Opening gifts. He loved this monkey. When he opened it, he hugged it and laughed.


Off for a ride in the wagon Grandma and Grandpa Davis gave him. As you can see from the picture, he had to take the monkey from his birthday along for a ride.

Avery and Banana at 12 months

Here is the last picture of Avery with Banana. I will only be taking them once a year now. We'll see how excited he is to take a picture with the banana when he's 12 and 13. I'll post more birthday pictures tomorrow.

Climbing Rocks!

Now that he's getting walking down, it's time to start.........



CLIMBING!!!!! Since this is one of our favorite sports, we do hope Avery likes it too. What boy doesn't like to climb rocks?

Look Who's Walking

Happy 4th

Fun at camp Rosedale

Avery loves when we go to the mall in Roseville and it has nothing to do with shopping. The mall has a great kids' play area and he gets so excited when we take him there. He loves crawling through the tree tunnel and sitting in the canoe. There is also a bear statue at one of the stores and every time he sees it he makes a growling noise.

First Chores

Summer Days

I love this time of year for many reasons, one of them being strawberries. Nothing compares to a sweet, juicy strawberry picked off the vine. Every year Scott and I go to pick enough strawberries to make a years' worth of freezer jam. This year Avery got to be a part of the tradition. It was so much fun watching him pick the berry off the vine and then eat it. He was so pleased with himself. We ended up picking 15 pounds this year. I'm sure it would have been more but once Avery discovered my crate full, he no longer wanted to go hunting for his own.

Summer Shades

I actually found a pair of sunglasses he will keep on. You see, he can't get them off as easily because there is a band all the way around his head. Did I mention that they have 100% UVA and UVB protection?

Happy Father's Day

Summer Fun!

For Father's Day Scott's family came to visit. We had lots of fun in the pool.

Avery and Banana at 11 months!

He thought it was so funny to knock banana down every time I set him up. It was a challenge to get a picture before he would knock him over.

Crawling Machine

Avery is now crawling. He decided he would wait until he was really good at it. In this video he is very determined to get to the ferrets' cage. He loves looking at them and gets very excited when they poke their noses through the cage.

Eating Well

We picked up our CSA box on Saturday and have been enjoying the delicious food ever since. Our box was full of cucumbers, tomatoes and a tomato plant, scallions, lettuce, spinach, radishes, swiss chard, rhubarb, and fresh basil. We've had some great salads!

Our Family

This picture was taken during Mother's Day at our church in Wisconsin. They were taking free pictures for mom's and their families. We were also given a free cake so we had dessert for the day!

So Many Lakes...

Of course I knew Minnesota was the land of 10,000 lakes, but I really didn't think about it until we moved here. Just around the neighborhood I think there are 7 different lakes. Everyday we take a walk, we discover a new one. Most of them have houses around them with no access, but quite a few are county parks and Avery and I enjoy playing at the beach. When we walk to the county park near our house, Avery starts to hyperventilate with excitement when he sees the water and sand.

Pool Time

We thought we would take advantage of the nice weather and the small pool at our apartment complex this weekend. Avery enjoyed playing in his turtle. He wasn't too fond of the life vest. I don't think he liked being on his back.