Who is that masked man?

I went to the farmer's market this week with fruit salad on the brain.

Mouthwatering fresh salsa and tangy pickles

After chopping all of our favorite fruit, I tossed them in some lemon juice to prevent them from browning. To combat the acidity I also stirred in some farmer's market honey, which has two benefits: 1. it's tasty, 2. native honey is supposed to help with allergies.

Later we met Grace and her mom at Reeve's Park to play. The girls were thrilled.

Peekaboo Grace!

Sweet hugs

Beep beep, driving the fire truck

Teeter tottering with flushed faces. It was HOT.

Climbing the ship

Amazing Grace, cutie pie
Don't you just want to smooch that little cheek?

Riding off into the sunset

We made a whirlwind trip to Frost to celebrate Nan and Pa's 60th wedding anniversary. Ava helped Mimi get her PreK classroom together for the first day of school.

Sometimes PreK does require a hardhat.

Our sweet baby James has been begging to ride on a school bus for months. On Friday Coach granted her wish.

"I want to ride this one!"

Ready to go for her first school bus ride. She was so serious the whole ride.

Checking out the scenery

Taking a no-nonsense approach with silly Daddy

At the end of the ride she finally cracked a smile and walked down the aisle. Unfortunately, my camera did not capture the smile. As Ava develops her own personality I see how serious and introspective she is about new situations. Reminds me SO much of her Daddy, just quietly taking things in.

What a lucky little girl to have a Coach with keys to the bus barn!

At the anniversary party I neglected to get a picture of Nan and Pa, so sad. Here are a few pictures of Ava with her newest cousin, Lynnde.

Smooches

To celebrate the night before Josh's first day of law school Ava and I made costumes. She chose the color of the cape and shirts, based on Daddy's favorite color. His mask was special, with owl feathers, the wise mascot of law school.

We sang a few possible theme songs, and settled on one.

The whole idea is that we're a team of superheroes, with H.L.S. as our leader (hunky law student). Our theme song is set to the tune of the Wonder Pets song:

H.L.S., H.L.S.
He’s on his way
To study constitution, torts, and real estate
His books are big
And his mind is sharp
And when you put ‘em both together
He’s off to a great start
Go HLS, yay!

Kisses

Each semester we will stack up all of Josh's textbooks and see if Ava is taller. Looks like she won this semester, although I think that stack of books cost more than Ava's entire first year of life.

While Josh read back over everything one more time Ava and I worked on sorting. First she sorted the farm animals into their respective color corals.

Nice work Bava!
(Baby + Ava = Bava, the A is long...this was her first nickname)

Next we sorted them by species.

Finally we played with unit cubes. She was determined to snap them together by herself. Her whole body would shake with the force as she pushed them together.

Loving my sunshine

Hmm...where could she be?

On Sunday Ava and I both had a "bump" on the end of our noses. I'm way too old for breakouts, and she is way too young. I attribute them to either too many Eskimo kisses or sympathy nerves for Josh's first day.

On his way to school this morning, so patient to pose for me. Luckily that million pound backpack has wheels, but he will have to carry it some. Do any of our Norman friends recommend a local chiropractor?