Clothing Collage

Ava decided that in addition to her Minnie Mouse pajamas (thanks grandma Trudy), she also needed to wear her Easter dress and St. Patrick's Day snow cap (thanks Arkie). Here are a few photos of her silliness.

Easter Past

All I got was a freakin' banana?













Easter mornin'. The Easter Bunny brought "Everyone Poops."













Playin' the piano at Na's house













Where are all the eggs?

Daddy's Girl

Ava is straight chillin' in Daddy's Christmas gift.

Red hair + Red Sox = Ultimate Cuteness

Po's Trick or Treat

Ava's T.V. obsession is the Teletubbies. There is something about these puffy looking creatures that Ava just adores. Po, the red Teletubby and by far the cutest, is Ava's favorite. It only made sense that she dress up as this red, U.K. creation for Halloween. So here she is looking wickedly adorable.

Ava and daddy. What a cute pair.

Have we been invaded by space aliens?

Ava loves her pumpkin.

Stay awake Po. There is candy to be had.

Frozen Pumpkins

Pumpkin patch time seems like a lifetime ago seeing as how our pumpkins are now covered by a couple inches of snow, but I thought I ought to chronicle our adventure to Reeger's Pumpkin Patch at the end of October anyway. When I say "our" adventure I am referring to Courtney, Riley, Pap Pap, Matt, Ava and I. Reeger's had more than just pumpkins. There was a plastic pipe slide, a barn tour, (This turned out to be a bust. A dollar to get in only for Ava to see a horse, a bunny, a couple barn cats and a cow that mooed and freaked Ava out), a corn maze (Riley and Ava were too little for this), a hay ride (very cold but fun and heart warming) and various other fun and festive activities for little tikes. The hay ride took us to the patch where the kids were able to choose their favorite pumpkin. Pap Pap kept telling me that my pumpkin was lop sided and I should pick out a more round one. I liked my pumpkin with unique character. Pap Pap wasn't sold. I know I'm a little late, but these pictures are still cute.

The pipe slide.

Ava and daddy on the hay ride.

Ava at the patch.

Pap Pap's most perfect pumpkin.

What! No Party Hats?

You would think that a great grandmother turning 82 wouldn't need party hats. However, the 3 1/2 year old attending her birthday insisted upon it. When Riley found out noone had party hats for Grandma's birthday he was more than upset. He cried and cried over the party hats, insisting that we needed them and demanding that someonme go buy some. Bruce, in an attempt to quiet the room and appeal to the craftiness in Riley, crafted a party hat out of newspaper. Riley continued crying. It did not look like a party hat. He threw Bruce's creation on the floor. I picked the hat up and placed it on Ava' s head to show Riley how cool it was and how much she liked it. Bad move. Riley got jealous, ripped the hat off of Ava's head and placed it on his own. More tears fell, but this time they were Ava's because she no longer had a hat. Bruce quickly folded another hat so we could get on with the pie, icecream and present celebration. Things were calm, but a little shaky in this photo. Riley was now happy with his hat and Ava was recovering from her crying spell by clinging on to blankey. Poor Grandma just wanted to eat her pie.

Happy Homecoming

IUP's Homecoming Parade was October 13. This was Ava's first experience at a parade. She seemed less than impressed at the start. I think she was more confused than anything. Marching bands, majorettes, drunk fraternity brothers, funny men in small cars-- it was all just so much for her curly head to process. She finally got into the spirit when the parade was nearing its end, proclaming more, more! We would have turned into popsicles if the parade were any longer.