Des Moines Art Festival

The very first post I did on this blog was about our afternoon at the Des Moines Art Festival. (Look at how little Amelia was!) The Art Festival is a very nice annual event that draws thousands of people into downtown. We were back to visit this year, juggling a somewhat adult activity (looking at sometimes very expensive art) with our kids interests (snacks, rolling down the big hill in the sculpture garden). The day started kind of overcast and dreary, but as we walked through the festival the sun began to peak through. We only stayed for a couple of hours, but enjoyed getting out and doing something a little different.

Ava, pointing to the A inside Nomade, my favorite piece of sculpture in the garden....

Miss Amelia...

Standing at the top of the hill on the other side of the sculpture, giving me some sass....

Ava's most favorite part of the day, the smoothie!

Wrapping Up Dance Season

I know, it feels like we've done a lot of dance related posts - I promise this will be the last one (until next year, that is) but I had to post the official photo for posterity's sake. How cute is she?

Swimming Season

My children, like most children, love going to the pool. We have an embarrassment of riches on the pool front with a season pass to the city aquatic center and unlimited use of my parent's pool. The best day for Ava and Amelia involves swimming at both. This is also a good day for me and John because it guarantees an early bedtime! Ahhh.... do you remember that sleep - the sleep when you were 8 years old and spent hours swimming? I would give anything for that night's sleep again!

Saturday we celebrated Father's Day with a BBQ at my parents house. (On the actual day, John and my dad golfed while I.... wait for it... took the girls to the pool.) Marc snapped some great photos of the girls...

Brave Amelia (made more brave by the floaties and John's waiting arms)....

Bold Ava!

Amelia, venturing off. What you can't really see in this photo is how much she looks like a little duck moving through the water with her floaties on. She just kicks and kicks away under the water.

Stretching out in the sun - can you believe how long legged Ava is? She reminds me so much of Meghan.

Cute puppy shot! Orbit, who also loves to visit Papa and Grandma's to explore the deck, the garden and torment my parent's dogs. This picture was taken several weeks ago, but it is one of my favorites.

The Dance

It's dance recital week and, phew, we're exhausted! Seriously! How do you do this when it's baseball games and goes on for months?! The festivities kicked off Saturday, when Ava had her in studio dress rehearsal and pictures.

Tuesday night was the epic Civic Center dress rehearsal that went on, and on, and on... John brought Ava home after rehearsing the first number only and they didn't get home until after 11:00pm. Because Ava is goes to the Downtown School, a year round program, we suspect she was the only dancer who had school the next day. At least I hope that's the justification for keeping all the rest of her class of 7 and 8 year olds there rehearsing the remainder of the show until 1:00am.

Wednesday was the first performance and Ava was so excited when I picked her up from school I thought she might come right out of her skin. She asked to go to Centro for dinner because "that is a very special place for me."

The backstory.... the night she was born John brought me margarita pizza, insalata mista and some red wine from Centro to celebrate her birthday. A sacred meal indeed and a story she's heard time and time again.

So here's my sweet girl, on the patio at Centro, a hipster downtown restaurant, just looking like she owns the place. (BTW, she ordered fried ravioli's and said when they arrived, "I really like the presentation." Do you think we watch a little too much Food Network around here?)

But she's still 8 and and you'll recall she still likes to sit at the table with her feet up, so maybe she's not such a hipster...

At the side station she spotted the "really tall pepper cracker" and asked that I take her picture with it.

The rest of the evening was such a blur that I didn't take a single photo of Ava that night. But take my word for her, she performed beautifully, with great joy and enthusiasm, to my delight and the delight of our dear friends Bill and Annie.

And then Thursday night we suited up and did it again. This time she asked to go to Splash for dinner, a swanky seafood restaurant across the street from the Civic Center. As we pursued the menu Ava asked to order some oysters. Yes, seriously. She reminded me that last year she had oysters and she loved them.

So she ordered two and ate them with the mignonette sauce instead of the cocktail sauce because she likes tangy sauces. Oh my, what have we done?

We were lucky to be joined at dinner by Papa Ray as Ava wandered the restaurant taking in the aquariums and the art work I got to have pleasant, adult conversation.

Then off to the Civic Center where my rough and tumble girl transforms into a dancer.... It is kind of difficult to put make up on her beautiful face, even though I know it is part of the performance. This year, more than others, it made her look so mature... I didn't get a single picture of Ava in her other costume, a frothy pink sequined number that conjures images of princesses. Ava proclaimed it itchy and only wore it as long as absolutely necessary to perform the Princess Promenade.

Papa Ray and I watched Ava and her friends dance with as much energy and enthusiasm as the previous night.

This is Ava's fourth year dancing and she just loves it. And while it can all seem like a bit.... much.... I love that she loves it and I love the marker this time of year has become along the way.

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

It all goes so quickly.....

A Glimpse Into the Future

From time to time I am struck by the fact that Ava and Amelia are four years apart. That they won't always be living with us, bickering about important issues like the look on a sister's face, who gets to sit where and if it is Tuesday or Wednesday. In what I am certain will feel like mere moments Ava will graduate from high school and presumably move on to college, leaving us home alone with Amelia for four years.

It seems only fair, Ava got four years of our attention (and Meghan and Lane's attention) at the front end, Amelia will get it on the back end. When she least wants it.

Tonight is Ava's dress rehearsal for her dance concert - John is pulling that difficult duty while I tend to Amelia. She's been a peach, gobbling up a ton of asparagus for dinner and saying please and thank you. I'm letting her stay out late and have dessert (after only eating asparagus, watermelon and cantaloupe for dinner tonight, our little vegetarian) because I am enjoying the rare time alone with her.

And in an even more terrifying glimpse into the future, she's managed to commandeer Selena's Barbie car and is driving all over the neighborhood. Holy crap - someday this child will drive a real car!

Eyes on the road!

Out for a spin...

That Time of Year

Dress rehearsal for her fourth dance concert. Where does the time go? She looks so grown up.....

With her bestie, Jessica....

TGIF!

Last weekend there was a rare joint appearance by the Walton siblings and my mother made it clear a family photo was not optional....

Of course I had run Dam to Dam earlier in the day and the girls weren't about to let a warm sunny day keep them from spending hours in the pool. Even though the family photo sort of reflects those activities, it is still one of my favorites.

Amelia doing her version of a hand stand in the pool.... I know... it doesn't make sense!

Sweet Ava, our little fish.....

Marc also snapped some rare photos of me with the girls - it seems like I am usually the one taking the pictures and these warmed my heart.

My favorite....

But I like this one too....

The siblings with our significant others - a good looking crew!

Tonight John is taking the girls to see Kung Fu Panda 2 and I am woozy with possibility of what I will do with a Friday evening alone. Last night I made this for dinner (put it into your rotation - it is delish and super easy!) and will probably take her recommendation to turn the leftovers into quesadilla. Then what? A movie? A book? Who am I kidding, I will probably do what I always do - tidy the house a little, watch some Food Network and go to bed early!

TGIF!

Summer Sunday

I won tickets to the Principal Golf Senior Charity Tournament in a drawing at work last week, so John decided to take Ava out to see the tournament. It don't know if it is the lure of sharing something important with her father or a genuine interest in golf, but Ava sure seems to be embracing all things golf related lately.

John reports they got to see Ben Crenshaw sink a putt AND that Ava's favorite part was "understanding better how to line my feet up when I putt." Here she is after a Joe Azaki's birdy....

We told a white lie to Amelia ("You have to be 7 to go to the golf tournament") because we only had the two tickets. And frankly Amelia would have been a handful in that kind of setting. BUT Amelia got to do something special with mom, which was skip nap and go to the city pool with her besties Remy and Sage. Amelia no nap + over three hours of swimming = one tired girl. Taking a little rest on the couch with some Umi Zoomi.....

Orbit, napping.... he loves home days too...