Pre-Christmas Celebrations

Ava has had many chances to celebrate before Christmas day arrives.

For the annual Good Shepherd Preschool Christmas Show, Ava and her friends all dressed up and sang their hearts out.

As an Orange County native, a visit to Disneyland to see the decorations, fireworks, and "snow" is a must.

Helping mommy bake cookies is another favorite activity,

As is making gingerbread houses.

This year we are driving up to Oakland for Christmas so we celebrated early with Grammy and Poppy at our house.  The festivities began with a round of hot cocoa,  progressed to opening presents and helping others with their gifts, and ended with a wonderful dinner and dessert.

Christmas time is here

Christmas time is here and our family is enjoying every minute of it.  From Christmas lights outside to advent calendars inside, our house has become very festive.

Ava has plenty of Christmas spirit, and Ava has already ridden the Irvine Park Railroad's Christmas Train to visit Santa,

Helped pick out our tree at Johnson Brothers in Irvine,

Decorated our tree,

Warmed up with hot chocolate,

And played with our train and Christmas Legos.

Lego-rific

Thanks to some free tickets (yay!) we ended our Thanksgiving weekend with a trip to Legoland in Carlsbad.  The weather was picture perfect and Ava had a blast on the rides,

 Playing in the snow,

 Visiting Santa,

 Saying hi to Bob the Builder's friend Wendy,

 Pretending to be a tourist in our nation's capital,

 And exploring the wonders under the water at Sea-Life.

 After all that fun, Ava couldn't help but fall asleep on the drive home.

It's Time To Dance!

On Saturday night, Ava enjoyed a night on the town and her first trip to L.A. Live to see Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! at the Nokia Theater.

We are total suckers and gave in and got Ava a Foofa beanie baby which she played with before, during, and after the show (and now sleeps next to Ava and Winnie the Pooh).

The Gabbas put on a great show and sang all our favorites including All My Friends Are Different, I Love Bugs, and There's A Party In My Tummy.

Just like on the show, the Gabbas were joined on stage by special guests.  Here in L.A. we got to see Ozomatli, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Biz Markee!

After the show, Ava continued to party by dancing around the magic squares nearby which lit up when you stepped on them.

This is a night Ava won't soon forget.  She has already talked about seeing Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! again the next time they are in town.  I would be happy to see the Gabbas again, especially if it means being able to avoid another UCLA-USC debacle.

Oh So Thankful

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house and Ava made a wonderful host.  She spent a lot of time in the kitchen helping out including making cranberry sauce

 and brining the turkey.

 On the day of our feast, she welcomed our guests

 and ate a good dinner at the kids table.

Thanks to all our wonderful readers for following our blog!

Happy Halloween

I'm not sure which part of Halloween is more fun, going to the pumpkin patch or actually going trick-or-treating.  Either way, Ava had a blast throughout the Halloween season, and she still has a couple days to go to eat sweets before the Candy Fairy takes the rest of her candy away.

Ava dressed up as Ariel this year.  Not just your regular Ariel, but the human version of Ariel with a shimmery dress and a bright red wig.  Ava had plenty of opportunities to wear her costume and to get a ton of treats - Disneyland, Mommy's Work, a playgroup party, and in the neighborhood with her friends.

Cheetahs Soccer

Ava is in her first (of many?  and only?) season(s) of soccer playing for the Cheetahs in the North Irvine AYSO U5 girls division.  Although their first game was rained out, the Cheetahs have had a lot of fun and played well in their games against the Smashing Pumpkins and the Mermaids.  In her second game, Ava scored her first goal!