December 14, 2010

Dancing Queen

In December, Ava had her first "mini" dance recital.
Parents and friends were invited to come watch the class perform.
Ava loved wearing her costume.
Her dance class included lessons in ballet, tap, and jazz. Here Ava is showing off her tap skills.
Here she is showing her first position pliƩ.
And here she is taking a bow.
We are so proud of our little dancer.

December 5, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a very fun Thanksgiving this year. Jordan, Danny, and Patricia were able to come visit and we got to see a lot of the Olsen family at our annual Thanksgiving dinner at the Hart's home. Here's Christian getting ready in the morning dreaming about all of the yummy food!
Here he is ready to go!
Ava, our picky eater, (if she had her choice, she would eat cereal for every meal), was not so excited about the food, but she was very excited to go and see the movie Tangled.
She decided to do her dance poses in the pictures to show her excitement.
Then Christian decided he wanted to get in on the posing. This is his "I'm a tough guy" / hip-hop pose.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The food was delicious, the movie was great, and the company was tons of fun!

November 29, 2010

More Cousins Pictures

Here are some more of our favorite pictures from the cousins photo shoot.





All of the little kids did such a great job during the photo session but by the end, Christian decided he was hungry and tired.

Thanks Kate for doing such an amazing job!

November 22, 2010

Olsen Cousins Pictures 2010

At the beginning of November, we got all of the Olsen grandchildren together to get their pictures taken. The pictures were taken by Kate Jeppson who did such a great job of capturing adorable photographs of ten spirited children.

Here are the five beautiful little girls.

The three three-year-olds. They are the best of friends!

Christian was very excited when it was time to play in the leaves.

He was a lot more interested in the tiny leaf on his hand than in getting his picture taken.
It's crazy to think that he is not the baby anymore. Since the last cousins pictures last December, we have had two more Olsen cousins born, Katharine and James.

Christian is now my sweet little toddler!
And here is my sweet little Ava!

November 15, 2010

Boo at the Zoo

The Saturday before Halloween we went to the Hogle Zoo's annual "Boo at the Zoo." It is a very fun event. Kids (and even some adults) come in costume and can trick-or-treat at candy booths set up throughout the zoo. We started the day going on the zoo's train which is always a favorite with the kids. Here are Ava and Annissa with baby Kat in the seat behind them.

Ava was so excited to spend the day with her two best friends, Sophie and Annissa.

She was also quite excited to see Betsy and Owen, although she was not quite sure what to think of their very festive costumes.

Here are the older cousins stopping a moment for a picture.

Sadly we didn't get that many pictures of Christian or the littler cousins who had to be contained in their strollers during much of the zoo trip. Luckily, Christian was happy (though you can't tell looking at this picture) drawing on his magna doodle.
Here Ava, Luke, Maddie, and Christian measure their heights against the gorillas.

Christian and Ava look in at the gorillas.
We had such a fun time trick-or-treating at the zoo and can't wait to go next year!

November 8, 2010

I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee

Ava was a bee for Halloween this year.

Although if you saw Ava the week of Halloween, you probably saw her in many costumes. She insisted on wearing a different costume every day.

Christian was a baby bumblebee.
Ava thought it was a lot of fun that she and her brother were both bees for Halloween.

Ava said that she was the "princess bee" (her version of a queen bee we suppose) and Jellybean was her baby bee.

Per our annual Halloween tradition, we went to see the witches at Gardner Village and take pictures with a few of the cousins.

Here's Christian with cousin Zoe who was a cute little pumpkin fairy.

And here's Ava with cousin Zach dressed as a skeleton.
After all the pictures were taken, Ava was ready to go trick-or-treating.

More Halloween fun to follow...

November 1, 2010

Wheeler Farm's Fall Festival

In October, we went to Wheeler Farm for their annual pumpkin patch, corn and hay maze, and wagon rides. Here's are cute little pumpkins ready for a fun day!

We first set out to see the animals and the historic farm.

Ava was very excited to "drive" the antique tractors.

Next we went to the hay maze where Ava had a great time running around the maze trying to find her way out with her cousin Zach chasing her.

Ava and Zach decided to take a breather and talk to Christian who was stuck in his stroller.

At the end of the maze was the pumpkin patch. This was Ava's favorite part of the day. She was super excited to be able to pick out her very own pumpkin.
Larry picked himself a pumpkin from the patch also.

Here's Ava, Larry and Christian on the wagon ride.

After a fun day at Wheeler Farm we were all ready to head home.