Hospital birthday party

Our Gram has been in the hospital all week and had
to have surgery-- she will not be able to attend Avery's
birthday so we took the party to her.  We had cake
and presents in her hospital room.  Gram had adopted
a cabbage patch doll in Georgia for me to give to Avery
and I know she wanted to see her open it.

Cow Appreciation Day!

We love Chickfila and we love FREE food!
so again this year we decked ourselves out
in spots and headed to town for lunch!

Aaron's Fishing Trip

Pop Pop and JuJu picked Aaron up for the
week and took him on a fishing trip....
I need to get more pictures from them but
here is our boy with the first catch of the trip!

He had sooo much fun!

Happy 4th of July!

For the 4th of July we picked up Gram,
Paw Paw, and Brooklyn and headed to the
West side of the river for some activities.

Uncle Tim was doing his annual magic show
and there was also face painting, games,
and of course fireworks.

We all had a great time!

Swimming Lessons--Aaron

This was Aaron's 4 year of swimming lessons-- 3rd at
this particular place.  Aaron focused on the learning the
correct strokes and learned how to turn his head sideways
to breath.

He has come along way but still likes to swim without
using his hands...kind of like a mermaid...which is how
I swim too so must be genetic.

Swimming Lessons-- Avery

This was Avery's first year of swimming lessons.
She did so well... only a few tears the first day.

Lessons really helped her get more comfortable
in the water.  Before she would not get off the step
but now she wants to jump in and put her head
under the water.  She also learned how to pull
herself up on the outside of the pool.

No where near ready to swim by herself
but just getting comfortable in the water from
where she was before was worth the money
and the driving everyday!

Potty Training Update

I forgot to post this months ago-- but
Avery is officially potty trained.  Once
I brought out the Poo Poo prize bucket
she got it almost immediately.... poo = prize!
Once all the prizes were gone though she had
a hard time not wanting something after every
potty but she doesn't ask anymore!  No more
pull ups even at night.  So proud of my big girl!

....and so proud of mommy lol!

Vacation through the eyes of Aaron

Each vacation I do a segment on the blog with pictures
from Aaron's camera.  He specifically requests to use
his personal camera each time we go on vacation.  I always
find it a little humorous as to what is on his camera when
I download the images! Here a few of his pictures:

Air Museum and Blue Angels

No trip the Florida is complete without
a stop at the Air Museum and we checked
ahead to make sure we went on a week the
Blue Angels were practicing.

The kids loved seeing the Blue Angels!

Mini Golf

After beaching it up all day we took one
night to play putt putt golf and let the kids
play some games in the arcade.  It was a
beautiful evening to play golf and we all
had a great time.

At the arcade Avery hit the button once
on a game and won 500 tickets! We split
the price between both of them and they got
a couple of junk dollar store toys but the look
on her face when the 500 tickets was spitting
out was priceless!

Family Beach Pictures

Of course no Gaines family beach vacation is complete
without beach family photos... here is our attempt at some.

Avery is of course making her squished up nose face in
most of the pictures but here are the ones that I thought
were decent enough to share.

Beach Fun

Dinner at the Crab Trap

We ate all of our meals at the condo except for one night
Momma requested we eat at the Crab Trap-- the kids
got buckets and shovels with their meals and there is a
great playground for them to play on while we waited for
the food.  It is always a favorite place to stop at the beach.