Train Up a Child...

Fishes

The girls were so impressed with the fish Joel brought home recently. 

They even watched him filet them and didn't seem the least bit grossed out and have asked several times since then when we're going to eat the 'fish meat'.

Good Helpers

Ava and Gracie are both super good at folding washcloths.

I was completely impressed that Ava had all hers turned the same way!

Gracie folded several different sizes so her stack doesn't look quite as neat but she did awesome as well! 

Now, if only I could get them to finish painting the house!

{starting with the brown trim you see behind them}

They LOVE to put clothes in the washer.  As soon as they hear the water, they come running in, declare "I wanna help!" and run off to get their chairs so they can see in.

They also helped me get the guest room ready for Jamie's boyfriend, Josh, to stay with us this week.

How would I manage without them?? 

=)

Priceless

Gracie kept asking me to help her color the dog on her picture and I kept telling her that she knows how to color and needs to try to do it herself.  Finally she asks Ava and Ava happily agrees to help her.  I'm so glad I caught this on camera...it's so sweet! 

I LOVE how Ava immediately tells her, "You did good!" and then explains how to do it.  And Gracie is just loving all over Ava and telling her that she's a sweetheart, she's sweet, and her dress is sweet and blue.

I love these precious girls!

A Night on the Town

Hobby Lobby

Petco

"Look Mom, there's NEMO!"

Ava said, "I will buy little groceries and put them in my little cart."

Trying out the new frozen yogurt shop.

We also went to Cato, Ross, and Dollar General. 

Shew!

Roach Academy

I bought these books at Wal-Mart the other night.  I've been eyeing them for awhile but thought they might be too hard for a 3-year-old. 

However, they both did really good!

I helped Ava a little bit but she ended up tracing quite a few letters all by herself.

{Joel pointed out that I need to get some smaller markers so they can hold them properly} 

I love the look on her face!

She concentrated pretty hard.

At one point she told me, "My hands are tired" so I told her to take some pictures of Gracie and I.

She did a pretty good job, I thought!

Gracie LOVED this, but only if I helped her.  She insisted that she could not do it by herself but with my help she did 10 pages, which was tracing 20 different letters, 10 times each.

And then she got a little crazy.

Miss Ava

And now to celebrate all that hard work:

I'm really impressed with these books!  Well worth the $3.97 I paid and we'll be able to use them over and over. 

Friends

We are enjoying spending time with some new friends! We first met them at the Library Story Hour and eventually found out we live right down the road from each other!  The kiddos all seem to get along well and they have a wonderful mom that I just love = Win-Win!  They came over last week to play for awhile and I put Dora on for a few minutes in an attempt to get a picture of all 5.  I didn't get a very good picture but here they are!  Kate, Gracie, Ava, Reed, and Emma.  =)

Reed and Gracie, hard at work.

It was a rainy day so we played inside most of the time.

On Monday I dropped Ava and Gracie off at their house and I went home and cleaned carpets. 

YAY!!

 

I've been wanting to clean the living room carpet for MONTHS but some things are challenging with little people underfoot.  =) 

They had a lot of fun!

Ava has talked about these butterfly wings since the last time we were at their house and I think she had them on within 30 seconds of arriving.

=)

Oh, and my carpet looks and feels so much nicer!