Go, Go, Goers!

I'm having a hard time believing it's going to be August next week.  August?  When did that happen??  It seems like this summer has flown by, but I don't feel like we've done a ton of really fun things.  It feels like it's been a lot of...work.  Lots and lots of work for both Scott and me this year.  And not nearly enough fun!  I can't believe we haven't even gone swimming with Ava yet! Ok, enough of that.  Time for a change! Yesterday, Ava and I helped celebrate her friend Kelsi's 5th birthday.  Kelsi's mom (Amy) and I have been friends for 12 years, so it's been fun having girls so close together in age.  Kelsi's party was at the Edinborough Play Park in Edina, which is an indoor park with a monster piece of playground equipment, plus a swimming pool, and a huge room where kids can run and work out their endless supply of energy.  It's a pretty cool place! The kids played for about an hour, then settled down for BLUE Brave-themed

This past week we experienced some ridiculously hot temps...we probably had at least four days in a row where the heat (and humidity) pushed the temps into triple digits.  Everyone looked a bit miserable, but honestly, in the back of my mind, I remember the frigid and cold winters that we have, so I will not complain (much) about the heat! The only bummer with the heat for this week was in regards to the 4th of July,  We were going to go as a family to Eagan's Fun Fest days, since they have rides, music, food, and a great fireworks show.  Except...Ava ended up getting a fever Wed-Fri, and the last thing we wanted to do was drag her out in the heat.  So, instead, we had DQ at our house on the 4th. :)  On the plus side, she was still awake (in bed) around 9:30pm, and some neighbors were setting off fireworks, so we took her outside and she got to see a mini-display.  Ava was still pretty happy to see the little show - I love how easy it is to make a kid happy...it sure doesn't

Four just happens to be my favorite number, so I've really been looking forward to this birthday for Ava.  That, and it means that we're out of the horrible three stage.  It's not like there's a magic switch that happens on the 4th birthday to make Ava behave better, but at least when I say, "Why are you acting like this?!  You're a BIG girl now!" I can really get behind my words! Since we had so much going on in June, I didn't feel up to planning a big birthday celebration for Ava.  I figure that once she gets into school next year, we'll have plenty of chances to really do it up for her!  Plus, we had been back from Colorado less than two days when her birthday rolled around, so honestly, I didn't even have time to manage a big event for her.  And she was okay with it!  It was a hot, sunny evening...we had family there, great cake and cool ice cream, and gifts!  Overall, it was exactly the low-key birthday I was hoping for. We ended up ge