Happy Halloween

She was posing, she didn't really do anything except sit there and look cute, I give it another year before she dives in and wants to carve it all herself. It's a crown, yes we carved a crown for the the tutu, crown wearing machine!

My pumpkins

One of the pumpkins is climbing all over me right now, the other is sleeping, so no, I didn't make pumpkin soup in the cauldron!

A blur of a weekend

Smacking her lips the entire time she was in the wagon! she must've have yummy pumpkin on the brain.

What a blur of a weekend!!

Pinata action!! It had fallen, so we resorted to letting the kids beat it while on the ground!

enjoying the loot

Organized mayhem!

No nap yesterday, so when I went in to get her after a failed second attempt.....I found this! Frustrated that she is not napping: yes! But slightly thrilled that she is being so orderly with the clothes she has pulled out of the drawers! Small victories here!

Monkey see, monkey do

In the blink of an Isla is pulling herself up on anything, she's proud of herself and has the smile to show for it. Ava has long been able to put her shoes on by herself and usually while standing up, but today's scenario cracked me up, as she insisted on holding my purse while she put on her shoes, monkey see, monkey do! Right!?

At Layla's birthday party

A few weeks back we got a sweet little strawberry shortcake birthday invitation to Layla's 3rd birthday party. Ava's first invite to a preschool friend party! Wow! I bought a gift and card and we headed to the park, I had no idea what good friends these little gals were....until they greeted each other with a smile and a hug, walked hand in hand throughout the playground and Layla let Ava lick the frosting off her birthday candles! Oh my! That's a friendship in my book, sweet girls.

Mayhem learns how to operate the camera phone!

Life through Ava's big hazel eyes. She can navigate the maze of an iPhone, today she figured out the camera and went bananas. This is a itty bitty sampling of today's photography session by the kid.

French toast from a red house

I must have a French toast radar, I just knew The Red House Cafe would have great French toast, and oh was it ever...cinnamon raisin brioche with orange marmalade. So I had to take a picture, not of the toast, but of Ava, who was born in 2010, eating at a house that was built in 1895! Wow, she will never even know the 1900's! Only from a history book, probably not even a book, probably holograms projected from their iPads. Either way, delicious French toast!

Believe me, there will be more park pictures!

The pictures in this post are from the park that was within walking distance from the cottage, we also went to Dennis the Menace park, oh boy! Pictures of that park are on the real camera, but hold your horses, this was the mother of all parks!! There will be video too. Will need to post that later!

Day 2: Fairy Garden, Cambria

I wanted to secretly sneak that bench into our car for baby Isla to sit on every day and sip tea under the grapevine. Ava loved petting all the creature statues, she was so gentle and carried on little conversations with the fairies, gnomes, animals, sleeping dragons, it was incredibly sweet coming from our unstoppable 2 year old. It was all so lovely and magical, we'll for sure be back!

If you know Ava, you know why we only have pictures of her back

She's always running!! No cute pumpkin pictures here, just some puddles to stomp in and the best pumpkin bread ever.

We've pulled into port for the night

Avila Beach for the night, Ava's first time on a pier, at first she cautiously walked the pier board by board, within a few minutes she was laughing and squealing at the waves crashing below!! She loved being able to run over the ocean!