The way you imagine it will be to have a girl...

Daddy is away at a daylong Buddhism and the 12 steps retreat, so it's just me and sweetness today. She's been so mellow to the point where my neurotic mom entertains the idea that she there might be something wrong. Good thing I have a stable, healthy mom in me too ;) She woke up at 9am and we played at home with every toy she owns all morning and afternoon until nap. Never left the house. This moment was too sweet to not be captured. I found her on Hailey's bed with her jewelry box, watching the ballerina spin and trying on rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. When I peeked in I heard her saying to herself "dis is cute. I tie it on. oooohh! dat's pitty!" When she saw me she said "wook, Mama! I boo-ti-ful!" Yes, you are, Ava.

Hailey's 7 year photo shoot

Cannot leave Cape Cod without eating....

Lobster rolls (brad's fav)

sweet summer corn

(without the leaves, of course)

Cape Cod Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips..

Ava's face after trying one! :)

and PJ's soft serve black raspberry ice cream with chocolate dip.

My sister's and I have been getting this exact cone for more years than I can even remember back to! Thank you PJ's for keeping it on the menu!

Sunsets

Every night we went to Great Hollow beach on the bay and watched the sunset. It was different every night, but always beautiful in it's own way. I thought it would be nice to share the sunsets with you...

the coolest part about them is how they change as the sun gets closer to the horizon. It's neat to think about how the sun is just coming up somewhere else as it sets here.

Ava looked forward to sunsets. We'd get in her pj's and head over...

sometimes she was just too tired to enjoy it ;) ahh, this picture makes me laugh...now. I don't think I was laughing then!

but overall, they were always a special way to end the day

only to come back to the house and watch the moon rise. Brad took this picture. (Good job, honey.)

Hanging around Nana's house

the nicest part about being Nana's house is that Ava could be outside any time she wanted. What a difference from where we live! Here our life is about trips to the playground or playing baseball in the driveway. There we went to the playground zero times and played outside 90% of the time. We took little walks down the road or around the garden, swung in the hammock, and looked for birds and animals. Nana had a little wading pool set up for her on the deck and she spent a lot of time in that because of the heat and humidity. She also spent a lot of time nakie because of the heat and because we were potty training. So we also spent a lot of time in the bathroom! Great Grandma Green sent books that played music that Ava loved to look at while she sat on the potty. In fact, she would sit on the potty long after being finished to look at the books. It was hard to get her off some days!

This is Nana's garden. I grows fresh basil, lettuce, peppers and more...

and beautiful sunflowers

Riding in the hammock with Daddy

Nana taking care of her organic veggies

Ava exploring

love that little tush!

being so proud of herself in the bathroom :)

Ava's reaction to buggies! "Mama!!!! Buggies gettin' me!" Ahh, and there were so many creepy crawly bugs. ewww.

tired girl, but beautiful light...

silly girl

Hangin' around the house.

Bonfire on the Beach

One of our family's traditions is to have a cookout on the beach at sunset. We chose a night the whole family was there and set up camp on Corn Hill. It was a nice night, but there were tons of little biting gnats. oh, so annoying and so yucky! I hated to see them digging in to Ava's scalp. I was more bothered by it than her! :) We had burgers, hot dogs, corn and pasta salad. With P-town's famous chocolate fudge for desert with strawberries. 

Ava liked to climb the dune and sit at the top, so we taught her how to play a game my sisters and I played as kids on the beach: "one for the money"

Mina showed off. 1st: climb to the top of the dune 2nd: sing: "one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to GO!!" Then jump off the dune and run down as fast as you can!!

GO mina!

Ava's turn....

She fell down, gravity got the best of the situation :)

After dinner Aunties and Nana taught Ava how to play Ring-Around-The-Rosie

so cute! She loved it. 

here's a little video clip....

After dinner and enough bug bites, Brad and I left with Ava. We took her home to bed and got a call from Nana telling us that there was phosphorus in the water and the stars were out, so she came back to babysit with Poppi and Brad and I joined Coley, Dave, Mina and Sasha to play with phosphorus in the water and watch the stars. It was really nice to spend time with them, laughing about childhood stories and the quirks of being in relationships with each other. very fun! I'm so lucky to have sisters with great partners. Though they are a lot of work, bonfires are always worth it, to me. 

Great Nana

Ava's great Nana spent one of the weekends we were there in Truro with us. She is 92 and lives further down the Cape in Brewster all year round. Sadly, she was bitten by a lime tick while she was there and got very weak and needed to head home to rest and be seen by a doctor. Though it was a short visit with her, we went to her home and sat with her for a while one afternoon. She was so happy to see us when we arrived. We surprised her :) She fed us cranberry juice and muffins and shared her childhood dollhouse with Ava. Ava played with it for the whole visit. It was handmade 80 something years ago and she won it at a church fair. Amazing, the handmade furniture, blankets, etc. Ava was very gentle with everything. It was sweet to watch her play with a dollhouse 4 generations old.

thank you, Nana for a really nice visit. We miss you and look forward to seeing you next summer. xo