Oh, ya know...

Things are happening at the Simpson house!  As you know, we moved into a new house in February and with a new house (read: built in 2013) comes a lot of work.  Let me elaborate.  Lennar built our neighborhood of 18 homes (among zillions of other homes in zillions of other neighborhoods) and they do a great job building these homes.  The homes in our neighborhood all came with an upgraded granite kitchen (including most appliances), tank-less water heater, fancy alarm system and keyless entry and a cool irrigation system.  What Lennar does not give you is flooring, window treatments, fireplace (well, they can do that as an upgrade, but we bought our house too late in the construction process for that - gah!), a backyard and in the case of our particular home, a good front yard. 

So, little by little we have been doing all of the above and a few extras.  It’ll take a while before our house is complete (house warming party 2015?!), but we are making progress and currently underway is our backyard.  Being able to play, BBQ, entertain, enjoy s ‘mores and other such backyard activities await us and we cannot be more excited.  I will post the entire “before and after” story once it is completed, but here are a few pics of the recent progress! 

This is the "giant sandbox" phase.

In other home and neighborhood news, three babies were born this summer in our neighborhood, so the kid count goes to somewhere around 25.  Crazy, right?!  Here are a few recent pics of some of the neighborhood fun!

Want the kids to sit still?  Let them eat cake!

S 'mores!

This is Avery nailing the long jump at a birthday party.  Mad skills!

Waiting in line for the javelin...littlest in line really close to a friend.

And, finally, some more pictures (of shenanigans, of course).  Okay, I'm retiring "shenanigans."  I've typed it too much and now it's not fun.

Legoland on my lunch break to visit this sweet group.

The CUTENESS!

Look closely.  Avery is totally schooling Jeff on how to dig a hole.

FVT - Interview Edition
(note: when she says "eat in her playroom" she means play with her little kitchen and "make" and "eat" things.  She could do that for hours on end!)

Simpson Shenanigans...x 1,000

Be warned: there are a lot of photos in this blog; a plethora or over abundance if you will.  I have been meaning to post these pictures for a while, but...well, I haven't.  ::slap on the wrist::

Please enjoy these photos of all the Simpson Shenanigans as of late!

First up are a few photos from June when my Grandma came out to visit.  She's the youngest 82 year old I have ever met and what a treat it was spending time with her!

We still love our yoga!

This is called "cutest tree pose."  Nailed it.

Orfila Winery with the Rookers and Vanderveens.

My Mom bought Avery and me matching aprons.  Avery loves to help cook, so this was a perfect gift!

I took two girl trips on back to back weekends, so it was all about Daddy and Avery time...

San Francisco!

If you guessed Vegas, you're 100% correct.  Celebrating Mrs. Kull!

Getting together with the other daddies and kiddos while the moms played...



Donuts!

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from Father's Day, Avery's first day of preschool and a whole bunch of ???  You guessed it!  Shenanigans!

Breakfast with Papa at his favorite diner on Father's Day.

Morgan and Henry being all cute at the Father's Day party.

Avery LOVED playing with Mr. Jake!

First Father's Day for three of these great dads!

First day of preschool!

Look!  Her cubby!

So pretty...and SO patriotic.

Ponytail?!  Never thought we'd get hair.  I mean here.

Pool time with Daddy!

Pool time with neighbor Logan!

Avery and neighbor Reese are quite the talented diggers.

Someone's got to teach Minnie to read.

Beach day at Mission Bay with Uncle Pat's family!

Well, there you have, folks.  Pictures galore!  Hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as we enjoyed taking them.

FVT

Interviews with Avery

I will now be posting not only humorous and endearing conversations that Jeff and I have with Avery, but also occasional "interviews" we do with her.  I have read a few mommy/family blogs where they encourage parents to interview their children - you know, ask them questions and let them answer how they want, in their own words.  All I have to say is that I should have done this sooner!

The following interview took place in the car last weekend on the way to Papa and Danda's house.  Quite the informal setting - no better way to start the interview process, right?  (I asked the questions and drove while Jeff sat shotgun and transcribed the interview.)

Question 1:  What is the one thing in life that makes you the happiest?
Avery's Answer:  My DD.  (Her DD is her pacifier.  YES, we still allow her to use it...occasionally at naps and at most bedtimes...oh, and when she is sick.  Sue me.  She likes it and we pick our battles in this house and the DD has not been called to the fight yet.)

Question 2: What is your favorite food?
Avery's Answer: Grapes...and, COOKIES!

Question 3: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Avery's Answer: A ladybug.

Question 4: Who is your best friend?
Avery's Answer: Caden!  (Caden is an adorable little guy a few years older than Avery who lives a couple houses down in the culdesac.  Avery has quite the crush on him, which explains the answer.)

FPT

At first glance it may be hard to tell where Avery is, but she's in there.  I'm sure of it.

Conversations with Avery...

On our neighborhood walk last weekend…

Avery: I just saw a lizard!
Jeff: Really. Where’d it go?
Avery: Over there! ::points to a bush::
Jeff: So cool.
Avery: Eww. Yeah.

A few minutes later...

Avery: Can we play “I Spy?”
Me: Sure. You want to go first?
Avery: I spy with my little eyes something lizard.

Bahahahahaaahha!

Another conversation from last weekend...

Avery: I want a banana.
Me: What do you say?
Avery: Puuuhhhhllllleeeezzzzeee (as dramatic as it reads)
Me: Thank you.
::peel the banana and hand to Avery::
Avery: I don’t want a banana.
Me: ::OMG:: You just asked for one.
Avery: I don’t want a banana.
Me: Okay, you are going to have to eat it soon, because you asked for it and I opened it. We don’t want to waste food.
Avery: I don’t want a banana.


FPT

Life with a 2.5-year old.  Frustrating - at times.  Funny - always. 

Passed Down From Papa...

Avery has always been interested in how things work. She loves to take things apart and put them back together again. She loves to play with things with lots of separate parts that she can investigate. A new favorite activity is taking the battery compartment off the back of the TV remotes (or anything with batteries for that matter), peeking around inside and putting the compartment lid back on.  Over and over.  Fun, no?


Recently, we bought a new kitchen dining table and to save the delivery and “put it together for you” charge we opted to put the thing together ourselves. By that, I mean Jeff put it together with the capable hands of Avery. Talk about a kid focused on something! She was down and dirty getting the bolts together (“there’s the bolt and then the ring thing that goes on the bolt” said me who is obviously not so mechanically oriented) and putting them in the right spot for Jeff to screw them in. We didn’t finish the table in one night, because it got late since Jeff was taking his time working with our mini Bob Vila, so at bedtime we promised Avery we’d finish it with her the next day. I’ve never seen her fall asleep so fast!

So the title to this post? Avery’s passion for the mechanical things in life comes 100% from my Dad who was a mechanical engineer for over 30 years. This interest of hers is really cute and I’m thankful something so wonderful and unique has gotten passed down to her.

FPT


Even the most serious builders get silly every so often.