Ava is 3!!

Our beautiful firstborn is 3!! We can't believe it!? She has been so excited about her Ariel party and the day finally arrived. Ava loved her Ariel cake that Ma Ma made, her gifts, and playing with all of her friends! She had great birthday week also. She started dance class, got her first haircut and her first pedicure with mommy. Mommy really enjoyed sharing our birthday this year because we got to do things together now that she's a little older. All day she kept saying, "Who's the birthday girl??? Ava!!"

Sophie really enjoyed herself too and had great practice eating a cupcake. She was a little fussy from teething and as soon as the cupcake was placed in front of her, all of the teething pain subsided and she was in icing up to her elbows! She took a step on her own last week and started saying "Ava" which made her big sister's day!

In two more weeks we will party again for Sophia's first......stay tuned!

Sophia "bruiser" DeCastro is 11 months old!

Sophia is 11 months old today and her parents feel they have aged 15 years since her 10 month birthday! Our sweet little girl is into EVERYTHING! She loves opening cabinets, drawers, reaching in the toilet, shredding toilet paper, eating dog food and the list goes on............ and as you can see from the pics, she has received her first black eye, which happened in the bathtub, yippee! Sophie is pretending to talk on the phone, she can say several words, and is standing on her own for small amounts of time.

Ava had a very busy week last week. She attended her first vacation bible school. This is the first time she has been away from mommy for hours at a time at a strange place. She did awesome! No crying, no accidents, and loved every minute of it. She had two friends from Little Gym class go with her and she wanted nothing to do with them once she got there. She was truly there to learn and take in the whole experience. However, she did make a new friend (as you can see in the pic), Cowgirl Jessie. Ava was Cowgirl Jessie's biggest fan everyday and pretended to be her every evening. It was pretty cute! Ava has officially learned how to say "yee-haw!!"

Cedar Point

The DeCastro girls made their first trip to Cedar Point and they decided to get their money's worth. We were there from 10am-7pm. I was practically dragging Ava out of there. Sophie finally decided to take a mini nap around 4pm, but not for long, she didn't want to miss anything. Ava's absolute favorite part was her "mardi gras"makeup or facepaint. She asked if she could take her makeup home with her, of course, I said "yes". They even got to walk on the beach for the first time. Sophie was going crazy when the waves splashed on her. I set them back on the sand for a pick and Sophie started crawling right back towards the water! Ava had lots of fun on the rides and on the "frogger" ride, she saw the big kids putting their hands in the air when the ride went down, so she did too! Very cute!

Sophie is 10 months old

Sophia is 10 months old today! The "no longer a baby" countdown has begun :( She said her first real word yesterday, she said "HI" to me and waved when she woke up in the morning and then greeted Jessica with the same "HI" when she came over with Nathan. Pretty cute! She's also started eating some big girls foods like a banana and other diced fruit. And......she thinks that touch n feel books are hilarious. When she touches a fuzzy animal on the page of a book, she just giggles!

Ava is doing really good putting together big kid puzzles. She can put together her 24 piece Scooby Doo puzzle almost all by herself! And she is getting very anxious for her birthday party, it's all she talks about. And........she's practicing for her Academy Award someday........last week she woke up from nap saying her wrist hurt. She cried for almost 30 minutes and wouldn't use it. So, I took her to urgent care. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot, she grabbed her sippy cup with that hand and when we sat in the lobby waiting for the doctor she said, "Mom, something really hurts" I said, "what hurts Ava?" She said, "My feelings!" This kid is a piece of work!

I also attached a pic of the girls waiting for daddy to come home from work :)

Family Fun and Fourth of July

The girls have had a fun few weeks. We went to Kings Island and saw lots of friends. Sophia had the time of her life seeing Dora and Blues Clues! We were cracking up at how excited she got. She waved and reached out for them and danced throughout the entire Dora show. Ava really enjoyed seeing Scooby Doo and has been pretending to be Scooby ever since!
Then, Sophie had her first 4th of July but went to bed before the fireworks. However, big sister Ava stayed up and watched her first fireworks. She could see the Sunbury fireworks right from her bedroom window!
Then, we went to Aunt Bev's house for a visit and the girls went to the Cleveland Zoo. They had a blast! They finally got to see a real polar bear, hippo, seal and dinosaurs! Ava actually fed fish to the seal, she thought that was pretty cool. Ava brought home a stuffed polar bear and Sophie a tiger.
Sophie has also decided to start using a sippy cup like her big sister. She is growing up too fast!

Ava's Princess Glasses

Our beautiful princess went to see Dr. Carole and was told she is extremely farsighted, so she now gets to wear her new pixie dust glasses (there is pixie dust in the sides) ! She's excited to be able to see her books better!

We also fed Sophie her first ice cream cone this week, but as you can tell from the pics, she didn't love it?! Also........................Sophia Caryn is crawling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which means that our house constantly looks like a tornado went through it! She enjoys her new freedom and emptying every basket, drawer, etc. She also decided to go ahead and become a big kid altogether and is pulling herself to stand in her crib. Mommy and daddy were a little sad to walk in her room and see her standing up!

Sophia is 9 months old!

Our baby girl weighs 20 pounds and is 27 1/4 in. She's trying her hardest to catch up to her big sister! She just got her top tooth and is moving around like a busy bee! Sophie and Ava also made new friends at Build-A-Bear. Ava made Wendy the princess and Sophie made Brynn the bunny. Ava helped us have a garage sale and raised enough money to buy a new playhouse! She was very excited (although the first day of the sale she screamed and cried when a child bought one of her old toys). We quickly had to learn how garage sales work! She finished Little Gym for the year and waved to her adoring fans at the closing ceremonies and she starts swimming lessons this Saturday. She can't wait to swim like Ariel, The Little Mermaid!