Early summer celebrations

We haven't forgotten that we have a blog, but for a while we forgot we owned a camera. We have very few photos of Avonlea Jane from the last few months. We've all been so busy that we haven't had time to take many pictures.

Since we last updated, we had a visit over Mother's Day weekend from Grandpa C who we took to Gloucester as well as to Crane Beach and Crane Estate. We had a massive six-family yard sale with our neighbors. We celebrated Mabel's fourth birthday. We spent a week in Indiana for Uncle Dillon's high school graduation. And we celebrated Father's Day a little early with some disc golf in northern Massachusetts. In between those events, we kept busy with play dates, swimming, trips to the Willows, birthday parties, and game nights at our house.

During this time, Avonlea Jane's vocabulary has just exploded, as you can see from the list on the right. She's been adding at least a word a week. The most exciting word she's learned is, of course, Grandpa. She's also recently graduated from "Mama" to "Mommy." Her favorite things to say have been animal sounds, though. She has quite the repertoire with: goat (maa), sheep (baa), cow (moo), horse/zebra (neigh), dog (woof), cat (meow), rooster (loo-da-loo), duck (gack), lion/bear/tiger (ahrr), owl (hoo), and goose (honk).

Below:
Dinner in Indiana with both families (Great-grandma R, Grandpa R, Grandma C, Grandma R, David, Grandpa C, Avonlea Jane, and Liv)

In addition to spending time with both sets of grandparents, we were also able to spend some nice time with three of Avonlea Jane's great-grandparents, as well as her Great-uncle Nick, and cousin B.b., who also graduated high school while we were in Indiana.

Dillon's graduation was very exciting, and we were glad to be there. Grandma and Grandpa R babysat Avonlea Jane while we were there, as it would have been way too rowdy and hot for her. His class size is a little under 400 students, and the school gymnasium was just packed. We didn't get any decent photos of his graduation, but we were able to get video of the highlights. Dillon is in the left aisle, fourth row, on the end.

Uncle Dillon's Graduation:



The day after graduation, Dillon had a party at the city park, where we all enjoyed meeting Dillon's friends, eating tons of food made by Grandma C, and playing giant volleyball and corn hole.

Avonlea Jane with the graduate

Uncle Dillon and David having fun

Enjoying the swings

Saying goodbye before heading back to Massachusetts

On our way out the door

While we were in Indiana, the temperatures were high, but it was a little chilly when we got home. Here are Avonlea Jane and David enjoying an evening at the Willows beach.

Avonlea Jane waiting to ride the carousel

Avonlea Jane's first solo ride:

Enjoying games at the Willows casino

After swimming this afternoon, we went back to the Willows with friends Niccole and Violet. Violet did not care for the rides as much as Avonlea Jane did.