Vegas Vacation Day 2

Day 2 of our trip started at Circus Circus. They have free circus shows daily, so we played in the arcade until the show started. Ava loved the clown.  He did some juggling with a giant yo yo. She was a little bored with the umbrellas, but I thought it was neat.

Next we went to Adventuredome.  Since it was midweek, and most kids were not quite out of school yet, the place was pretty much empty!  Most of the time Ava was the only one on the rides. It was great and she had a lot of fun.  The only thing she didn't like was the 4D movie!  It was Dora so I thought she'd like it.  But the "effects" (things slapping your ankles under your seat, air blowing on your face) scared her.  We had to leave after just a couple minutes.

One of Ava's favorites was the roller coaster.

A close second was the Frog Hopper!

Games games games.  Ava wanted to play games the entire trip.  She just loved it.

All her winnings.  A pizza, a doughnut, and penguin.  She was so happy.

After Adventuredome we went back to Bellagio and checked out the chocolate fountain.

More swimming of course!

For dinner we walked over to Caesars to eat at Serendipity 3.  There are lots of nice fountains at Caesars Palace.

Ava never eats all her food so I had been sharing meals with her the entire trip.  Hot dogs, PB&J, chicken strips,etc.  I was burnt out on toddler food, so I was ready for this yummy crab cake salad!  Crab cake, grapefruit, corn, avocado, and greens.  Soo good!

More walking around Cesars.  Ava yelled, "Look a DANCER!!"  She was thrilled.

More fountains!  Ava was always excited to throw coins in them.

Most of our trip revolved around activities for Avalyn.  But this night I got to break away and see Mariah!!  LOVED IT!!  She was great and her singing was beautiful.  Wow, her high notes are just incredible.  She sang every #1 song she's had. The entire show was excellent.  Jon spent the evening with Ava (take a guess!) playing in the arcade!!

A little video of our days adventures.

Vegas Vacation Day 1

We had our first family vacation to Vegas. It went great and was so much fun! Ava had been talking about going to "Vegas Baby" for weeks!

Before we even got into the airport Ava was so excited to ride the bus from the parking lot!  She thought it was neat she had a seat all for herself.  She kept calling it a school bus.  Ava did great on the plane. I was a little worried about motion sickness and her ears, but she didn't have any problems with either. The first hour she was just excited about being on an airplane and liked looking out the window.  Then we started the snacks, coloring, and playing with toys.  She spent a lot of time pretending to feeding her T Rex raisins!  Then for the last hour we pulled out the tablet for her to watch movies.

After we got checked in and situated in our room we hit the pool.  It was a little breezy and chilly so we only made it for an hour.  It was still fun though.  After drying off Ava layed on the pool chair and rested for about an hour.

After we were all dried up we took a walk to the Flamingo to check out their Nature Sanctuary.  Ava loved looking at the animals!  They had flamingos, ducks, birds, and fish.  She wanted a picture with the parrot but as soon as it's claws touched her arms she got really scared.  So I had to hold the parrot.

One of the many photo ops on the strip!

On the way back we stopped to watch the Bellagio Fountains.  Ava said, "Look the water is dancing!"  She also loved throwing coins in the water. I would have liked to watch it more but it was only playing every 30 minutes.  After watching it once Ava was ready to move on.

Ava found another friend on the Strip!  This was probably her favorite out of the whole trip.

We ended our first night playing a few games in the arcade.  Ava really wanted to play all the slot machines, lol.  So we had to use the arcade as an alternative!

 

And I'll end with a little Vegas dancing!  This happened a lot.  We'd be walking along and Ava would hear some music and ask to dance!

Mothers Day

Great Wolf Lodge

We took the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate Gavins 5th Birthday.  Ava has been begging to go swimming and always asks me if it's summer yet, so she was soo excited!

 

Check out these cute little wolf pups!

Both kids would always perk up when the bell would go off (signaling the large bucket of water was going to dump) but neither one wanted to go near it!  They enjoyed watching from a distance and would always say, "Wow!  Look at that!"

Last year Ava didn't want to go down the slides, but this wasn't the case this year!  She loved them.  Both her and Gavin were up and down them almost the entire time. 

We also took advantage of Great Wolfs "cub club."  They had lots of different activities including crafts, games, and karaoke.

After dinner we attended the story time at the clock tower and the kids got to meet Oliver.

Oliver also stopped by the room before bedtime to deliver milk and cookies!  So fun!

Cant have a vacation without a little jumping on the bed. 

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

Ava participates in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program at church.   It's a unique Montessori-based approach to the religious formation of children. The room ("atrium") contains wonderful materials that focus the child's attention on key scripture passages or liturgical moments. 

She loves this program and calls it "doing activities."  She has learned so much and I love seeing her grow in her faith.

Here is Ava working on the topiary map.  It shows the land of Israel at the time Jesus lived.  There are flag markers for Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem.

 

Learning that Jesus is the good shepherd who knows us and calls us by name.

Working on one of them many Montessori activities.

The Easter Area

Prayer table

There are many areas I didn't get pictures of including the baptismal area, alter table, vestments, etc.

This was the last class of this school year, so they got to go see real life examples of what they have been learning about in class.

Bring Your Kid To Work Day

I decided to participate in "Bring Your Kid To Work Day".  My employer had some structured activities for kids ages 7 and up.  So, Ava just came for the last hour of the day, I picked her up after her nap at school.  One hour was plenty!

She obviously can't do accounting, but she was able to help by recycling some papers and delivering some mail.  She also liked playing with markers on the white board, getting a snack from the vending machine, riding the elevator, getting a phone call from daddy, typing on my computer, and printing off papers.

My coworkers daughter was also there, so they were able to draw pictures and play with stickers.

After work we went for an ice cream treat and we also got to see the geese with their new babies!