Wine Fest, Flea Market, and Vitamix

Bryce had Thursday and Friday off so we went to a Wine Festival on Friday in a small town about 45 minutes away. It was very small but really fun. I had the BEST wine cocktail ever!!! I am not a big wine drinker but man, it was delicious!

Silly girl already ripped her bow off! She did great at the festival! She always does great around a bunch of people. She was waving and smiling at everyone that passed by!

We got there a little early before a lot of people got there. Before we left, there were a ton of people there.

This was our food! Mine was a pepperoni pizza...or so I thought. This pizza had real peppers on it. Not sure what kind. It wasn't that bad though. Bryce got a piece of garlic toast! It was SO good! We split our food!

This is how they serve wine at wine festivals.

 Going back a day..on Thursday.. we were out and about so we stopped by the BX to look around. There was a lady there giving a presentation over the Vitamix blender. Have you heard of it? It isn't JUST a blender. It can make ice cream, soup...yes, soup!, baby food, peanut butter, crushed ice, smoothies (seriously, the best smoothies), salsa...anything!! We were convinced to get one. I had been looking for a blender for awhile but didn't want to get one that wasn't good. I have a friend that has a Vitamix and she loves it so I already had my eye on it.. the thing holding me back? The price. It has a HIGH price tag!! WAY more than I would EVER pay! Well, we got $100 off the blender from the sales add and our military card. So, we were convinced...

Was it worth it? I can't tell yet. We have used it about 10 times since we bought it and it has only been 2 days. I have made ice cream, smoothies, and chicken salad. I plan on making my own peanut butter soon! So far...I LOVE IT!!!!


Today, there were several Flea Markets going on around the area and I found a few things! I have been looking for a walking toy for Ava for awhile but haven't found one for a reasonable price. This one is in good shape and was only 7 euro. Ava loves it!

I also scored these little shoes. They are brand new and I have had a really hard time finding good shoes that are small enough for Ava. She still wears a size 1 and its hard to find shoes she can walk in that are that small.

I have had a thing for baskets lately. The small one was free from the Airman's attic and the big one was only 3 euro at the Flea Market. (The Airman's attic is a store on base where people donate items and Airman can go and take anything they want for free. Airman are the young-ins in the Air Force...aka poor ones!! ha!) And yes, these are in my bathtub (classy, right?)...you never know how dirty a basket is until you start to clean it.

Watermark

I have a small blog. Why would I worry about someone stealing my pictures and using them as their own?

I never thought it would happen to me. Well, apparently I was wrong. It did happen to me. Some of my Paris pictures were stolen. They were put on someone else's blog and they used them as their own. 

It may sound like I am selfish...caring about people taking my pictures. What if Ava's pictures were stolen and someone tried to display them as their own child?? That is what I worry about. So? I will now watermark all of my photos. 

I know, I know...it kind of ruins the picture. But if it saves me from having some pictures of Ava stolen, I will do it. 

Ava is 10 months old!

Ava you are 10 months old! Only two more months until your first birthday! I need to start planning!

Its impossible to keep you still for a picture these days.

As of two weeks ago, you weigh 14 pounds 2 ounces (0%) and you are 26 inches long (4%). Head circumference is 43 cm. 

You wear 6/6-9 month clothing and some 9 month stuff. You haven't been able to wear most of your cute 9 month summer clothes because they are all still a little big and it isn't warm enough to wear them! :( You wear a size 2 diaper and a size 1 shoe.

You nurse 4 times a day and eat at every meal. For breakfast, you have oatmeal with strawberries. For lunch, you usually have turkey, bread with peanut butter on it, cheese, a veggie and fruit. For dinner, I try to give you something that I have fixed along with bread, cheese, veggie and fruit. You are now an independent eater. You don't like me feeding you baby food anymore. You are a pro at the sippy cup! You can also drink from a straw. 

You are a great sleeper. You go to bed at 8pm and wake up at 9am. You take two naps a day. They range from 45 minutes to 2 hours each. 

You can wave hi and bye bye, clap your hands, open and close doors, turn pages in books (you have been doing this for several months). You can say hi, bye-bye, ma-ma, da-da, and okay (sounds like "ah keyy"). You understand commands like "come here" and "no no". 

You are walking along the furniture now and can stand alone for a few seconds but as soon as you realize you are doing it, you lower yourself down to the floor slowly. 

You LOVE books and will choose to look at books over playing with toys any day! You flip the pages and try to talk so it looks like you are actually trying to read the book. Its so cute!! You love giving your stuffed animals kisses but you refuse to give your mommy and daddy kisses...

You still don't have much hair but we are hoping it will start to really come in soon! You finally got your first tooth this month!! You have been really fussy the past couple of days so I wouldn't be surprised if another one decided to pop out soon.

You never stop moving! You are constantly crawling, standing, or pulling up on things. We constantly have to keep an eye on you because you are always getting into things you aren't supposed to.

Here you are at 1,5, and 10 months old.

We love you so much Ava and can't imagine our lives without you. You have been a joy and we love you more than you will ever know!!!

London 2012: Part 4

This is my last post for our London trip... I know you must be sad! ha!

Our last full day in London was one of my favorites. We took a train to the Windsor Castle. More than 500 people live and work in the Windsor Castle. That makes it the largest inhabited castle in the world. The Windsor Castle is a venue for hosting state visits and the Queen stays there over the weekends. We were there on a Sunday so the Queen was there when we were. Unfortunately we didn't get to see her but it was neat knowing she was there. 




Photo Credit: wikipedia 

This is the view of the whole castle. It is like a small city. It is HUGE!

One thing I loved about the castle is that it wasn't really old looking. Most of the castles we have been to haven't been lived in for century's. This one was very clean and looked fairly new... even though it wasn't.

We got to take a tour of the castle. Our first tour was of Queen Mary's Doll House. The Doll House was made in the 1920's and completed in 1924. The Doll House was given to Queen Mary as a gift from family. Artists and craftsmen contributed to the doll house. The plates in the dining room were made of real silver and the crowns were made of real diamonds. The pictures were all hand painted by artists. The house is over 3 feet tall. It was amazing!

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

After we saw the doll house, we visited a picture gallery of the queen in celebration of the Jubilee.

Then, we got to see the castle. We saw the dining room, meeting room (where the queen meets people), and a few other rooms. It was really neat!! No pictures were allowed inside the castle.

Cutest. Town. Ever!

This is where the Queen was!

This is the chapel and the Queen attended earlier that morning and if we would have gotten their earlier, we could have attended church with her!

We just had to get another picture with the guard.

After we left the Windsor Castle, we headed to Wimbledon to see the tennis courts and where the Olympics will be held. We walked around the entire town twice trying to find this thing. Finally we figured it out and got there and figured out it was closed. Oh well. It was neat to see it from the outside.

This little girl was eating up all the attention she was getting on the train.

After Wimbledon, we headed to a music exhibit where people could play all different kinds of instruments. This was Bryce's idea. He is the musician in the family. It was fun though. It took us forever to find a place to eat and we finally settled on Jimmy's World Grill. It was a buffet on crack. They had everything you could imagine. Just like any buffet, it wasn't that impressive. The dessert was good...that's about it.

After we ate, we headed back to our hotel to get packed up to leave early the next morning. On our way home, Bryce wanted to go to another castle that was about 30 minutes away. The castle was on the Rhine River and it was beautiful.

This little girl was so tired from our long trip.

 Beautiful drive to the castle!

Beautiful, right?

The Rhine River

This big girl was SO glad to be home!

London 2012: Part 3

We got an earlier start on Saturday to head to the London Zoo. On our way, we came across a shopping center called Stables Market. It was the neatest thing. I could best describe it as the Canton Trades Days but smaller.

Don't you just love that little monster outfit?!?! I HAD to get it! I know I don't have a boy (yet) but it will be put away for the FAR future!! :) I also got the London shirt for Ava.

We spent a few hours at the shopping center and ate lunch and then headed to the zoo. This zoo was amazing! They had every animal that we could think of and we didn't even have time to make it around the whole zoo.

Ava was scared of the fish.

I will spare you all of the animal pictures.

After the zoo, we went to the Tower of London and the London Bridge. Every time I say "London Bridge", it makes me want to sing the song. ha!

Me and my sweet girl!

The two loves of my life!

This is the Tower of London. It was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror. It was the Royal Residence of several and also served as a prison. Today, it is home of the Royal Jewels! Seeing the Royal Jewels was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

I didn't know it when we took this picture but this is where the Today show is taping for the Olympics!

This is where all the weapons and armory are on display.

I was sad that we couldn't take pictures of the jewels! They were BEAUTIFUL! Some of the diamonds were as big as a baseball!

I just had to take a picture of the guard!

We went to dinner at a place called Garfunkel's. There were several around the city so we wanted to try it out. The food was really good and they had free refills on drinks! Over here in Europe, they don't give free refills...even for water!! 

Some things that I want to remember about our trip:

Ava- I have never...and I mean NEVER seen anyone get as much attention as you did on this trip. We probably got stopped at least once ever 5 minutes so people could touch you and talk to you and comment on how big your bow was or how happy and alert you are. It probably didn't help that you were waving and saying "HI" to everyone that passed by. I think you made a lot of peoples day! When people would ask how old you are, they would ask, "How many months is she?" Funny how people word things differently in other countries. 

When we were at Garfunkel's, there was this one particular man that you did NOT like. I have never seen you not like anyone before but you did NOT like this man. You were playing with a toy and dropped it and he came by and picked it up and gave it to you and you started crying. About 10 minutes later, he was waving at you from a distance and you just looked at me and gave me the biggest pouty face and cried a little bit. It was so funny! 

You did SO good on the trip! You traveled so well. You slept on me or your daddy in the carry thing most of the time and sometimes you slept in your stroller. 

London 2012: Part 4 coming soon!!