saturday was a beautiful sunny day. between soccer and swimming class, ava and i meandered what i call "the park slope loop" - a walkable tour through all the best bits of our neighborhood. these aren't particularly great pictures - just iphone shots of a beautiful day!

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ava was definitely not a natural on the monkey bars - a source of much frustration. but with perseverance and some well-timed bribes from john, she's finally figured it out.

ava's previous bike "pinky" is about the right size for your average four-year old. we held on to it for longer than reasonable because we were trying to skip a size into a proper mountain bike with hand brakes and gears. turns out they don't really make those in a size smaller than eight-year-old. we've had such a bike for about a year, but it didn't quite work. turns out the limiting factor was ava's hands! she has mommy's tiny hands and she couldn't quite reach the brakes.

this spring though, "big blue" is finally in action!

p.s. in case you were wondering, the new version of "strawberry" is.... "blueberry". we're very creative around here.

ava loves to chat with grandma via skype. she alternates between carrying around grandma's disembodied head hither and yon, and this comfy arrangement.

sorry ava, it just isn't realistic to save these for your future children.

ava's school vacations were strangely timed this winter. she was barely home from her winter break at grandma's when it was time to leave again for her "spring" break. however, easter's early arrival and winter's (extremely) late departure made for a pretty funny easter egg hunt!

more pics.

now that she's in school, ava only gets to spend a few weeks of winter in thunder bay. however, thanks to grandma's intensive cross-country skiing enrichment program, she's managed to keep pace with the local kids. which means, that this year it was time to learn how to skate ski!