Doin' the Turkey Trot!

This was our 3rd year to participate in the Thanksgiving Day Dallas Turkey Trot! We spent Thanksgiving morning walking around downtown Dallas with an estimated 30,000 other folks for this year's Trot.

Waiting for our train at the DART station...
Miss Ava enjoyed the ride on the DART down to the race. The rail was packed with Turkey Trotters! What a beautiful day for a jaunt through downtown!

Here is our future marathoner leading the way for Daddy to the finish line (we let her get out of the stroller for the last 50 yards of the race)Hoisted on Daddy's shoulders, Ava celebrates her completion of the race!

On the way back to the DART station we went through Pioneer Plaza and the stampede of longhorn and cowboy statues. Ava thought this was pretty fun!

Daddy let her take a "ride" on one of the longhorns...

Cookie Baking Fun!

How to make and enjoy delicious chocolate chip cookies:
Step 1 - Help your Mommy and Daddy mix all of the ingredients. Step 2 - Form the dough into little balls and place on the baking sheet. Eeewwww...be aware that the dough sure is sticky!
Step 3 - Let Mom and Dad worry about putting them into the oven and getting them out.
Step 4 - Simply take your cookie and attempt to grab your Daddy's cookie while he's distracted by smiling for the camera...
...then dunk your cookie into a cold glass of milk...
...and take a really, really BIG bite! Yum!

Tune in next time for Chef Ava's cooking adventures!

Trick-or-Treat!

Our first official Halloween activity was a stop by Aunt Michelle to Ava's playhouse...trick-or treat!


Aunt Michelle also got an extra Halloween treat...a little kiss!


One last pic before heading to hand out candy at our front door...cheese!


Waiting for trick-or-treaters to show up...


Ava was a little shy about handing the candy out herself, so she hid behind Adam for a little while.


More trick-or-treaters to give candy to...


Aunt April came by on her way home from work for a special trick-or-treat visit to Ava's newly completed playhouse!


Ava loves to see little John via April's tummy...


Uncle Tate also stopped by later to trick-or-treat at Ava's house!


Our first trick-or-treat stop was at our friend, Marianne's house where Ava was excited to ring the doorbell all by herself...


After all the giving out of candy, Ava is ready to GET some candy.



Approaching the Gorman home...


Mmm...yummy chocolate. I have a feeling she'll be talking about "Halloween time" for a long while!



Ava helped herself to a piece of candy...and then another...


Ava really wanted to go inside to see the doggies! Here is her expression after one of them tried to run up to her...


Ava loves Joey and Cricket, but they are so big and fast that she gets nervous-excited when they're running around!


Ava loves Joey and Cricket, but they are so big and fast that she gets nervous-excited when they're running around!

The Playhouse is Finished!

Adam completed the playhouse this past weekend with much help from Jeff and a couple of past-midnight work sprees (those guys are crazy!). The hard work is evident in the beautiful results of the finished house. Take a look...

Here is an outside view where you can see the red, front, "dutch" door (it's split in half so that you can close the bottom, but open the top). You can also see the nice, tiny gutter at the edge of the roof...no detail was spared! Ava was happy to show her cousin, Caleb around her playhouse while each was dressed in their costume in preparation for Halloween a few days later.


Here you get a look inside and can see the little window air-conditioning unit (that'll come in handy this summer!), the play kitchen that I got to move out of my formal living area and the pretty pergo floors.

Here is a view from inside the playhouse looking out the door where you can see the interior light switch and the front porch light switch.

Way to go, Daddy! Ava and I couldn't be more proud of Adam! The first night after it was finished, the three of us spent a cozy evening inside the playhouse watching one of Ava's movies on her portable DVD player. The next night she and Adam hung out in there (with a space heater plugged in) while Ava pretended to make cookies and bacon and peanut butter sandwiches (ugh...yum) for Daddy. Be sure to check back soon to see the next post which will be about all the fun she had having trick-or-treaters come to her playhouse to get candy!