birthdays are fun

Ava's birthday is coming up. I'm pretty excited. I really love birthdays. She'll be 3 this year and I like 3 year olds. At church on sunday several people asked Ava what she wanted for her birthday (one of the advantages of being the pastors kid at a small church is that lots of really sweet people like to give you christmas and birthday gifts. also easter and valentines) and she answered all of them with "birthday cake." I'm glad she's got her priorities in order. When pressed for what else she would like she answered "a dinosaur net." You know, so she can catch dinosaurs.
She gives a variety of answers when people ask how old she is going to be- sometimes she does say 3 but usually she says 5 and then tells them how old silas and micah and anabelle are. One of my least favorite things that the girls do right now is tell me how old they are. Usually once sometimes twice a day Anabelle will say "Mama, I'm this many (showing me 4 fingers)" and I say "Yeah, I know it." And then she'll say "but on my birthday I'll be this many (5 fingers)." And then the worst part happens. Ava starts in with all kinds of bizarre things that make Anabelle crazy. She says "I'm 5 too" or "I'm not having a birthday" or "Anabelles this many (showing 2 fingers)." Poor Anabelle just can't let it go. If Ava says something not true she tells me right away even though I was sitting right there hearing the whole thing. So then Anabelle has to tell Ava how old she is and how old she'll be on her birthday and when every ones birthday is. And Ava always argues. It doesn't matter what Anabelle says Ava always says the opposite. If Anabelle said "candy is so yummy and snow cones are delicious" Ava would say "NO. They're not". I know this doesn't sound that difficult but it happens almost EVERY DAY. And no one knows better then me how old they are. Alright. I was there. If you feel like having this conversation with the girls I know they would be happy to tell you how old they are and Ava will be happy to tell you many bizarre things about every one.

Clarification

The previous post was made by Heath.

Lie Detector Wanted

So today a fairly routine situation arose. We were in the kitchen and Anabelle and Ava were in their bedroom. Anabelle starts crying- the sort of cry that is partly genuine, but mostly embellished to get our attention. I go in there. Here is a transcript of the exchange:

Me: Anabelle, why are you crying?

Anabelle: Ava hit me with the pan in the head.

Me: Ava, did you hit her on purpose?

Ava: No, it was an accident.

Me: Ava, remember, if you lie you always get a spanking.

Ava: It was an accident.

Me: Anabelle, did you hit Ava first.

Anabelle: No, I just scooted her.

At this point, not knowing what really happened, and feeling like talking is futile, I just kneeled in front of them in silence, looked at them, and waited for the truth to emerge. After about 5 seconds, Ava said, "We're both lying." I thought that was such a funny thing for her to say that I busted out laughing, they started laughing, and we all agreed that they could play better. That'll show 'em.

The next update

For those of you don't know yet (I think thats only a few friends in AR now) we're moving to a town in NW Arkanasas called Huntsville. Its about 30 miles east of Fayetteville. It looks like a nice town with small schools and several resurants (pizza hut is among them, I'm very happy to say). The church has a parsonage which is great because we won't have to look for a place before the move. Plus we've seen a few pictures and it look really beautiful (by beautiful I mean that it has a nice kitchen and a fireplace). Theres a state park around the town somewhere so you should all plan to go camping and then visit us. Or don't camp and visit us anyway.

Ava will 3 in a few weeks. I'm really excited because birthdays are so much fun.

I have applied to the University of Arkansas and I expect to be excepted in the next couple of weeks. A BFA in Art Education is the goal. I'm hoping to finish in 3 years (including summer school) I'm really just hoping to gradutate before Sara starts.

Anabelle's teacher sent a note home last week informing us that Anabelle answered 2 questions out loud in class. This is real progress and I'm starting to feel really confident about Kindergarten.

Heath is coaching a baseball team of 13 and 14 year old boys. Maybe he'll have a post about them coming up in the future.