Zoo Tradition

It's always been a tradition to take Avery to the zoo for her birthday.  This year was no exception. It helped that Avery got a zoo pass for her birthday.  I'm sure we will be spending A LOT of time at the zoo this year!

I love our zoo.  It's gotten so much better since I was a kid! I can remember going and it was all concrete and boring animal exhibits.  Now theres lots of shade and vegitation and the exhibits are getting to be really fun and interesting. I think Ellie has a good time too.

We got to the zoo fairly early and it seems that seeing animals at that time is hit or miss but that didn't slow us down!

Avery got tired of me constantly taking pictures of her as evidenced by her very forced smile in the above photo.  This one didn't mind so much.

Getting to hang out as a family was the best part.  Ronnie took a day off work and it was so nice having him around!

Oh, and we did see a few animals.

Avery's favorite exhibit is what she calls the "Spooky House".  It looks like a barn and when you go in its dark.  Inside are bats, owls, and all kinds of creepy animals.  She insisted on going through this twice.  I made Ronnie take her the second time.  Ellie really needed to "eat"...yeah, it was Ellie's fault.

But let's be honest, you don't come to the blog to see pictures of animals so I spared you the best I could.

I love our zoo tradition with Avery!  When did she get to be so big?

This one was taken by the 4 year old herself.  I can't believe my baby girl is 4!  I'll have to do a blog post of Avery from birth to 4.  I may cry! 

More adventures to come!

Birthday Girl

I'm about to get cliche on you.  How can it be we have a 3 year old.  It seems like just yesterday I was obsessing about our baby sleeping too much, not sleeping enough, not eating enough, will she ever give up the paci, will she ever roll over...etc., etc., etc.  If you have kids you know what I mean right?  They really do grow up so fast.

But it's true.  We have a 3 year old.  And I've got to be honest, I think 3 might be my favorite age so far.  The girl is potty trained, can communicate (sometimes a little too much), and is downright silly.

Our girl had a birthday in April. We started the birthday celebration with breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  Seriously, does anyone have any better breakfast?! I think not!

Avery playing a little bit of checkers before breakfast!

After breakfast we were off to the zoo.  That seems to be our birthday tradition. I will say our zoo is pretty awesome.  It's changed so much since I was a kid.  The exciting goings on at zoo right now is the new baby elephant.  We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the baby elephant but she wasn't out for viewing yet.

We did get to see one of the big elephants (Shondra in case you were wondering) and Avery was entranced.  Ronnie and I may have been quite impressed with the elephants size too.  We watched the elephant walk around for quite some time before we had to move on.

Of course, you can't walk by a sculpture like this without making it a photo op!

We honestly only spent about an hour at the zoo.  It was hot people!  So sue me! I think we might have spent most of that hour WALKING to the elephant exhibit!  Geez!  We may or may not have lured Avery out of the zoo with a promise of a Sonic slush.  Desperate, hot times call for desperate, cooling measures!

We made Avery wait until after naptime to open her birthday present.  I know, we are cruel parents.  Luckily, Avery is still at the age that she didn't know we even had a gift.  Plus, I hadn't wrapped it yet.

The gift was as big as her!

She loved opening it though.

And she especially loved the gift!  it was one of those sand and water stations.  Sand on one side, water on the other.  This has already provided hours of entertainment.  Money well spent! We also got Avery some Dave Ramsey, Jr stuff.  Yeah, we're kind of Dave nerds.  She wasn't as excited about that stuff. I can't imagine why?!

Since Avery's birthday was Easter weekend, we decided to postpone her birthday party until the next weekend.  We kept the party pretty small only inviting our immediate family and Avery's BFF's Hannah and Chloe (children of my BFF).

It was a super laid back get together with some burgers, cupcakes and fun.

Made my own strawberry cupcakes.  Pink.  Requested by the birthday girl.

Avery managed to clean up with birthday gifts.  She really sweet talks everyone and they can't help but buy her something special!  She got lots of clothes, her first Wii game (Just Dance for kids), a bike, and some fun books. The girl cleaned up I tell you!

Love this picture of Avery and her BFF's Hannah (left) and Chloe (right).

If you're wondering, I made that shirt! So cute!

The look on Avery's face cracks me up.  Can you see her tongue sticking out?

It was such a great birthday weekend and a great birthday party.  I think Avery enjoyed celebrating her birthday for two weekends.  Something she gets naturally. I believe you should celebrate your birthday for a month. Can i get an amen?

I still can't believe my baby girl is 3!  I want to stop time, bottle up her silliness, sweetness and funny quirks but I know it's impossible. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our baby girl!

More adventures to come.



Watch your Fingers!

I will probably have a couple posts on our recent trip to the zoo.  There are several reasons for this.

First, I took 1,356,874,237 pitures.  Literally. Maybe there was only one reason.
Take note of what is in Avery's hand.  Do you see it? The snack container?  Inside that snack container is Goldfish.  You know, those yummy little cheddar cracker snacks in the shape of fish. 

See that handsome, innocent looking guy?  Yeah, he's not so innocent.

While Avery ate her snack and hung out in her stroller, Batman and I sat on a bench beside her. It was hot people and we were tired.  Walking around the zoo is not easy.  As we were getting ready to leave our cool, shady spot a bird showed up and was hopping around.  We told Avery to throw one of her fish at the bird.  I was thinking the bird would get scared and fly away.  What was a I thinking?  This was no stupid bird- humans=food.  The bird snatched the goldfish and flew away.  Avery thought it was hilarious!

After that, we headed over to see the hippos.  In the hippo building, there are also bird exhibits.  Do you see where I'm going with this.  Avery still had her snack cup of fish.  I'll let the pictures tell you what happened.

Here birdie, birdie, birdie. That's Batmans hand.

Woah! Faster than you can blink an eye the bird lunged toward the fish. Batman dropped the fish so fast I couldn't capture the moment fast enough.  Fingers were almost lost. Trust me people.

The bird successfully snatched the goldfish from Batman's hand. The bird was happy and we hauled it out of there so as not to get thrown out of the zoo. 

That would not have been a good example for Avery. Feeding zoo animals is probably not a good example to set either.  Luckily she's 2.  Hopefully she won't remember.

Hopefully.

I still laugh when I think about it. Batman is quite the rebel. It just doesn't seem right.

More zoo adventures to come!