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.



What Happened?!

Well my dear friends, it's been a while hasn't it?  I have missed our little chats and I've been racking my brain trying to figure out why I was such a faithful blogger for such a time and then dropped off the face of the Earth. I figured it out.

TV.

No seriously.  R and I don't have cable.  So it's easy to blog in the summer months when there's nothing on TV.  Then, the fall comes around, new shows are on TV and our TiVo starts to fill up with a bunch of mindless entertainment and I choose TV over my dedicated blog readers.  For this, I apologize...until the fall.

So here I am.  Summer months are on the horizen and I've seen all the season finales I care to this year. Hopefully, I can entertain myself with my blog for a while.  So a quick recap of what you might have missed over the past few months.

Valentines Day

Where we all got a little something.

Yep, those are Girl Scout cookies for Valentines Day.  Very romantic.

Avery got some special candy and her own rose from her daddy.

Don't ask about the Cinderella dress over the clothes. 

Challenging games of Pop the Pig

Have you heard of this game?  When you don't have cable and you let your kid watch kid shows on regular TV, you see a lot of toy propaganda.  Avery insisted on this game and Santa heard her cries.

It's exhausing.

You feed the pig these little hamburgers and then the pigs belly "pops" when it's full. It's quite entertaining.  For a 2 year old.

Avery was invited to a Royal party.

It was no party for Kate Middleton but I think Kate would have been proud!  Avery was invited to a Princess birthday party.

Including make-up and everything!

I gotta say, I think she was the most fashionable Princess there!

Pizza Party

Avery and her BFF's Chloe and Hannah got together for a pizza party.

Avery took her job of topping eater very seriously.

A good time was had by all.

Easter

Every year our town center has an Easter Egg hunt including a pancake breakfast (yum!), inflatables and Avery's favorite...

face painting!  Isn't she the cutest tiger you've ever seen?!

Yep, this is the only egg we came home with. 

We colored Easter eggs for the fist time this year!

And had an Easter egg hunt inside due to the less than ideal weather on Easter day.

My little Easter Princess with a new big girl haircut!



The family on Easter.  Not too shabby.

So there you have it.  The past few months in a big, giant, long nutshell. It's not easy summarizing 3-4 months in long abbreviated post.  There was so much more than just these moments. There was a very special 3 year old birthday party celebration in there but that deserves a post of its own.  Welcome back my friends.  Welcome back.

More adventures to come. 



Belated Birthday

Have you ever known someone with a birthday close to Christmas?  And how hard it is to remember their birthday and find something that special birthday gift?  Well, try being married to someone like that. R's birthday is December 21st which is always a challenge around the holidays. 

I've never forgotten his birthday and always try my best to make the day special.  I never wrap his birthday gifts in Christmas paper, I never combine a birthday and Christmas gift (except that one year I planned a trip to Vegas) and I always keep his birthday gifts away from the Christmas tree. 

However, one thing that I didn't do was blog about his birthday.  And since I'm running low on blog topics I thought I'd rewind the clock and share part of the day.

R had taken off all week and I just couldn't get away so R spent the day with Avery.  We went to dinner and then came home to open presents!  My birthday gift strategy changes year to year. Sometimes I have a specific gift I want to get R for Christmas.  This year I had bought gifts, a couple specific for birthday and others I would divide between Birthday and Christmas.

Avery is an expert at opening presents.  Now that we have a child, I'm not sure that we'll ever be able to open our own gifts.  I'm okay with that.

First up, a TV wall mount.  Lame gift right.  Well, this one was actually for me too.  Last year, I bought us R a new TV for our bedroom.  For an entire year we've had our old TV mounted on the wall and the new TV sitting on top of the media shelf in front of the new TV.  Classy.

Next up some new dress shirt.  Real exciting right? I've got a way with gifts!

The best birthday gift ever: The North Face fleece.  I know this is the best birthday gift because R got me one the year before for my birthday.  I love it.  Now, R loves his too!

The gift not pictured: The Avett Brothers Emotionalist on LP.  That perhaps was R's favorite gift.  Spending the day with this little gift wasn't too bad either.

Now...This is what R teaches Avery when I'm not around.

This is Avery's "cute smile".  Ask Avery to give you a "cute smile" and this is the pose she gives.

Lord help us!

More adventures to come!

Rock n Roll

So waaay back in September we got to participate in the cutest mini session with Angel Porch of Art and Soul Photography.  Angel has special 15 minute session where she will take as many pictures as she can and the sessions are usually themed (Easter, V-Day, Christmas, etc.).  In September she had a Rock n Roll mini and I had to sign Avery up right away!



The session was adorable.  Angel had set up this toddler size drum set in front of this very photogenic wall and went to work.  The pictures came out something like this.



Let me just tell you.  Avery had a blast. 

She was singing her ABC's, Old McDonald and I think there was a Twinkle, Twinkle thrown in there for good measure.

She was born to be a rocker I tell ya!

Avery picked up this shirt the last time she saw the Stones in concert.  It's vintage. She's that cool. 

She forgot she was wearing her Rolling Stones shirt and not her KISS shirt. She gets this from her dad.  I take no credit for this pose.

This is only a small sampling of the pictures Angel was able to get in only about 15-20 minutes!  We loved every picture ...I've never seen a bad picture of Avery though!  Including this one.



Hug your kids and loved ones tonight.  I know a special 2 year old that's getting extra hugs tonight!

More adventures to come!