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Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Fourth.

I love the 4th of July. It's the hot dogs. It's the cold fruit on a hot day. It's the friends and family. But mostly it's the fireworks.

Seriously, I love fireworks.

This year we hung out around the house during the day since the day before was a whirlwind of kid-spoiling.

We visited the nursing home for awhile and then headed over to the Talleys' for their annual Independence Day extravaganza. Seriously, their house was packed with people!

These little buddies are only a week apart! They were born in the same hospital and were both massive newborns, haha.



We enjoyed the fireworks from our front row seat in their front yard and got home way too late. Our kids aren't gonna know what to do with themselves when they have to get back to their normal routines!

So yay for America. I like living here. I hope you had a great day, too.

Birthday Celebrating!

This is my last Avery birthday post (for this year, ha), I promise! We spent all day celebrating her on her actual birthday on Tuesday, so I had to at least document all of the spoiling fun.

She woke up to streamers and balloons because she has the best dad in the whole world.

Making breakfast donuts!

So glad this girl is a morning person

This little ham loved the donuts, too!

Hanging out in the waiting room of the doctor's office.

Birthday checkup! (Don't worry, she didn't get any shots. I'm not that mean, geez.)

Water fun at Uptown Village (Landon wasn't really a fan)

Enjoying her outrageously expensive slurpee

Our handsome men!

Reading Dinosaur vs. Potty at Barnes and Noble. Yeah, it wasn't a winner. And Avery was too busy looking at books and worrying about the girl sleeping in the kids' section for me to take her picture.
Birthday lunch at Chipotle! (We may have tricked talked her into Chipotle instead of Chick-fil-a)

Uncle Aaron and Aunt Chelsea (and Evelyn!) met us for lunch and then ice cream at Braum's

Like she needed any more sugar!


Post-dinner birthday present

Her new Bible! If you have kids, you have to check out the Jesus Storybook Bible. It connects every story to Jesus, and the illustrations are fantastic. We got the deluxe edition, which comes with an audio version.

Playing at our town's Independence Day festivities

We closed out the day with fireworks! What a perfect ending to her special day.
Happy 3rd birthday, Avery!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday, Avery! {& 20 questions}

Avery, you are THREE years old today! You're an energetic, talkative, healthy little girl, and you bring so much fun into our house! We're so thankful that you're our daughter.

(Photos courtesy of Allison Jean Photo)

You are hilarious and keep us laughing all the time. Sometimes when we should be mad at you! Here are some recent "Averyisms":
  • "I don't like the way you sing, Mommy. Except when you sing at church."
  • When we were reading one of your Bible stories, you told me your version of Jonah: "The fish said, 'You don't taste very good' and spit him out."
  • One day when we were on a walk, you wanted to ride in front, but I couldn't carry Landon, push the stroller, and walk Meg, so after realizing that your situation was bleak you said, "You could if you were a monster. You would have five hands."
  • "I'm kind of a girl, but I don't have boobs. How old will I be when I have boobs?" (Oh my goodness!)  
  • "Excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!" Your new (polite?) way of interrupting adult conversation.
  • You love to play role-reversal where you're the mom and I'm the little girl. Apparently I always talk with my hands on my hips. You even have a special "mom voice." It's entertaining (and sometimes humbling!) to see how you mimic me! 
  • "Don't tell me what to do!" Oh, girl. We have some attitude to work on!

You wear mostly 4T clothes and a 9/10 shoe. You're 34 lbs (75%) and 38.75" tall (90 %).


You love to read, and you memorize books really quickly. You know your alphabet and you can count to 33 with help. Without help, you count to 13 before jumping all over the place.


You also LOVE to dance. You start as soon as you hear music. You especially love ballet (or your version of it anyway). You've been doing VBS motions to the songs non-stop for almost a month. You really like princesses and baby dolls. You're so girly! But you can hang with the boys, too. You love to run and play and get dirty outside.


You're VERY independent. One of your favorite phrases is, "I can do it all by myself!" This is usually said in protest when we're intruding on your territory. You like to test the limits and see what you can get away with.


You have such a sweet heart. You're extremely kind to others. Your Sunday School teachers always tell me how you try to make visitors feel welcome and that you are always a helper. I love that about you. You're also really concerned any time people are sad. You give the best hugs. :)


You're happiest when you wake up in the morning. You go to bed around 8pm and get up between 7 and 8. You still nap around 2pm, but you go through phases every now and then that getting you to sleep is a real struggle. You are SO much happier when you nap though, so it's a battle I'm willing to fight! I promise that when you get older, you will miss naps. Enjoy them while you can. :)


Time out is usually the most effective consequence for when you need one. You're pretty tough, so spankings don't really phase you, but you absolutely hate being away from the action, so when we send you to your room for time out, you are just devastated. As soon as we come talk to you and release you from your prison, you are ready to correct your behavior.  


You are an amazing big sister. You adore your little brother, and Landon thinks you're the greatest thing ever! We love watching you play together; you even included him with your friends at the water table at your birthday party. You're so sweet to him, and you tell him you love him almost every day.


You absolutely love your grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. You're so lucky to have so many people who love you! You're a little social butterfly who adores her friends. You talk about them all the time and every day one of your first questions is, "Where are we going today?"

We love seeing your imagination get even bigger as you get older. We're able to have thoughtful conversations with you, and we're looking forward to watching you grow into the precious girl that we know you'll be. Our prayer is that you love Jesus more than anything and that you truly understand what it means to serve Him.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Brand new!
One!
Two!
Three!

In Your Own Words...

{What makes you happy?} Playing with my toys
{What are you really good at?} Painting
{What is your favorite color?} Purple and pink
{What is your favorite toy?} Cars (um, okay. You don't really play with your cars, haha.)
{What is your favorite TV show?} Sesame Street
{What is your favorite thing to eat?} Macaroni
{What is your least favorite thing to eat?} Carrots

{What is your favorite drink?} Milk
{What is your favorite movie?} The Lion King

{What is your favorite game?} Don't Break the Ice
{What is your favorite animal?} Giraffes at the zoo
{What is your favorite song?} Jesus Loves Me
{What is your favorite book?} Curious George
{Who is your best friend?} Landon and Lily
{What is your favorite thing to do outside?} jump on the trampoline
{What is your favorite holiday?} Christmas
{What do you like to take to bed with you at night?} Froggy and biting toy (pink star baby teether; long story)
{What do you and Mommy do together?} play games
{What do you and Dad do together?} go to somebody's house
{Where is your favorite place to go?} to the store
{What do you want to be when you grow up?} a grown up and a ballerina

Monday, July 2, 2012

Bumblebee Party {on a budget}: Avery's 3rd Birthday

Back in February I asked Avery what kind of birthday party she wanted to have this year.

Her response? Bumblebees.

Um, okay.

I asked her again on multiple occasions because, really, what kid asks for a bumblebee party? She was adamant about the theme. That and the fact that she wanted "all of her friends to come."

Well we couldn't invite all of her friends (our house just isn't all that big!), but we did invite a lot of her friends, and her party turned out exactly how she wanted it.


We decided to have an outside party at home. Since we live in Texas where summers are basically unbearable, that outside party needed to be in the morning.

We started off with breakfast (pancakes on a stick without the stick, breakfast cupcakes, and fruit salad {strawberries, blueberries, and bananas}). The kiddos got juice boxes and adults had to make do with water or tea.

(taken before the table was completely set up, but you get the idea)



Then the kids just got to play. There was a bounce house, face painting, and a BEEn bag toss in addition to our regular backyard amenities (haha!), which include a water table, fort/swingset, slide, and new trampoline.













Avery got her pink bumblebee cake as requested! It was so incredibly delicious with Blue Bell vanilla bean ice cream. We may have devoured the whole thing in one day. Give us a break though, we shared with lots of people.





Avery was so sweet and asked all of her friends to help her open her presents. Y'all. I was SO proud of her because it got crazy. We're talking kids up in her face, grabbing at everything, massive chaos crazy. She was so patient though and even told each friend thank you for their gift after she opened it. And boy was that girl spoiled! In addition to all of the great toys from her friends, NeNe and Pop Pop got her a trampoline (happy birthday to all of us, haha!), and Grandma and Grandaddy gave her an adorable table with chairs (that my mom painted!) and art supplies to keep her stocked for awhile!


We are SO thankful to all of our friends and family who came to Avery's party and made her day so special. She had an absolute blast, and it meant the world to us that so many came to celebrate her!


And because this blog is basically Avery's baby book, here's her party guestbook: Mom, Dad, and Landon, Grandma and Grandaddy, NeNe and Pop Pop, Aunt Carrie, Aunt Allison and Isaac, Uncle Nick and Aunt Brittany, Amy, Jacob (Ricky and Candace), Carissa and Ryan (Amy and Jason), Lily (Clint and Iris), Anne (Shannon), Hailey (Beth), Robert (LaDonna), JoJo and Samantha (Karen), Luke and Zane (Luke and Meagan), Emma, Jacob (Amy).


We kept this party very budget friendly. I did all sorts of Pinterest searches to find bumblebee party ideas, but y'all. People go way too crazy with their party planning. So I decided to forget that nonsense and just go with the flow. Which is actually quite freeing, go figure. It's not like the kids care about that fancy schmancy stuff anyway. For those interested in the breakdown, here you go.


Bounce house: borrowed from sister-in-law
Bean bag toss: made by mother-in-law
Face painting: mother-in-law
Cake: The Cake Guys (my mom had a coupon for a free cake, so we just had to pay $10 for the decorating)
Favors: Pinterest-inspired DIY, Oriental Trading and Dollar Tree


Food: Aldi and Costco
Custom Birthday Plate: Etsy (gift from my mom)
Canopies, tables, and chairs: borrowed from church
Photography: Allison Jean Photo (my super talented sister. Any good pictures on this post are from her.)