Happy Birthday to Avery and America!

We have just had the best two days around here!

{Avery's Birthday Celebration}

We're having a small family party next weekend, but we wanted to do something fun for Avery's actual birthday. I love birthdays and really want to make them memorable and special for our kids.

Since her birthday fell on a Sunday this year, she got to wear a special birthday skirt to church (complete with cupcake bow!). She even got to sing "Beautiful One" into the microphone on stage during worship team practice. Everybody was wishing her a happy birthday all morning, and her little Sunday School class even sang to her. I don't think she minded the attention one bit.

We came home for a delicious lunch of sausage, diced sweet potatoes, and (A's favorite) green beans. We'll do a cake at her party, so her birthday treat was No Bake Oreo Bars. The girl loves dessert (um, that might be my fault). But she's allowed to love dessert because she also loves fruits and veggies. See, I'm not such a bad mom. :)

After stuffing her face with chewy Oreo goodness, Avery got to open her birthday present from us, a Leapfrog Tag Reading System with a Disney princess book. (We decided to go with the Tag instead of Tag Junior because you can still use the Junior books with the Tag, and since the Junior system is a little more limited, we thought we'd get more years of use out of a regular Tag system.) She LOVED it (like gasped when she pulled it out of the bag). Point for Mommy and Daddy!

We snuggled on her bed for awhile with her new book and then she got a great nap. Yippee! Good naps make late nights bearable.

Our good friends Kendra and Carlos joined us for the rest of the evening, which consisted of Cotton Patch, fountains, and our town's fireworks show.

If I had known she would actually play IN the fountain this time, I would've brought her swimsuit. Good thing I had extra clothes!

Every time a firework went off, Avery would yell, "They hit a home run!" Um, someone has been to too many Ranger games.

Lauren and Brian joined us for the fireworks!

{4th of July}

Our town had a 4th of July parade, so Allison got up "early" to meet us at the house to go with us, and Kendra and Carlos met us out there. Um, the "parade" lasted maybe five minutes and was completely lame. 

Oh well. So we went over to my parents' (who are still in Europe-- come back already!!) to eat pizza and swim next door. 

We headed home for Avery to nap (she fell asleep in the car like two minutes after we left-- we wore the girl out this weekend!), and then we got our stuff together for the Talleys' annual 4th of July celebration. 

We just love the Talleys (Kendra's parents), and every year they invite over whoever from the church wants to come and watch the Duncanville fireworks from their front yard. They fire up the grill, and everybody just eats and hangs out until the show starts at dark. Avery loved playing with her friend Lily (and all of her other favorite people), and Landon was definitely not lacking in snuggles! The fireworks were awesome, and it was a nice, low-key way to spend the evening.

After a couple of busy days and late nights, I'm looking forward to a "normal" day tomorrow. Goodnight, everybody! Hope your holiday weekend was as fantastic as ours. :)