Selfie Game

Avery has figured how to get to the camera on both the Ipad and on Laura's phone.  That in itself is not too crazy, but she knows how to turn the camera around and take selfies of herself.

She seems pretty happy with herself.

A selfie with Pink in the makeup aisle.

Taking a good picture of mommy.

 Catching Laura looking at cleaning products.

 She got me on the couch with the Ipad while Laura was in Colorado.

Birthday Party Part 2

So Avery's day of birthday parties last weekend (or two weekends ago) concluded with a birthday party for her friend Hunter from school.  The place was down the street from the house, so I dropped Laura and Avery off so that I could work out.  Upon picking them up, I think I missed a lot of fun.

Avery and her BFF Lilly playing one of the arcade games.

 Lily, Avery, and Jackson taking a ride in a car arcade game.

 Avery, Lily, and Hunter.  They are a 3 headed monster at school.

 This picture is just funny.

 Avery playing one of the arcade games.

Laura did not teach her how to play this game.

Birthday Party 1

Last weekend we got to go to 2 toddler birthday parties.  One in Greenville for Easton and one down the street for once of Avery's schoolmates.  More on the second one later.

First up was the tall slide.

I think she had fun.  She must have done it 15 times.

 In one of the rooms they had a mini basketball court.  I couldn't turn down the opportunity to teach Avery how to dunk.

 We tried to get Easton and Avery to take a picture with each other, but Easton kept on tackling Avery and tickling her.

 They even helped each other inside one of the obstacle courses.  Avery would push Easton over the obstacle.

 And Easton would try to pull Avery up on the other side.

 Eating pizza and cake.

Anna Banana

A few pictures from Avery hanging out with her favorite cousin during and after the gender reveal party.

They were both laughing at the top of their lungs.

 Laughs and smiles sharing a rocking chair.

 I wonder who is copying who...

 The morning after the party they had a lot of fun with the balloons left over from the party.

 Anna also came with us to the Thanksgiving parade in downtown.

 Anna and her family.

We are Thankful

This past Friday at school, Avery and her class got a chance to help some children who don't get a big Thanksgiving meal.  A team from Servants With a Heart came to the school and let the children help pack bags of food.  They made meals from rice and dehydrated vegetables that when boiled, will provide six servings of food to a family.

Luckily, they were doing this when I went to pick Avery up, so I got some quick pics with my phone.  Everyone in the room (including me) had to wear a hairnet.  Avery's job was to weigh the bags and add a bit more or remove a bit to get it on target.  Then she handed the bag to Lily to be sealed up.

It was nice for them to learn about and get a real chance to help other children around the world.  It's never too early to learn about giving back and realize how lucky we are this Thanksgiving.

Dirt or Daisies?

This past weekend we had some family and a couple friends to help us find out if we were going to have a sister or brother for Avery.  When we had Avery, we found out at the doctor's office and it was a bit impersonal; so for this baby we wanted to share the moment with our family and not find out in a dark ultrasound room.  The way we were going to reveal the sex of the baby was to cut into a cake that was dyed pink or blue based on the results of the ultrasound.  We didn't know what was inside because we had the nurse write in an envelope and Laura took it directly to the baker without peeking.  

Sara made us this poster of old wive's tales and what they predicted we would have that was split down the middle.  Based on voting from the audience, there was about a 60/40 split toward boy.  Avery was hoping for an older sister, so she was only going to be half right at best.  

To say that Laura was a bit nervous would be an understatement.  Avery was pretty excited as well, but maybe just that we were having cake.

Laura's reaction is pretty awesome.  I think it is pretty clear that Laura didn't know what she was having.

I love how excited Laura is and how curious Avery was at what it would be.

ITS A BOY!!!!

Air Show

This post is completely out of order, but I found pictures on the camera from where we took Avery to the Monroe airshow.  We had done this the last couple of years, because she loves watching the airplanes and you get to be pretty near them.

There is a lady on top of this plane.  In the air.  

Pretending to be an airplane.

 Little girl, big airplane.

 Pretending to be an airplane under the big airplane.

More Bucky

Since we did the last football weekend from Vass, Avery got to spend some time with her other best friend, Bucky!!!

She loves cleaning and taking care of Bucky probably more than riding him.

 After Mimi puts on the saddle it is time to hop on from the mounting block.

 A happy girl and her horse.

 Big smiles.

 A happy toddler.

Google put together this panoramic picture from a sequence of shots and edited Mimi out of them so it looks like Avery is riding the horse by her self.

More Football!!! GO WOLFPACK!!!

We may have missed a weekend blog from last week, but I think this one will make up for the absence.  We took some friends to the game last week and told Avery that she could come to the football game this week.  The temps were going to be pretty low and the tailgating was going to interrupt nap time, but we thought her love for NC State football would overcome the obstacles and would have felt bad if we denied her her favorite thing in the world.  

We got her bundled up before the game including this awesome 80's hat from Mimi and Papa.  On the way up to the game we stopped twice; once to get ice and once to get some caffeine.  When I stopped the second time she told Laura, "If we keep stopping, we will never make it to the game!"  When I got back in the car, she said "Daddy, no more stops until we get to the football game!!"

The favorite part of tailgating for Avery is meeting Mr. and Mrs. Wuf and watching the band play before the game.

Giving Mrs. Wuf a hug.  She didn't really want to hug Mr. Wuf.

She struggled to do the wolf sign with her mittens on, but tried her best.

Waiting on the band to start playing.  She kept on asking, "Why are they playing" and "Why won't they play the NC State song?"  At one point she yelled out "GO WOLFPACK!!" and pretty much all of the girl members of the band in unison went "awwww."

Once the band got going, there was a very happy toddler taking it all in.  She said she would play the drums when she was in the band, but preferred to be a cheerleader.

 On daddy's shoulders going in to the game.  As we were walking to the game, she was pulling on Laura's hand and trying to run to the stadium.  I stopped at a porta-jon and Avery was willing to leave me there.  I told her I had the tickets, and she said "DADDY!!! Give us (her and Laura) our tickets, it's time to go to the game!"

At halftime after the band played, she convinced Mommy to take her to the second level so she could see better.  When Laura told her they weren't our seats, she told Laura to go find Daddy to get us some new tickets.

Her good buddy Daniel was there to make her laugh.  She was the life of the section, cheering and clapping the entire game.  The cold didn't bother her much.

In the second half she took off her over coat, because she was hot and wanted to make sure everyone could see her wolf on her jacket.