Catching Up

Since I was gone for 10~11 days, me and my favorite person needed to spend some extra time together having fun so this past weekend we did a lot of our favorite things.  On Friday, we walked (I carried) up to the Ardrey Kell football game to watch the football, band, and cheerleaders.

The weather was pretty good for a late October game.

 Avery was pretty happy about the entire thing.  Her favorite part was the bands at halftime.  The visiting team brought their band and they did a lot of dancing which when the AK band came out, Avery asked why they weren't dancing.

 On Saturday, we decided to go to a local carnival; which will take an entire post to describe the awesomeness that Avery had.

On Sunday, we went to Avery's (and mine) favorite restaurant, Vietnam Grille.  We have been there many many times and usually about once a month when it is not football season for a weekend lunch.  We have been going there before Avery was born and many many times since she was born to the point that the staff and owner are excited to see her.

 Each time we are there, the owner sends out something different for Avery to try, because all Avery asks for is rice noodles.  This time he sent some grilled chicken and after some begging, she tried it and was so proud to tell the owner that she tried it and it was really good.  I wonder if he does baby sitting...

Park Date

We just missed Lily and her family at the Boo Bash on Saturday so we decided to set up a play date on Sunday afternoon instead.  Avery was so excited, the first thing she asked me on Sunday was where was Lily??  I told her we were meeting at the park after nap, but I guess that was a mistake because Avery never took a nap.... too excited.
Of course on the short car ride to the park Avery almost fell asleep, but she powered though it when she saw Lily.

With the nice weather, there were lots of kids there.  Luckily ours had on bright colors so we could follow them from slide to swing to bridge to slide to ladder to etc :)
Avery is definitely the runt of the group.  Lily's big sister was there too so she helped Avery keep up and waited for her to slowly, carefully cross the obstacle at hand.  Lily did not need any help - she zoomed around that playground and was always like "Avery come this way!"

I managed to snap a few pics of them sitting still for a moment.  I think it's funny that Avery is wearing her necklace and bracelet, while Lily is sporting her pirate head band (and you can see in the picture below the "pirate belt" she is wearing that is actually from a bath robe).  These girls really compliment each other.

As usual, our play dates turn into play dinners.  With Robert out of town, I had no one to cook dinner for me so Brixx pizza and Coldstone ice cream really hit the spot!  Lily's mom and I are going to have to draw straws on who hosts the first sleepover because I don't see much sleep going on with these two nuts.

Boo Bash

As some of you may know, Robert got selected for a business leadership training course taught at the University of Michigan.  He was gone for 10 days!  So Avery and I had some quality mommy-daughter time, including a whole weekend at home (which is unusual for us).  It was nice to snuggle in the mornings and watch Sheriff Callie in bed, but we definitely needed to get outside and enjoy the weather.
The shopping center just down the road (where our fav store, Target is) had a "Boo Bash" last Saturday.  It was totally free and lots of fun.  There was a bouncy house, slide, pumpkin decorating, train ride, some other swing ride (I am not a fan of spinning rides by the way), sand art, nail painting, and lots of kids running around.

I only convinced her to leave because it was lunch time and said we could go to the grilled cheese place (McAlister's Deli).  Only thing that could have made the day better would be to have Daddy there.  He got lots of text pictures though :)

Field Trip

You may recall, Avery is a Dogwood now and that means her class goes on field trips throughout the year.  They had the first one 2 weeks ago.  They loaded up the bus (very exciting - I think they could have just drove around the parking lot and the kids would have been thrilled) and headed to the pumpkin patch.

Everyone brought in a t-shirt and the class tie-dyed them the week before.  Easier for the teachers to do a head count I guess.

The rest of the pictures were taken by the teachers and posted in the hallway at school.  I "made copies" with my cell phone so excuse the quality.  Still very cute!  There was a corn maze, wagon ride, fire truck slide, strawberry slushy time, and of course they took home a pumpkin.  Avery rode on the bus beside Jackson, she said he was silly.

Announcement!!

In case you haven't already heard... here's the official announcement:
Avery is going to be a BIG SISTER!

"Baby Rapunzel" is due to arrive on April 17, 2015.  Avery has already assured us it will be a girl and her name is Rapunzel (which is better than her first option of "Spaghetti").  She is excited and asks me every day if she can say hello to the baby and gives my belly a kiss.  She has told her teachers at school and some of the other parents "there's a baby in my mommy's tummy" and they tell me she's expecting a sister so the pressure is on.

This shot was from my 12 week ultrasound and I'd say Baby R looks pretty comfy in there.  So far, so good.  Robert is taking good care of us and I'm trying to remember how to take care of a newborn... It feels like yesterday and yet so long ago at the same time.  I know Avery will be a big help and I will need it!

Name That Tune

Avery gets at least 15 minutes every day (at school, not at home, just to clarify) of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.  She has been singing around the house a lot recently and it's nothing I remember from my preschool days.  It's called "Liang Zhi Lao Hu" which translates to "Two Tigers", apparently a common Mandarin nursery rhyme.  She sings it the same way every time so it's seem right to me! 

English Translation:  
Two tigers, Two tigers, 
Run so fast, Run so fast, (Avery acts out this line)
One has no eyes, One has no tail, 
So strange, So strange 

(to the tune of Frere Jacques)

It makes about as much sense as the traditional English nursery rhymes....

Back to the Farm

We haven't spent any football weekends at the farm yet, Mimi and Papa have been on the go!  However, Avery did get to go for 2 days last week.  I had a last minute class for work in Cary (less than 1 hour away from Vass) so I took Avery with me and dropped her off with Mimi and Papa.

She did her usual activities of running around, jumping on the trampoline and spending time with Bucky.  This time she also helped picked out a pumpkin for Mimi, Papa, and herself.  Mom texted me a few pictures while I was in class learning about household cleaning wipes.

Pumpkin Patch

When we got back from Clemson, we took Avery to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin for some project Laura is working on.  It was good to get out of the house after that terrible football game, but I digress.

Avery picking out a perfect pumpkin for her.

 Me and my boogie bear.  I think my pumpkin is a bit undersized.

 Still searching for that perfect pumpkin for Daddy.

 A big cheese for the camera.

 Full of smiles.

 She is starting to look a lot older in these pictures.

Clemson

A couple weeks ago we went to go see a football game (surprise!) with the Giorgi's.  A good time was had by all, but few pictures were taken.

Laura is short.

Avery had a lot of fun playing with Easton's toys.  All of them.  At the same time.

But nothing is better than 2 monkey's jumping on the bed!!

 This is an unrelated picture to the Clemson trip but a great smile from my little boogie bear.

Other than football....

Sometimes it's hard to imagine, but we do have a life outside of NC State football.  If Avery is not cheering with us at the games, she is having some fun with her grandparents.  One weekend, Gigi and Ru had both girls for a little while.  Avery and Anna helped Gigi make a delicious lunch!

 Little hands make great stuffing mixers

 Anna even let Uncle Rob hold her for a few seconds :)

We also broke in the fire pit at home with some damp wood, tiki torch oil, and sparklers.  Oh and of course s'mores!