Lily's birthday

BFF Lily's birthday is 2 weeks after Avery's.  She is really into pirates!  Avery can sing the whole theme song to the cartoon "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" because Lily taught her.  Avery doesn't watch the show at all, but they "play pirates" at school on the playground.  They also play Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty so it sounds like a fair deal.  I have no idea what "playing" any of these means, but I guess they have fun.

Lily often comes to school with her pirate gear on as you can see from the photo collage.  Her cake was made by the same lady that did Avery's mermaid cake.  This cake, however is vegan.  Avery and I both had a piece - it was pretty good!

 

To be only 2 weeks apart in age, Lily is much taller than Avery.  You can see in the other photos that Lily and Hunter are both tall (Hunter is 3 months older), but I think Avery is line with other classmates.

The gang had a fun time making pirate hats, treasure bracelets, and treasure maps.

 

Birthday Party!!!

This past weekend we had a party for our little Boogie Bear as she turned 4.  The day was quite the adventure, but I think she had a blast.

She looks so old in this picture.  No longer our little baby.

 Avery and her buddy Easton!

 We rented a bouncy house for the kids to play on since Avery loved it so much last year.  Here she is waiting with Lily and Jayde for it to be blown up so they could go nuts.

Avery and her BFF.

I think the girls had fun jumping.

 Anna got in on the jumping too!

 Then it was time for cake.  The entire party was Little Mermaid themed after our well documented obsession recently with that movie.  Don't go buying Christmas presents quite yet, because who knows what it will be in 2 weeks.

 I think Avery was pretty excited for her friends and family to be paying her so much attention.

 Blowing out 4 candles.

When it was time to go, she gave her friends sad little hugs.

Swim Update

Lessons are much happier these days.  Everyone said she would start to enjoy it after the first few times and that has held true for us.  We moved to Thursday night to get an earlier time because 7 was just too close to bedtime.  She is excited about going and loves to see her Mommy and especially Daddy watching from behind the glass wall.  Now she has 2 boys in her class that just started and they are going through the same pains that Avery did in the beginning.

Notice one of the boys attached to the coach's back while Avery gets her floating skills on.

I'm sure Avery is about to go under water here and she's ok with it!

Here she is coming up with the ring from the coach's foot.

When class is over, they walk over to the shower area for a quick rinse off.  I assume the coach tells them to follow the white line around the pool because Avery makes sure every step she takes is exactly on the line.  Our little rule follower is so cute! (Now why doesn't she follow my rules like that?)

Happy 4th Birthday!!

Happy 4th Birthday to my little Boogie Bear!!  It seems like yesterday that we brought the happiest baby ever home from the hospital.  You share your happiness with everyone you meet and a day doesn't go by that you don't have us laughing.  Happy Birthday Avery!

Anna Turns 2

This past weekend, we went to Anna's house for her 2nd Birthday party.  While it was lo-key for the adults, it was full blast for the kiddos. 

As soon as Avery walked in, the girls were in full play mode.

 There were balloons everywhere and the kids (plus adults) had a lot of fun playing with them.

 Anna has a great sandbox that they played in.

 They did a pretty good job of taking turns on the slide.

 As soon as there were books opened as presents, Sara had to drop everything and read to the girls.

Anna blowing out her candle!

And cake was had.  Avery mostly just licks the frosting off of hers, but we had to have a whole cupcake.

Anna also got a pop up princess tent that was setup in the living room.  Anna kept dragging grownups into the tent with her to play until we filled it up with balloons.  Then she had a blast in there.

That hair...

Avery had some fun as well.

Spaghetti's Shower

Actually, Avery has recently changed her brother's name to Baby Bear (instead of Spaghetti Meatball).  And if you are wondering, we don't have an alternate name selected yet.

My lovely sister did a great job hosting a shower at our home last weekend.  Most of the special ladies in my life were able to come over and celebrate baby boy Marshall with good food and good laughs.  A big thanks to everyone who helped make the day special!  I wasn't on the ball with the photo opportunities, but Stephanie did snap a few for me.

Some of the goodies were cupcakes by Sara, chocolate candies by Stephanie, and spaghetti with baby meatballs by Aunt Lisa.

My ballerina princess and cute niece Anna helped me open some gifts. 

Lily gave Avery a book about being a big sister.  Anna listened too because she knows her day is coming (not any time soon that I know of, I'm not starting rumors here).

The girls played well together and were quite entertaining toward the end.  Too bad I didn't get a photo of Anna riding the bouncy ball and wearing the purple cowboy hat.

My Grammie and Great Aunt Arlene.  By the way, Grammie won the game for thinking the most like me.  She was not surprised because as she said, I've been her oldest grandchild for almost 35 years now :)

Look it's my "twin" sister, Sabrina and my hub's sister (but she likes me better).  Both of these ladies are truly my sisters!  

Sidenote:  Now Mr. Wuf is helping us pick out names - notice his study nook beside Sara as set up by Avery.

I am very grateful for the support from all my family and friends and I know this baby is loved so much already!