Sunday, April 15, 2012

Birthday Party!

Yesterday we celebrated Ava's 3rd birthday with family including Grandma and Bo, Meme and Grandpap Bob, Jason and Tiffany, Nana and Aunt Pam.  Thank you so much for coming, it really means so much to us to share these little birthday parties with everyone we love.  So for her third birthday, our girl requested a cookie cake with extra gluten and martha chicken.  After some probing we believe that martha chicken is chicken wings, so we just went with that.  Here are some pictures.







I asked Ava what is her favorite birthday present, she answered that it was the kitty bag.  Haha, funny girl!


Time to reveal.....


her new bike!


I also asked Ava her favorite part about her birthday party, she told me it was everyone singing happy birthday to her.


We had such an amazing day, again thanks for everything family!
   

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Three

Avery, today you are three years old.

Three wonderful, exciting years.



My girl is spunky, sweet and independent.

A girly girl for sure.  Your daily attire MUST include a dress and preferably some accessory such as a hair bow or necklace.  You insist upon long hair and the color pink in your wardrobe.

But you still love digging in the dirt, talking about fishing and playing soccer with your brother.


Sticks, one of the best toys of all time.  

For this girl, it must be a princess wand.

Some of your favorite things to play right now: house, baby dolls, hunting with your brother and coloring.  Your favorite characters are the princesses and lately Dora the Explorer has been added to the list.  It is so funny to hear you running around the house singing "D D D D D Dora D D D D D Dora."   


Your biggest achievements recently?  Well, we had a bumpy ride potty training during the move, but things have been going better lately.  Although you still get distracted and have accidents frequently.  We are working hard on the alphabet and you have mastered most of it.  There is still some confusion between R/P I/L and J.  Colors, shapes, counting to fourteen are also some of your accomplishments.  You are becoming more and more proficient at dressing yourself and putting on your shoes every day.  Although you would still prefer for us to do it for you.  You can draw a circle and a sloppy letter A.  Your cutting skills are definitely improving and we are working on cutting a curved line and cutting out shapes.  Music is still a great interest to you.  You regularly ask me to sing the "Cinderella" song, Days of the week song or Dora theme song.  I'm so excited to see you grow, learn and choose your areas of interest.  

You recently completed your second swimming class, and you are doing great!    Blowing bubbles, reaching and pulling and kicking your little legs are some of the swimming skills you have learned.  We are going to have to work really hard this summer at our community pool.    


Coming up on the horizon?  You are going to be starting a soccer class at the YMCA, learning how to ride your new bike and ballet class.  Ava, I cannot tell you how excited I am to see you in ballet class!

Ava, I love how you mother your baby brother.  It is so sweet to see this little walking hug that you two do together.  It's hard to explain, but you both just hug and go for a little walk together.  Your brother is an active fellow, so it's probably the only way you can get some baby snuggles.  Recently you asked to change his diaper for the first time.  I was happy to oblige, with much supervision of course.  I also love the relationship you are developing with your older brother.  Never forget that he was your first friend.  Of course there are typical sibling squabbles, but the majority of the time you two are glued at the hip.


I love watching the brown flash of long dark hair as you zoom around the house, just like in this picture.  I love reading princess books with you and having a little girl to go shopping with.  I love you, my three year old daughter.  To the moon and back.


Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Parenting 101

Oh, that little Avaroo.  When she was a tiny baby she was the BEST sleeper.  She fell asleep by herself and slept through the night at a very young age, think around 6-8 weeks.  But now as we are approaching her THIRD birthday, she is quickly becoming the worst.  I am typically up with her at least once a night about 3 nights a week.  She starts crying because her hands are cold, her knees are too bendy and my personal favorite, there is water in the rain.  REALLY?  I just got out of bed at 3 am so you could tell me there is water in the rain?  Anyways, she is also having difficulties going to bed.  She is crying multiple times yelling about spiders, her cold hands and bendy knees and asking for water and bathroom breaks.  By the tenth time of her calling us up tonight, Mike finally laid down the law.  HIS version of the law, which goes a little something like this "Ava, if you don't go to sleep I'm going to pass gas all over your pink blanket."  Shockingly enough, this actually worked.  Mike was very pleased with himself and just told me that it was "parenting 101."  Apparently I missed that lesson, but let's hope this phase in her little life is resolved soon!  

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Cabin

We enjoyed our time at the Easter Cabin with much of Mike's extended family that we see rarely including:  Grandma and Grandpa Applebee, Uncle Randy and Aunt Kathy including their three girls Lindsay, Kelsey and Jessica and Uncle Scott and Aunt Lisa and their two girls Emma and Meg.  Carter and Ava really enjoyed all the attention from their cousins, all of whom are teenagers. 

We had a great time hiking, eating hot dogs on the fire, walking over and over and over the covered bridge next to our cabin, playing at the playground and the foosball table.


Ava was a little grouchy on our hike, so I spent quite a bit of time carrying her.  Poor girl got a cut on her cheek this weekend.


Bo helping Carter over the stream.


Hiking Boys



There was also an easter egg hunt by a local restaurant.  The kids enjoyed this, and had a little help from their cousin too!




Once Dockie realized that there was candy in the eggs all he wanted to do was sit down and eat! He plopped his little bottom on the ground and planted it there until he got the candy!



Egg Eyes/Bug Eyes

A fun weekend, although it is stressful to pack up three little kids, drive five hours and stay at a very unchild-proofed cabin for two days.  But we had so much help, and it was wonderful seeing all of our extended family. 




Easter Baskets

This year we spent Easter with extended family at a cabin near Little Pine Creek State Park in Pennsylvania.  Due to this we asked the Easter Bunny to come a little early to our house.  He obliged!  Here are some pictures of the kids with their baskets.  







The kids were so happy,  I think the biggest hits were Carter's chocolate bunny, Ava's princess crown and wand, and Dawson's Sesame street music player.  

Funny story, as the easter bunny was going to hide Carter's basket, there was a disagreement on a good location to hide it.  His wife said "don't put it there, that's the first place he'll look."  Sure enough, the first place Carter looked was in that location!  Next year the bunny's wife is going to take over hiding duties! 

By the way, I'm sure I've mentioned to you all that we have been slowly testing Ava's tolerance of eggs.  We have been feeding her small amounts of eggs, mainly in baked goods.  We'll after dyeing easter eggs she asked multiple times to eat one.  Finally I decided to start slowly, and sure enough she did great.  She ate an entire hardboiled egg on thursday and again today.   Hooray!  We believed that she would most likely outgrow this allergy and I'm so happy that she finally did.  


Thursday, April 5, 2012

Mr. Technology

Some children take their dolls for a walk.

Other children prefer to take their trucks.

Not Mr.  Technology.



He lovingly walks the clicker around the house.






Wednesday, April 4, 2012