Birthday Girl, Part 2

Avery's birthday party was pretty low key this year. Just the grandparents and Aunt Nikki up for pizza, cake, and presents. There are a lot of pictures... You can see the joy on Avery's face in every single one. She was THRILLED to have all four of her grandparents in the same place at the same time (and Aunt Nikki too!). She just kept looking back and forth between all of them with a huge grin saying, "Nana! Grandma! Grandpa! Papa!", like it just seemed too good to be true that she was surrounded by all of her favorite people. She was of course spoiled with great gifts that she loves. All of the grandparents graciously contributed items to Avery's new "big girl" room... a cute owl theme. So of course we had to have an owl cake to match, made by Aunt Nikki the cake master. Along with bedroom decor, Avery also received some great toys... like the very loud music set complete with loud cymbals, loud clappers, a loud horn, and a loud drum (thanks for that Mom and Dad. Ahem. Just kidding, she loves it. The headaches are well worth it.) Nana and Papa got her a princess umbrella, something she coveted when cousin Cara received one from Santa at Christmas. She loves it! It was such a great day and a joy to celebrate our daughter with some of the people who love her the most.

opening presents. She got the hang of the cymbals right away and hasn't stopped since :)

cuddles with Grandma

kisses with Nana

showing off the cake with Papa

praying with Grandpa

hugs with Aunt Nikki

pure bliss!

Birthday Girl, Part 1

This is a much belated update, but important none the less! Our baby turned 2 years old on March 11th. It was a fun day! She started out the morning with a playdate at her little friend Joshua's house. Our friends Matt and Laura were so sweet to have a gift for Avery (a book that has become a beloved favorite in our house) and elmo cupcakes stacked high with red icing... the way straight to Avery's heart! Other than that, we just enjoyed a normal day at home. We had Avery's favorite food for dinner, kraft mac&cheese. After dinner Avery opened a couple of gifts from Erich and I. It was a fun day and I think Avery felt loved. The next day was her birthday party with Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Papa, and Aunt Nikki. That'll be part 2!

It's much easier to clean red frosting off of skin than clothes (although Laura assures me she took all the fun out of it and scraped most of the icing off before letting the kids dig in. Probably a good idea)

Yum!

A cute video of a cute girl. She's talking to Papa on her "phone" (calculator).

Opening gifts with Momma and Daddy. She got the Bambi dvd. She loves it. Someday when she's older she'll figure out it's sad.

Checking out her cool new shades.

A new princess backpack filled with lots of goodies.

Gymnastics

Once a week, Avery and I go to gymnastics with our friends Lindsey and Grace. I use the term "gymnastics" lightly because it's actually just an open gym time at our local YMCA gymnastics center. There is no formal instruction, they just open the place up for toddlers to run around with parental supervision and explore on all of the equipment. Avery has such a fun time running around with Grace. They love the trampoline, the big pit full of foam blocks for jumping in, the rings, the monkey bars, and rolling around in the "barrel". It's hard to capture any decent pictures because the girls are in constant motion. I apologize that most of these pictures are either blurry or of the back of Avery's head.