Happy 3rd Birthday Avery!

Today is a special day.

Someone in our house turned 3 today!

It's a special day for her and of course a special day for me....her birthday, my birth day. Celebrating the day I became a Mom.  I remember it like it was yesterday-it's hard to believe 3 years have passed already. What's the saying..."days are long but years are short?" Something like that-but it's so true. It's been a wonderful ride though-challenging at times, but yet so rewarding at the same time. It's still weird for me to think of myself as a Mom...even weirder when her daycare buddies call me "Avery's Mom"!

Avery was born at 1:29am and I was actually awake to witness it this year...Cassandra woke me up at 1:20am to eat and as I was feeding her it dawned on me that it was the time Avery was born. So that was kind of cool.

All of us (Gabe, Cassandra, my Mom, and I) were up before Avery today. Her one request? Breakfast in bed. I have no idea how that got started...I know Gabe brought it up to her and for some reason it stuck that she was having breakfast in bed on her birthday. Girlfriend knows what's good!  When we heard her awake, I quickly got her breakfast put together and we all went upstairs. Before she could see us, I lit a candle and we all started to sing. She got a little shy about it (see the sleepy head?!):

But then got a big smile and had to show bear-bear!

Her breakfast was yogurt, strawberries, and cinnamon toast cut into Mickey Mouse faces.  She hopped into bed and breakfast was served.

Is she a queen or what?!

We were goofing around with Cassandra and said she was going to take a nap in Avery's dresser!

Cassandra went down for a nap and while she slept, Avery finished breakfast and opened her gifts. We got her all dressed and when Cassandra woke up, we all went to Sea Breeze for the day!  Gabe and I both took the day off to spend time with our girls and since it was nice out, we decided to hit up the amusement park.  Cassandra was ready to go!

Avery had.a.blast! She was a little taller than last year which got her to go on a few more rides. She missed another height cut off by less than half an inch...which was a bummer, but I guess she'll just go on them next summer (unless we go towards the end of the season and maybe she'll grow some more!).

Avery went on the train with my Mom:

And got her Dora popsicle (she wanted one last year and they were sold out of them...needless to say that's all she talks about when you mention Sea Breeze!)

Even little Cassandra went on her first ride-the carousel!

My Father-in-Law, Sister-in-Law and her kids all joined us as well so the kids had so much fun riding the rides together. Here are Avery and Bianca on the planes (one of the "new" rides for Avery this year):

And Avery and Bianca on the turtles:

Another new ride?! The swings!

We stayed for a late lunch/early dinner and our reason for leaving was to get Cassandra to bed. Before we left, we did a family ride on the carousel....

It was such a fun day! The weather was gorgeous and we all had so much fun!

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet Avery! You bring so much joy to our days and you'll always be our baby no matter how big/old you are!!