Four!

Today celebrates the day that I first became a Mama.... my big girl's birthday!

Another year has gone by and it's hard to believe she is four years old.  I keep hearing/thinking "one more year until school!" How is that possible?

We started a tradition for our kids' birthdays...Gabe and I both take the day off and we do something special with them. Avery is old enough now that we let her choose what she wants to do. We've been asking her for weeks what special thing she wanted to do. Her answer? The Buffalo zoo!  Unfortunately the forecast on her birthday wasn't looking too good so we prepped her just in case.

We got up this morning and all got ready to hit the road. It was overcast, but not raining so we headed to the zoo. My friend Megan and her kids met us there, which was really nice! We got there around 12:30 or so and made a beeline to see the baby polar bears they have.  On our way we saw the zebras:

Then we saw the two baby bears. They're not all that small anymore though! But they sure were playful! One was playing with this ball hanging from a tree:

and the other was swimming:

The meerkats were all huddled together and looked so cute!

and we went through a rainforest and there were these really tiny monkeys curled up together. There's actually 2 of them in this photo curled into one big ball!

We went to the reptile building and as we were there, it started pouring! We hung out in there for probably a good half hour waiting to see if it would stop (and it didn't). While there, I took some pics of the kids:

Noah and Leigha

A sweaty Cassandra

And trying to get pics of two 4yr olds isn't the easiest task.....

Avery's silly face

Avery looking away

Noah's silly face

Avery was dying to see the giraffes since our zoo doesn't have any. Of course we were at the opposite end of the zoo and it was still pouring out. We decided to high tail it to the giraffe building and check them out since it was on our way to the exit of the zoo. And it was nice that they were inside because we were pretty close to them and we were the only ones in the building!

After the zoo we went to my Mom's house for a visit. Avery got to open a few gifts from her and my Aunt.

And Nama got some time with her girls!

Mini Me!

We went out for dinner with my Mom and had a nice meal, complete with birthday cake! I have a few pics on my phone, but none on my camera.  Then we drove home and all went to bed! 

Since it was a busy day, we didn't get to give Avery her presents. So when she woke up the next day, she got to open them!

She yelled "OH MY GOSH" at every gift!

Cass liked the bubbles

Hmmmm...what could it be?!

A new bike!!!

Some things you are into these days....care bears, Barbies, princesses, and you love reading books. You're not a fan of the outdoors at all! You still love your fruit...you could eat it all day long. You're not a very adventurous eater, but you're very good at trying things. You love soup, Ramen noodles, yogurt, PBJ, and are obsessed with "treats". You are great at counting and know all of your numbers and letters. You're writing your name very well now too! You are a great big sister, although at times you're not the best at sharing things (which is to be expected). You are a Daddy's girl for sure but you have your Mommy moments too! The 4 year attitude makes its appearance here and there-some days you are like Jekyl and Hyde! We love every challenging minute of it (well, maybe not every minute).

Happy 4th Birthday, Avery! You are such a special girl and you light up our lives every day! We are so proud to be your parents!