First Day

It's hard to believe that summer vacation is over. Seriously, where did it go?!  I feel like Avery was just getting off of the bus to start her summer, and here she is going back to school already.

I will say, we had a pretty good summer. Avery made a summer list of things that she wanted to do and I think we did all but 4 of them (out of about 25!). We were busy all of the time-we barely had any free days in our schedule, hence the lack of posts from me lately. Having her home ate up my "me" time while Cassandra napped so my time was spent with my big girl.

Tuesday I took a half day at work and took Avery to school to meet her teacher and drop off her supplies. Then I took her out for ice cream-just the two of us. When we came home, I took a pic of her in her shirt that will fit her someday!

2027 seems like a long ways away. Yet if someone mentions 2003 does it seem that long ago? Funny how 12 years in the future sounds so far away, but 12 years in the past seems like it was yesterday. The mind does funny things like that. I hope the time doesn't go too fast...I know we can't slow it down but I wish we could! I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that it's September already and it's time to think of school! I wish the years took their time like they did when we were kids. I know Avery felt like her summer break was long....for us, it was a blink of an eye. 

Yesterday we got our girl on the bus for 1st grade. First.grade. Hold me.  She was so ready too-even though she doesn't know many kids in her class. She's ready.

I'm so proud of this girl and how well she adapts to going back-no tears, no whining-just pure joy. Love her!

Turning 6-Party #2!

Over the weekend, we had Avery's  second party for our family and close friends.

Avery and I ready to party!

We had a not-so-nice day for her party. It was freezing all weekend-like low to mid 60s. We had planned to set up the bounce house like usual, but unfortunately that was out of the question. It was strange having people over in long sleeves and pants at the end of June (hello summer? Where are you?). But...we managed. Everyone arrived and we had snacks and a nice cookout.

Then we tried to get a group photo of all of the kids, which didn't work out all that well...

Avery opened up her nice gifts...

keychain

bathing suit #1

bathing suit #2

After presents it was time for cake!

She wanted another cat themed party so I scoured the internet for some cat cake ideas. This is what I came up with! I will say that I cursed at it many times in the making, but I think it turned out ok! She loved it and that's all that matters!

Happy Birthday, Avery!

Make a wish!

Despite the bad weather, we all had a great time! Party #2 was a success!

SIX!

Someone celebrated a birthday over the weekend in our house.

Avery turned 6! I can't believe I have a 6 year old! Mind.blown.

What's my 6 year old like?  She's fun, energetic (I wish I had a fraction of her energy), independent, sassy and loving (most of the time).

She's still in gymnastics, although taking a break for the summer. She loves school (yay!) and was sad to see it end last week. She loves coloring and drawing. She loves having us read to her too. And since she's learning to read, she does well finding words in the books too. This year she has really enjoyed riding her bike a lot. She also got some roller skates for her birthday and can't wait to test them out. Favorite foods these days include waffles, pancakes, any and all fruit, spaghetti, chicken, yogurt. She's been more "daring" with trying new foods lately which is good. Her and Cassie get along pretty well for the most part. We of course have our days and moments, but they really do love each other and play together quite a bit.

So how did we celebrate turning 6 (besides some parties?)?

Well, the day started with breakfast in bed because that's what the birthday girl requested.

They both ended up having breakfast in the spare room bed so they could watch a TV show (special birthday treat).

Then she opened some gifts from us....some clothes,

and a plasma car!

At her friend party last weekend, she had kids bring in donations for the animals at a local shelter. So, we decided to go and drop them off. The staff took her picture to put on their website and of course we checked out all of the animals while we were there.

After that, we stopped at our favorite local diner for lunch. Except that we all ordered breakfast food-including the usual huge birthday pancake!

The rest of the day we just hung around and played. The weather was terrible-it rained literally all day long. Her family party was the next day, so we spent a lot of time getting the cake ready and cleaning the house too. Our dinner that night was going to a frozen yogurt place since we had such a late (and huge!) lunch. Overall, it was a great day!

Happy 6th Birthday Avery! We love you so much!!

Turning 6-Party #1!

Avery's 6th Birthday is next weekend. She wanted a party with some of her classmates so we gave her a few options of where to have it.

Surprisingly, she chose a pool party at a local Rec center. We had never been there, but the place was pretty darn cool!

Lazy River

As you can see from the photos, there was a splash park, water slide and lazy river area. There was a larger pool as well (looked like for lap swimming) but we never went in it.

Avery ended up with 9 kids coming, which was the perfect amount! About half of the parents stayed too, which was helpful.

Avery and Cassie

We had the first hour as swim time and the kids really loved it.

Then it was up to the party room for food, cake and gifts. We did the party at an "off" time of day so all we did was snacks, which made it super easy!

Avery We decided this year that instead of gifts, we would have each kid bring a donation to a local animal shelter instead. She really doesn't need anymore toys and since she wanted a cat themed party, I thought this was a good idea. We had a lot of good feedback on it as well-the kids loved shopping for the animals!

After she opened gifts, we did cake!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Make a wish!

Before they all left, we got a quick group photo!

And I found a woman locally who makes amazing cookies! She made us these for favors to give each kid! So freakin' adorable!

After we got home, I took a picture of Avery with all of the donations she collected! We'll be taking them to the animal shelter very soon! I'm so proud of her!

One party down, one to go next weekend!

Tooth Fairy

We've had some excitement around here!

My big girl lost her first tooth!

On Monday, 4/13, Avery came home from school all excited that she had a wiggly tooth. I was in her classroom that morning and she never said anything about it. I guess in the afternoon, she was eating her apple for her snack and her tooth was hurting her. Sure enough, I tried moving it and it was a little loose!

Over the past 10 days, she spent time wiggling it here and there and trying to gross me out-I HATE loose teeth. We were anxious to see how long it would take it to come out.

 Thursday I was getting dinner ready. We were having cheeseburgers. The kids always have theirs cut up. Well for some reason, both of them wanted it on a roll! I thought it was strange especially for Avery because she's been avoiding biting into anything with her wiggly tooth. But, I asked several times, and each time they said they wanted it on a roll.

Avery starts eating it and says how great it is and is really chowing down. All of a sudden she screams and it bleeding in her mouth. I think the sight/taste of the blood scared her more than anything. Once we got her calmed down, we realized the tooth was quite loose at this point (and I stepped away from the table because I was so grossed out). Gabe cut up her cheeseburger and she slowly ate another piece.  Then she just sat there and finally said, "Daddy, pull it out."

I was on the other side of the room but just heard Gabe say, "Does this hurt? How about this? Ok, spit it out."  Apparently he had a hard time grabbing the tooth so he just bent it back and forth as hard as he could (EEK!) and out it came. It bled quite a bit but once it stopped, she was quite excited that the Tooth Fairy would be coming that night!

And her gap is huge! Someone asked if 2 teeth came out-nope!

After dinner, she wrote her letter to the Tooth Fairy-with no help from us!

Let me translate:
"Dear Tooth Fairy, I just lost my first tooth and Daddy pulled it out. Thank you Tooth Fairy! I love you Tooth Fairy! Avery"

Her tooth went into her special pillow we bought her for Christmas and went next to her head at bedtime. She woke up yesterday with a $5 bill and a chocolate gold coin!

One down.....way too many to go ;)

Proud

We're both so proud of our big girl!

Avery's been rocking at kindergarten. She loves going to school and has really gotten into the routine of everything about it. She loves reading, loves doing homework, loves being with friends. So far, it's been a really great year for her.

And she got her first award the other day!

They had a program called "Reading Rockstars" and the kids had to set a daily and weekly reading goal that lasted about 6 weeks long. If the kid met their goal, they got an award. And Avery met her goal!

So the other night, I went with her to her award ceremony! I was very proud to hear them call her name and see her walk across the stage! My big girl's first school achievement!

First Day of Kindergarten!

It was the day we were waiting for....the first day of Kindergarten!

I was a little nervous as to how it would go. For the past 10 days or so, Avery was having a meltdown at bedtime about not wanting to go to school. I think part of the reason was that we hadn't been to the school or met the teacher until Wednesday of this week (with school starting Thursday). So here we were counting down the days and getting excited, and she had no idea what she was excited for. 

Wednesday I left work early to do the teacher meet and greet and to drop off her supplies. It went really well-her teacher had a scavenger hunt set up around the classroom and an activity for them to do. After we finished, I took her around the building to show her the gym, cafeteria, library, etc. I honestly think this helped calm her fears.

I also had to work on her first day of school, but was lucky enough to be able to go in late and leave early to get her on/off the bus that day. I woke her up around 7:15 and she was very excited and happy!  We got her dressed, she ate breakfast, brushed teeth, and I did her hair. Gabe's parents showed up a little after 8 to come see her as well, which was really nice.

Outside we went for a few photos:

Cassie, Mommy, Avery, Daddy

Then we headed to our corner to wait for the bus!

When the bus came, Avery bolted on it and sat right down! We had to have the driver grab her so we could get a picture of her on the bus! haha! At least she was excited!

Once she left, I went to work. And of course I was worried about her all day....would she find her teacher? Would she ask for help? Would she meet some friends? Who would she eat lunch with? Would she make it to the right bus to come home?  It was the longest few hours, I swear!

I got home around 3:30 or so in time to see her come home!  I couldn't wait to hear how her day was!

Looks happy right?!  She was! And she had a wonderful day! Of course I didn't get much out of her, but she loved her teacher, went to gym, ate (some) lunch, and saw a friend of hers from daycare (who happens to be in her class!).  And she was ready to go back the next day! Phew...a sigh of relief!

Gearing up for Kindergarten!

We're gearing up to have a Kindergartener in 2 weeks from today (someone hold me!)!

I took Avery out a few weeks ago to buy her school supplies. She had fun finding everything and putting it in the cart. And she picked out a new thermos for her lunch-pink of course!  We already have several lunch boxes and we bought her a nice Land's End backpack for her birthday. So I think she's ready to go!

Last week we received her teacher assignment in the mail. We haven't found anyone in her class yet. All of the neighborhood kids are split up-none of them have the same teacher!

Also last week we had her lunch/bus orientation. Avery and I went and first we sat through the lunch presentation. Then we all got on the bus and rode to another elementary school in the district. Avery loved riding the bus with me!  Once at the other school, they had to rotate through 5 stations about bus safety. Honestly, it wasn't organized well at all. Our first station was done in 2mins and every other station took about 10min. So you can imagine what happened-huge crowds of people at the following station!  Avery wasn't thrilled with it either because a lot of the stations were for the kids only-so they had to get on the bus and do whatever on there by themselves (no parents). With her not knowing anyone, she really didn't want to go alone. And I pushed her to do it and she cried most of the time we were there. I just kept telling her "this is for the kids only. Mommies and Daddies don't ride the bus to school-you do!" At least she did it-through tears-she could have flat out refused and caused a huge scene. But she didn't-thankfully!  And afterwards, she kept saying how much fun she had (did you not know you were crying the whole time?!).  So we'll see how the real deal goes in 2 weeks.

So the only big thing we're waiting on is her bus schedule-which won't be out until next week (nice and last minute). And tomorrow both girls are getting fresh haircuts for back to school!  I think next week we'll be starting our version of Kindergarten boot camp-everyone starting to get up earlier and going to bed earlier. I'd rather deal with the tiredness now then when school is starting up. I'm dreading it just because I don't want to get up early everyday!  I like being able to "sleep in" until 7:30 on my days off. Now I'll probably have to be up around 6 everyday. Ugh.

Let the fun begin!

Frozen Birthday-Party 2

This year Avery really wanted a birthday party for her friends at school (aka daycare). We figured since she's starting real school in the fall, she could have a party since it would be one of her last time seeing some of these friends.

The party was the week after her family party so the decorations were the same and were kept up between parties. (I hate to admit that a month later, they are still up! There might be some serious meltdowns if they come down. Just sayin')

For this party, I decided to do cupcakes instead of a cake. They're just easier with kids!  And I found a Pillsbury cake mix that was the perfect shade of blue! Add on some homemade buttercream, some white sugar and some snowflakes and voila....frozen cupcakes!

And here are the rest of the treats-candy sticks, blue gumballs, swirl suckers, mints, white M&M's and some white chocolate covered snack mix.

We set up the bounce house for the kids and again we lucked out with the weather. It was hot and muggy out and I think it rained an hour or two after the party ended....yep, we totally got lucky!  The kids loved the bounce house though!

We also filled up a ton of water balloons-I'm not sure how many but there was a lot-probably close to 50 or more! And they went through them in about 5mins!

We kept the food simple-pizza and the rainbow fruit tray along with the snacks we did at the family party too.

Kathryn, Avery, and Gina

After lunch, it was present time!

Little stinker!

Then we did cake and ice cream!

Before the kids left, they did the scavenger hunt and found their goodies to take home.

The party went pretty well for our first "kid" party. It went from 11:30-2 which was perfect. I think she had a lot of fun and so did the guests! I'm sure there will plenty more friend parties in our future...just maybe not at the house! Haha!