7!

It was a very busy weekend. We spent most of Saturday with my sister, who helped us prepare cupcakes for Avery's party.  There was cleaning and putting out Halloween decorations on Friday afternoon and into Saturday.  Sunday was church, last minute prep, and post party cleanup.  I'm exhausted -- but the girl had a good weekend and a happy birthday, that's all that really matters.

She celebrated 7 with her neighbor friends, a few old school friends, and Nonna/Nonno.  The Halloween theme was a success.

Buses and Birthdays

Two weeks for both.  New bus number this year and she will be getting on a little earlier in the morning and getting off a little earlier in the afternoon.

The girl decided she wants a Halloween themed birthday.  While I might get some odd looks from the bakery I guess I should go all in and get things in order for her to have a few friends here.  The next two weeks will be a bit of chaos, but I guess she's worth it.  1st grade... 7 years old... here we come!

Kindergarten.

And just like that summer is over!  Our vacation at the end of July was amazing.  Avery and I had a blast at the beach -- literally, as we got to see a SpaceX launch from the beach.  We also loved our pre-cruise hotel and made many a circles around their lazy river.  The cruise itself was also fantastic, particularly getting to go to both Labadee and Cococay, but we also loved the port area in the Dominican Republic too.  I am very grateful for that quality time with her before the chaos that is school years commenced.

Speaking of school - we wrapped up at Up with Kids back on the 17th leaving a few days off where she got to sleep in, veg in front of the TV, and hit a few doctor appointments (dentist, chiro, and eye doctor).  We also had kindergarten orientation to attend.

The first day of school went well. To my surprise and her extreme pleasure she actually got a bus and not a van.  Did I cry?  Yep, you bet I did. I even cried the second day.  She did so well and popped on that bus looking confident.  She had green and blue stars for her first two days, so it looks like we're off to a good start.  She bought school lunch the first day (and came home excited that she got to pick between chocolate and regular millk) and packed the second day.

Time flies, look who is 5!

 Where has the past month and a half gone.  Heck, where has the past 5 years gone?

It's true!  I have a 5 year old now.  She was off of school and I was off of work.  She got to decide what she wanted to eat all day and we went to the trampoline park for a bit of fun. There was time to play with our neighbor friends, time to open presents, and time to eat some cake.

This year's theme is, as previously mentioned, Batman.  The cake turned out awesome.  The colors and look is spot on to the inspo pictures I provided the bakery.  This year we went with Canonsburg Cake Company.  Taste wise, it is good - the icing is a bit grainy, but pleasing... at least to me.  Shockingly, she didn't like the cake.  I maintain that she tried the Batman logo, which was fondant and was turned off.

I will pick up the cupcakes tomorrow for her party with friends and family on Saturday. Right now it looks like the weather will cooperate - no rain and in the lower 80s.

What else have we been up to?  As I mentioned, time is flying, but there has been a few trips to the pool and a few trips to the trampoline park to mention.  We have also been caring for a foster kittie family!  Her Pre-K2 year has started this week as well.  She is in Miss Donna's class with some of her old friends and a few new names (new to me at least).

First Friend Party Attended

Avery attended her first kid's birthday party this past weekend.  It was for her best buddy, Luke, who joined her in the "4" club (officially today).  There were a couple of other kids there and they had a blast.

Once again school was closed at the end of last week.  We had a text message first thing on Wednesday morning - once again a parent tested positive.  It resulted in school being closed on Thurs and Fri too.  Today she returned, along with the dictator rules from the state forcing them to wear masks all day.

4 years!

She's 4 years old!  The celebration is being spread out a bit.  I left work a little early on Monday and we went to the town pool.  Tuesday I delivered Spiderman themed cupcakes to school for her to share with her friends, she had her beloved chicken nuggies (actually strips) at the farmer's market, we had cake and presents to open at home.

From family she received books and learning resources, a tall doll, a superman die cast car, cash money, and that big girl bed that her grandparents brought a few weeks back.  Her Daddy gave her a solid silver dino head and we had a remote control Batman car, Frozen light up blue sneakers for the new school year, and a tall car track with multiple cars.

Today she went to the doctor so I can report the official height as 3'5 2/16" and weight as 38.5 lbs.  She was not ready for her birthday to be over yesterday!

I love you (not so) little girl.  Happy birthday!

Starting the Celebrations

Avery had her first birthday hurrah this weekend with her Aunt Mandy and Uncle Frank.  Lots of fun books and learning material gifted, Sarris ice cream, and quality time!

Her 4th birthday photos came and are pretty darn cute.  Only one w/o the superhero mask, but I keep reminding myself we will have school photos - hopefully those will turn our well as they have in past years.

Final swimming lesson went well.  She didn't want to jump in still, but she did an amazing job doggie paddling solo with a pool noodle and kicking back and forth.  She was also killing it grabbing toys from the bottom of the 2 1/2 foot area.  Solid progress in the past 5 weeks and I am excited for her.  Her confidence manifests in the bathtub when she wants to put her face under there too!

Year of the Spider

2020 was the year of the dinosaur - as in Avery's birthday cake theme and Halloween costume.  This year is  the year of the Spider(man).  I kept joking that since the cat is kind of an early birthday present we should go with that theme and have a litter box cake and cat poop cookies for her friends at school.  I mostly kept saying it because of her exuberant reaction against it with "noooo, that's gross!"

We went yesterday to order the themed cake for at home and cupcakes for school.  Now to find the right costume.

I also need to order her bedding.  Her Nonna and Nonno are moving and gifted her the bed from their spare room - her first big girl bed!  They delivered it to us yesterday, so I spent some time taking apart her crib, removing it from her room, and vacuuming up in there.  We also snagged pool noodles as runners down the sides in the morning before swimming lessons.  Also on our procurement list was goggles and a swim cap, which helped her tremendously putting her face in.

Planning Ahead

Seems that Avery is a bit like me - she likes to plan ahead, like -- way -- ahead.  She has been mentioning that she will turn 4 at her next birthday as of late.  Yesterday it shifted and she said she wanted a reeeeeally big cake for her birthday, one with monster trucks.  She also indicated that I will make it, but she will help.

Two. Not so terrible.

It has been a very busy weekend.  We traveled on Friday for a viewing for the husband of an old friend.  It is such a saddening situation, but it was nice to see several people Avery had not yet met.

Saturday, well Saturday was this sweet little lady's birthday.  We didn't do a party this year, instead we went to Idlewild (and caught up with the Wildauers).  But first, we opened her presents.  Avery loved her little keyboard and Elmo shirt.  We had perfect weather for Idlewild.  We had been promising her a ride on a train all week, and I'm pretty sure that was the undersell of the year.  First thing in the gate we did ride that train, and one more time before we left -- at Avery's request. In between we rode several big rides with her, all of which she did great on, and several other rides, including a few that she rode by herself like a champ.  She did not nap all day, maintained a pretty good attitude all day, and still made it most of the way home before falling asleep.

Turns out she got the whole weekend as a birthday.  Today (Sunday) we bought some cake with her name on it, because, well, you can't not have a cake for your kid - even if I did make cake pops for her last weekend.  Yes, she totally blew out the candles all by herself! She also took to singing the happy birthday song all day today using the microphone attached to her keyboard.

Happy Birthday Avery Violet!

My little girl is 1.  How fast this past year has gone.  I look back at photos and video and marvel - she's grown and evolved so much.  She continues to amaze me every day - and even more so amazing is that I love her more each and every day.  I'm so proud.  I'm so full of joy.  I'm so in love... and it's all for this blessed baby - I guess I can't call her a baby anymore, she's officially a toddler.  Let's modify that with a "my" - MY baby.

I took Friday off to spend it with Avery for her birthday, but of course, the activities to prepare for her party today took over a good bit.  At least I can say my house is reasonably clean right now.  We did make a trip out to the grocery store and for some ice cream on Friday, so we had some special moments.

We had quite the full house today all for sweet Avery.  She didn't dive into the cake like I thought she might after having had previous exposure.  Avery continues to be happy getting passed around and the large crowd didn't bother her much. I didn't get to take too many photos, so I am hoping that they will come in from others in attendance.  It's hard to do everything and talk to everyone as I'd like at busy events.

Let them eat cake

This past Saturday we met with a new photographer to get some shots of Avery in preparation for her birthday with a smash cake.  She was not happy at the onset of the session, it is so unlike her, I don't know what she was worried about.  I'm hoping we still got some cute photos, even if a tear is streaming.  Once we convinced her to try the icing the tears stopped and she started to enjoy.  I brought home a purply-blue baby who colored her bathwater, but fortunately it all washed off reasonably easy.

This coming weekend we return for some family pictures with the same photographer.

I also gave Avery one of her birthday presents - a set of multi-texture balls