THREE

 Today, my sweet little Avery turned THREE!  I can't even believe that she is so big!  I know that every mom says that on every birthday, but that is how I feel - They just grow up so fast!  I kind of hate it!  But, I do LOVE this stage.  Avery is SO funny!  She says the funniest things and keeps me constantly entertained.  She can do so many things on her own now and it is so fun to have conversations with her and hear her point of view.  Her voice is one of my favorite sounds and I wish that I could bottle it up and keep it forever just like it is now.  It is so cute!

Anyway - I will have lots more pictures of our celebrations, but I wanted to jot down some details of the day so I don't forget.  And when I say some, I mean a lot.  I just want to keep these days in my memory because I am realizing now that they grow up really fast and I don't remember all that I wish I could.  We all know that it might take months for me to get all her birthday pictures and details posted on the blog...   I picked a few favorite pictures to share.  Just words makes for a kind of boring post.  Most of you (I mean the 4 people who look at my blog...)  will probably just want to skim the pictures.  This is mostly details for me.  And for Avery.  A birthday only comes once a year, you know. 

Sunday, we celebrated Avery's birthday with the family.  We had a backyard BBQ and had a great time.  Avery was so excited and was asking for days which aunts, uncles and cousins would be there, and was very excited to see her Grandmas and Grandpas.  She LOVED her Doc McStuffins cake and was SO excited to open presents.  She got spoiled and loved all her new things and had a great little party.  She said the sweetest little "Sank you"s after each gift.  I love her "Sank You"  It is the sweetest and she is so good about saying.  So many nights she will tell me "Sank You" for dinner and it melts my heart!

 Here is a picture of her before her party dressed in her Doc McStuffins gear.  (Doc McStuffins is a cartoon on Disney Jr and Avery LOVES it!  It is really cute.)

With her special Doc McStuffins cake 

This morning was her actual birthday, so I got up early and made her pancakes, which was the breakfast that she requested.  I also had some strawberries and she loved those and she had juice.  I was going to make some whipped cream for the pancakes, but Avery reminded me that she does NOT like whipping cream.  And she really doesn't.  There are very few things that she won't eat, but that is one of them.  When the other kids have hot chocolate or desserts and get whipping cream, she always makes sure to say she doesn't want any whipping cream on hers!   Avery is very particular about what she does and does not like.  She isn't really a picky eater, but she knows when she doesn't want something.

After we got the kids off for school, I told Avery the day was hers.  She wanted to stay home in her jammies for awhile.  Avery LOVES her jammies.  She would wear them all day, and a lot of days, she does.  It is a battle that I have quit fighting unless we are going somewhere.  She was especially excited about her jammies because when we were at Sam's Club yesterday, I let her pick out a pair.  She picked a pair of footie pjs with monkeys (Avery LOVES monkeys) that are dressed like ballerinas and the feet on the pjs look like ballet slippers.  She loves them and changed into them the minute we got home from the store and wanted to stay in them all day today, too.  Her first request for the day was to "watch a show" and snuggle on the couch.  Sounded wonderful to me!  She picked Barney and then her favorite episode of Doc McStuffins.  It is called Arcade Escapade, but Avery calls it "RSK"  (Watching a show is one of her favorite things to do lately.  She never really liked TV until recently.  She loves Doc McStuffins, Daniel Tiger, Barney, Dora and a show on the Netflix called Bedtime for Francis...) After we finished her shows, she wanted to play Baby Dolls, or Family.  She loves to play family.  She HAD to be the mom and she was pretty bossy.  She really likes to play when Rylee is at school because then she can be....  She gives the funniest directions while she plays.   "You watch my baby, K?  I'm going to get some wipes at the store.  I be right back!"  Its only funny to me because I can see the way she tilts her head and uses her hands and the way her eyes are so expressive as I type that.  She cracks me up!  Usually we go to Disneyland, but today wasn't a trip.  Just changing some diapers.

After awhile, we needed to get dressed.  Avery helped me pick some clothes and make my bed.  She found one of Bronson's binkies.  She insisted on keeping it in her mouth and pretending to be a baby and me carrying her around. Luckily, Bronson was napping so this worked OK.  I can't say no to her on her birthday!  Then she helped me unload and reload the dishwasher.  She wouldn't take the binky out though.  It was a bit hard to understand her.  She never used a binky as a baby, but she has been kind of struggling lately if she wants to be a big girl or stay a baby.  She changes her mind a lot.  That is why potty training has been so off and on for her.  Oh well!  Once dishes were done, she gave up the binky for awhile and we painted nails.  She wanted 2 different shades of pink for each hand.  Then we had to walk down to the bus stop to get Rylee and then we got ready to go to McDonald's for lunch with Daddy.  I had so many cute clothes picked out for her to wear.  But, she insisted on her Doc McStuffins birthday shirt and her pink and white polka dot leggings.  If she can't wear PJs, her next choice is always leggings!  She loves them!  It would have been pretty cute if she would have worn a skirt of something, but she wouldn't.  And she wanted ONLY a clippy in her hair, which is totally the norm these days. 

We had a fun time at McDonald's.  Avery got a Happy Meal.  I kept asking what she wanted in her happy meal, but all she would say was fries.  She ended up with nuggets (and fries, of course).  Her and Rylee had a great time on the playground, although they kept coming to the table to complain about the boys and how they wanted a "girls only" club.  (Too much Little Rascals...)  For a little while, Avery was crying because she couldn't find Rylee.  That doesn't happen too often.  They fight a lot.  But when they do play together, it is so cute!

Then we went home and I frantically wrapped up the presents while Darren ran a quick errand.  I had the girls watch a show.  Avery was so upset because she wanted to help wrap the presents.  She loves to help me with whatever I am doing lately, but wrapping her own gifts wouldn't really work.  She was pretty excited to open them, but Logan might have been even more excited.  He loves birthdays!  This morning he was talking about what he could give Avery and I told him that I thought I had something here he could give her.  He said, "Yeah mom.  You can just choose something for me.  You know I can't go to the store until November."  I was a little puzzled by that, but then realized why.  He HATES Halloween decorations!  It really stresses him out.  Poor kid!  Avery had a great time opening presents and seemed to like her stuff - Especially her Doc McStuffins Dr bag.  She got through them pretty fast.  Rylee colored her a special picture.  She loves to do stuff like that.  Avery couldn't wait to get her Dr bag open and give Rylee a check-up.  It was really cute!

 Avery and her loot from Mom and Dad

We gave Avery a few choices for a fun activity to do  - a movie, the Fun Park, making smores, or the new trampoline park.  She chose the tramp place.  Logan was really excited about that.  The kids had a great time there!  They loved jumping and Avery was so funny jumping into the big foam pits and then digging herself out.  She was laughing and so happy! The girls tried out a lot of their new gymnastics moved and had a great time. I loved it!  Grandpa Boman called her while she was jumping and that made her really happy.  She wouldn't talk long though.  She wanted to get back to jumping.  It was so funny because he asked what she got and she said, "Elmo books".  She didn't even mention her favorite presents.  Then, when Grandma Boman called later she told her she got a "Jessie fing"  She didn't even say her things that she was really excited about. 

Next, was dinner.  Avery's choice.  When I asked her where she wanted to go, she said, "That place you get your own food."  It took me awhile to figure out what that meant, but I finally figured out she meant Chuck-A-Rama.  That is where we went for Logan's birthday.  However, when I told her that was the name, she called it "Chuck-A-Gramma" for the rest of the day.  Silly girl!  On the way there, she randomly told Darren and me, "If kids are my age, I can beat them up."  What???  I guess she is the bully....  I asked her if she had beat anyone up and she said No.  Then she said she doesn't beat up boys, but just girls.  No idea where that came from, but the way she said it was pretty funny.  At the restaurant, she didn't eat much.  I guess that is OK since she was free.  She mostly only wanted her roll, a little mac and cheese and some fruit and ice cream. Oh...and some beets.  She kept telling me when I was helping her with her place that she wanted "that red stuff".  Took me awhile to figure it out.  

On the way home from the restaurant, she fell asleep.  We had to wake her up when we got home.  Then she couldn't wait to get on her brand new PJs.  She has been obsessed with this pair of jammies with silky pants for almost a year and they are getting small and worn out so we got her a new pair.  They have a monkey on the shirt and are pink and she wanted to wear them to dinner.  I think it might have been the highlight of her day!  To finish off the day, we sang to her and let her blow out the candles.  A birthday just isn't complete without blowing out the candles! 

 The rest of us were SO full from "Chuck-A-Gramma" but Avery said she needed some cake.  And its her birthday, so I gave her some.  She picked Chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream.  She is definitely her mama's girl.  While she ate her cake, we sat and chatted about her day while Daddy put the other kids in bed.  She loved everything!  I love that we can have real conversations now that she is a little bigger.  I was so happy she had a good day.  And so sad she is so big!  She got blue icing all over her brand new jammies.  I helped her get it cleaned off.  I wanted to wash them, but she about lost it because she needed to wear them.  After I got it cleaned off she said, "No one call yell at me cuz its my birf-day"  Good thing I stayed calm on that one!  I could have ruined her whole day!

After I brushed her teeth, I told her we could have a special bedtime story.  I got out the ipad and found the blog post about her birth and told her the story and showed her the pictures.  I think she especially loved that it was on the "hi-pad".  She is a bit obsessed with it and I am amazed how well she can use it.  She kept wanting to do the scrolling and kept resizing the pictures.  She loved seeing the pictures of her as a baby.  And it made me want to cry.  And now I am crying typing this ....  I just couldn't believe that 3 years ago my baby looked like this...

Avery on the day she was born.  7 lbs 11 oz.  Tons of dark hair and gorgeous long lashes.  She was perfect!

And a couple more flashbacks just for fun...

 Avery on her first birthday

And last year on her 2nd birthday

                                                 

 And now her THIRD birthday!!! 

 Oh, our sweet little Avery!  She is full of so much personality!  

 Look at that attitude!  She is so independent and so funny.  I love her little voice and the way she talks.  I love how she loves to pick her own clothes and calls polka dots "polka nuts".  I love that she loves to still snuggle.  I love how much she loves her Coconut stuffed monkey and her pink minky blankie.  I love that she has her own style, even if it is only Pjs or leggings.  I love that she always wants to be the mom.  I love the way she runs and the way her crazy hair is always in her face and she is constantly pushing it back.  I love how much she loves her baby brother, even if she does smother him.  I love, love, love her sweet hugs and squeezes.  I just love my sweet baby girl! 

 

Happy Birthday little Princess!  We LOVE YOU!!! 

Finishing Up First

May 2012 - The end of the school year was really busy for us!  That is probably part of the reason it took me so long to get this posted on the blog...  So busy at the end of the year and then the kids were home and summer was going so it was even more busy!  Anyway, Logan had a FABULOUS year in first grade.  His teacher was amazing and he was in such a good class with lots of his little friends.  I was sad for it to change.  They did lots of fun end of year activities.  I thought I should just dump them all into one post, but then it ended up getting really long, so that probably wasn't the best idea... 

May 21 - The whole first grade had a special Drive-In movie day where they got to sit in little cars they made and watch a movie on the big screen in the gym.  They all got to make their own cars.  Logan has been really into cars lately, which makes his dad so excited and so they worked on this project together and built a pretty sweet Ferrari.  My favorite part was the little spoiler.  I'm not sure who was more excited...  What a great daddy!!!

Watching Daddy paint the car

The finished product!  Daddy added the little Ferrari symbols and the NINJAGO license plate and Logan LOVED his car!

 

May 25 - Logan had one last reading assembly at the school and he got another award.  He got the rank of apprentice because he had 100 points.  He did great earning points during the year and for 2nd grade, he has the goal to move up a rank to knight and earn 250 points.  He has found so many series of books he likes to read - Magic Treehouse, Cam Jensen, A to Z Mysteries and even some dinosaur books! Here he is running up to the stage... 

Getting his award! 

Showing off his certificate

May 29 - Since Logan has a summer birthday, his class celebrated his birthday the last week of school.  I went to his class and read a story to them since that is what they do for birthdays.  Logan picked the book What happened to Patrick's Dinosaurs.   His first choice was to take his HUGE dino dictionary, but I didn't think that would be the best idea or make for a very entertaining story time....  Here is his cute little class ready to read the story. 

After I read the story, Logan's teacher read his spotlight.  He LOVED having so much attention and wanted to keep making little comments and tell stories.  Logan loved to tell stories about himself.  He was really excited to tell about when he was little and was shooting basketball in the snow and got stuck in the ball bin in Grandma Webber's garage!  He tells stories with such detail and animation!  I love listening to him!

Here are some of the things in Logan's little spotlight.  Some of the things he came up with were pretty funny!  The teacher let him call on people to guess some of his answers and he LOVED that part.
Something special about my name is....My middle name is after my Grandpa Boman and my dad
I was born in....  Las Vegas, NV
When I was a baby, I liked to ----  Always hold onto someone's finger.  When I got bigger, I loved to play with any kind of ball.  I was shooting on my little hoop before I was 2.  (this is when he told the story of being stuck in the ball bin...)
In my family, I am the Oldest.  
Some things my family like to do together.... Go on vacation, Play in the yard, Play Kinect, Visit Family, Go to Aggie games, Watch America's Funniest Home Videos, play games, have movie nights
If you could have ANY pet, what would it be?  Utah Raptor because I would train it to play fetch and race with me and it would make me run faster, like up to 50 mph
Favorite thing to Eat?  Ice cream - Vanilla
Favorite Drink?  Lemonade or Chocolate Milk
Favorite Holiday?  Easter and Christmas because I get to celebrate Jesus and think about scripture stories.  (He made sure to explain to his teacher that MOST kids say those holidays because they get presents, but his was about Jesus.  So funny!)
I am Good At....   Reading, Remembering Things, running, Playing Computer, Beating my Dad at Kinect, Helping, Not telling surprises, Riding my scooter
If I had 3 wishes, they would be:
1 - To have a pet dino - ALL the ones I could think of!  (He then started listing them and most of them were names I've never even heard of!)
2 - I wish I could be magic and do cool tricks (He showed an example of making someone in his class disappear and reappear)
3 - A Million Dollars - I would purchase something to make me fly, buy the Lego fire temple and share with the poor.

There was also a note from Mom and Dad.  It said, "Logan, we are so glad you are our son and that you are our oldest child because you are so kind to everyone, including your sisters.  You always try to be nice to everyone and make sure they are included.  You are so smart and remember everything you read.  You know more about dinosaurs than anyone we know.  We love you and your enthusiasm for life!  It makes our home more fun and happy.  Everything is so exciting to you and it makes life so much better!"

Afterwards, I joined Logan for lunch.  This is something Darren and I have tried to do quite a bit throughout the year, especially at first and we have loved doing it and Logan still likes for us to come.  We don 't embarrass him....yet....

 Logan and his buddy James eating lunch with me.

 May 30 - Logan's class has a special Student led conference at the end of the year where the kids shared their writing portfolio and told us what they learned and the work they did that year.  Logan wrote some pretty great stories!  We loved seeing all his work.  (Funny little fact...  When I walked into Logan's classroom and saw what he was wearing, I almost died!  I had slept in that morning because I'd been up a lot with the baby, so Darren had gotten Logan ready and off for school.  He is great to do that!  The only problem...  This shirt is a PJ shirt!  They were brand new pajamas so Darren didn't recognize them and it was pretty good looking...for pajamas.  But...yep!  He wore them to school all day and I couldn't get him to change it for the program that night!  Oh well....)

Anyway - They also shared the snake dioramas they made.  There was even a bowl full of questions for us to draw from to ask him about snakes and he knew them ALL!  There were some pretty detailed explanations, too.  He is a snake expert!  He was pretty proud of his the cobra he made!  It had some awesome fangs and even had eggs!  His paper about his snake said - My snake is a Cobra.  Its name is Venom.  It lives in a Savannah.  It likes to eat Mongoose.  Cool Fact:  Its eggs feel leathery.

Logan's cobra - Check out those fangs!

After the conference, it was lunch time.  The teacher told us that we could stay and eat there with our students or check them out for lunch.  We let Logan choose and he wanted to go out.  (YEAH!!!)  He had a hard time choosing...  At first it was Chick-Fil-A, and then Pizza Pie Cafe, but we ended up at Noodles and Co.  YUMMY!  It was so fun to have a little date out with just Logan.  Our kids love one-on-one time with us, but one-on-TWO time is even better.  We should try and do it more!  (Actually, Bronson was there, too, but he just slept in his car seat...)

Our handsome Logan - Can't believe he is done with FIRST grade!

Logan and Daddy - My men! 

Logan and Mommy  - I love this sweet little boy!   (and my salad which was completely delicious and seeing it is making me want to go there and have it again...)

That night, his class had a special little program for the parents to show some of what they had learned.  It was really fun.  These pictures are terrible!  My camera doesn't have a zoom lense and I was trying to wrestle both girls and handle Bronson who was fussy because Darren had to work late.  Anyway - That is Logan on the back row in the grey colored shirt. 

Not sure what he is doing here... 

Logan's teacher prepared a little letter for each of the kids to read about them and some of their best qualities and what she thought they would be when they grew up.  It was really cute of her and I'm sure took a lot of time.  Here is Logan's turn...

Here is what Miss Smith said about Logan:

Logan is an exceptionally bright child with a unique passion for learning.  He catches on rapidly when we learn new concepts and he remembers EVERY detail of what is taught.  His comments are always insightful and clever, and I am continually amazed by his ability to make connections between ideas.  Logan has a witty sense of humor, and a ready laugh, and he is a master at inventing imaginative games.  Logan strives to be cooperative in the classroom and on the playground, and I appreciate how genuine and light his heart is.  Logan, when you grow up I think you could be a paleontologist.  I'm so glad you were in our class this year! 

Anyway, the program they shared a couple nursery rhymes they had learned and the cool raps they learned to go with them.  Logan's teacher was so great and had lots of little fun songs and things to help the kids remember things.  They did fun hand motions and "cool" little phrases and they were so fun.  Logan's favorite was Humpty Dumpty. After they performed their nursery rhyme, their teacher showed a really cute little slide show of the year (she made one for each of them to keep!) and there were some refreshments.  It was such a fun way to end the year! 

Logan and his teacher after the program
(Still sporting the PJ shirt...)

 This is the card that Logan made for his teacher.  I thought it was so cute.  I loved how he wrote "comments".  It is just a Logan thing to say.

 His card said, "Dear Ms Smith, my first grade year was good.  Second grade year is going to be fun too.  thank you that you taught me that I liked science, Logan

 This is the picture he drew of her...  She has really short hair and she is wearing her school spirit shirt.  When I went to pick him up on the last day, he was having everyone in his class sign the card to give to her.  He is so sweet! 

 Last day of first grade! 

We LOVED Miss Smith and we will really miss having her for a teacher next year. 

And one more...  Logan and Miss Smith on the VERY last day of first grade!  (June 1) Can't believe how quickly this year went by!  I ran to the school to take a picture of Logan there and pick him up and got there and realized I had no battery in my camera!  Luckily, Miss Smith took a picture with her phone and sent it to me.  Logan adored Miss Smith and had such a fun class this year.  He is having a hard time leaving 1st grade behind.  I hope things go as well in 2nd grade!