Seven Years of Avery ...

Avery had a great 7th birthday party with tons of friends and tons of fun. Here are some pictures leading up to her big day!!!

Happy Birthday Avery!!!

Counting down to Avery's birthday ...

it seemed so far away, so we had a pre-party to test out 

all the fun things we would do at her actual birthday party ...

... like play in a jumping castle ...

... and have a special dinner with lots of balloons and gifts ...

... and we even tested out a special little cake to

see how much smoke seven candles would make ...

 maybe we would need a fire extinguisher?!?!??!!

On Avery REAL birthday party day, we had a full day of fun 

starting with swimming and poolside lounging 

with our infamous Auntie Em ...

... next was cleaning up and 

getting ready for the party ...

... right after a quick sister pedicure ...

... it was finally time to decorate the house ...

... and get out the cake 

(made by the best Grandma Wendy ever)!!!

It was then party-time with guests ... 

here is Emery and Sora lounging with drinks ...

... then jump-time in the HUGE jumping castle ...

... and as usual, Daddy had to take it up an extra notch

throwing huge balls around at everyone ... we banned 

him from jumping after 15 minutes of that ...

... and even Mommy and Stella wanted to bounce ...

... everyone was having such a great old grand time ...

... some kids even wanted to jump into the pool from way up above, 

but good thing Grandma Wendy talked them all out of it!!!

Time for great birthday cake!!!

Time for tons of presents!!!

Avery and her new two (+2) wheeled bike ...

 just look at all that confidence!!!

And just like all good things must come to an end, 

so did Avery's birthday after way too much fun!!!

Thanks to all for all the presents and the fun ... 

much much thanks to all, each of you and everyone!!!

Round & Around & Around ...

Lazy Sundays always seem to resort to this type of sister fun eventually ...

Get ready ... get set ... and go!!!

Carnival Time ...

The carnival came to town today, so we beeline over to the rides and had a great day ...

Emery and Avery riding round and round and round!

Mommy and Emery on the major roller coaster ...

... and then back to some slower rides ...

... that is until our best friend Shannon met up with us ...

... and we ditched all our parents and 

took off by ourselves for the rest of the night!!!

Happy {Super High Numbered} Birthday, Mommy!!!

Hooray, it's Mommy's birthday today ... but unfortunately she's not really all that into it ...

Mommy hiding out from her high numbered birthday!

So we started the day sending tons and tons of flowers, 

but that didn't seem to cheer her up enough ...

... so then we tried grooming all of the horses 

and that also didn't seem to cheer her up enough ...

... and then we did all sort of "fun things" from Mommy's 
childhood, but even that didn't seem to cheer her up either ...

... so we ended her fabulous day with a nice celebration 

and great conversation, 

and finally made it a great day to remember!!!

When Mommy is away, you know what they say ...

... us kids,
we shall play,
and play and play and play,
all night and all day!!!      - Emery

Mommy had to fly away for a boring work trip and we kids got stuck behind with boring old Daddy, so we just had to make the best of it ... here is a sampling of how it went ...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAY 1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emery likes to lift weights with 

Daddy early in the morning ...

... and then decorates her face, 
just like Mommy does each and every morning!!!

Next up is playing fun Daddy games! Here's a video of how Daddy likes to "play" with us ...

At the end of the day it's "bath time" ... well, 
this is how Daddy does baths when Mommy is away ...

... good thing there is an extra hair dryer 

to use when Mommy isn't around ...

 

... and right before bedtime we like to 
read stories to each other ...

... and because of Mommy's absence, we deciding 
that the middle of the living room was a better 
place to sleep then our boring old separate bedrooms!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAY 2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emery takes a trip to Avery's school!!!

Emery and Avery love running all around the school playground ...

... sliding down all the slides ...

... meeting all of Avery's fun friends ...

... playing all sorts of schoolyard games ...

... and especially hanging out with best friend Chiara!!!

Next it was time to watch Avery in her big musical debut ...

... she was an eagle and had a great one-liner 
to the wild jackrabbit when he was talking tough ... 
"Prove it!!!"

Then after school we went roller skating ...

... and 4-wheeling ...

... and made friends with famous people like Elmo ...

... and ended the day hanging out with 

good friends like Sophie!!!

Here's a video of Avery hula-hooping at Sophie's house ...

Then at the end of another day, bath-time 
(in the house this time) ...

... before heading straight to bed after the long day ... Emery opting 
for her bed this night after feeling "too squashed" the previous night ...

... where Avery still loved the pillow-bed 
much more than her own bed!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAY 3 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last full day without Mommy was absolutely outrageous ... 

we went to a huge birthday party for Abir ...

... then to storytime outside in the cool shade ...

... then we started an impromptu music circle ...

... then invited a bunch of friends over to the house to play ...

... where it got sort of rowdy ...

 ... like, really REALLY rowdy ...

... where Emery even got a very nasty boo-boo ...

... so we spent the rest of the time Mommy was away 

mostly relaxing and reading good books, like the blog!!!