Avery's Birthday Money

Avery got a little spending money for her birthday from Granny, my little brother and his wife, and from an alarm clock that she returned since she just got one for Christmas. With Granny's money she bought the movie Despicable Me, which we have already watched a TON. It's a pretty funny movie for those of you that haven't seen it.

When she returned the alarm clock she bought a Rapunzel barbie at Target. She has had her eye on the Rapunzel barbie for quite some time and was so excited to finally get one.

Which left the money from my brother and his wife. Avery isn't really one to hold on to her money for long, and sure enough she had only had it for a couple of days when she stumbled onto her treasures. Al and I were out with the kids Saturday at the local shopping center, doing a little window shopping. Sometimes on the weekends the Town Center has craft booths in the courtyard and it is usually pretty scary stuff that they are trying to sell. As we walked by the booths Avery spied a table that was selling some crazy jewelry, purses, hair accessories, etc. She told me that she really wanted to stop and see what they had but I kind of brushed it off and said maybe when we were finished at the stores. Well, Avery didn't forget, and when we left the stores she said, "Mom, what about that table?!" Oh yeah... So we took her back to the table and within about 30 seconds Avery came across this mask. And she had to have it. I asked her if she was sure, if this was what she really wanted, and Avery was positive that she wanted that mask. As she was paying for the mask she caught a glimpse of these hair clips with the neon hair. And she had to have them too.

She has worn the mask a ton around the house, so I guess it was a wise purchase. So much so that her cheeks and forehead have a green tint from the metallic paint wearing off. She calls it her "Mousequerade" mask. She almost has the word right :)

Sandbox

My dad built Avery a sandbox for her birthday. I feel badly because the week before my parents got here the weather was in the 60's, and this week it is in the 70's. But the week they were here the highs were in the 20's and 30's. My dad has had the sandbox planned for a while, and since there wasn't anything he could do about the weather, he was out there in the freezing temperatures putting together the sandbox.

Avery spent a lot of time out there with him, 'helping' him build the sandbox. The helping I observed mainly consisted of cheerleading...but I don't think he minded the company out there :) The kids have played in the sandbox several times already. Yesterday they went out there for an hour or more while I stayed inside folding laundry. They were having a blast and I was enjoying a little quiet time while I caught up on my shows and did housework. I have noticed that bath time has become a lot more frequent since the addition of the sandbox. Oh well- a small price to pay for hours of entertainment.

While my dad was building the sandbox my mom and I painted the master bedroom and bathroom. It looks so good! I love the color I picked out. I'm not quite ready to post pictures, but soon.

Loves to Laugh

James is almost always just a happy, go-lucky little guy. He is so much fun to be around and just so cuddly and easy to laugh and smile. I love these pictures because I think the expression on his face is just pure delight. He loves Al and is always so excited when Al is around to play with. This is what James was doing to entertain himself while Avery was opening her birthday presents. Al was a good sport to let James bounce up and down on his stomach right after the huge Texas Roadhouse dinner :)

Avery's Birthday Party

Avery had a Tangled birthday party the day before her actual birthday. It was great having my mom there to help with the party. It was so nice to have an extra pair of hands to help pour drinks, pass things out, etc. My mom had flown in late Tuesday night and upon arrival gave Avery this Rapunzel dress. I knew that Avery would want to wear it to her party. She's always one for dressing up :)

Avery invited 7 little girls from church and pre-K. They are a cute little bunch and were all so excited for the party. It was so cute to watch them all bouncing up and down in excitement, being gracious, etc. We started the party off with pizza and a sprite/fruit punch combo that Avery requested. While the kids were eating their pizza and visiting my mom and I hid tons of little jewels around the family room so that the girls could go on a gem hunt. After they were all done eating I passed out their party favor bags to collect their jewels in. I told the little girls that they were searching for gems and the ooh-ing and ahh-ing began. Little girls love sparkly things so much! They all wanted to know if they could keep the gems...it was a big concern :) After all of the gems were found we moved on to a pinata. Avery had a pinata shaped like a tiara that was pink and silver with streamers. The girls each got several turns to hit the pinata and then I finally did the honors and cracked it open. Then the girls stuffed the candy in the favor bags along with their gems. The bags were bulging at this point!

Then we moved onto a game of pass the tiara. The girls played along to the music from Tangled and if the music stopped when they were holding the tiara they won a prize. I found these tiny water coloring sets at the Party Store for $0.50 each and since Rapunzel paints so much in the movie I thought it would be the perfect favor. When everybody had had a turn to win we switched to playing musical chairs. The girls each won a set of hair elastics.

After all the games were finished we sang to Avery and had cake. Then on to presents. The little girls were so excited for the presents too, and huddled around Avery in a big mass. Then the girls got to color a picture of Pascal, the little chameleon from the movie. Afterward they could cute out the chameleon and tape it together so that it could sit on their shoulder.

Later that night we picked up my dad from the airport. He was supposed to fly in the night before, but the entire city completely shut down due to 'possible' snow/ice. A 20% chance of less than .1 inch accumulation to be exact. So that took a day away from his trip here. To be fair...Texas isn't really used to dealing with super cold weather, etc. And so the worrying sets in. The kids were excited to see him when he finally got here though and James couldn't wait to show him all of his cars.

We waited and did our family celebration on the 5th, Avery's real birthday. My parents took us to see the movie Tangled in the theater and then that night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner-- Avery's choice. After a great big dinner we came home for more cake and ice cream. Avery picked strawberry ice cream and mint chocolate chip (it's green, hence Avery's favorite flavor) and then on to pajamas and present opening from the grandparents and mommy, daddy, and James. I would think all in all she had a pretty fantastic birthday.