Great Wolf Lodge {March 17-18 2017}

For Christmas, my parents got us a trip to Great Wolf Lodge which we were super excited about because we had always wanted to go but hadn’t found a great time and it was pricey. This was even better because we got to go meet up with cousins! All but Dave and Liz who are in Chicago and Shane who was in Utah at his grandma’s funeral came.

The traffic was bad driving down Friday afternoon so we arrived around 5:30pm. We quickly changed and went down to swim. Avery and Dallin had a blast. They spent most of the time in the wave pool. My parents got us Domino’s pizza that we ate up in the hotel room that night and Jessica had brought orange cupcakes to celebrate Asher’s birthday on the 21st.

The next day was spent all day at the water park. There was a great little kid area that the littles had fun playing in, Avery loved the basketball pool that had these big floaty things you could sit on and they had some great water slides. Sydney loved the water and we somehow managed to go the whole time without getting a picture of her! My mom had brought stuff for sandwiches so we went into the lobby and ate lunch then went back to swim. Sydney fell asleep so I took a catnap with her. We all headed home around 3:30pm. Avery could have stayed til late into the night. She LOVED it. It was such a fun getaway and much needed vacation.

 

Little Fishy Aves. And Dallin watching everyone coming out of the water slides.

I figure if Sydney naps, I better nap. She was up almost every hour the night before so this nap was much needed.

 

Jess and I went down and Brycen and I went down. It was hard to get away to go down the slides with all the babies and little kids but we snuck away and it was so fun! There was an even bigger one but the line was long.

 

Orange muffins to celebrate Asher’s birthday!

Goofy Cousins.

Headed home.

Happy 4th Birthday Avery! {March 9, 2017}

I can’t believe this girl is 4! She is such a fun and spunky girl. She started preschool this year and seems to be doing great. Her favorite friend at preschool is Kaci. Although she might be the only other student who speaks English :)

Here are some things about Avery:

Her favorite movie is: The silly cat Movie (Disney Short)

Favorite TV show: Sarah & Duck, Bo on the Go and Curious George

Favorite Book: Bunny Badger Book (Real name is “Busy Bunny Days”)

Favorite Ice Cream: Strawberry

Favorite Color: Pink

Favorite Food: Pasta

Favorite Game: The Owl game she got for her birthday.

Favorite thing to do with Dallin: Play Family

Favorite thing to do at Preschool: Play with Kaci

Favorite Toy: The Kitchen

Favorite thing to do by herself: Play playdough

Favorite Sport: Soccer (she hasn’t ever really played but really wants to!)

Favorite Song: Gethsemane  (she sings it every day!)

She’s scared of Lions and Snakes and the toilet overflowing.

She loves playing with Sydney.

She loves doing puzzles, playing games and doing look and find books.

 

I’ve been waiting for a sunny day to take pictures of her but it’s been so so so rainy! So finally, the day before her birthday it was nice outside so before Bryce left for work I grabbed her and went down stairs and had her stand in front of the fence so I could take a couple pictures. I definitely want to do a better photo shoot later but this will have to do for now. I love her silly closed mouth grin. Also, she has these wispy bang things that just about drive me nuts because they’re always in her face but isn’t she the cutest little 4 year old ever? People frequently comment on how small she is. She’s about 7th percentile for height so she’s just an itty bitty thing but she’s packed with personality.

 

This one was taken in November when we took our family pictures.

I got a Coldstone buy one get one free in my email for Avery’s birthday so the Saturday before her birthday we went to Coldstone. She always gets strawberry ice cream because it’s pink. This time she chose to put graham crackers in it. It was quite delicious. We love coldstone and would probably go every week if it wasn’t so expensive!

 

Her only request was for a pink birthday so I went with a pink and gold themed birhtday. I bougth 5 frames from the dollar store and covered them in gold glitter. Then painted the inside frames pink. Avery had fun helping me. Then I painted a jar gold and put pink flowers in it. I made a pink and gold happy birthday banner as well.  That was about the extent of my decorating. Oh yeah, and pink balloons of course.

So many fun presents! She got puzzles, a huge tent, a play cake, fun clothes, an Elsa art kit, a listening book and stickers. She can do both of the puzzles by herself now which is so fun.One is a puzzle of the world and I told her we live on the North American Continent and she said “No, We live on Earth!” So we had a little geography/science lesson :)

I got a little crazy and bought her a crown and wand and sash that said birthday girl. So she wore that on her way to preschool. At preschool, she wanted to hand out chocolate to her friends. So we prepared a bag of chocolates for each of her classmates and she got to hand them out on their way home. She only has 9 kids in her preschool so it didn’t break the bank :) Going to school and feeling special was always my favorite part about my birthday so I was glad she got to go to preschool on her birthday.

Avery has been begging to go to Wiggle Works on her birthday ever since we went there for Dallin’s birthday. So after preschool we went up to the Packers for lunch. Becky fed us lunch and I took Eliza, Dallin and Avery to wiggle works. They played solid for 2 hours and probably would’ve played longer but I had to get home to make dinner. They also got to go one one quarter ride…I had 2 quarters in my purse.

    

Making cakes stresses me out. Let’s be honest, making any type of food stresses me out. I texted my friend and asked if I could have a recipe from a homemade funfetti cake that she had made that I thought was so delicious. She said “Do you want me to just make it for you?” At first, I was going to say no, but then I couldn’t resist---I knew she would do such a better job than me and it would be so nice not to have to worry about it. So she made her this beautiful pink cake. Even Avery’s name had little pearl sprinkles. It was as delicious as it looks! And Avery absolutely loved it. That night the Packers came over for dinner-pasta per Avery’s request, and Cake and Ice Cream. It was a busy and fun day for this girl!

   

 

 

The next morning was Friday and we always have Playgroup on Fridays so I asked if we could do it at our home to celebrate Avery’s birthday. We had lots of friends come over and the picture on the left is the only picture I got. I absolutely love our ward and all the friends I’ve made in this ward. There are so many young families with kids who like to get together! They all played all morning. After everyone left, I was working while Dallin and Sydney were napping and Avery was playing in the hall since she doesn’t take naps anymore. After a little bit I went to check on her and found her like this in the hall: Asleep with a pot of goodies and a partially eaten graham cracker on her chest. I guess her birthday wore her out! Love this crazy, fun, 4 year old!