Proud mommy moment *August 2011*

Avery and I went school supply shopping just the two of us....in preperation for her to start 1st grade ---(AAAHhhhh...1st grade really??)   Anyway,  shopping for kindergarten was a complete disaster and I still feel terrible that I couldn't be stronger and make it enjoyable for Avery.....last year, I was so emotional about her going to Kindergarten that I full on bawled like a baby, blubbered my way through the list and was just all together miserable.  I really wish that I could have a do over!! 

SO..this year I was determined to make it better.   Got a sitter, and headed out to the big city with my big girl....school supply list in hand.  

First stop was at Fred Myer....Avery was having a blast picking out her pencils and erasers (she truly was thrilled about pencils!)  Then we started to head over to the shoe department.  On the way, we saw this little old lady with a walker looking a little frazzled.  I smiled and said hello and she said " do you know where the scoth tape is, I can't find it anywhere?"  

Avery, immediatley looks at her and says..."yes, i know exactly where it is...I can go get some for you"  then she looked at me and says"  it was in the box right bye the hello kitty erasers mom, can I go back and get it for her?''

I could kind of see the school supply area still but immediatley thought...Avery may be out of my sight for 2 or 3 seconds...I can't let her go alone.....I looked down and saw this look in Averys eyes..like saying 'please mom let me help her....trust me a little'  I took a deep breath and said "sure Av, that is very nice of you"  Avery looked at the lady and said "how many do you need?"  and then took off across the store.  She returned 20 to 30 seconds later with 2 scotch tapes in hand and gave them to the lady and said "is there anything else we can help you with"  the lady just smiled and said " you are so sweet, but no thank you that is all I need" and then looked at me and said..

." your daughter is very beautiful from the inside out...I suspect that comes from you and I thank you"   

As Avery and I continued on to try on Twinkle Toes....I applauded her for her kindness and she said

" well God likes us to help people whenever we can..ya know mom....and my legs work better than hers"

Aww...yeah..I was one proud mama. 

And, we had a great day together....bought lots of cute 1st grade clothes and checked off everything on the supply list.  Then topped it all off with lunch at the Olive Garden, just me and my shugie girl!!

Happy 6th Birthday Avery....part 1 !!! * August 21*

 On Averys' birthday , the girls and I met Nana and Papa, aunt Lesha and cousins Mickie and Jaeger @ Papas park(cherry point park) for a picnic and round number one of presents. (this girl is so spoiled!! first grandbaby on my side) Dean couldn't join us...day after the fair. Poor Avery, tough time of year for daddy to ever be involved with her birthday stuff. 

 It was a perfect day.  The girls ran around and played nice together at the playground.  We were the only ones at the park and it is all fenced in, so the adults actually got to sit for a bit and just watch them run!! Well, except for me....I had to keep Presley from eating everything that she found on the ground =)   Nana and Papa had pizza delivered...which Avery was really excited about, even though she didn't eat any of it!   She was too excited to open presents and have Papa push her on the swings.

 So hard for me to believe that my baby girl is 6.....time goes way too fast.   I am so proud of the beautiful, caring, strong and smart girl that she has become. 

              Look at this girl....she is quite adorable!! If I may say so myself??

6 years ago on this day right after a long fair week...Dean and I were changed forever when we welcomed Avery into this world....We held you all day and all night and felt such love and pride looking at you...We still thank GOD every day for giving us the honor of being your mom and dad....we LOVE you more than you could ever know my little AV, my shugie girl, lil mama.....Avery Lee.

August 15-20 "Daddys work" 2011

Fair Time!! or as the girls refer to it "daddys work" 

 each year , the girls are so amazed to see how many people come to see daddys work.  They are pretty sure that they own the place and they should just be able to do whatever they want whenever they want.  They get pretty spoiled by dean and his coworkers during fair week.  Everytime I turn around somebody is giving them candy, ice cream, sugar by the spoonful....whatever!!  Averys birthday landed the sunday after the fair again this year.  For her birthday, she wanted to go with friends on the rides.  We brought her friend Sydney with us and met friends Hannah and Emily at the fair (and their mama Tara)   Avery and Kenzie had a blast!! It was such a hot day and I was oh-so grateful that my grandma offered to keep Presley for the day.  The girls all did great.  Avery, Kenzie and Sydney all stuck to my side and behaved so wonderfully with good manners and good attitudes and all.  We rode ride after ride after ride.  This was the first year that Av and Kenz wanted to really go on rides at all.  I think that had a lot to do with having fearless ms Sydney and Hannah there...who are always up for anything, helped push avery and kenzie a little =)

 We played some games and got some prizes that they HAD to have!!  Enjoyed some hot dogs and bags of cotton candy. 

 Avery went super-slow through this obstacle course thing.  So very cautious and I think annoyed several kids behind her.....oh well! She has always been so careful and cautious..I am ok with it.

 And then....little miss caution announces that she really wants to go on the big--super high up ferris wheel (that has no seatbelts by the way!) with no big people----just her and Sydney  "because mom, we are like almost 1st graders ya know!!"  after much talk they convinced me they could sit still and be safe.   I was a nervous - pacing the floor wreck!!  The girls loved it "it was so awesome....we could see so far, almost to our houses!!"   They wanted to go again, but the line was long and my nerves couldn't handle it again....so I bribed them with getting to play another game.  It was so adorable to watch Avery "all grown up" and excited to see all her school friends....they would say hi and hug and say "who did you get for a teacher?" and then "I can't wait to see you again at school...you should come over to my house and play" or something to that affect...So sweet!

 Presley did make it to the fair a couple times.....she had to see her daddy for a few hugs and kisses during the week.  She was a trooper, very content in her stroller most of the time.

 the girls new favorite "fair food"  chocolate covered strawberries on a stick...... thank you Shara for introducing us to these amazing treats.

ONE last ride pleaaasseee mom!!  Avery really wanted to go on the ferris wheel again in the dark so she could see the lights and Kenzie wanted to try it out (but with an adult)  Shara agreed to take them and they had a blast.  I have to admit, it is pretty cool at night to see all the lights from up there....but I just cant handle the height anymore.  I was perfectly content to snuggle Presley with feet firmly planted on the ground.   
Once again it was an amazing and busy and chaotic fair week.   Dean  works very long days and runs on pure adrenaline (and probably a fair amount of sugar) and each year I am amazed at his attitude and strong work all week on little to no rest or sleep. 

Elmos' Healthy Heros----August 14

Mom, Dad and I took the big girls (avery, kenzie and mickie) to watch Elmos' healthy heroes in Canada. (abbotsford) The girls were so excited to watch Elmo....well really, Avery was very excited to watch Abby Ca-Dabby and Kenzie was excited to see Cookie Monster and big bird.   It was a very cute show, a musical for sure....lots and lots of singing and dancing.

About half way through the show--Avery looked at me and said " this is so amazing, they are really the real people/ err monsters...oh you know what I mean mom.  I thought that they would maybe be pretend ones....but these are the real real ones!! I can't believe Abby Ca-dabby actually came here to Canada"  Oh that girl,  LOVE her!
The finale involved shooting confetti all over the ground level seating.  Right away, Avery says..."can I go down and pick up some of that string"   every other kid, wanted to go see the stage and lights or go out to see if they can find the characters, but not my Avery.  She immediately had a great idea of how she could recycle that confetti.  " we can so use that pretty string for part of my birthday decorations"  so, we went down to the stage and carried out as much confetti as we could.  
The girls all did great and we all had so much fun.....right Nana and Papa??

Pretty little farmer

What??  doesn't everybody garden and do their  chores wearing high heels and a pretty dress?? 

Scrubbin' toilets never looked so good!!  Avery and Kenzie actually both love to clean the toilets.  Yay, for me.  I sure don't mind handing over that job.
These girls are such girlie girls...with their fancy clothes and high heels and jewelry but at the same time they are such farmers.....collecting worms/frogs/bugs/ whatever...love to feed the baby calves...love to garden with daddy...take care of their ducks.....can play in the sand box for hours...a perfect combination for little girls if you ask me! 
Cute and girly but tough and not afraid to get their hands dirty!!

For you mommy

This time of year, I really got it made.   Dean loves to garden and grow these beautiful flowers in the yard.....and Avery loves the harvest!!  Nearly every day, this little sweetie pie shows up at the back door with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and/or a basket or bucket of vegetables or buckets full of apples and pears from the yard.   She loves to pick the vegetables and gets really excited about eating things that her and Kenzie and daddy grew in the garden.   I get very spoiled.....I typically have atleast one bouquet in nearly every room of the house.   I know nothing about flowers or gardening, but I know that I love the great colors of our dahlias and the fragrance of the roses....truthfully, the thing I love the most about the flowers is that they are always brought to my kitchen by people that I love more than anything!!

Nothin' sweeter than a sleepin' baby!!!

Aaawww..sooo sweet...soo relaxed...lost in dream land and sound asleep.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sweetness.  I could just eat up that sweet little face.

Well, I took the picture and snuck back out of the room.  About 10 minutes later, I heard a different kind of noise over the baby monitor.....went in to check on Presley and SURPRISE!! 

"really mom, I didn't wake her up...I just came in to snuggle with her"

BP picnic August 2011

Every year on the first saturday of August BP(where my dad works) has a really family friendly fun picnic at their rec area.  First of all, they have a really great Rec area....nice playgrounds, covered kitchen, fireplace, campgrounds, beach,tennis courts, horseshoes, baseball fields...etc.... so we love to go there any ol'time.  But, it gets even better when it is picnic time. 

Kenzie and Summer enjoying the train rides  over and over and over

They have just about everything imaginable for the kids.....the train rides, horseback rides...horsedrawn covered wagon rides...face painting....balloon man....unlimited ice cream...popcorn..

Avery and Mickie rode the horses again and again and again....they just couldn't get enough of walking in circles on horseback.  Kenzie and Jaeger, not interested at all.

Tattoos for everybody(except Presley) 

The girls also played in the bouncy houses and inflatable slides and obstacle courses, but I was busy wrestling with Presley, so no pictures of that =)

Lots of fun things for the adults too:  car show, yummy food, chili cook off contest, live band, etc.... well, we were all too exhausted to enjoy the adult festivities after keeping up with these girls all day!!

Nana and Papa and most of their girls.... such good sports, chasing these girls around all day.
Can't wait til' next year!! Next year Presley will be running around wanting to  join in all the fun, this year she was perfectly content to hang in the stroller with her sippy cups and snacks for most of the day.

What can we sell next??

Kenzie, Sydney and Avery  very proud of their sign

Presley...really just interested in eating all the big girls's shoes

Presley and Sydney
neighbors Sydney and Lucy helped with the lemonade stand..  Sydney really brought in the majority of customers ( her big brothers showed up a couple times)

This summer the girls are very interested in making money.  Avery is just starting to grasp the whole idea of money and needing money to buy things and where money comes from.  So, several days Avery would ask...can we have a lemonade stand?  can we sell juice?  can we sell cookies?  One warm day, we set up a table in the front yard and mixed up some lemonade and sat out in the yard with the neighbor girls.  The day was quite successful for the girls...I think the four of them each ended up with six dollars....not too bad for 2 hours worth of work.   They even chased down the neighbor as he pulled in his driveway...handed him a glass and said it cost 5 dollars and surprise, he gave them 5 dollars....Thank you nice neighbor =)

That next weekend we had a garage sale at Deans' moms house with Deans brother and his family.  The girls were oh so very excited about this....they got to hang out with cousins all day/ eat cookies/ sell stuff/ make money to save up for Disneyland and buy new things from cousins.  Garage sale was very successful.  The kids made like 20ish dollars each and Avery and Kenzie spent most of theirs buying new PJs and toys from their cousins....oh well, all part of the fun, right?  =)

the girls and cousin Holly

Dean and I were able to clear quite a bit of stuff out of the basement and make a few bucks, it was a good day.

Cool chicks and hot summer days

Kenzie with a "push pop" mustache

This summer got off to a bit of a slow start, warm weather wise.  So when the sun decided to shine we didn't let any "summertime fun" opportunity pass us by.

Mickie and her "pushpop"

Super cool chick--Jaeger, in the swing at nana and papas

Presley is a natural "water baby" just like big sisters, although this particular day she enjoyed eating the ducks more than swimming.

 Kenzie and Avery and I enjoyed a day @ Birch Bay waterslides...just us "big girls"

Presley had just gotten her first taste of a popsicle and now she is chasing Avery all over the yard trying to get that popsicle!!