Ava's 5th Birthday Party...

We had a very small and special gathering at American Girl last Wed, the 11th after Luke got out of town.  Ava's closest friends were there.... Nicolas, Pea, Addee and siblings. Of course Luke, Daddy and Sydney were there as well!  Ava got her wish come true as she was able to spend to a Gift card from Nana and extra birthday money from her Aunt Gloria at the American Girl store.  She picked out the biggest horse she could find and a sled dog.  Nicolas gave her american doll the matching Christmas dress that Ava has this year, Pea gave her an AG kitty and pajamas for her doll.  Addee gave her a Monster High Doll.  She was thankful and grateful for her wonderful gifts and to have such great friends!

Luke took this picture!

 

Fun with my new fisheye lens!

All Shy because she didn't want to be sang to :)

 LUKE ATE HIS WHOLE SUNDAE!

Happy 5th Birthday my sweet Ava!

My sweet little girl turned five today. I can't believe the last five years has passed so quickly.  We celebrated Ava's  birthday yesterday with her friends at the American girl bistro.... Pictures to come soon.

Today Ava woke up to a brand-new outfit hanging on her closet with the tall black boots that she wanted.  After we did Hudson sang and many happy birthday we went downstairs and I showed her the cupcakes I made for her to bring it to school.  She really wanted to have puppy cupcakes since she loves dogs. I had researched these really cute ones on familycircle.com.  When she saw them she fell in love with them and picked out which one she wanted for herself and of course she wanted her name on it.  I worked on them for a few hours last night and finished them after she went to bed. They came out really cute and were really not that hard to make, just a little time-consuming.... As could be expected.

Now, we are headed to school so she can go celebrate with all of her classmates, then to lunch with one of her BFF's Nicolas, then soccer. When we get home we will open gifts and go to Red Robin for dinner. 

Graycie's favorite holiday spot!

Holiday Food

The kids and I have been busy making food this holiday season!

Christmas tree hamburgers and buns.  It's amazing how much more your kids will eat when food is fun.

The last unicorn

Ava told me what she wanted me to draw and I made this picture for her.  We colored it together.  It is the unicorn from one of my favorite childhood movies.  Ava is into unicorns as much as I was when I was little.  She also likes to color and draw like I did.  I love doing creative things with her!  

Cutting down our Christmas tree!

This year we decided to cut down our own Christmas tree. It is quite a change for us as we usually have fake trees.  We drove out to Trinity farms in issaquah.  We got there at 10 AM on the first day they open and there was any barely anybody here.  

THANKSGIVING 2013

This year we were thankful for many things.  Most of all we were thankful to have our family here in Seattle to celebrate the Thanksgiving week with us in our new home.  Here are some pictures from our feast....

Graycie's check up

Today Chase and Sydney helped me bring Graycie to the vet to get her 2nd round of shots.  She has doubled in size to 3 pounds over the last 6 weeks. 

Ear Piercing!

Ava and Paige got their ears pierced on Sunday!  They were both so brave and excited!  They have been doing a great job cleaning them out every day.  Thank you Grammy and pop pop for that special early Christmas gift!

We love our Graycie

one of the best decisions we ever made.... getting a new kitten.  And we couldn't of asked for a better one.  She's sweet, loves to play, is great with the kids, and is loved every inch by all!

Halloween Festivities 2013

I was lucky enough to be a part of Luke, Ava's and Sydney's Halloween pictures.  At night, we were the first ones out as always.  The kids were super excited they got a beanie Baby of their choice at someone's house.  After about 45, they all retired to either strollers or he wagon, except for Luke who was hands down the most excited to be out.  He showed a lot of independence this year.

Best Friend Day

Yesterday after school I took the girls and one of Ava's best friends, Pea to the mall with Megan, Nicolas and their crew.  They were so excited that after school they were holding hands and dancing around in a circle singing, "best friends day, best friends day."  We ate lunch in the car and headed to the mall to the American girl store.  Both Ava and Pea had their purses on and they're cute little outfits… They looked like mini teenagers. We ate hot fudge brownie sundaes at the American girl café and then went shopping for Ava's Christmas dress. On our way back through the mall we stopped at the wishing well because the girls wanted to make a wish.  Ava took a penny out of her purse for her, Sydney and Pea.  Pea closed her eyes and threw her penny in the Wishingwell and said, "I wish for a doc mcstuffins set."  Ava closed her eyes and through her penny in and wished that she could be a reindeer. I had no idea what she was going to say and I have to say I never thought it would be that!  I love the things that little kids say and that's one of the reasons why I keep this blog. 

Has a funny way of showing it...

A huge tree limb dropped in our yard yesterday after we had a big windstorm. It's burrowed itself 6 inches deep under our grass, thank goodness the kids were not out there.

Sydney definitely has a funny way of showing her love for daddy but she was the only kid that stayed outside in the cold to help him pick up all of the branches.

The kids best dinner ever!

A couple weeks ago on our way home from swimming at the club the kids were starving so we decided to let him get some McDonald's.  Mommy and daddy were hungry too but we don't like McDonald's so we decided to let the kids eat in the car and then we would go to red Robin for lunch.  And Luke proclaimed that it was the best dinner ever because we let him and the kids get a Sundae at red Robin after eating their processed McDonald's food.