Avery's 9th Birthday!!!!

I'm not sure how it's possible...but our sweet little Avery turned 9!

Her actual birthday fell on Mother's Day this year (lucky me!), 

so we celebrated her birthday all weekend long.

She had some friends spend the night on Friday....

Kelsey, Bailey and Hannah....

We had pizza for dinner. (Avery's choice!)

Annalise got to have her buddy Ella over, too!  (This worked out well for EVERYONE!)

After dinner, Avery wanted to tie-dye t-shirts.  She was able to tell Mark ahead of time what she wanted and he designed and printed them for her.  They turned out great!!!

BEFORE.....

And AFTER.....

Then Avery opened presents and the girls had ice cream sundaes.....

The girls didn't stay up TOO late....they watched a movie and played some games.  The next morning they played in their "secret spot" outside near the creek for a while before it was time to go home.

Their shirts faded a little in the wash...but they still looked cool and everyone was still smiling!

Saturday was also Avery's last soccer game.  And even though she couldn't play with her cast, she wanted to be there for the last game.  Both to cheer the girls on and to celebrate her birthday with cupcakes for the team! (She was just a LITTLE tired after the sleepover!!!)

We figured that dinner out the night BEFORE Mother's Day might be a touch less busy, 

so she chose her usual....Olive Garden! :)  No complaints from anyone here!!!

And the day of her ACTUAL birthday....she got to open her presents.....

And we shared a Birthday/Mother's Day Grasshopper Pie from Baskin-Robbins!

Happy Birthday Avery! 

We love you so very much and are so proud of the lovely young lady you are becoming.  

You make us smile and bring such joy to our lives each and every day.

A Day At The Park

It was a beautiful spring day and we all needed a little "outside" time!

And with Avery "out of commission" with the cast...we had to take it easy.

So we decided to head to Hovander Park!

It was a great day to take a walk along the river and check out the upcoming spring gardens!

I love these girls!  We are so lucky to have so much time together as a family!!

It's a Fracture

The week after Hawaii Avery was anxious to get back to soccer!

At her first practice back, she fell and fractured her arm.

Just above the wrist.

We iced it and gave her ibuprofen that night....we called the doctor and tried to see if they could get her in...."just in case".  But....she seemed totally fine...it wasn't really swollen and ibuprofen seemed to knock out the pain.  So...I gave her another ibuprofen and sent her to school in the morning.  

The doctor could see her at 3:00...that seemed reasonable.

It was fitness testing day in P.E. for Avery.  She told her teacher that she had hurt her arm at soccer practice the night before and that she didn't know how many push-ups she would be able to do.  Turned out it wasn't any....it hurt a whole bunch.

Then....at the doctor later that day....

she confirmed it was fractured.  Mom of the Year Award!!!

We would be going back in the morning to get the cast.

Avery was hoping for pink.

She had to settle for her second choice.....

And the kid is STILL smiling!!!!!!!!!!!

(Well...until the NEXT day when we went BACK to the doctor to get the cast re-done...her thumb was all wonky and she couldn't bend her elbow the entire way.  Apparently the new doctor made her wrist "look like a club".  She wouldn't let me take a picture.  There were a lot of tears.)

The novelty of the cast wore off fairly quickly!!!

Luckily it was a quick 3 weeks!

Cama Beach

It's been 2 years since we've been to Cama Beach.

I can't believe we waited so long!

It's such a COOL place!!!

We got the same Happy Campin' crew to go back.

We arrived on Friday night...it looked like we were going to be there for a week.  

Nope...just the weekend.

 The sun was starting to set as we were waiting for the shuttle to take us down to the cabin.

So pretty!!!

The next day the weather was UNBELIEVABLE!!!  We truly lucked out!  

The sun was shining and it was amazing!

We hung out by the cabins a lot.

We were lucky enough to see LOTS of marine life swimming by in the water....gray whales, porpoises, seals and even a pod of orcas.  So AWESOME!

We went and did some more boat building, too!

The masterpieces!! (The little boats, not the big one! ;) )

And they even float!!

 

We headed back to play on the beach, have some dinner and hang out by the campfire.

We were all tired after such a fun and busy day!

Another great trip to Cama Beach!  We're definitely not going to let another 2 years go by before we go back!  We had a wonderful weekend!

Spring Swimming Lessons

We thought it would be a good idea to get Annalise in the water again before we left for Hawaii, 

so we signed her up for swimming lessons at the YMCA.  

These are the same lessons Avery took when she was Annalise's age at the 

Super 8 Hotel in Ferndale.  

It's a weird place for lessons, but it seems to work okay.

And by the end of 8 sessions, she was doing pretty well!  Putting her face under and jumping right in the pool.  She was ready for some pool time in Hawaii! Way to go Annie!!!

A Little Catching Up.....

I've been slacking on the blog posts!!!!  

It's so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day activities and chores and leave the "extras" behind!  But whenever I pull up the blog it makes me smile....seeing all the pictures and remembering what we've done.  

Needless to say...posting to the blog shouldn't be an "extra"!  

So....here's a little catching up.....

We had a quick weekend visit from Geoff and Robin at the beginning of March!

Robin was a good sport and let Annalise "do" her hair.  Gorgeous!!

We even got to have some of the Happy Campers over to play with us!

It was great to see everyone!!!

The girls finally had a day with not a lot going on so they opened up the Science Kit Annalise got for Christmas and did some experiments!!!

It was a little goopy feeling......ewwwww.....

Still fun though!  A good day for a little science!!!