Snowflake Lane

        Monday night we went over to Bellevue Square to see their Snowflake Lane show with our friends Christie and Ben.  They have a drum line perform, and have a lot of people dressed up as generic winter characters. Avery especially liked the winter fairy and the princesses.  At the end they make it "snow."  The snow was some kind of bubble concoction.  Avery loved it.  She kept trying to catch it.  

      I could not convince her to put her real winter coat on the whole night.  She chose some flimsy jacket to wear instead.  I carted her coat with me the whole time, offered it to her several times, and even tried to bribe her with chocolate.  But she wouldn't put it on.  Then she wouldn't let Ben put her down almost the entire time.  Thank goodness the program was only twenty minutes long.  That's why on our first attempt at a family picture Ben was in it holding Avery.  We had a great time though, and we could tell that Avery especially enjoyed being there even if she was turning into a popsicle.

Toddler with an attitude. 

The family picture that includes Ben.  Also you can see the coat that Avery should have been wearing the entire time.

Avery is trying to catch the "snow."

Like a deer in the headlights.  

A family picture without Ben.  He had to hide around the corner.  

Best friend picture!

Avery Uses the Stockings

I of course have been decorating for the holidays lately.  The stockings got left out for a day or two while I figured out where they were going to be hung.  During that time Avery discovered them, and figured they must belong on her feet.  They are stockings after all.  She was pretty funny walking around in them, but she was not pleased I was taking pictures of her with the stockings on.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we got to go to my brother Adam's and celebrate with his wife and her family.  Angie did a terrific job of making her very first turkey, and all the food was delicious.  The girls had a great time playing in the huge backyard, and with Adam their human jungle gym.  On our way back home we picked up Aimee and Tyler, so we could meet Karl at our house.  He had to work on Thanksgiving, so we just hung out that evening and enjoyed dessert.  The girls were so tired that we actually had to put them to bed before everyone left, which was a first.  It didn't help that for some reason they had felt moved to get up  at six-thirty that morning.

Avery and Adam dancing together, and Daryl's beautiful feet.

Us at the Thanksgiving table.

Avery dancing to Aladdin sans pants.

Avery and Tyler creating together.

Avery Decorates

The other week Avery must have decided that her room and the guest room were looking a little bland, so she spruced things up with some pictures of Minnie Mouse.  I thought it was really cute that she got colored construction paper to go behind the pictures as well.  I don't know where she comes up with these things.

Happy Birthday Avery!

Monday was Avery's fourth birthday.  We had a little birthday party for her the day before with Adam and Angie.  Karl came too without Aimee and Tyler because Mr. T had pinkeye.  He was missed.  For dinner we had one of Avery's favorites: pizza.  We got dough from our local pizza place and had everyone make their own personal pie.  This year Avery was very excited about cake and candles.  She could hardly wait until we stopped singing to blow out her candles.  Quite a contrast from last year when she tried to runaway when we started singing happy birthday.On her actually birthday we took Avery and Harper out to a bouncy house, and then we had some Jamba Juice.  Avery had a very fun birthday.  

Avery helping to roll out the pizza dough.

Avery and Harper getting some loves from their Uncle Adam.

Avery and her chocolate birthday cake.

Avery is wearing her Minnie Mouse scarf and gloves that she got from Adam and Angie while holding her new Belle doll she got from Aimee, Karl, and Tyler.

Avery and Harper playing with Avery's new Minnie Mouse kitchen.  I love their cake smeared faces.

Halloween Fun

This Halloween Avery really understood what was going on, and was excited to go trick-or-treating. Harper on the other hand was super grumpy from going weeks without some much needed naps.  Although she previously wore her ladybug costume without protest, she refused to put it on at all on Halloween.  We went to few houses in our area before heading down to Adam and Angie's  to go trick-or-treating.  Since Harper was tired and grumpy, she and I stayed at Adam and Angie's while Avery and Daryl went around their neighborhood.  Avery made quite a haul with several full size candy bars.  She also chose a beef stick as one of her treats.  We thought that was funny.  She apparently likes beef jerky. 

Harper wasn't not feeling the Halloween spirit.

Avery on the other hand was more than happy to get her picture taken several times.

Adam and Angie's place.  Avery liked the giant spider, and all the little spiders.

Everyone taking pictures.

The candy aftermath the next day.

Harper got everything Avery didn't like.  

Pumpkin Carving and Avery's Preschool Costume Party

Sunday night we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. Last week just ended up being very busy, and the pumpkins got put on the back burner.  Usually I like to search online for carving templates, but this year we just winged it.  Our friends Christie and Ben were over, and they graciously helped scoop pumpkin guts.  We also used a jigsaw to open up the pumpkins, and that helped speed up the carving process immensely.  Unfortunately we didn't realized that sd card wasn't in the camera when we took pictures of the actual carving process.  

Then today Avery's preschool class had a little costume party that their families were invited to of course.  It was very sweet.  Most of the kids dressed up, and we sang songs about Halloween.  Avery wasn't exactly thrilled to see us at first, so we had to hang back for a while before she figured it was alright that Mom, Dad, and Harper could be at school too. Her preschool teachers are just the best though, and we are so happy she's in that class.

Christie carved the perfect example of a classic pumpkin on the end.  That was Harper's pumpkin pick.  Avery's is the mutant pumpkin next to it.   I chose the giant pumpkin in the back, and Daryl's is on the end.  The white pumpkin we got for fun.

Here they are in the light.  You can see the Avery and Daryl's pumpkin's are bumpy.  Those bumpy pumpkins had a really tough rind.  They were hard to carve.

Avery was dressed up as Rapunzel.

Here's the whole class.  

Both Daryl and I really liked that one of the teacher's played guitar for them at circle time.

Avery Takes it Easy

Lately I've noticed that Avery has really been taking advantage of the cup holder built into her little princess camping chair.  Instead of putting her beverage of choice in it though, she has been putting chips and other little snacks in it, so she can sit back with a book and do some light eating.

Happy Fifth Birthday Tyler

Today our nephew Tyler turned five.  He had his birthday party last Saturday at the bouncy place at the Supermall.  The kids loved it of course.  Harper went down the big slide three times in a row with me.  When we went up the smaller slide I made her go by herself though.  We got Tyler a lego space shuttle, but apparently the random bow I found in the closet and decided to stick on his wrapped present quite thoughtlessly was his favorite part of the present.  He toted the bow around the rest of the night.

Avery did enjoy herself. This was one of the few times she didn't slide down on her tummy.

Aimee's niece, Peyton, was really taken with Harper. 

The Cars themed cake.

Tyler in the birthday throne.

This is the bow that Tyler fell in love with. Christmas I'll make sure to just give him a bag of bows.

Harper Potty Trains Her Dolly

   The other day I heard a ruckus coming from the bathroom, and saw Harper helping her doll use the toilet.  We've set Harper on the toilet a few times, and we certainly have been working with Avery to sit on the toilet.  So it comes to no little surprise that Harper would like to potty train her doll.  Since this time I've caught her also trying to potty train our plush Flynn Rider doll from Tangled, and that didn't go so well.  Harper must have thought Flynn didn't need the training seat.  Instead she put him feet first into the toilet.  Now we get to see if he will survive a thorough trip the washing machine.

Do you like how she's trying to undress her doll?

Fortunately the doll didn't fall into the toilet.  

Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday we headed out to the pumpkin patch.  It was unexpectedly cold. At our house it is always windy since we live right by the ocean, so most of the time when we go out we don't expect there to be wind like there is at our house. The wind must have followed us to Redmond though.  It was really chilly, and we were very happy to get in the car when we were done.  Despite the wind we still had a great time, and the girls enjoyed picking out their pumpkins.  Hopefully pumpkin carving pictures will be up soon!

It was hard to get them both looking at me at the same time, and  Avery wanted to stick her entire head through the hole as you can see.

Gotta have  more cowbell!

Avery and Harper playing some "found" musical instruments.

Look I'm a scarecrow.  With a slightly scary toothy grin there.

Our hayride around the farm.

Avery eventually sat on Daryl's lap to leech his warmth, but Harper insisting on sitting by herself the entire hayride.