Avery's Second Birthday!!!

Avery turned two last month!! It was a long time coming for her, as she wanted it to be her birthday ever since Ollie had his birthday in November. She loved planning her little "party", and even picked out her decorations and party favors (funny story there - she picked Tinkerbell decorations and lollipops that were shaped like tanks and jets!) We went to Farr's Fresh Ice Cream Shop to celebrate on the day of her birthday, I reccomend everyone try this new ice cream shop - it is different from the traditional Farr's ice cream but very good in its on rite. We then had a birthday party with family for her the weekend following her birthday. We did a pasta bar - very yummy - with rhodes parmesan rolls and a homemade version of the Olive Garden salad dressing. Avery was smiling from ear to ear the whole time, she felt very special. When it was time to open presents, she pointed to the pile of gifts and said, "Ollie's?" Needless to say she was excited to find out they were all for her!!
I almost forgot to mention this, but the picture above of Avery covered in shredded paper was one of the activities that Ave got to do for her birthday. Everyone kept asking me what Avery likes to do and what kinds of toys she likes, hoping for some inspiration for birthday presents. I would answer everyone with simply, "She just really likes to make messes these days (of course, she is a two year old!)" This got me thinking about what we could do to make her special day a little more special, and decided I would let her make a BIG mess! She really enjoyed it too - we searched for things in the paper, "swam" in it, and threw it at each other. It wasn't so bad to clean up that day, but a few weeks later in a weak moment both Avery AND Oliver asked to play in the paper, and two kids playing in paper make a much larger mess than one!

What's wrong with this picture?

Jed is trying to start a new onesie style I think!!

I have to brag about Avery - today Oliver was counting (he days left until Christmas I think), and he started 1-2-3-4-5-6, and then paused. Avery chimed in, "7-8-9-10-11-12." What?! She isn't even two years old yet and she can count to 12!? What else is in her little brain that we don't know about yet?

Catch-up

I haven't blogged in a while, so bear with me...this could be a long post! BTW - happy thanksgiving to everyone - I am morally opposed to skipping over Thanksgiving and going straight into Christmas without a mention, but I did not take any pics on Thanksgiving (Maybe because I was coking all day - it was a blast and so yummy!), but when I borrow pictures from my father-in-law I will give Thanksgiving the attention it deserves. For now, this will have to do!

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to Temple Square to see the lights, as well as Gateway. We ate out (it's a good thing, because I was DONE cooking for the rest of the weekend!), then rode the TRAX train up to Temple square. The train ride was Avery's favorite part of the night - the second we stepped off, she started saying, "again, again." She talked about it the whole time we were walking around seeing lights, the nativity, etc. After our ride back, she was a bit sad to say goodbye to the train for good! The tree at Gateway was lit as well, and the fountain was going, "dancing" to all your favorite Christmas tunes! It was a bit chilly, but nothing like the weather is now. Good times! I was exhausted by the end of the night because of my 4:00 AM "Black Friday" shopping rendesvous at Walmart, Home Depot, and Shopko, but it was worth it!

Flash Forward to this last weekend: We went to the Festival of trees, where Oliver and his cousin Kade got to make crafts in the kiddie korner. The kids loved all the themed trees and gingerbread houses too. Avery decided that day that she would truly become a two year old, terrible and all. She "asserted her independence" all day, which is really quite fun in public! Check the pictures - there is a really good one of her during one of her fits! Wendy, me, and the kids all ate at Spaghetti Mama's afterword.

Then on Saturday, we had our "Meatball" holiday party at our house. I got the idea of a meatball party from my cousin Mark - it is an annual tradition for he and his wife, and it sounded so fun that I thought we would give it a whirl. Basically, a meatball party is an appetizer party where everything is ball-shaped. Everyone got really creative with their recipes and it was super-yummy - chicken cordon bleu balls, sweet and sour meatballs, mozzerella balls, truffles, bleu cheese and bacon stuffed mushrooms, rice balls, grape balls, and ice cream balls. A bonus to the meatball party over a regular appetizer party is that the food is its own conversation piece - the jokes never ended! It was great to get together with all our friends and celebrate the holiday season.

Oliver's Self-Portrait

I love it!! The colorful thing on the right is a pack of smarties, and if you notice there is some orange by his mouth. He informed me this is because he is eating an orange smartie.

Help Me Build!!

This is Avery's new favorite phrase - whenever she needs help with anything, she says "Help me build." It is so cute!! Other things about her right now:
-She loves to sing
-She can name virtually all the candies in her Halloween bag by their real name!
-She repeats the last two words of every sentence Oliver utters.
-She is really into play doh and stickers right now
-When she doesn't want to go to bed, she tells us she is "happy." I explained to her tonight that even happy girls and boys have to sleep so their bodies can grow, and she said, "shoot." That was that!

Oliver is 5!!!!

Oliver had his fifth birthday last week (OMG!!!), and just like Halloween, the celebration seemed to go on for a week! Lucky kid! We celebrated his big day as a family on the actual day (last Thursday. Jed took the day off, and Oliver pretty much played with toys and his dad all day. He did go to preschool that day too, where he got to be king, show off some pictures of himself, and share a treat. In his own words, "You also get to do all the stuff," which I think means you get to be the leader for the weather, the pledge, etc. His teacher also sent home a cute little bag of goodies to make him feel special. We had a Yoda cake at home for dinner, and Jed cooked up some #5 grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner (Oliver requested a birthday dinner last minute, had to think fast, and got out the #5 cookie cutters - phew!) He had quite a few visitors that day too. We decided we would show Oliver one of the old Star Wars movies on the night of his birthday as he is very interested in Star Wars, and even chose it as the theme of his birthday party, despite the fact that he has never watched a minute of any Star Wars show. Still trying to figure out where he has gotten his Star Wars knowledge from...but anyway, we made it through about 15 minutes, and he said he wanted to play with his toys and that was that! He wasn't scared, so it must have been boredom that caught up with him! We'll have to try again soon :) We had his party with all his little friends on Saturday afternoon, and it was a blast. Oliver was so excited for it. We had decorated the basement with black tablecloths hanging around to inclose the room, then stars hanging from the ceiling to make it feel like "a galaxy far, far away." We put together some cute little clone trooper and darth vader guys that I found on the internet - they were a really cool, cheap party favor, but the kicker was each one took about an hour to put together. I am a little crazy, so yes, with Jed's help I put together 12 of the little things. We played some fun games including pod racing, save the princess, hot lava, and astroid hunting, then ate a Star Wars lunch complete with light sabers (corn dogs), Vader taters (french fries), and Yoda soda (lime sherbet floats). It was a great production, and after we just cleaned up the mess at our leisure - you can do that when it is in your basement and not in your primary living space (very convenient). Oliver had more guests to visit him through the weekend, and Sunday night, after all was said and done, he asked me, "Now what are we going to do tomorrow?" I think he would have the celebrations go on with no stops in between - that is the beauty of a kid. I am glad for a little break before Thanksgiving, Ave's birthday, and Christmas! But I am getting excited for all of those too now....more to look forward to.

Happy Halloween

Let me just get confession out of the way...I have been a blog-slacker the last month or so!! But I have been busy too, so something has got to give! I know it is late, but here is a run-down of our Halloween celebrations (seriously, I think it went on all week!) We had a great kid party at Nicole's house - she got the week kicked off with painting pumpkins and decorating cupcakes. Then we got booed (with a treat, it is a good thing even though it sounds bad!), so Oliver helped me make caramel popcorn to do the next round of booing. He took it upon himself to draw and cut out a ghost for every popcorn we had (four of them, plus one for me because they were so cute). I mention this part because Oliver has really blossomed as an artist recently. He is spending a lot of time these days coloring and creating things, and it is one of the things I enjoy most as a mother to see how he recreates the things he sees in his life. He also did an amazing self-portrait this last week. I'll post it in its own post. Anyway, he and I went out after dark to deliver all the treats, and he LOVED it because we had to be sneaky to avoid the neighbors seeing who was booing them. It turned out to be a great family activity. We carved pumpkins the same night we did our booing (I think it was Wednesday) - and we had some great jack-o-lanterns this year. Jed did a classic Jack, Avery wanted a cat, and Oliver picked out a really cool monster thing from his book. I was very nervous to cut it out for him, but it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I also did a Dora the Explorer for my pumpkin. Jed baked up some pumpkin seeds for us too, and they were the BEST pumpkin seeds we've ever had!! I think we will do a second batch they were so good. Next came Trunk-or-treat on Friday. You actually have to decorate your trunk for trunk or treat, so Oliver and Avery made some ghosts out of napkins earlier in the day, and we strung them up in our trunk. It was our first trunk or treat ever, and everyone had a great time. After we got done, the kids came home and dumped out their candy in piles, and just started playing with it. The didn't really ask to eat any (I think they had one piece that night), they just kept playing with it. Oliver sorted it by candy type, and Avery made a little "nest" with her blanket and put all the candy inside, then she sat on it! So cute! The next night was the real Halloween, and we visited my family, then headed up to Sharma's for Chili and rolls before trick-or-treating in her neighborhood. We also went to the Harry Potter house before calling it a night!