Happy Easter

Happy Easter! 

Photos credit to Van's Photography

Weekends are the BEST

We love weekends in this family. A time to relax and spend time with those you love! All week long, I wait for Friday like Christmas. I usually always have a great Friday, nothing can get me down because I know the weekend is coming! This weekend was no different..

from cruisin in the Barbie car...

to posing with pretty flowers...

And shooting some hoops...

You just can't beat weekends!

A Day at the Zoo

Charlie and I scheduled a few days off in the month of April to recharge. I should've been a school teacher because I need a break from work every couple of months! We had a fun day at the zoo, Avery loves all of the animals.

The Tiger was swimming and playing, fun to watch!

Avery's favorite part...the petting zoo!

She LOVES to feed the animals. "Mister Bull" (according to Charlie) was her favorite one to feed.

Here is the miniature horse that we were all too scared to feed. I felt sorry for him and tried once but as soon as I saw those big teeth, I threw the food at him and ran. Fun times!

Pretend

Avery is SO in to pretending lately. Here are a few of the things she has been pretending lately...

• "Mama, I'll be the mama, you be the baby."
• "Mama, I'm the pin-pess (princess), you be the King."
• "I'm the big bad wolf, you be the little piggies. I say "HEY LIL PIGGIES...LET ME IN!" You say "NOOOO WAY" Then I huff and blow you house down, k mama?"
• Frequently, Avery will be the only dog of the house, who Charlie has named Rufus. She stays in character (tongue hanging out, barking, the whole nine yards!) and even demands dog food. She is so funny!

I love that her imagination is taking off. It is so fun to play a part!

A Day at the Garden

We had a fun time last weekend going on a tour of the Coke museum at Biedenharn and Nonna got some great shots of Avery in their garden. Thanks so much, Nonna!

Avery's 3rd Birthday Party

I just realized I haven't upload the pics from my camera from Avery's 3rd birthday party. She had a blast running around at The Children's Museum. It went by in a flash, but I'm glad she had fun. :)

Hands down, her favorite part is the cafe...

Tinkerbell!

Digging in!

The loot!

Our Weekend

We've had a great weekend. I got caught up on lots of cleaning and organized Avery's playroom, once again. I had 2 bags full of stuff to get rid of. Boy, that is so hard for me. Seems like I have a memory attached to everything she has - esp. stuff animals! Charlie wanted to get rid of everything so we are a good balance for each other. It is SO hard for me to throw away her stuff. After all the cleaning, we took Avery to the new Chick fil A in town with an indoor play area. She LOVED her chicken nuggets and was SO excited when she realized she got to play after eating. She has never gone up a 'big kid' slide where you have to climb up lots of levels to get to the slide, without one of us with her. This time, she was SUCH a big girl. Definitely a first time mom, I never took my eyes off of her and when she disappeared into the slide I was pretty nervous. There were lots of big kids playing in the slide and i just didn't want her to get smashed! I heard a loud "Weeeee!" and out she came. Success! One time she came out crying and when we got home I asked her what made her cry. She said "a big boy spit on my head!" Just so happens, while she was playing, I heard another kid complaining to his mom about someone spitting. YUCK! I just don't know how I'm going to handle some nasty kid spitting on Avery. Of course, she cried much bigger tears when it was time to go!

I just love this adorable outfit that my grandma got Avery for her birthday. Avery was very upset with me today. She kept begging to "go see Grandma & Bogie" (Grandma's dog). I kept trying to explain that Grandma lives very far away and we have to get in the car for a very long time before we can see her. But she kept pulling on my leg saying "C'mon Mama, lets go see Grandma!!!"

The weather is fabulous here and Charlie grilled BBQ chicken and sausage. It was SO great. Avery loved being outside with her daddy in the gorgeous weather.

Looks like she's up to something... 

Chasing the neighbor's cats...

On Sunday, we were having yet another discussion about pooping. The 'discussions' are just not doing the trick. As Avery was squatting on the floor attempting to do her business, I questioned her about what she was doing and she replied, "Leave me 'lone, mama!" I know that response usually means one thing. I told her to go to the potty and when she refused she ran to hide from me! Thinking quickly, I told her that if she would use the potty, she could paint. She immediately came out from hiding and ran to the potty! She knows EXACTLY what she is doing! I took out the little paint set thinking it would be good for her to understand the reward she would get for using the potty. She tried and tried but to no avail. She was DEVASTATED that she couldn't use the paint. If it hadn't been for Charlie insisting I would've stood my ground. However, his theory is that it is 'pure evil' to hold something in front of her and not let her play with it if she's trying to use the bathroom but can't. I guess you can see who won...