A journey....

12:03 PM

Daddy began his sabbatical on April 16th.
It was his goal to be more healthy during this time.
I decided to jump on board as well.

Embarassed by the photos that follow, but I feel like it needs to be documented (for me) how far I've come.
It's seriously a daily and hourly challenge.
I have not had pop since April, nor a candy bar....and I'm still here!

Here's my journey....30 lbs down as of yesterday, and hopefully 10 more to go!




Opening night! ;)

11:32 AM

Fiddler on the Roof began last night! ;) Surprisingly, Avery wasn't too nervous!
The night before for the dress rehearsal, there were about 200 patrons who came, so that seemed like the "real thing"!

All "made up" and ready to go!

In her villager costume! Ready for curtain call!

This is her "family" in the show. Her grandmother "took in" Avery and her siblings because their parents passed away. Avery named her character "Aliza".
This is what backstage looks like...nothing glamorous, just waiting for your scene to come up!
Here is all of the villagers from the show! Avery is about 5th from the left ;)
7 more shows to go!

How does your garden grow?

7:06 PM

Here is where my "garden" is these days....the extreme heat has really hurt some of what I attempted to grow, but there are still some items growing!

pumpkin

tomato

cucumber

green pepper

back to school shopping....

11:17 PM

It's hard to believe that in one month from today, I will be registering not one, but two of my girls in school.

To be honest, I'm kind of over summer. I'm not looking forward to the early morning struggles to get up, and get ready on time, but I do think the girls will really enjoy being at school and being busy!

I decided to take them to get their school supplies tonight! ;)

Silly girls! Olivia had just gotten over a crying fit over wanting to change her shirt into something pretty for the special occasion.... ;)

Going into Kindergarten

Going into 4th grade

Walmart was empty, so that was a good thing! ;)

so excited is she!


We got most everything on our list! It sure adds up, though, when there are 2 of them to buy for! Can't imagine families with lots of kiddos! yowza!

The birthday girl ;)

11:09 PM

My birthday girl, with her traditional lunch!
Good news though....usually once a day we are trying something new. Our goal is to have 5 new foods this summer. We're not doing to well with actually liking anything yet, but she is getting much better at trying them :)


Avery had a couple of gifts to open up on her actual birthday ;)

She and Olivia buy each other a figurine with their new age on it every birthday...a little tradition we started ;)


And, mommy and daddy gave Avery some cold hard cash that SHE can choose what to do with! :)


Thank you also to our family who sent gifts to her! She loved them all :)

One of Avery's requests on her special day, was to go see BRAVE.
So, us girls made a little date out of it ;) Good movie!

Daddy surprised us with letting us go out to our favorite Mexican palce for supper too! YUM YUM!

Avery finished out her day with going to Fiddler on the Roof practice.
The whole cast sang to her, and she brought a birthday treat to share too.


I think she is enjoying being 10 so far!

Happy 10th birthday, Avery!

4:25 PM

Avery, 10 years ago, on this July 12th, you were born! You are so very special, my sweet girl. The way you show kindness to others, your quiet spirit, your obedience, your love for learning....God made you so perfectly. I am blessed to be able to call you my child. I love you, to the moon and back, with all that is within me. Happy happy 10th birthday Avery!


I looked back at all of the posts I have done for Avery's birthdays over the years. Thought it would be fun to look at them all again: (we do friend parties every other year, so there are some years where 2 entries are listed ;)

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

Avery's Wizard of Oz 10th Birthday Party

6:09 PM

We had a fun time getting ready for Avery's party! We found tons of great ideas on pinterest.com and the hard part was deciding which ones to do! :)

Avery invited 10 of her friends, and here is what greeted them at their houses!

When the guests pulled up, they were greeted with a yellow brick road, and the Wicked Witch of the East's feet!


Dorothy came too, I guess!

Avery was so excited for the door sign...right out of the movie itself!
She helped make her very own sign to put at the edge of our driveway!
Favor bags for the girls! Avery made them each a rainbow friendship bracelet, lots of candies, free ice cream coupon, and a bookmark!
The birthday banner!

One of the food tables! Found all the blue and white gingham on clearance at Walmart, the baskets at dollar stores and good wills, the lanterns at some random store, and that picket fence has just been sitting in a box ready to be used! ;)

Wicked witch hats...fudge striped cookies with a hershey kiss attached with icing!
Wicked witch broomsticks....mini pretzel rods with banana laffy taffy!
I purchased Toto molds off of ebay, and melted hershey kisses and almond bark for these!
The other table! Saw the topiary idea on pinterest. Cupcake liners with pins!
Animal Crackers - the sign on the other side says "Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my!" ;)
Skittles...Avery's favorite!
Rice Krispie bars with yellow food coloring!
cute little water bottles matched the theme perfectly!
Funfetti cupcakes are always a hit!
Our first game was "melt the witch". I painted the witch with water colors, so when water balloons hit her, she would melt like in the movie.
Found the green grenade balloons, which were super hard to pop...



Follow the Yellow Brick Road relay race...







Pin the Ruby Red Slippers on Dorothy. I purchased some Wizard of Oz clip art off of etsy.com and enlarged it for this game!


Presents ;) The girls had a fun idea to have Avery open each gift up with her eyes closed, and then they would describe to her what the gift was! It was lots of fun!


Happy birthday to you Avery!

I planned for so many more girls, so we had lots of time left over. Avery and Nana came to the rescue and decided to teach the girls how to make tissue paper flowers and call them "poppies" from the movie.
Here is the crew!
Even with the small turnout, it was a fun party. Lots and lots of prep time, but suprisingly not a lot of money! Was it all worth it?

I went downstairs after the party, and saw that Avery wrote this:
totally worth it ;)

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