It Was a Zoo Day!

Dylan LOVES the zoo! So lucky for him, we had a birthday party at the Phoenix Zoo today. We've been going or hosting birthday parties every weekend since the last weekend of February and this was the finale. What a way to end the season. :) Well...not a complete end, but a break. ;)

The party didn't start until 10:30am so we met up with our friends, the birthday boy's fam, beforehand to see some of the animals. Strapped with a fully loaded double stroller

we headed to the giraffes first while Ava hung out in the stroller eating her breakfast. We wove through the paths heading toward the children's area. Dylan found this climbing area he loved!

 Ran hung out with Ava...

The party was in this great covered area that overlooked the duck/turtle pond and the monkey island.

Birthday boy, David, and his family!

We ate pizza and played in this nice breezy area. The kiddos made monkey visors then did the traditional birthday celebratory things. :)

David, Dylan and Cameron

Dylan and Christine opening their goody bags!

Dylan got the polar bear!

What was Ava doing during all of this?

She was being social. :)

Our last stop was a little ride on the carousel. Ava watched while Dylan and Randy tried it out. Last time Dylan tried a carousel, he was so serious!

August 2011

Today...March 2012

It's amazing how much these kiddos change! I think this kid is ready for Disney! :)

All the kiddos from the party were also on the carousel, but I only got Michelle and Christine. Oh wait...you can see the birthday boy family in the background. :)

Again, what was Ava doing? Well she had just woken up from a snooze on Randy so she was waving at all of our friends. :)

When we got home, everyone crashed! Eventhough both kids fell asleep in the car, they still went down for 3 hour naps! Dylan even chose to go straight to bed from the car. This is very rare!

So by 5pm, everyone was rested but still lagging from our fun-filled sunny zoo day. We need to do this more often!

Dylan wraps up our month of birthdays!

He was the last of the March birthdays and I think we went out with a bang! :) Yesterday Grammy and I took Dylan to see his first movie in a movie theater, The Lorax. Ava was napping with a sitter so we had no worries regarding her. :) We were lucky to have a nice size group of friends join us in the fun.

He did such a good job! He sat very still and was into the movie for the first hour. After that, he needed a little encouragement, my lap and some stand-up time. Overall though, the movie was successful. 

After all of the grandparents got in town, it was time to open presents. He has been waiting to open presents for weeks now. We've been to so many birthday parties that he was ready for his own presents. :)

"I'm going to play with this everyday!"

After getting a hockey helmet, he wore it while opening the rest of his gifts. LOL!

The trampoline is going to be great for hot summers and cold winters! Thanks Oma and Opa!

Today was Dylan's birthday party!! Being that today is the best Irish day of the year, St. Patrick's Day, we had to really go big with Dylan's party! It also had to be different from Ava's party since that was last weekend. We started by renting a bounce house to keep the kids occupied. :)

The kiddos seemd to be having a good time!

I also had a bunch of eats for the kiddos and the adults. :)

All of the sweets plus an adult beverage. ;)

We also had real food including Subway sandwich, chips & salsa and my favorite Pinterest party day discovery...

Fruit Rainbow!

My rainbow had double the amount of fruit!! I love this idea!

Dylan went to bed late last night so he had waves of pure happiness and times of emotion. When it was time for cake...he was ready. He needed a sugar pick-me-up!

A little later, we had the happy Dylan back opening up his gifts!

This could be a weapon against Ava.

Hockey/bike pads!

Before everyone left, Dylan decided to dress in full hockey gear!

Thank you everyone for coming to celebrate with us! Dylan had a wonderful birthday!!

March Birthday Madness!!

Wow! We are in the middle of birthday madness over here! It all started with Ava's birthday last Friday and her party on Sunday. Her first birthday party went very well! We had a bunch of friends over, yummy eats and lots of laughter. All ingredients for any successful party.

Welcome to our home!

My first attempt at cake pops!

Cupcakes are always yummy, but I bought way too many! :)

Let's Party!

We set up a backyard of fun for all the kiddos to play.

Lovin on daddy!

 If you remember from Ava's actual birthday, she wasn't a big fan of the icing on her cupcake. Well, she did the same thing with her birthday cake. I stuck her hand right in the center.  She looked at it then cried. LOL!

Dylan enjoyed his cupcake though. :)

She wasn't into actually opening the gifts, but once she saw what they were and heard any type of music they made, she was hooked. She loves the baby dolls! Dylan helped me open all the gifts. :)

We had a good time! She ran around as little Ms. Independent and enjoyed it all! Well...maybe all, but the frosting. LOL!

Next up...Randy's birthday tomorrow. I've got gifts to wrap and a cake to make. My brother's birthday is Thursday...I need to order his gift. :) And finally...Dylan's birthday on Friday! He will be having a St. Paddy's birthday party so this week is still full of planning and organizing. I'm looking forward to all of the green shamrock fun!

My Sweet Girl is 1!

Ava's first birthday was today! I can't believe a year has gone by already! I remember going into teach my kinders on this day last year, but having a feeling that Ava would be joining us.

This was taken two days before..

She gave me contractions all morning. At about 12:45pm, I had to pause while reading my kiddos a book because the contractions got a bit more intense. That was the point that I called the doctor and left school a little early. The doc didn't think she was coming that day. He thought I just needed fluids. HA! I was admitted to the hospital at 4pm for those fluids and she was born at 6:17pm. Randy walked into the OR as Ava was being lifted right out of my belly. My mom was speeding from San Diego trying to make it in time.

She has been such an easy baby, but her "baby" days are coming to an end. :( There are some great things about this, but at the same time...she was/is such a cute baby.

She woke up this morning as her happy little self. Her hair is so funny right now because she has a reverse mullet. If I don't tie it up then she has a curtain in front of her eyes. So today I decided to try pigtails. :)

The problem with this is that then I decided she needed to wear matching bows. On any other day, she could have sported plain ponies and it would have been fine, but today was her birthday so I decided to make some bows at 8:30am while drinking my coffee. Crazy I know!

While I was working with the glue gun, Ava was running around and teasing Dylan just enough to have him lose it. It starts very young. Yikes!

We knew we were meeting up with our Friday friends so Dylan wore his backpack for about an hour until we left. I wanted to make sure Ava had a special day even if she wasn't going to remember any of it. :)

 We headed over to our friends' house for some play time at the park then at their house. Ava loved just running around without a care in the world. Dylan was able to play with his friend, David, while also exerting LOTS of energy. Love this!

As always, a good time was had by all! After a nice long nap and trip to get cupcakes, it was time for Ava's celebration.

After dinner, we gave sang Happy Birthday to Ava and gave her the birthday cupcake.

She didn't like how the icing felt on her finger. LOL! We'll see how she does with her cake on Sunday! :)

Next up...gifts!

I just put them in bags to make it easy for her. I think she like the bags more than the toys at first. :)

Daddy, I'm so excited!

Look...I've got a remote control of my own!

The hardest part for Dylan was letting Ava try out her new toys. He wanted to try them all out as if they were his gifts. He asked a couple times if he was getting presents next Friday. Don't worry Dylan, we won't forget your birthday. ;)

We had a pretty good first birthday! Now just wait for the party on Sunday! I'm ready for the madness! :)