My Little Angel is 5!

Ok, now that we're back from vacation, I figured I post about Avery's bday party from the 10th before our vacation details.

Avery had a great time. This year, we decided to make it a 'kid friends' only party. So, she picked about 7 or so kids (and their parents) from school and then we had 'non-school' friends (and their parents). She's the only summer bday, so she gets the swim/cook-out party over at grandma and papa's. Everyone swimmed, ate burgers and hotdogs, and had loads of fun. And we got an extra surprise because I thought my family wasn't going to be able to make the trip. They called the night before while I was away making the cake to let me know they would be here, but Jim forgot to tell me. So, it was a nice surprise to me the day of the party.

The highlight of the party actually happened before the party. See, I've had all the kids' bday cakes made by a friend of mine (who does an incredible job!) or by me (who does a decent job). I was so disappointed in the cake I bought for Ian's first bday, I decided no more. Well, after 6 years of having all the cakes made, I decided maybe I would go ahead and just buy one this year for Avery. Then I decided I just couldn't do it. It's kinda become a tradition now. Therefore, I decided to make my first icecream cake.

I needed to make it over at my in-laws so that Avery wouldn't see it and so that it would already be in the freezer. I wish I could go into every single detail of that evening and the next day. Hilarious doesn't cover it. The cake was supposed to be a sandcastle icrecream cake. It ended up looking like a sandcastle AFTER the big wave hit it. My MIL was laughing so hard I thought we were going to have to take her to the hospital. Needless to say, we had tons of fun making it. And you know what?! It tasted awesome and Avery loved it!

Avery's 'big' gifts were her violin, by mom and dad, and purple dress to wear while 'playing' the violin, made by grandma. She was thoroughly excited and missed both her violin and her dress while we were on vacation.

Another birthday gone. Another wonderful year with her has passed so quickly. I love you, sweet Avery!

Avery loves being thrown in the water
The dog cage was a big hit for the kids too!

Avery and her cousin enjoying a ride on the alligator
Grillin' Papa

Avery in her purple dress ready to play her new violin
THE cake! Remind you of Amatyville Horror House?
This was an extra special gift from Grandma and Papa that arrived after we got home from vacation!!!! Was actually a gift for all the kids. Wahoo!!

Catch Up Time

Summer is going pretty good so far. Ian is doing extended year and has 2 more weeks left. Since its from 8am-2:00pm, that leaves a lot of time spent with Avery and Ben together. They always play really well together and I think have enjoyed their time. But it's always nice to hear, "when will Ian be home?".

This past week, Avery did a Princess Ballerina day camp Monday-Thursday. She really enjoyed it and looked darn cute! They had a 30 second 'recital' the last day. Avery completely froze. Oh well. She was still cute.

We took Avery and Benjamin to a nearby mini-aquatic park. It's a great way to beat the 98 degree heat without having to endure the bigness of a water park. Of course, Benjamin waited that day to have his first poop until about 10 minutes after he'd been playing in the water. No biggy. Just changed and went on as usual. They've also been swimming in the little backyard pool. That's a nice easy way to beat the heat as well.

Of course, they've all been swimming at Grandma's a few times. And of course, I forgot to take pictures each time. I always like to get their 'first swim' of the summer. So, pics will say first swim, but it'll actually be later. Who'll know?!

We've gone to visit my family once since school's been out. My newest niece is just adorable.

Jim leaves for Chicago to visit his dad next week for a week. So, I'm planning my 'time alone' today at the pool. No kids, no noise, just me.

My niece on Jim's side left yesterday to live with her dad. It was a sad day. I won't go into how all worked out that way, but I'm sure if she's going to live with her dad, you can guess the jest of the reason why. I know it's absolutely the best thing for her. She's actually been living with Grandma and Papa for quite some time now, which has been great. But life was just too 'unknown' and topsy-turvy here. I know she would have rather stayed here and stayed living with them, but she needed to get away and start a new, stable life. We'll still see her when she comes back to visit, but it's just strange now to know that we won't see her as often. I'm just thankful for the closeness of our relationship. Rambling now.

I get a mom's night out tonight! So excited. These are some new mom friends that I don't get too see all at once too often, and they are so much fun. Looking forward to it.

I think that's about it.

Catchup

Okay, catch up time. I'm probably missing stuff, but this is what I have time for right now. Although Benjamin isn't in any of the pictures, he's been doing a lot. He's starting to say single words more frequently. He'll say 'mooooorrrrrre', 'dink', 'bite', 'bath', 'dowwwwwn', 'hi', 'bye'. He elongates about everything he says. I hear that's the way is supposed to be done here down south. A 1 second word becomes a 5 second word. Anyhoo, he's doing good. We had an orthotics appointment a few weeks ago. He'll get his SureSteps in about a month. Hopefully that will help get him walking a bit stronger. His knees buckle a lot and his feet pronate a bit. I can't wait to see him in them. I got them with dinosaur print. Okay, so on with the pictures:



My niece got married in April...little late in announcing. She was such a beautiful bride. Look young? That's because she was only 19. (She's 20 now). She's also now pregnant. Can you say honeymoon baby? If she's startin' this young, I expect her to pop out a bunch of babies! Seriously, so hard to think of her as a mom. She seems to have grown up so fast. She'll be a great one though.

Ian lost his tooth a few weeks ago. LITERALLY LOST IT! We have no idea where it is. We just happened to notice his hand and mouth were bleeding. I thought he made his finger bleed by chewing. But then Jim noticed the tooth missing. (Doesn't it seem kinda early for him to be loosing teeth?) We had noticed over the last month that his two middle bottom teeth were spreading apart more. Now we know why. I just hope I don't find that tooth somewhere. I do NOT do well with the whole loose tooth, pull tooth thing! When I taught 3rd grade, that's the one thing I couldn't handle. It's not a gross thing to me. It's more of a "fingernails across a chalkboard type thing." Can't explain it, but it gives me chills just writing about it.


Okay, so the niece got married in April. My nephew (from the same sister as mom to my niece) just got married last weekend. Yes, my sister is quite a bit overwhelmed at becoming a MIL twice and finding out she's going to be a grandmother! This is a picture of Avery and my other niece (from my other sister). Avery was quite the hoot. My niece was the flower girl in both weddings. Cute thing is the dress she is wearing belongs to my oldest niece (that just got married). It's the same dress she (oldest niece) wore in mine and Jim's wedding. Confused yet?


This is my handsome nephew and his new bride. His wedding was a lot of fun. He is 26 and is such a good kid. Not perfect. But he is definitely a family guy. He still hugs and kisses all over his mom and his aunts. I'm really proud of him.


This is my brave Avery. Just last year I couldn't even get her off me in the pool. Now she's jumping all by herself. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her when she has her legs bent and stretched like a frog! We left her at my sister's to spend the week with her cousin after we came back home from the wedding. I go get her today. She's had a lot of fun, but is ready to come home.

Another thing going on is we started the Folic Acid a few months ago for Ian. I'm not sure our neurologist understands much about it. I gave him the info. from the FRAXA sight (Hagerman's stuff). If anyone would like to post a comment to me about how they went about with their dosing, feel free. We're up to 3 (1 mg) pills twice a day. We've worked our way up to that, and will move on to 4 (1 mg) pills next week. Right now the pills are working fine with Ian, but as we move up I don't think it's going to be a great option. But our dr. doesn't seem to know how to get it compounded to a liquid. Like I said, I don't think he's ever gone this route before with his other patients. From what I've read from some, it doesn't seem like an easy process???? Thoughts????