Drawing, Painting, Baking

Here are just a few random thoughts and photos from the past few weeks...

Avery is working so hard lately on her drawing and coloring! She is having fun making circles and lines! I have some dry-erase pages that she enjoys "practicing" on.

Avery took it upon herself to put some goggles on while she was coloring the other day and says to me "Mom, I can color SO good with these gobblers on" I turned around to figure out what she was talking about and about tipped over laughing! "yes, dear, your gobblers sure do help you color SO good"!

Last week Avery made sure to make "Feel Better" cards for Great Grandma Lucy after her surgery, Auntie Sarah because she fell out of the attic, and Brayden who had an ear infection. She is always thinking of those around her and checking in on the people she loves, it makes me a proud mama!

She will also sit for an hour completely focused if she has paint and paintbrushes in front of her! Here are a few photos from the past few weeks of our little lady with her paint shirt on!

Baking is one thing that Avery gets excited about every time! She can't every get her apron on fast enough (speaking of aprons, I need to get her a few more... one for home, one to stay at the Murray's and one for Grandma's house). She is serious about her baking and I love it -- I just wish I was better at it, but she is encouraging me to learn... so, I do my best to find new recipes to try and cross my fingers and say a prayer every time I put something into that damn over that when I take it out -- it's at least edible! Seriously... baking IS NOT one of my natural talents! We tried making Ice Cream Bread... yes, a 2 ingredient bread.

Here is the recipe:

                                     

We used vanilla ice cream and added in a few chocolate chips just for fun! I could hardly believe my eyes when it looked like bread as we pulled it out of the oven! And then, we tasted it I made the girls taste it first to see if it was edible... and when they were begging for more I decided to have a bite. It was surprisingly good for throwing some ice cream and flour in a pan!

Another funny thing she said to me as she was finishing up her lunch was "Mommy, I am so strong because all of my milk is in my tummy," as she flexed her muscles! What a goof!

Little Gymnast

Avery had gymnastics tonight and decided that she was "not in the mood" for it or some crazy thing. She did some of the things during class, the way she wanted to, but mostly we watched her friends all do what they were supposed to do. We made it through class without any major melt downs, but holy cow, I was ready to take my stubborn kid out of there! (Yikes!) We got in the car and I asked her why it was so hard to do gymnastic tonight. She replied "Well Mom, someone forgot to feed me dinner!"
In my defense, she did sleep until 5:30 and I had to wake her up from her nap to go! So, after getting some dinner in her belly she was a happy camper!

We got home and she was ALL about gymnastics! She set up a "big gym" in her room and her and all of her animals were doing gymnastics before bed!

Swimming at Safari Island

Cullen had the day off of school, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get out of the house and take a field trip! We haven't been swimming for a really long time, but I wasn't sure if taking them alone was a great idea since Avery and Emma haven't been in SO long and I had no idea what to expect from them (as far as staying close, not going too deep, changing all four of them in and out of swimming suits by myself...). I happened to talk to Paige earlier the previous week and she mentioned that she had this Monday off as well, so I asked her if she would want to come and hang out with me and the kiddos for the day... she jumped right on board! So we went to the Waconia Safari Island Community Center when the pool opened at 10:30 and swam the morning away! Everyone was so well behaved and we all had a lot of fun! We even stayed long enough for the water slide to open, so Kinsley and Cullen had a few turns going down while the girls dried off before we left! I knew leaving, that no one would make it all the way home awake, so we stopped for lunch half way home and then all I had to do was carry them in when we got back home and tuck them into bed!

Christmas with Rachael

We FINALLY got to see Rachael!!! Our last Christmas gifts have sat under the table in our living room for weeks waiting to be given to Rachael! We have both been so busy and our schedules have just not worked out... but almost a month after Christmas was over - it happened! Rachael came over for lunch and a little Christmas gift exchange! Avery was VERY excited to her and give her the gifts she had made! Rachael got Avery an adorable book about color mixing and a game to go along with it! After opening gifts, we had lunch and then Avery went down for her nap! Rachael and I had plenty of time to visit and catch up! It was so good to see her!

Ice Castle

Jodie planned a weekend trip for all of us girls and our families to go see the Ice Castles in Eden Prairie. We met at 5:30 at the ice castle, more like 6:30 once we all parked and walked a half mile to get in... yikes! Then, once we were in line, we were told it was about a 2 hour wait to get tickets... well, we were already there, so we decided to wait! Avery and Harper did a great job being patient in line, Jace was sleeping all snuggled up in Jessa's arms and the rest of us were fine visiting! 

There was a princess who stopped to see the girls and fire throwers who put on a show for us as we waited in line which held our attention enough to not turn around and leave!

Once we got closer to the castle, the ground was covered in ice! IT WAS TERRIBLE!! We were slipping everywhere... and being that Jodie, Katie and Nyssa are all pregnant, Jessa had Jace strapped on her front side, and Ashley and I had the hold Avery and Harper up so they wouldn't fall... it was not the ideal situation! Anyway... we survived the 2 hour wait in line and no one fell down... once we made it in the castle, it was fun to see, but NOT WORTH THE WAIT (or money) to be honest. 

I am glad we went, it was fun to spend time with everyone and Avery got to see Olaf from the movie Frozen which made her night!

After 10 minutes in the castle, we saw it all and headed to grab some dinner... WE WERE STARVING!!! I had no idea it would have taken this long and was not prepared to be having dinner at 9:00, but we all survived! 

 

Snowmobiling

Grandpa and Grandma invited us over last minute to take the snowmobile out with Avery! The weather was finally not too cold and we had enough snow! All four of us got to take Avery for a short  ride around the yard.

Little Miss Mommy

Avery is so stinking adorable lately, she has taken on this Mommy role and has been treating everyone and everything like her child. She has been saying things to Brandon and I like "please finish everything on your plate, ok hunny?" or  "Oh, hun, are you ok? Did you get a little owie?"

She talks this way to us, her friends, stuffed animals, baby dolls, Holley... everyone!

So, tonight was listening on the monitor after Avery was all tucked in bed for the night to make sure she was sleeping before I snuck in to put her clean clothes away and I heard her jibber jabbering as usual to her animals. "Good night Lambie, oh Lambie its ok, I'm right here, ok hunny, ok snuggle with Puppy to help you feel better" "I need some little room turtle, I am very a big girl now hunny, ok, so I need some room, we can share my pillow ok" "Oh, I will cover you up hunny, don't worry hunny ok. I can share with you"

Once it was quite for a few minutes I went in and here is what I found:

She had ever so carefully used her little blankie to cover up Minnie Mouse and tucked her into bed safe and sound. She is so sweet to her animals and has such a big loving heart! Sleep tight love bug! XOXO