First Day of School 2010

Today was Avery's first day of 3 year old preschool at the Ralph Bunche special needs school. She was more than excited to see Ms Patsy and the new classroom baby dolls again. 

Did I mention how excited she was? If I didn't, this picture says it all!

Avery with Ms Patsy and Ms Irinda

Better Late Than Never!

March was a little crazy in the Garvin house.  Avery was turning the big THREE on March 16th, but Daddy was having major back surgery on March 15th. Needless to say, I'm ashamed to say we are just now getting around to celebrating that big 3rd birthday. We did take her to Build A Bear for her birthday a couple days before her birthday.....even in all his pain, Daddy was there - and just as excited as Avery!
She spent her b-day week with Gram and Grandaddy who celebrated with her so it's not like we just skipped it all together....let's just say we stretched it out to make it last longer :o)
So, 4 months later, we finally got around to truly celebrating...which in Avery terms means....cake!

We started at her favorite restaurant - "Da Buffawo" or in non-Avery terms Bugaboo Creek (they have a talking Buffalo as well as other moving animals on the walls). After an early dinner.....cake and presents!!!

She loved the Puppy cake!

Excited Birthday Girl

So serious

She ate the piece on her plate and moved on to the whole cake

Present time! Her first set of "g-ahh-ff qwubs"

...and a baby carrier for her new baby she roped Daddy into buying her at the store. Meet the newest baby to her collection - Forla (four-lah) Not sure where she gets these names! Don't most little girls stick with the basics like Susie, Molly and Sally? I love her originality!

Happy 3rd Birthday Avery!!!!

Kids Today....

....And their fashion

Avery's Advocates 2010

Clyde's Run 2010 in pictures

(click on pics to view larger)

Team 'Avery's Advocates' buttons

Avery's Advocates 2010

what an amazing group of family and friends we have - we are truly blessed!

Avery and her buddies

Blaise has a bit of a crush on our little sweetie :o)

Clyde's Run participants/PWS family & friends

Avery crosses the finish line!!!!!

We had 3 runners and 25 walkers on Avery's Advocates this year!!! Runners: Mommy finished #113, our friend Kelley finished #114 and Katey finished #64 out of 154. Thank you to all of you who joined us so early in the morning and to those that couldn't make it, but were phantom runners! We were truly humbled at how many of our friends and family came out to join Avery's Advocates 2010!

Best Buds

Some of my fondest childhood memories are with my first pet....our sweet dog, Apollo. There's nothing like having a canine companion that loves you unconditionally! It thrills me that Avery will grow up with these same memories. We've often talked about getting a therapy dog for Avery or having Ivan trained to help her...but for now, it's fun just watching them be friends! We're not sure if Ivan is just calming down as he gets older or if he is finally adjusting to having an unpredictable rugrat around the house. Either way, they are slowly becoming best buds.

Or, maybe they are becoming best buds because I found her feeding him Milkbones like a freight train!

Pedicures to finish up a girl's weekend...

To wrap up our girls weekend, Gram, Avery and I headed over to the local nail salon for some pampering. Just to give a little history....Avery and I stopped in this very nail salon a few weeks back to purchase a gift card for Gram. After we purchased the gift card and proceeded to leave the salon, Avery had a melt down. When I asked her what was wrong, she tearfully pointed at the salon and said she wanted her toes painted. Yep, my 3 year old has already entered the diva stage. In her defense, they did have an adorable little kid chair with a DVD player.

She was very excited about them "washing" her feet

I let her pick the color....there's no surprise that she picked pink!

Well of course she wants a design. What 3 year old would turn down a flower or polk-a-dots? Well not this one! She went with white polk-a-dots.  

This was my first time getting a design myself, but Avery insisted that Mommy and Gram both get designs.

A Girl's Weekend!

While Tripp was traveling the last week of June, we had a girl's weekend with Gram and Avery's cousins, Caroline and Cate.  It started with an evening at the Bounce House (which Avery LOVES now....remember when she wouldn't even step foot inside a bounce house?)

A Spot of Tea?

Gram has been wanting to take her girls to the cute little Tea House in downtown Woodstock. After Avery's last day of Dance Camp, we headed over for a spot of tea, dress up and good old fashioned gossip. Avery wanted to wear her frilly little dance outfit and fit right in.

Gram and her girls

This is what happens when you get a stranger to take a pic for you...and a man at that. Hats get cut off and people not looking at the camera.

Cate displaying the proper etiquet for sipping tea - or Sprite in this case...both hands delicately grasp each side of the cup, and most importantly, pinky-finger out.

Avery got her very own teeny tiny tea cup

Cate pouring Avery some "tea" from her teapot

Avery's very first time ever trying Sprite.....