Guess who came to town!!!

After having a big slumber party in Venice the first night and going to the Santa Monica Pier the next morning, we drove to Redondo to show Aunties Kate and Bee and all the cousins the house we might be buying. Then we drove to Mission Viejo where we stayed for 3 nights. We spent lots of time at Grancy's celebrating an early Christmas.

Pretty Girl

Today we went to Ella and Charlotte's rainy butterfly 5th and 3rd birthday party. Mommy forgot to take ANY pictures so when we got home she made me sit on the couch and smile. Happy birthday sweet friends.

Disneyland

I told Avery that we wouldn't go to D-land all summer because it's too hot and crowded, somehow she interpreted this to mean that Disneyland is closed all summer and somewhere along the line I just started agreeing with her. So now that Disneyland is open again we joined our friends there.

Dumbo and mastering the self-portrait with me

I am happy to report she is no longer afraid of the carousel. She enjoyed riding with Charlotte bear.

Pretty Ella.

Hi Pooh!

Sweet Tigger.

Happy Halloween

We enjoyed a lovely Halloween evening with our dear friends, just like last year, it has become a bit of a tradition that we are so happy to be a part of. Starting about 2 months before Halloween, whenever we asked Avery what she wanted to be she said Abby Cadabby, just like last year. She stuck with this answer right up through Halloween, which made my life easy, we just broke out the exact same costume as last year.

Last year (above)...

This year...

Rorschach

Recently Avery has become very imaginative with her food. Specifically fruit. I cut up apples or asian pears and she takes bites out of the pieces of fruit and says "this looks like a sailboat" or "this looks like a giraffe". It is quite amusing.

iPad pix

After deciding not to venture out 1 hr to a pumpkin patch/farm, we drove 5 minutes to 3rd street promenade to listen to music, shop and have frozen yogurt. We love to go there and marvel that we live so close to this place where there are amazing musicians and performers and now there is also a very (almost too) fancy outdoor mall at the end of the promenade. We listened to Chelsea Williams who is so talented and has a uniquely beautiful voice. We could have sat there all day listening to her but Avery wanted to get up and moving. So we walked over to the Apple store and a nice young man showed Avery some really cool apps on the iPad and then emailed us her work, featured below. As much as I can't stand where we live sometimes, days like this make me appreciate what we do have.

Computer Station

We keep our computers on the kitchen table as regular computer stations. One morning, Avery assembled her own computer station while Jon was working at his own station. So he took a couple of pictures of her. Of note, those plastic clip-on earrings she is wearing are one of her favorite things but those suckers are so breakable and hard to fix. I am thinking of just getting her ears pierced instead!

Florida Family Pix

GG, Daynie, Daddy and Avery (note all her bling)

Grandma Jenny, Daddy and Avery

Swimming in Florida

Jon and I had the great pleasure of a night away while we were in Jupiter visiting GG and Daynie. The hotel was awesome and the next day Avery, GG and Daynie joined us at the pool. Avery did lots of swimming in Florida and by the end of the trip she was jumping off by herself and demanding that I scoot back further away from her. Jon got some great pictures of this. Never mind how adorable the ballet bathing suit was that GG gave her. Too cute.

Sylvie's Big Day

Today we went to Sylvie's first birthday party. It was a beautiful party at a fancy Korean restaurant with all kinds of new and wonderful foods and desserts. Sylvie was dressed in a fabulous special outfit for her big day, she looked so pretty. Oh how we love the Browns.

Look at all the pretty desserts and fruit (and girls)

teacher frank's picture

The Yellow Group has a nice teacher that Avery now gets to know because Blue Group and Yellow Group share some space and sometimes do activities together. Teacher Frank has been at her school for a long while. Tonight she happily led me to her cubbie to show me the picture Teacher Frank drew of her. They have princess dresses that the girls love to dress up in and he drew her in one of those dresses. So sweet.

swing alone

Today Avery showed Daddy at the park how she can pump and swing all by herself. She just needed a few big pushes to get started and then insisted that he go sit down and let her do the work. She learned at school it seems. I met them both at the park after work so she could show me too. What a big girl!

Construction

When I was on bedrest with Avery May/June 2007 the Pioneer Bakery across the street from our bedroom was torn down. Oh how I miss the afternoon smell of sourdough baking. I digress. I thought it was kind of funny at the time that I was stuck listening to all the noise.
Now that I am pregnant again, apparently "their" funding came through and a massive construction project has started. In all, it will include underground parking, retail shops and apartments. The construction workers like to start around 6 am, driving their trucks around: beep beep beep. I have no idea why the trucks have to back-up so often. I actually saw a truck driving forward down the street with the 'beep beep beep' going strong, so maybe it's not just for vehicles in reverse anymore. Anyway, they also turned the dirt lot right next to us into a parking lot for all the workers. Here are a few pictures. I won't say this is why we started looking more seriously at moving/buying a house, but it definitely was a factor for me.

The Donut Song

Avery LOVES her new class in school. Every year the school has a birthday party. This was their 17th birthday. Each class "performs", including the babies being brought through the auditorium in wagons, the toddlers singing happy birthday and then Avery's class worked for a month to learn "The Donut Song". Teacher Edna sent the words to the song home so we could practice. It even became part of our nightly bedtime routine. It is a cute song and they practiced every day at school, even getting to enjoy Donettes quite often to make sure they could all take a bite of a donut at the end of the song. Avery knew that song backwards and forwards but once faced with hundreds of adoring parents, the entire Blue Group clammed up a bit and all you could really hear was the teacher singing. Never mind that Avery didn't look at the video camera one time. But it was still cute. And they all did a great job eating their donut at the end.

BUG!!!!

Avery loves to spot Volkswagen bugs whenever we are driving around. She is unbelievably gifted in this pursuit. She yells out from her carseat, "BUG!" undoubtedly scaring whoever is in the car with her. Her knowledge has now expanded to know if the bug is new or old, hard-top or convertible. She and Jon had the good fortune on a recent excursion to the beach to spot a pink Bug. What a special day!!

EuroBungy

The pinnacle of our visit to the pier was finally letting Avery go on the EuroBungy which she has watched with great interest the last couple of times we have gone to the pier. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. When she would lose momentum she would look at the boys running the ride to be sure they gave her an extra pull to get her jumping high again. We waited probably 45 minutes in line which was quite excessive. We waited long enough to see that they let Avery have a significantly longer time in the bungy than the other kids because she was so darn cute and smiley and everyone walking by would stop to watch her. No lie. Next time we will get there right when they open and skip the other rides at the pier and just do this. Avery loved every second of it.

Santa Monica Pier

We enjoyed a Labor Day outing to the Santa Monica Pier today. It was a beautiful day. Avery enjoyed riding the rides with Daddy, including the sea planes, the frog hopper, and the ferris wheel. I got to tag along on the ferris wheel. It was a never-ending ride with beautiful views of the beach.

Third Birthday Party

After having to postpone Avery's 3rd birthday party for 6 weeks due to a cough and fever, we were so happy to have a beautiful day at Mar Vista Park for our 2nd attempt. Six months before her birthday, Jon asked Avery if she wanted a bounce house and she never forgot about it. My goal was to get a picture of every child at the party. I did not achieve that goal but did capture many of Avery's friends.

Bounce House Central

Avery and Lawson

Andrew, Lawson, Avery, Charlotte and Ella

Deirdre and Charlotte

Ella

Sweet barefoot birthday girl

Maddie getting blindfolded for pin the tail on the donkey

The girls checking out the game
Decorating the first cupcake for the birthday girl.
I made yellow and chocolate cupcakes from scratch, thank you Joy of Cooking, as well as cream cheese and chocolate cream cheese frosting. Each kid got to put on the frosting and sprinkles and especially for Avery and Daddy some sour gummy worms were supplied.

Repopulating the earth, me, Jenny and Deirdre

Kylie jumping out of the bounce house

(Gabri)Ella all finished jumping

At the end of the party after many of the guests had gone home, Avery and Calvin enjoyed some quality jumping time. Avery stayed inside until they came to take the bounce house away. It was well worth it!