Avery's Pre-K Graduation

Avery had her Pre-K graduation yesterday and it was bitter-sweet to say the least. I'm going to really miss her school. The teachers she had and friends she made over the last 3 years were some of the best and we'll miss them all dearly. 

For her graduation they put on a little play for us at the beginning. They acted out a book they had been reading called "Mortimer." 

 

Then the teachers had made a really sweet slide show set to music of pictures and videos from the past year. By the end I was a puddle of mush. Then, just like when Jackson graduated, Mrs. Darr read a poem called, "A Touch of Love," about the kids growing up that had us all in tears! They even passed out Kleenex to all of us when we walked in the door and we certainly needed it. 

At the end, each child came up and accepted their diploma and as they did, the teacher read how much they had grown that year and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Avery had grown an inch and a half throughout the school year and said she wants to work on a computer when she grows up. Ha!

Afterwards, we went back to their classroom to take a few pictures and pick up their stuff to go home. 

Jake couldn't make it because of work, but my mom and I went and it all was so cute! I can't believe Avery only has one more day of preschool tomorrow and she'll be off to Kindergarten in the Fall. How is that even possible?? 

I'm so proud of all that Avery has learned and how much she's grown the last 3 years in Preschool and I'm so excited to see all that she accomplishes in Kindergarten. 

Mother's Day 2019

I had a wonderful Mother's Day at the Cardinal's baseball game spent with my 3 favorite people!

The Affton Athletic Association, who Jackson and Avery play baseball for, had their day at the Cardinal's Game on Mother's Day this year. The Cardinal's were giving away free cross body Cardinals bags, which was awesome!! We also got to walk the field before the game and then after the game, the kids were able to run the bases! Our lunch was also included! The only thing that would have made the day better is if the Cardinals would have won! They came close, but lost it in the end. They did hit 2 home runs so that was exciting! We went with 2 other families from Jackson's school and baseball team, so that made it even more fun! We all had a great time!!

All the teams at Affton Athletic Association have names that coincide with a Major League Baseball team. Jackson and Avery are in different age groups and play on different teams, but it just so happens that both of them are on teams named the Royals. Much to Jake's happiness, since he's originally from Kansas City and is very much a Kansas City Royals fan.

As you walk around the field, at one point there is a camera and you can see yourself on the big screen!

Fredbird's Mom was at the game with him for Mother's Day. It was too cute!!

Avery did get a little bored and restless towards the middle of the game, but my phone sufficed for a while.

This was the first Cardinals game that Jackson went to that he really started to get into the game. He had a great time and already wants to go to another game soon.

Every adult got a cross-body bag, not just the mom's. So the dad's gave theirs to their girls. :-) They were very excited!

Each kiddo got a certificate for running around the bases.

After the game, we went home and I played a round of basketball and an inning of kickball with Jackson and then Jake put the kids to bed for me that night, which was great. It was a great day and I feel so very blessed and grateful to be the mommy of 2 amazing kiddos that I love so much!

Weekend Rewind

We had a great weekend and I'm sad to see it go. We've had so much rain lately, but the weather this weekend was wonderful. Sunny and in the 60's and 70's. 

Friday night after I got home from work, we went out to dinner with our neighbors across the street. This has become a weekly thing now the last several Fridays. :-) 

Then Saturday the kids were supposed to have soccer and baseball games, but because of so much rain last week, the fields were all too wet and muddy to play. So we decided since the sun came out and it ended up being a nice day, that we'd go to Six Flags for a few hours. Jake and Jackson have been once this year early last month, but Avery and I hadn't been yet this year. It's always so much fun. Jackson was finally tall enough to ride the Batman when he and Jake went last month so I was excited to be able to ride it with him and Avery was finally tall enough to ride the Sky Screamer Swings and she loved them. It was a great day!

Saturday evening I had a photo session, but while I was gone I got this adorable picture from our neighbor. Many of the kids were dressed up in Super Hero costumes, so she said our neighborhood is super safe right now! Ha. I just love our street and sweet neighbors.

Then Sunday, we celebrated Mother's Day at church so I had to get a couple pictures. We'll be at the Cardinals Game on Mother's Day so I new we wouldn't get these pictures if we didn't get them yesterday.  :-)

Avery's dress was a birthday gift from my mom. You can find it here. I highly recommend Orange Poppy Boutique. They're dresses are so cute, well-made, affordable and so soft!

Later Sunday evening, I had another photo session. Here's a little sneak peek I posted for both the sessions I had Saturday night and Sunday night. 

Now it's back to work and school today! I hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Avery's Rainbow-Themed 5th Birthday Party

Avery has been loving the movie, "The Wizard of Oz" lately, so I suggested to her an "Over the Rainbow" themed birthday party and she loved the idea! So we decided to run with that and it was so much fun! We invited all our close friends, family and neighbors to her party and had the party at the park around the corner from our house, just like we've done the last several years. The weather started out cold and rainy that day, but by party time, it had completely done a 180 and was sunny and in the upper 70's! Perfect for a rainbow party in the park.

You can find Avery's adorable rainbow dress here!

I found a majority of the decorations here at Target. They had a whole line of rainbow party themed decorations and they were perfect for her party! 

The cupcakes were from Walmart. They didn't have rainbow cupcakes like I wanted so I just ordered cupcakes with white icing and rainbow sprinkles and then bought the rainbow rings here on Amazon and added them to the cupcakes. They turned out so cute!!

The party was at 3:00, so we just served some snack-food. We had a "Build a Rainbow" Nacho Bar, a Rainbow Fruit tray and cupcakes for dessert. We also had beer and sweet tea for the adults to drink and then the little fruit flavored "hugs" for the kids! It was all so perfect for a rainbow party!

Then we had glass heart shaped bowls (from Dollar Tree) on each of the tables with Wild Berry Skittles in them for the centerpieces. Each of the tables had a different color of the rainbow table cloth on it. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that I got a good picture of the other tables.

Avery got so many presents and she was SO excited about each and every one of them. She gasped with excitement while opening them all! She got an LOL doll and pet, some LOL bubbles, several adorable dresses, a Disney game, a kite, a few pair of shoes, some hair bows a little tea set and a Cinderella Lego Set to name a majority of her gifts. Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the present table with all the gifts on it, just the first two. :-( But regardless, she got a lot of great gifts and was so excited to open them!

 (My mother in law gets Avery a Birthday Angel Figurine every year to add to her collection! They're always so cute.)

After opening presents, we sang Happy Birthday to the Birthday Girl!!

The kids did a lot of playing on the playground, which was right next to the pavilion!

And the girls had fun playing with some of Avery's new toys!

As each of Avery's friends/cousins left her party, she handed out these adorable favors. I just tied 2 different rainbow lollipops (that I got from Party City) together, along with one of these rainbow tags from Target that matched the other rainbow decorations from there. Then Avery signed her name of the back of the tags. Here's a link to the 2 different lollipops... here and here.

I made all the little signs for the food on the computer and then printed them out and put them in these awesome frames from Ikea. I bought several of them last year for Avery's birthday party and have been happy to use them for any and all parties throughout the year. They've really come in handy.

It was such a fun party and so cute to put together! It was so much fun to watch Avery enjoy each and every moment of her party! Though it can be stressful at times planning these parties, it's all worth it to see how much each of my kids enjoy spending time with their friends and family and knowing they're all there to celebrate them.  

Happy Birthday to our "Sweet Sugar!" Our sassy, silly, spunky and smart 5 year old! I feel so incredibly blessed to be your mommy. You are an absolute joy, (most of the time, ha!) and I just love and adore you more and more each day! I can't wait to see what this new year brings for you. You'll be graduating pre-school later this month, going to several camps this Summer and then off to Kindergarten in the Fall! I can't hardly believe how quickly you've grown and I'm so very proud of you! I love you to the moon and back sweet girl!

Love,

Mommy