Princess Ava is 5!!!

Ava turned 5 last Tuesday, April 6th! She had a fabulous day, felt so loved...she enjoyed the entire "1 whole hand" experience!

Above, Princess Ava is dressed in her fancy twirly skirt and her Princess Presto shirt. Princess Presto is one of the "super readers" on Super Why, a PBS show for children....it was fun to have 2 princess parties in back to back years, yet have them be SO different!

Below, is a collage of Ava's morning--remember, you can click on the collage to see the photos bigger. There is the traditional "wake up in the morning" picture on the upper left as well as random photos of Ava with the girls. The big girls got Ava a snow globe of a ballerina--something she had picked out in a catalog and thought I would never buy her. She also got her very own sleeping bag (princess, of course)...very timely for our spring break trip! She immediately asked us if she could sleep in it that night (this is 9am when she asked) and then after dinner, we were in the van and Ava said "Dad? Is your answer still "yes" for me to sleep in my sleeping bag?!" Such a sweetheart.

The "cake".....consisted of a tower of cupcakes--they were rainbow (see the upper right corner) with a gigantic amount of pink frosting on them. Each cupcake for the party guests had a take home ring with a Super Why character on it. There were also 5 random cupcakes for the candles to be blown out. Yum....the birthday girl doesn't like cake, but she really loved the frosting! ☺
The party....we invited all the preschool friends and the got to: make pretzel/chocolate wands, make a crown, make a princess necklace, eat, and play games....2 1/2 hours of pure fun. It was fun and Colin slept for almost the entire party! When he woke up the girls were playing musical chairs and duck duck goose...and Colin jumped right in and sat in the middle of the duck duck goose circle!

Eating at the party:
The many faces of Colin on Ava's birthday--since we have removed the paci from his life, his vocal expressions have been taken to a whole new level of happiness/volume! ☺
And Ellie and Jayna.....we couldn't have pulled off the party without them. They were FABULOUS helpers...we had a lot of fine motor stuff to do in a small window of time...it took Andy and I AND the 2 big girls to keep things moving. They were such a blessing and loved every minute of it!
And finally.....birthday supper. Ava said "I want BBQ pizza from Luigis." We were all set to order one to be delivered and then we'd just make a safe pizza for Ellie. I made this comment to Andy "I wish so badly that we could just go eat there--to not mess up our house, to just sit down as a family....but no, we can't because of the milk allergy. But it's ok....you have a job and that's more important than being able to eat at a cheezy joint anyday.....". Andy then got on the phone, called up our favorite cheezy joint and explained our situation. Turns out, the spaghetti is safe for Ellie! I took many deep breaths and then said "Let's do it!" We ordered her the regular size spaghetti (her favorite meal!) and what do you think? Do you think she liked it?!?!?!?
It was a VERY fun day....and when it was over, we switched gears again, to pack for our Spring Break trip, which started the next morning!

Finally.....EASTER!!!!!

Christ is RISEN!!!!!!

What a beautiful Easter we had! Beautiful weather, a wonderful church service...feast in our dining room and fun family time. What a blessing. Here is our family on Easter morning....we were actually running "early" in getting ready for church and then everything started falling apart. Andy knew it was important to me to get some pictures, so he hustled to set up the camera to take our photo...and Colin would have NOTHING to do with it. We ended up getting Colin to smile by making "fun" of Daddy setting the camera and running into the picture. It worked wonderfully! ☺
Months ago, when Fleet Farm's Toyland opened, we were still living in our old house, getting ready to move. We rigged a plan--I gave my parents money to buy a trampoline at Fleet Farm and keep it at their apartment, hidden from the girls--they were still in Omro last October. My Dad got the trampoline and he called me, asking for Andy and his buddy Walter to stop by the Omro apartment to help unload the heavy item en route to the Wisconsin/Iowa football game. They stopped by, unloaded the trampoline and were talking about how heavy the box was. In discussion, Walter whipped out his nifty blackberry phone to convert kilos to pounds...and my Mom thought he was pointing the phone at the trampoline and it was telling Walter how much it weighed! That has been a continual laugh at our house....the joke is "Don't ever let Walter point his phone at you--he might find out your weight!" ☺

Anyway...shortly after, the trampoline had to be moved to my parents' "new" apartment in Neenah and then, we decided to wait until Easter to give it to the girls--what fun would it be for Christmas anyway, to just look at the box, waiting for the snow to melt for assembly? It seems like so long ago we bought the item and it stayed hidden, the girls had NO idea they'd ever get one!

Andy and Walter put together the beloved jumping toy the Saturday before Easter....and it took over 4 hours!!!! It was intense. We ended up giving the girls a clue that said "BOUNCE" since we knew they'd see it before Easter morning. Here are some funny vidoes of the trampoline:

Click here to see Walter "sewing" the walls to the frame (he is an awesome friend of Andy's who is always up for any type of fun at our house!)

Click here to see Walter testing out the safety of the trampoline

Click here to see the 3 girls jumping for the 1st time

Click here to see Ava and Colin's first jump...

Happy Birthday Month!

It's April!!!
Ava was due to be born March 30th...her birthday is April 6th!

Anyway, we started singing "Happy Birthday Week" to Ava on Tuesday, March 31...kind of funny that we were singing to her before her birthday month even started!

Today we had a very mixed up scheduling snaffoo.....yet all worked out well in the end. The girls were babysat by a new sitter after their 1/2 day of school and I took Ava & Colin out for lunch at Noodles. At Noodles, I let Ava open her card from Great Grandma.....and told her that we'd celebrate her month by using the money sent at a place she's been begging to go to....Build A Bear. (However, the secret was that first, she had to have her 5 year check up, which included 4 shots!) She endured the shots with huge tears streaming down her face...and then we were off to BAB where she picked out the above shown bear and a Cinderella dress for the bear. Right now, she's snuggled up to the big girls watching Little House on the Prairie cuddling her bear! We will take a birthday break now for a few days, focus on Easter and then we'll be right back at the birthday celebrating!

As for what else is new in our home...We have some big news at our house: the 2 little girls are working on not sucking their thumbs and Colin is officially paci-free!!! It was hard for 2 days, but now he just goes right to sleep! We are loving the nice warm weather and have spent hours outside. We have freshly washed windows, we're excited to celebrate Easter as a family.....and then next week, we have THIS:
It will be fun--12 little girls from school ☺ Andy is off next week, after traveling to the east coast this week and we'll definitely enjoy lots of family time!

Oh, and for those of you who really know Ava, you get 1 guess on what she named her new bear.....Hint: it joins the ranks of every other animal that she has named, using the same name!