Ava's 5th Birthday Party

Ava's birthday party was a blast! 

The birthday girl turns FIVE!

When I asked her where she wanted to have it this year, she kept saying "at home, in our back yard".  Last year, it was SO CHILLY outside on her birthday.  It also seems we spend just as much money on a non-home birthday party.  We went through the list... Monkey Joe's?  Jeronimo's?  Chuck E. Cheese?  She was happy with Monkey Joe's.  I had forgotten about her day care going to the skating rink, but when I remembered, I asked her if she wanted to have her party there.  She was super happy about having the party at the roller rink.  We struggled with the "how many people do we invite?" question... To include school friends, or not to include school friends.  The school's policy asks that if one classmate is invited that all be invited. 


At first I'm sure people thought we were crazy...A skating rink party for a 5 year-old?  How many five year-olds have been skating?  (Ava's been twice before this party).  It couldn't have worked out more perfect, actually!  Sparkles Roller Rink in Kennesaw has a soft play area perfect for little ones.  The skating rink is concrete, so they allow most skates (including the over-the-shoe Fisher Price type).  Ava brought her adjustable skates.  I bought a pair for Liam, too, so he wouldn't be left out.  See pictures below for his first run with the skates... ;-)


When we arrived, Ava, Liam and Doug all did a few loops around the rink.  It was cute to watch them all skate together.  They got to skate to the Black-Eyed Peas "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night," one of Ava and Liam's favorites.  After 10 minutes or so, Ava and Liam played in the soft play area (3 levels or so?) for most of the time.  The kids had a blast.  On Monday at school, I told Veer's Mom thank you for letting him come to the party.  She said Veer had so much fun.  When she asked him how fun it was, on a scale of 1 to 1000, he said "6,000."  Cute.  :)


For quite a few of the kids, it was their first time on skates.  Matthew, Olivia, Veer, Avery, Alana, Mekhi and Liam had their first skating rink experience.  This was Ava's third time skating.  I don't think she fell once?


Party attendees included:
Veer (from school)
Sara (from school)
Avery (from school)
Lily
Mekhi
Ryan-Ashton
Kylyn
Alana
Parker
Caleb
Zoey (neighbor)
Lucy (neighbor)
Olivia (neighbor)
Nicholas (neighbor)
Matthew (neighbor)
Liam


It was a good thing we had the party indoors.  It rained the entire day and hasn't seemed to stop since!  Ava wanted a princess cupcake / cake combo with whipped icing from Sam's Club.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the cake.  It was yummy!  Ava helped with the labels for the goodie bags, printing her friend's name on each one, drawing a happy face on it, as well. 


I made different colored chocolate roller skate suckers, too.  It was an afterthought, but I was able to order the molds from a place in New Jersey in time.  They arrived on Friday night, so I was able to QUICKLY make the suckers for the party the next morning.  The kids seemed to enjoy them.  Ava took the left-overs to school on Monday.  Because these suckers were an afterthought, I wasn't too stressed about them getting here on time.  Between not stressing about sucker molds and not needing the house to be spic-and-span for a birthday party, it was nice.  The only requirement:  Cake and showing up at the roller rink with goodie bags.  Bonus!


After the party seemed to be well-controlled, I decided to go for a few laps around the rink myself.  So I put on the rental skates and did my thang.  I ended-up ALMOST falling when I switched from skating backward to forward.  Lucky me, Doug got it on tape. :)  It is pretty different skating on concrete than on wooden floors.  I felt like I was going to fall at any minute, the wheels were so fast on the concrete!   Other parents (Christy Craig, Melissa Baillairge and Amy Hoffman) seemed to have fun on skates, as well.  It seemed like everyone was able to enjoy themselves.  Even our neighbor friend Zoey was able to enjoy the play area with some help from her mama (Kristi). 


After the party, we opened gifts at home while Liam was sleeping.  We didn't want him to be TOO upset about Ava's gifts.  Poor thing, he doesn't understand why he isn't getting the same number of gifts. :( 


Peace, love and FIVE birthday candles!
Shelly, Doug, the birthday girl and Liam

Trying out his skates pre-party, minus pajama pants?

Bedhead Liam missing his pajama pants

Party favors

Ava helped with the invitations and inserts.  She signed each of them "Love, Ava". 
This was her first attempt at a comma. ;-)
She also wrote out each of the labels for her friends' goodie bags.
After opening her gifts, she also wrote out the thank you cards. 
Tough work for a just-turned-five year-old!

The invitations

Ava with her first project at her "activity center"

Liam has a side he can use, too! 

This gift was PERFECT for Ava this year, given her love of crafts.

One happy girl!

Ava Turns Three Years Old

Ava turned THREE years old on 03/28!

Because my Mom was in town on 03/07 (and Grandmother was scheduled to be here as well, but didn’t end-up coming due to illness), we decided to have Ava’s birthday party earlier than her actual birthday. This meant that her birthday turned into birth-month! (This can be good and bad… by the end of the month I thought she might think every present which made its way in front of her belonged to her. Fortunately she didn’t seem to be too affected.)

We held Ava’s party on 03/07 at Monkey Joe’s with a few of her friends. She was in seventh heaven. Originally going to the smaller kids’ area for the first five minutes, she next made her way to the biggest slide in the place. She climbed up on her own and slid down. A little startled from the long, fast slide, she immediately wanted to climb back up the slide. The rest is history. She was a happy girl! I made a Barbie Cinderella cake and chocolate suckers / candies for the party. She seemed to especially enjoy Cinderella.

We took cupcakes, balloons and goodie bags to her day care class this past Friday. Since most of her closest friends are at school, it was cute to see them all happily burst out singing “Happy birthday” to Ava on their own (without a teacher’s prompting). Her day care teacher gave Ava a ballerina Barbie (perfect since we just watched a ballet a few weekends ago) and a princess coloring book. Liam “oohed and aahed” at the balloons in the van on the way home.

For her birthday present, Doug and I bought a little princess bike with training wheels. She’s not too fond of the pedals yet, but really seems to enjoy “riding” it. In true “adventurous Ava” form, she found her roller skates (that go over her shoes) and wanted to wear them while she was riding her bike.

On Saturday morning, her actual birthday, she opened all of the cards that family and friends sent. She was so happy just to open cards. She then opened the gifts, too. Immediately she wanted to put on the dress that Uncle Joe and Aunt Kristy sent. She is definitely into dresses and all things girly lately. If she is home, she’s wearing a princess dress or her light-up ballerina dress.

Saturday night before Doug and I went to bed, Ava woke up with a fever. So I guess you could say her birthday went out with a bang… We’ve since been nursing her fever and hoping she is able to rid herself of it soon. Today she just wasn’t herself and stayed home from school with the fever, too.

The past few days when I look at her, she looks so much more like a little girl to me. She’s growing taller and sweeter by the day. I can’t explain it, but she really seems to have come into her own lately. She is girly, confident, inquisitive, respectful (never thought I would say that about a just-turned-three year-old), caring, very smart, exuberant, has an excellent memory, is creative and quite the songstress and dancer. I am amazed to watch her socially interact with other kids. She talks with me like she’s a little adult. Within the past two weeks, she is in the “but why?” phase. She wants to know how everything works. And when I tell her, she definitely remembers the next time around. I love to see the little girl she is becoming and how she reacts to the world. Not fond of dogs or spiders, but the rest is free reign!

Ava, Daddy and I both feel so blessed to have you in our lives. We know Liam feels the same, as is evident when he smiles at you with his eyes and laughs uncontrollably with you. You breathe new life into our family on a daily basis. We are so happy to be by your side as you grow and learn about the world. We are so thankful for your love for God, your friends and family. We know God will continue to bless you immensely throughout your life. Know that you eternally hold a special place in our hearts. We hope you had the best birthday yet!

All our love,
Mommy, Daddy and Liam