We Love You, Avery J!!!!!
Avery turned four! It is hard to believe my baby girl is getting so big. She has been such a joy to our family. Sure, she has been challenging too (whew!), but with Avery there is never a dull moment. She is the most imaginative kid. She had an imaginary boyfriend, Shane. They were going to get married but eventually broke up. For a period of time she thought she was a dog. She called herself, Max. No kidding, she would crawl around on all fours, bark, and lick you when you came to our door. Her latest adventure is being a cowgirl. If I had known she would have loved her stick horse so much, I would have written Santa and said, "No, gifts but the stick horse, please!" You wouldn't believe the quickness and skill she has maneuvering that stick horse around the house. The greatest is that she now thinks she is a barrel racer. My friend, Tessa made Avery her own set of barrels for her birthday....ingenius! Now she practices her racing in the backyard for hours.
You know when you have your first kid you just assume the others will be just like them? Well, Avery is the polar opposite of her big sister, Payton. I used to wonder why she was so different, but now I am embracing those differences. Payton is reading books like Junie B. Jones, and I realize, hey, Avery isn't so different than Junie! There are wild, crazy, silly, never a dull moment kids out there, and we were blessed with one.
Thanks Avery for being my snuggle bunny. Thanks for constantly entertaining us and making us laugh out loud! Thanks for being such a good big sister to your brother, Owen. Thanks for being a great swimmer, barrel racer, big wheel rider, painter, rock out dancer, and serious animal lover. You are a star in our eyes!
Because she loves dogs, we decided to have a puppy dog party for her. When the kids came to the door we put dog ears on them, painted their little faces, and gave them a dog collar made of ribbon. They had to come up with their own dog name and we wrote it on the ribbon collar. The games were a puppy obstacle course and barking and howling contest. The kids were so cute acting like puppies. A lot of them really got into it and were in character the entire party. We fed them peanut butter sandwiches shaped like a puppy and dog bone. We laughed as they tried to eat their food like a dog. Robert made a pink dog bone birthday cake that turned out nice. Avery had fun with her friends and especially acting like a dog! Thanks family and friends for all the nice gifts and for coming and celebrating Avery's fourth with us!
