Avery Is Three

New Year’s Eve marked my Avery Jane’s 3rd birthday.  The whole world celebrated that night :)

I was super excited to decorate her dining room chair with balloons in her favorite colors and Sophia The First who reigns supreme as her fave princess at the moment :) Grace even made her a birthday drawing and wanted that to be on display too.  One of the sweet moments that I want to remember more than all the tears Grace shed that it wasn’t her birthday.  Oy.

We had traditional sprinkle pancakes topped with whipped cream and she was happy as a clam about that!

Not that you can tell at all from her face! LOL This girl’s camera “smile” is absolutely hilarious.  Totally reminds me of Chandler Bing from Friends:

We opened presents right away.

So “happy” about her Sleeping Beauty playset LOL.

And also really excited about getting Elsa and Anna plush princess dolls to go with the Ariel and Rapunzel she received on Christmas morning.

Pink and white cupcakes followed Avery’s choice of pizza for dinner.

My mom was able to join us for the celebration which made it even more special.  She also spent the night to watch the kids while we went to a NYE party later that night…thanks mom!

My brown eyed girl :)

Pink (strawberry) ice cream was the perfect accompaniment.

She ended ate all of her ice cream and only the frosting from her cupcake, but she was a happy camper.  Especially when she was sporting her cute and girly new Cinderella outfit from grandma.

The kids had a fun night with my mom while Andy and I partied it up at our friend’s NYE murder mystery dinner.  He was Cheque Penné, a successful but quiet banker, and I was Yuna Verz, an extremely intelligent astronaut.

I thought our parts suited us well ;)

Avery had a huge family party last year to celebrate her 2nd birthday, so this year we planned to do a small friend party instead.

Unfortunately our plans were thwarted by the worst stomach bug to ever tear through our family!  We spent the better part of about five days sick as dogs.  It was so awful!

By this past Friday we were all healthy again, so we had the little pizza party after all!

Our friends happen to love our backyard (kids are so funny!) so we planned a little outside time before the pizza party kicked off.  You can’t tell from this picture, but it was actually raining and it didn’t phase them one bit.  Oh to be a kid again…

As expected, Avery tired of the outside play before the others so she came inside and started working on her personal pizza.

Everyone had their own lump of dough…

And we had sauce, cheese, mini pepperoni and diced bell pepper for toppings.

Avery chose to make an “A” shaped pizza and got to work loading it up!

It was so fun to watch her meticulously place little pepperoni pieces along the lines of her “A” in neat rows.

The other three girls opted to make heart shaped pizzas.

The pizzas went into the oven and the girls disappeared upstairs to play while their creations were baking.

Next time I would make sure everyone added a LOT more cheese.  The amount they used seemed to melt into the sauce and crust during the bake time.

It didn’t seem to bother them too much though :)

To be honest, this party snuck up on me a little and I didn’t plan well enough to make a cake or cupcakes from scratch :(  That’s something I actually enjoy doing, so I was disappointed.  A chocolate cake mix and tub of frosting came to the rescue and I thought a heart shaped cake would be fun.

Without thinking, I made two round cakes and planned to turn them into a heart once they cooled.

To make a heart cake you actually need one square and one round cake.

Oops.

Dr. Gould suggested I cut the round edges off of one layer to make a square and go from there with the heart.  It was far from perfect and I could have used more chocolate frosting, but it turned out ok and Avery loved it.

Oh to be a kid again!

I was actually a little embarrassed to bring the cake out because I’m generally much neater about my cake creations, but when Grace saw it she gasped and told me it was “so beautiful”.  What a peach :)

She’s so serious!! LOL

Reminds me of this donut picture…

Avery’s friends gifted her with a fun popsicle set, a really cool zoo book and a sparkly bracelet.  She’s been enjoying all of them since the party!

In my (limited) parenting experience, three years old is a tough age (#threenager) but I’m hoping we have a great year and no matter what, I know it will be awesome getting to see my little Avery Jane grow up and delight us all with her wonderful spirit.

I love you, sweet Avery.