Avery Jane Archives - Daily Rebecca

2017 Back to School!

November 4, 2017

Back to school comes early in FL!! August 10th was Grace’s first day but that was ok because she was so excited to start second grade!

We had a really positive homeschool experience with Grace for Kindergarten. We considered homeschooling her again last year for first grade. Andy and I went back and forth and prayed a lot about how to educate Grace last year. We ultimately decided to put her in first grade at the wonderful elementary school down the road from our Maryland house. It was the right decision!

Grace had a fantastic year. She loved her teacher and made new friends right away. She excelled academically and became so brave and confident. She was a fairly timid toddler and preschooler, but being in school has given her the confidence to plug right in when we go places with children’s activities. It’s been so great to watch her step into a new Sunday school setting, carnival game, or public play area and feel confident enough to run right up and get involved!

Being a military family and moving once a year (or less!) right now means it’s really important for us to plug in and connect quickly. Military life means pressing fast forward on friendship and community involvement if you don’t want to be lonely and isolated during your brief stay in an area. That’s been a new experience for us since we came from a background of living in the same city for a long time and having rich history and deep roots in our relationships. We’re getting better at it with each move :)

The first day of school meant a front porch photo shoot!! Who is this grown up girl and how did she go from this:

to this???

The old saying, “The days are long but the years are short” could not be more true! The years continue to clip by at a rapid pace. I’m doing my best to pay attention and savor as much of this as I can.

Grace’s new school isn’t too far from home, but with Avery being in VPK (voluntary pre kindergarten) 5 mornings a week, I knew I’d be in for a TON of driving if I didn’t consider having Grace ride the bus.

I’ll admit I was nervous about the whole bus thing, but I have to say it’s been a huge blessing!! Our bus driver is the NICEST woman! She greets me with a friendly wave every single morning and she’s so sweet to Grace. One particularly rough morning, Grace boarded the bus having just stopped crying, and her bus driver wiped her tears with a tissue and gave her a hug! I cannot tell you how good it feels to have your child in such good care on the way to and from school each day. Bus drivers are world changers! I’m already thinking about a Christmas gift for this wonderful woman!

Did I mention the bus picks Grace up right in front of our house??? It’s amazing. Seriously the best.

After Labor Day (aka the normal time to start school!) Avery started school. After much back and forth, we decided to enroll her in a free VPK program at a sub-installation of the main Navy base we live right next to.

I was really hesitant to send her to school 5 mornings a week, but her Maryland preschool was literally the highlight of her entire year last year and I wanted Avery to have something that was “hers” during our short stay here. So we decided to go for it!

I also remembered Kindergarten will be 5 full days next year, so this is probably a good transition to that. I do miss our relaxed 3 morning a week preschool schedule last year though. Probably because of the commute! The base that houses her school is about 20 minutes away which means I’m driving about an hour and twenty minutes each day just commuting to and from preschool. It’s not my favorite thing! LOL

But just look at this sweet girl and how excited she is about school :)

Again…how did we get from this:

to this?!?

Avery is a pretty solid introvert, but she enjoys school and feels very grown-up when she leads us to her classroom every morning. She’s learning to write her name and having lots of fun experiences with her teachers and classmates. They end each day with outdoor recess, and I love seeing her sweet flushed face when we pick her up on the playground.

True to her introverted ways, she’ll usually come home after school and head straight to her room for some alone time before lunch! I love how well she plays on her own…she has a vivid imagination and is such a wonderful girl.

Side by side comparisons may be the death of me because they highlight just how quickly the time passes, but I’m a glutton for punishment so here are a couple recaps of the past few years :)

Avery 3 Year Old Preschool vs 4 Year Old VPK

Grace Kindergarten – First Grade – Second Grade

These pictures make me think our next house needs to have a burgundy front door! Ha!

I’m so grateful my girls have access to education. It’s a privilege I don’t take for granted and I look forward to seeing all they will do with the gifts they’ve been given :)

Avery Is Three

January 19, 2016

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.

Photo Credit: Jenn Anibal

Avery Turns Two!! (A Disney Princess Party)

January 16, 2015

Our sweet Avery Jane turned 2 years old on New Year’s Eve, and this year it was her turn to have a fun themed party!!

Last year I just could not get it together to throw her a first birthday party so we had a low-key celebration at home. I’m still feeling bad about it since Grace had a blowout bash for her one year birthday, but the end of December is a HARD time to have a party, especially when you live in a tiny little house in the freezing cold midwest.

This year I was DETERMINED. Come hell or high water my Avery was getting a party! I didn’t care if I had just given birth the day before or heck, even at the party!

My little Disney-princess-loving-baby-girl was gonna have a par-tay.

And she did!!

She’s absolutely bonkers about Disney Princesses at the moment and after hearing her identify them by name every time she saw them (including on random packaging at the grocery store!) I decided that would be the theme for her party.

I’d been considering farm animals because she loves those too, but Princesses won out and I’m so glad that’s the route we took :)

Grace had a princess party for her 3rd birthday, but in my opinion this one took the cake!

Here’s a photo rundown… (sorry to all of the extended family we could not accommodate…we love you guys and wish we had a bigger house!)

Sorry also to the family that was present but not photographed :( My postpartum ADD was off the charts that afternoon! I should have had someone with their wits about them take the pics…

Here’s what I snapped!

Princess banner…reused from Grace’s party!

Grandma and Avery. Avery’s not too sure about wearing the crown at her party. Lol

Lots of themed snacks!

And cupcakes!

I was so happy with how the cupcakes turned out!

I cheated and bought boxed golden butter and chocolate cake mix. My plan was to make the icing from scratch, but when I was standing in the aisle at the store and I saw cans of frosting in colors that would totally work for what I had in mind, I caved.

In the end I’m really glad I took the shortcut. With nursing around the clock and all the other party prep, it was SO NICE to just pop open the frosting and pipe it onto the cupcakes.

The princess “toppers” made the cupcakes so festive! I saw on Pinterest that another mom cut paper princess cups from Walmart to make princess toppers, so I gave it a try and they turned out great!

Avery wasn’t quite sure what to make of all the festivities…

She enjoyed all the snacks though!

She was looking around very curiously at everyone singing Happy Birthday. I’m pretty sure she liked it though :) I know she enjoyed her Belle cupcake!