Goooooaaaaaal!

Now that summer is here and our activities are over, I finally feel like I have time to blog about them! 

This was the first season we signed Avery up for soccer, and we joined a league called “Upward” through our church.  It was a great, Christian-based program that was very positive and was a great first experience for my shy little girl.  She played for the "Stingers" and had an awesome coach!  She even managed to score 2 goals this season - the first was totally accidental (but we still counted it!) and the second was legit... 

Here you are coming out of the tunnel:

Starting lineup!

Big kick!!

Making your move…

I would describe your style of play as “polite”.  This picture made it look like you were far more aggressive than you were, considering that you probably skipped more than you actually ran…

Your sister enjoyed “watching” you while playing on Daddy’s iPad.

And while you assured me that loved soccer and want to play again next season, I’m pretty sure that you were in it for the skipping and the snacks. :)

Cinco de Avery!

This year’s theme was easy – birthday on Wednesday, May 2^nd – the following Saturday was Cinco de Mayo, and the little senorita turned cinco. Cinco on Cinco de Mayo - done and done!

Always excited when we can get a somewhat decent family pic!

I simply could not have pulled this party off without the Mr., and it helped that he was beyond excited about the party theme.  In case you don’t know the Mr. very well, he takes a costume party very seriously, even if it’s a 5 year old one:

 The details…

The party was great, but the weather was HOT.  You know, we like to keep our parties authentic – right down to the Mexico weather.  Thankfully it didn’t seem to slow the kids down one bit!

The piñatas were a big hit (pun intended)!!  Almost all of the kids took a swing or two, and Daddy busted it open for the grand finale! 

Piñata number dos was this little lady, or should I say big lady… she was almost 4 feet tall!  

On the count of “CINCO”, everyone pulled their string to get more junk prizes!!

One happy little señorita!!

Feliz Cumpleaños Señorita Avery! 

Birthday Girl!

For months, you have been SO excited to turn FIVE – with all of the birthday parties we attend, you always want to know when it is YOUR turn to turn five.  At your request, I finally printed off a calendar for you so you could see why it is “taking a long time” for your birthday to roll around.  We all get daily reports of how many more days until your birthday and how many days until your Cinco de Mayo party! 

You’ve grown so much over the past year that I don’t even know where to begin. You started tap and soccer this year and have really enjoyed both.  You love to go on family bike rides and we have ridden as far as four miles which just amazes me! You are learning to read; you have mastered your right and left, and you finally know how to skip (even in soccer)! 

I can’t believe you start Kindergarten this year!  You are ready in every way though...  I see the school bus in our neighborhood every day, and I think that there is NO way that you are going to ride that big bus all by yourself in just a few short months!

Avery Renee, you have been such a joy and such a blessing to all of us. We all love you so much!!

More Birthday posts to come… 

Picture Day!

I've never purchased school pictures, until these!

So grateful for my precious girls!

Let's Rodeo!

This was the first year that we decided to take the entire family out to cook off!  Usually just the Mr. and I go out for a night, but this year was a great change of pace and hopefully a new annual tradition!

Family pic where everyone is sort of smiling and looking at the same camera – yay!

Just some of the kids' crew (not all smiling and looking at the same camera)!

My little cowgirl did not want to leave the dance floor!  As we were finishing up our awesome bbq dinner, she kept asking me – “Please, Mommy, can we stay for just one more song!!??”

I’m still waiting on some pictures of Avery and Jack dancing (ahem, Carrie!!) – not sure who taught those two to dance, but it was absolutely priceless!  I have a video too that I need to post!

The first time the Mr. has worn a cowboy hat – not his thing, but he was a handsome cowboy that night!  These are the only two girls that can drag him onto a dance floor!

Anna was obsessed with Miss Carrie:

Love this one of my banana…

 The groupies…

  

One of my very best friends and me - yay for an updated Carrie-Traci picture (and Anna gettin' her dance on in the background)!

Thank you Pratis for always inviting us back!  We had SUCH an awesome time!!                  

Thank you, Mr. President!

This year we actually made plans for President’s Day since I always have the day off and so do the girls.  Daddy joined us along with Carrie and her boys, and we headed down to Kemah!  The girls were SO excited to ride the rides…

Avery wanted to ride everything – she may be shy, but the girl has no fear when it comes to big rides.  The 2 story carousel was the first stop, and of course we had to ride on top!

Anna wasn’t quite as sure about the ride just yet, and judging by my face, I wasn’t quite sure that we were being photographed:

The train was the highlight as evidenced by the huge smiles!

We had to wait for The Aquarium to open for lunch, so we decided to have the kids pose for a photo op.  Anna wanted nothing to do with the shark, so she got as far away as possible, and even that was not far enough for her – haha…

Then, all the kids took turns with Avery’s Hello Kitty camera and made us pose this time… 

Anna’s turn!

 Finally, we made it inside for lunch… this was our view from our table!  Thankfully the kids were very entertained!

After lunch, we headed outside for a walk along the water and for a few more rides:

The airplane ride was high on Avery’s list, and since Anna wasn’t tall enough to ride alone, Daddy offered to ride too.

If you notice, all of the other planes are up high, but the Sims’ plane… not so much.  Love the Mr.’s expression here:

If you look closely, you can tell that Avery has now figured out what is happening!  Luckily, they let her ride again – without Daddy to weigh down the plane. ;)

The ferris wheel was the last ride of the day – it was a little chilly way up high (and actually a little terrifying for the Mr. and me), but the girls loved it!

We had such a great time, and the girls crashed 30 seconds after loading up in the car to head home - Thank you, Mr. President for a nice little holiday!

San Antonio

It’s still February on this blog!

We decided that it had been too long since I had seen my BFF, Suz, so we headed down to San Antonio the first weekend in February. We also hadn’t seen Ryan’s grandmother in ages, so we paid her a visit as well!

Carter was in school on Friday, and Suz had to work, so we headed to Grandma’s house.  It was so very cool for my girls to visit with their Great Grandma!  We took her out to lunch, and at 85 years old, it is amazing to me how sharp she is and how well she gets around. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit!

After lunch with Grandma, we headed down to El Mercado to cruise around and let the girls experience a little bit of San Antonio. The girls were each able to pick out one thing to take home…  Anna is sporting her new bracelet while she is checking out a dandelion for the very first time:

And Avery decided on some brightly colored paper flowers:

When Carter got home from school, the girls were fired up and ready to play.  

Thanks Suz and Jay for having us for the weekend – we had such a great visit!!