Avery's 3rd Birthday

I realized that I haven't written about Avery's 3rd birthday!  She turned 3 on February 26, 2012.  We had her party the weekend before her birthday at Imagine That Birthday Club.  It is a great place that has inflatables that the kids can play on.  They also take care of all of the set up and clean for the party, which is fabulous!  Avery wanted a pink princess party (of course!).  So the party colors were pink and turquoise and it was princess themed.



I asked my sister to make Avery's birthday cake this year.  The princess crown cake was perfect!



My friend Laura helpe me make these amazing iced sugar cookies in the shape of princess crowns!  It was fun to make them and they were delicious.



Singing Happy Birthday to Avery.  She liked it this year as opposed to last year when she covered her eyes the whole time!



Blowing out the candles

 The party was a lot of fun!  We enjoyed spending time celebrating Avery with our family and friends.  She is a huge blessing to us and we want to make sure she knows it and celebrate her every chance we can!

Here are some pictures from Avery's actual birthday.  It was on a Sunday so we took some pictures in the yard before we went to church.



 

Avery's First Concert

Avery went to her first concert on April 26, 2012.  We went to see The Fresh Beat Band!  Avery loves music, singing and dancing so she loves watching the Fresh Beat Band.  For her birthday, Adam's sister and her family got us all tickets to the concert in Birmingham.  They also got her the Fresh Beat Band CD and Avery listens to it every day! 

Avery and Mia were very prepared for the concert with Fresh Beat outfits complete with Rock Star jackets!  These jackets were made by Adam's mom.  They were selling them at the concert for $60!  Crazy!

We got there in time to get some glow stick necklaces...what's a concert without glow sticks?!  Then we hung out until the concert started. 

Marina, Kiki (Avery's favorite because she wears pink!), Shout and Twist

Singing and dancing along!

Eating popcorn during intermission.  Three year olds do not understand what intermission is and she was upset that the concert was over!  Popcorn did the trick :)

Avery LOVED the concert!  She sang and danced the whole time.  As soon as it was over, she burst into tears!  Poor thing!  She had so much fun and asks us all the time when we can go to another concert.  She's going to love concerts just like her daddy!

Last Day at Disney - January 12, 2012

Our flight home wasn't until 3:30 in the afternoon, so on Thursday we were able to sleep in a little without feeling rushed.  We packed and checked our luggage at the hotel.  Another perk of flying...the hotel made sure our luggage got to the airport and we just picked it up at baggage claim in Birmingham.

After we checked our luggage, we ate breakfast at the hotel and played in the arcade a little.  Then we waited for our bus to take us to the airport at about 12:15.  We got to the airport with no problem and had time to eat lunch before our flight.  After a week of eating really good food, I was so excited to eat at Chick-fil-A in the airport!  That's sad, right?  I just missed eating "normal" food!  Avery took a little nap while we ate.  Then it was time to board the flight.  It was a smooth flight until we got to Birmingham.  The pilot warned us that it was going to get bumpy and it did!  The plane would dip and shake and it would feel like we were falling.  That's why I like to sit beside the window.  That way I can look out and reassure myself that we are not plummeting to the ground.  I was scared during all the turbulence, but Avery just laughed and said "Whoa!" the whole time!  She thought it was like another ride at Disney World!

Needless to say, we landed safely and made it home with no trouble.  We were glad to be home, but we missed Disney World.  Avery asks just about every day when we are going back.  She had such a great time and I am so glad we went!

Disney Day 6 - January 11, 2012

Wednesday was our last full day at Disney.  We slept in a little that day and then met up with everyone at the Animal Kingdom.  We were all kind of dragging that day and I didn't feel good so I don't have a ton of pictures.  But we really enjoyed the Animal Kingdom and there are some fun things there.  The first thing we did was go on the Kilimanjaro Safari Expedition.

We saw a lot of animals and Avery really enjoyed it. 

The big roller coaster attraction at Animal Kingdom is Expedition Everest.  It's a fun roller coaster that takes you up Mt. Everest until the tracks end.  Then you go backward for a while and then forward again!  It was a thrilling ride!

One of our favorite things there was Finding Nemo - The Musical.  It is a Broadway type show that tells the story of Nemo.  The actors were so talented and the costumes and sets were amazing.  Avery actually fell asleep, but the rest of us love it!

That night, we had late dinner reservations and we decided to go back to Downtown Disney before dinner to buy our souvenirs.  Avery picked out a Little Mermaid doll for herself to go with her Minnie Mouse ears.  I got a t-shirt and Adam got a golf towel.  We also got ourselves and Avery each a Christmas ornament.

We had dinner that night at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge.  It was so good!  We were all exhausted, but we found the strength to eat a lot of food that night!  One of the best parts was dessert...bread pudding and s'mores!

We had a great time on Wednesday and were sad to be leaving the next day.

Disney Day 5 - January 10, 2012

We visited Epcot on Tuesday.  We were looking forward to this day because it was going to be a little more relaxing.  There ae some good rides at Epcot, but a lot of time there is spent visiting all of the different countries that are represented at Epcot.  There are a lot of cool things to do at each country.



Avery in front of the Nemo ride.  There was an aquarium at the end that she really enjoyed.





Coloring in Mexico.  They provided paper bears that the kids could decorate and take to each country.  There was someone at each country that would stamp the bear with a stamp representing that contry.  Avery ended up losing her bear, but she had fun coloring it!



Trying on a sombrero in Mexico.





Visiting China



Mattie, Elijah and Avery



Buddies :)

One great thing about Epcot is all of the different food you can get.  Each country has at least one restaurant with food from that country.  Adam and I chose to eat lunch in Mexico and it was really good!  Most of the quick service meals that we had eaten for lunch had been pizza, hamburger, chicken fingers, that kind of food.  So it was nice to get something a little different.  And while we were eating, we met two different families from Alabama and chit chatted with them while we ate.

This was also the one day that Avery took a nap!  She fell asleep in her stroller and so I found a bench and sat with her while she slept.  When she woke up, we noticed that right next to us is where we cound meet Snow White and she was scheduled to be there in about 30 minutes.  She was the one princess that we had not yet met.  So we were about the 3rd people in line and we had just enough time to meet her before we had to head to our dinner reservations.  Snow White was very nice and Avery was so excitd to meet her!

 
We ate dinner in Japan at Teppan Edo.  It was a Japanese restaurant where they cook the food in front of you and it was delicious!

The last ride we rode at Epcot was Soarin'.  This is a big attraction at Epcot.  It is a hang gliding simulation that takes you through California.  It is like a Imax movie, but you sit in chairs that lift you up so that your feet are dangling and you move and feel the wind as you hang glide.  It is really cool!

We ended our day at Epcot by watching their laser light show and fireworks.  It was an amazing show, but Avery hated it!  I knew that she wasn't a big fan of fireworks so I was afraid she wouldn't like it.  Melissa held her the whole time and Avery buried her head and wimpered and cried through the whole show.  Even when it was over, she kept her hands over her ears until we left the park.  Poor baby!  I think it traumatized her a little bit because she did not sleep well that night. 

All in all, we had a really good day at Epcot!

Disney Day 4 - January 9, 2012

We spent Monday at Hollywood Studios.  This was the first time I had ever been there so I wasn't sure what to expect.  It ended up being one of our favorite parks!  They have a good mix of adult rides and things for Avery's age. 


The first thing we went to when we got there was the Toy Story ride.  This is the most popular ride at the park so we wanted to make sure we got to ride it before it got super crowded.  So we got there right when the park opened, went straight to the ride, and there was already a 40 minute wait!  Crazy!  But it actually didn't take 40 minutes.  The line moved pretty quickly.  It's a fun ride where you wear 3-D glasses and shoot at targets.  We all really enjoyed it!



In line for Toy Story.  The whole thing is, of course, toy themed so it was good entertainment while we waited in line.



By the way, this was also the day of the Alabama vs. LSU National Championship game.  So you will notice that Adam and Adam Swann have on the Alabama shirts in all of the pictures.  Adam Swann pointed out that I wore a purple shirt and that I also had yellow on my purse so I looked like an LSU fan.  Even though I am an Auburn fan, I promise I did not wear that shirt on purpose!

Next we rode some adult rides.  First, we went to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.  It is an indoor Aerosmith themed roller coaster that starts out going from 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds!  At the very end of the 2.8 seconds, I was thinking, "I'm going to be sick!" but then it slowed down to regular roller coaster speed just in time!  The ride is in the dark with black lights and Aerosmith music playing the whole time so it's a really neat ride.

Then we headed over to the other main adult attraction, the Tower of Terror.  Now I will be honest...I wasn't sure if I was going to ride this one.  It really scared me thinking about it!  But I thought I might as well to at least say I did it once.  We got into our "elevator" and they start out the ride nice and slow.  You ride through the building, make your way to the top, and they tell you stories.  Then, once you're at the very top, the doors on the elevator open and you can see outside.  It's really a nice view of the park, but I didn't get to see it long because I closed my eyes!  Then you drop several stories.  Then you go back up and drop again, and again and again!  They say that it's different every time you ride it so that you never know when you're going to drop.  I wasn't my favorite, but I'm glad I rode it!

After this, it was time for our second character dinner of the week.  We went to a restaurant called Hollywood & Vine to have lunch with Disney Junior characters.  I was really looking forward to this because those characters are some of Avery's favorites!  It was a lunch buffet and, once again, the food was really good!


June from the Little Einsteins



Special Agent Oso



Handy Manny



Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates





Avery and Miles.  Miles is about 1 1/2 years old and Avery thinks he's her baby doll :)



Everett, Avery and Miles.  Everett is only about 3 months older than Avery so they have a good time together.


After lunch, we kept exploring Holly wood Studios.


Avery dressed up with Mrs. Laura's scarf



Avery's favorite thing at Hollywood Studios was the Disney Junio Live show.  This was about a 30 minute show with her favorite Disney Junior characters.  Everyone sat in the floor and it was very interactive.  All of the kids, including Avery, sang and danced around the whole time!


Mickey Mouse Clubhouse



Handy Manny



Little Einsteins



Sharky and Bones from Jake and the Neverland Pirates

 

In front of the Muppets fountain



All the guys on some sort of Star Wars thing :) 

So Hollywood Studios was a big hit!  It is definitely somewhere I would love to visit again!

We ended the day watching Alabama beat LSU.  We decided to just watch the game in the hotel room rather than try to go somewhere like ESPN Zone and that ended up being a good decision.  Avery and I actually went to bed before the game was over.  Adam and Adam both had a great time watching it, though :)