Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Ava's Painting Party

This year's bday theme was painting, since it is one of Ava's true loves :)
Odd angle, but the fruit tray includes all the colors of the rainbow. The rest of the menu included: fair sized hot dogs (they were huge!), different colored ketchup and mustard with paint brushes to paint onto the hotdogs, a salad (that also had every color of the rainbow), chips and dip (again, had a chip for every color), potato salad (my grandma,"you can't have a party without potato salad"), and my Aunt Kay's baked beans (she knows that baked beans is one of the things I've been craving with this pregnancy- along with corn on the cob :) )




I just have to point out the shirt. I found this on a clearance rack last year and saved it for this year's party. Yes, I know the themes way in advanced. Hey, that's how you get the best deals, and yes I already have something in mind for next year but not set in stone yet.




I made all of the cupcakes (along with Ava's help). Since Ava's favorite color is red, she got one cupcake heaped with frosting for each year :) I then set up a "decoration station" for everyone to decorate their own cupcakes. The "paint can" was filled with all different kinds of sprinkles. The "paint cans" were made from the giant economy sized canned goods that schools use (I have my connections :) ). They held all of the silverware, sprinkles, napkins, and wet wipes.



Not to brag, but didn't they turn out awesome!?

This is when the rain started to pour. I was hoping it would miss us, but no luck. Thankfully, my grandma has huge trees in her yard, so everyone stayed dry (until the end). One of the kid's activities was a squirt gun fight. Not just any squirt gun fight, though. Each kid (and some adults) put on a white tshirt and chased after each other with their squirters that were filled with....paint! A little background story, we decided to test this out a couple of weeks before hand to make sure it would work. Well, the paint looked great on the shirts but didn't look so great stained on Ava's skin for a week. The worst was her blue splattered face that she sported for the week. So, more testing had to be done, and I'm happy to say all of the children washed clean in the rain :). The shirts turned out really cool too. The kids ran around painting each other for a couple of hours.

Another activity, that I didn't get because of the rain and me rushing to get everything in, was finger painting. I covered a buffet table with paper. Did you know that you can get the end rolls of the newspaper from the newspaper company for free or really cheap? Who knew? The day before I made finger paints of every color. We spooned them all out into bowls and let the kids have at it. Our youngest guests, 10 months, particularly enjoyed this.


All in all, this was a great party. I'm just bummed that it got rained out. Our parties usually last around six hours. What can I say, our family knows how to have fun. We promised all of the kids that we would have a "do over day" on a nice day to do squirt guns, finger paint, and swimming. Well, better start planning for next year's party :)

















Ava Finnli is 4!

Well, I can't believe I have a 4 year old! She is truly the light of my life. Over the past months, I've noticed she is turning into a little person. The things she says and understands is unbelievable. Here is a little interview with my amazing 4 year old.

What's your favorite color: red and pink
What's your favorite food: pizza and broccoli
What's your favorite movie: Rapunzel
What's your favorite thing to do: play outside
Who's your best friend: (Aunt) Laney
What do you want to be when you grow up: a sunshine fairy

I lost her interest after that. She's still a busy bee and is always on the go. Enjoy the pics!























35 weeks baby!

I never would have imagined I would have lasted to this point. I get my cerclage removed this Friday. Most of my family think I'll go right into labor on Friday. I think I'll have to be induced because I'll be overdue. It will be just my luck that I've worked so hard to keep BGM in, she won't want to come out. I have been having a lot of contractions the past couple of days and horrible back pain, so we will see. We have everything ready, but still no name.
As for Ava, she has been busy having her birthday and going on vacation with Grandma. I will update about that later, so I can give the post its proper attention :)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Getting There

Well, I'm 31 weeks. Can I get a hallelujah!!!! I'm pretty impressed with myself considering my perinatologist thought I would be lucky to get to 28 weeks. I'll be getting my stitch out at 36 weeks. I'm hoping to go right into labor, but my luck I'll be close to 42 weeks :). I feel like I have gotten twice the size of my normal self overnight. The other night, Danny took Ava and I out to our favorite mexican restaurant. I literally tried on all of my maternity pants and nothing fit. I'm serious, everything was tight and uncomfortable. Call it hormones, body image issues, or just having a pity party over my huge self, but I had a break down. I know that you are supposed to get big when you are pregnant, but I never really did with Ava, and I feel like I will never get back to my normal size.
Well besides my mental breakdown, everything has been going pretty good. I've been trying to plan Ava's next birthday party and get the baby's room ready before I get my stitch out-just in case. Maybe I should put it off, and then maybe I'll go into labor right away. What do ya think?