Happy 3rd Birthday Ava Finnli

Ahoy there, Matey!

The time has come

To hunt for treasure

And have some fun.

Capn' Ava is turnin' 3

So we're raising our flags and going to sea.

Avast me harties come sail the ocean blue.

Grub and grog provided to all the crew.

All the kids had there pirate costumes on. They were all so busy playing, I didn't get a picture of all of them together. But the aunts didn't want to be left out. They came dressed in their scarves and eye patches. Arrrr! Yes, all of my family is a little nutty.

Then everyone painted and decorated pirate chests.

And here's the cake. I have to admit, I was sooo nervous. I have never made a cake before. It doesn't look all that bad.

I used Rolos for cannons, swedish fish, malt balls for cannon balls, and of course some wonder pet pirates.

It took a small pirate crew to keep the capn' away from the cake all morning :)

A special thanks to my cousin, Joy, who took all of the pics so I could just enjoy the day.

You can't really tell, but my mom made Ava a "pirate birthday dress".

And next comes the food. My whole family loves to eat.

Sea slugs anyone?

Sorry, couldn't figure out how to erase the second one :)

On to the treasure hunt. We separated the kids into big kids and little kids. The little kids had picture clues, and the big kids had rhyming pirate clues ( I was pretty impressed with my pirate lingo)

I was surprised none of the kids found any of the clues before it was time.
Each buccaneer got a goody bag with their pirate names on it ( Dirty feet Ava/ Still Roastin' Rowan- she hasn't arrived yet :) )

Overall, the party turned out great. I have to admit, I hardly spent any money on this party. I get a lot of questions about the cost. Well this year, I tried to be a little green and use things that I had around the house. I also give Ava some party theme ideas that she gets to pick. I start planning about 10 months in advance (yes, months). I love planning parties. I have always told my friend, Julie, once she stops being a mom and I stop being a nurse- we would open up our own business :). She's even better at planning parties. I've already started thinking of next year's theme. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them :)

Happy Birthday, Tootsie!!

Happy Father's Day!

Wow, what a year it has been. I have to say, I wouldn't have made it through without my wonderful hubby. He does everything he can to be a great dad, friend, provide to the community, and husband.

He is still a kid at heart, so Ava loves him for that. There's never a dull moment around here.

He has come a long way. From gagging with every poopy diaper change (she was breast fed, so they weren't even that stinky), to watching Toy Story and Neemo over and over again. Thank you to my hubs for being so wonderful. Happy Father's Day!

Sneak Peek

As some people know, I love, love, love planning Ava's birthday parties. I spend a long time brain storming and putting together the perfect party to go along with a certain theme. Can you guess what this years theme is? That's right, Shiver me timbers, me be planning a pirate party, arrrrr. I have know idea why, but Ava loves playing pirates. I won't give away a lot of details because what fun would that be, but here's what we did today.










Each kiddo got a box with their invitation, a pirate costume, and gold coins.












This is what the invitations looked like for all of the "in towners". I'm sure my mom and I were quite the sight sitting outside and burning all of the invitations. I will have to admit, a couple got away from us, and we had to stomp them out before our fingers burned :)

I hope everyone was surprised when they came home. Who doesn't like a nice surprise?! More details and pics to come.

Life just makes me smile

This is what I see when I get home from work. I despise doing dishes, but I don't want to give up my cupboard space for a dishwasher. So, my great husband and my naked daughter (see the previous post if you are wondering :) ) do the dishes for me. They are both so sweet, and this site can make anyone smile.

I'll take it however I can get it

We have been trying the whole potty training thing lately. Ava doesn't do so hot with pull ups (she thinks they are diapers) and as soon as I put underwear on, she pees. She does great if she is naked, hardly any accidents. So this is a warning, if you ever come over to the house, expect to see something like this :). I'm hoping she gets the hang of it by the time she gets to school because she may get a lot of stares in this outfit :)

Our trip to the zoo

So after our trauma with the car, we finally got to the zoo. Ava loves going to the zoo. Mostly I think she enjoys running around, and looking at the giraffes of course.

Her favorite thing to do at the zoo is ride the carousel. She would ride it all day if we would let her.

Her favorite animals at the zoo are the giraffes. At this zoo, they have two new babies. So cute!

Her second favorite part of the day is the train.

My gorgeous girl! Oh how I love her so!!

Horrible mother moment

Today we were planning on leaving first thing in the morning to go to Niabi Zoo. Ava was really excited to see the two baby giraffes that arrived last winter. So I put Ava in the car seat and opened up the back of my car to make room for her stroller. I started walking back to the shed to get the stroller, when I hear my car start. For a second, I freaked. But I realized Ava must have pushed my automatic starter on my key. She was so proud of herself when I walked back, her smile was huge. So I loaded the stroller and shut the door. When I went to open up the back door to get my keys, it was locked!!! I forgot that my car locks when the automatic start is used to protect it from getting stolen. No biggy, I have another set of keys in my purse. But my purse was also locked in the car. By this time, Ava starts crying because she realizes she is locked in the car. Here I thought I would be this fantastic mom by enforcing the car seat firmly, so Ava has never once gotten out of the car seat, so she can "stay safe". Well that totally backfired today. She wouldn't even attempt to try to get out and unlock the car. By this time I am panicking just a little. The only thing that made me feel at ease was that the AC was on, so she wasn't cooking in there. Like many families, we only use our cell phones. Yep, you guessed it, in my purse with my spare set of keys. So I run to our neighbors, but they aren't home and they just have cell phones as well. I had to resort to running to my other neighbor's house (some may remember him as the nosy neighbor :) ). They also weren't home. I knew where they kept there spare key to the garage, so I unlocked it and used their phone in the garage. I first called my mom, so she could at least stand outside the car and try to keep Ava from freaking out. No answer, are you kidding me!!! My mom only answers numbers that she recognizes on caller ID. I left a rather "colorful" message and called back :). Needless to say, she answered the second time. Once she got over, I started looking through the phonebook for a lock smith. Finally I remembered (another great reason to live in a small town) the girl who cuts my hair- her dad has his own car shop. I call him, and he comes right over. He got my car unlocked in less than two minutes. By this time Ava and I are both crying. Usually I'm pretty calm, but it seemed like everything just kept going wrong. "Kara's dad" as Ava calls him, refused any money. I now have to do some detective work to find out his favorite place to eat, so Ava can make him a card and maybe take his wife out on us. The entire day, Ava told her great tale about "Kara's dad" saving her to whoever would listen. After I get over feeling like a horrible mom, I'll have to post some pics of the zoo trip.