I just love these pictures of Emery coloring on my bed this sunny afternoon...

Love the tongue sticking out....she's extra focused! :)

This last post wraps up the rest of Avri's birthday festivities!! For breakfast we had a special treat of donuts! Avri opened a few of her presents including a new outfit and shoes, and a scooter!!! She took a quick spin on it before we headed off to Emery's pre-school field trip. We toured The Popcorn Shop. The kids got to see how the popcorn was made and got to sample it. It was fun to have something extra to do during the day. Avri took her scooter out a couple more times, and we made a cake that afternoon (Which was a total fail! I tried to do a two-layer round cake, which really isn't that hard, but we were in a hurry to decorate it so I didn't let it cool all the way...trouble! Avri was so sweet about it, and when I complained about how ugly it was she reassured me that it was beautiful to her and she thanked me for making her day so special. Awwwww. Such a sweetheart!) We met James for dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then came back for the sad little cake and Avri opened her other two presents.

Family Movie Night

Last night we threw together a little Family Movie Night for the girls. I was planning to do it another night and be a little more prepared since I found all these cute ideas on Pinterest, but we decided to just do it. The girls love Peter Pan, and our copy was ruined so we bought the new release and surprised them with it. We had Pirate Ship Pizza, Pirate's Gold (corn), and Smee's Potion (pop). The girls loved it and it was fun to do something a little extra special. I'm excited to do another one...maybe it can be a monthly tradition. :)

 (Emery fell asleep in the car and was a tad grumpy when she woke up, but only for a bit ;) And Avri is a goof!)

Happy 6th Birthday Avri!

Happy 6th Birthday to our beautiful Avri May! She is such a light in our family and we are so blessed and grateful for her! Avri is...

*A great helper

*Eager to learn 

*Is learning to read and spell, and is great at Math (Grandpa Norris would be so proud!)

*A wonderful example and big sister

*A sweetheart, and tenderhearted

*Always striving to make good choices

*A cuddler. She often asks if she can "snuggle"

*Sure in her testimony that she is a daughter of God

*Patient and forgiving. And this Mom is so grateful for that!

*Great at remembering details

*A night owl. Bedtime is a joke around here. It's as if she doesn't know what's coming, even though it's happened every single night her whole life!!

*Such a goofball

*Responsible and loves to act and be treated "older". Sometimes I have to remind her to just enjoy being a kid!

*Fun to tease. I love it when she suspects she's being teased and says, "Are you for real?" (usually with her hands on her hips). She also enjoys teasing...she gets that from her Dad who got it from his Grandpa Jones. :)

*Imaginative

*Anxious to try new things...unless it's food--that is like pulling teeth!

*Currently crushing on Justin Bieber....man they start young!!! ;)

*A great little artist. We are quite proud of all her masterpieces!

*Always up for a challenge or new adventure
*So excited to lose a tooth. She has been waiting for "forever"!!! ;)

*A music lover

*Dramatic. That girl can turn on the tears and overreact with the best of them. Luckily, it doesn't happen too often.

Birthday Questions:
What’s your favorite color? All of them!

What's your favorite animal? All of them!

What's your favorite book? The Tinkerbell one, Cinderella, Llama Llama

Favorite food? Hawaiian Haystacks (maybe because we just had them for dinner)

Least Favorite Food? Pineapple

Favorite movie? Enchanted

Favorite song? "I Feel My Savior's Love"
Favorite part of the day? School

Where is your favorite place to go? A park

What's your favorite thing to do? Play "house"

What are you good at? Drawing Pictures, Playing Cards, Saying "Thank You"

What do you want to be when you grow up? Lots of things. Cowgirl, ballerina, singer, dancer, and Musketeer.
Who is your best friend? All of them, pretty much!

What makes you happy? When I get presents, when I get hugs and kisses, when we go to the beach

What makes you sad? When Daddy's gone

What’s your favorite toy to play with? All of them!
What was your favorite thing about being 5? That I learned to ride my bike without training wheels.
What are you most excited about for being 6? That I'll be bigger and I'll be really good at doing everything!

 {Adorable pictures of this cutie pie by my sis-in-law Nicole, iotamaker}

I Scream, You Scream...

Avri had her first big friend birthday party on Saturday. It was an ice cream theme, and I had been planning and preparing for well over a month. I had grand ideas and was forcing my non-creative, non-party planning self to be a bit more ambitious than comes naturally. Well, it wasn't exactly as I dreamed, but it still turned out pretty good and Avri and her cute little friends had a blast, so I guess it was a success!

{I forgot to take a picture of the table when I was done adding everything. Oh well. And shout out to James for making the ice cream cone balloons for me.}

We started the party with one of Avri's favorites, Freeze Dance. I am kicking myself for not getting video too--the girls were busting some pretty serious moves!

After that it was Pin the Cherry on the Ice Cream Cone. 

 Next was an ice cream cone relay.

The last game was Roll-a-Cone. Each number on the dice corresponded with a part of an ice cream cone (cone, scoop, sprinkles, etc). They took turns rolling until they had rolled each number to build their cone. 

After the games it was time for ice cream!! We sang to Avri, and then let the girls create their own sundaes.

Then of course it was time for presents. Avri was spoiled and got so many fun things!! We are so grateful to her friends, and for Grandma Sherry and Sawyer who were able to come celebrate!

Avri has mentioned several times that she wanted a magnifying glass, so Emery gave her one

The girls: Emery, LuLu, Miranda, Dylann, Sydnee, Tyann, Lacey, Paige, Sawyer, Avery, Avri, Lindy....and Claire. :)

Avri & Grandma

We sent the girls home with these cute (if I do say so myself) cotton candy cones.

Apparently Claire was on clean-up crew. ;)

Before & After

A month or so ago, James & I started work on this dresser that I bought from an online garage sale. We turned this....

Into this media console.

It was a lot of fun to work on together and we're pretty happy with how it turned out. The paint was more blue than gray, but it's growing on me (and it's not a bright blue as it looks in the picture). Now we're excited for another big project...