Ava's Winter Carnival Birthday

I can not even believe the day finally came! My baby girl is 5 years old. She is one crazy girl but we love her so much! That morning she woke up to a whole bunch of balloons in her room. I felt like Eric and I were blowing up balloons all night but apparently her room is bigger than we thought. They didn't quite cover the whole floor but she loved them anyway.

She was so excited to have me come to her school and eat lunch with her! And it made me feel good that she was so happy and proud to have me there. I drove her and stayed for about an hour. She was also the "star of the week", which means she got to bring show and tell every day that week. Also a highlight for her. I had so much fun seeing her interact with her friends and get a little glimpse of what she does all day. She has a wonderful teacher and she made Ava feel so special on her birthday.

After Eric got home that night we opened presents. She was so spoiled and so many great gifts from all her grandma's! We got her a LeapPad. We almost got it for her for Christmas but apparently they were pretty popular and we could only find them for $200. It was between the LeapPad and an ipod touch. It's crazy how her world is already so much technology. At her preschool they have 6 iPads in one of the centers. But considering we are still living the student life and Ava already plays enough random games on Eric's phone we went with this. So far it has been wonderful, the learning games are great and Dresden loves to use it when Ava is at school. She LOVES taking pictures and recording herself. It's pretty funny!





I didn't get any pictures of it but after that we took the kids to Red Robin for dinner. They both loved being sang to and of course the ice cream!

We decided to have her friend party on the weekend. We went with a Winter Carnival theme. It's hard trying to make a winter birthday exciting. We were spoiled in Vegas with nice weather. She was so excited to have her friends come and play games. We tried to fill them up on all the yummy sugar-y foods you would eat at a carnival!





The kids were drooling over the cotton candy from the moment they walked in the door! First up was eating the hot dogs and nachos!

Next were the games. Everyone loved throwing darts at balloons. It was for sure the favorite game. We even ended up getting the balloons from Ava's room that we blew up cause they wanted to play over and over! We also had knock the cans down and a ring toss game. Both very entertaining. Our basement finally game in handy for something. The kids also just rode bikes and ran around.

This picture doesn't show but Dresden actually did really good!

Then it was time to open presents! She received so many fun gifts from her friends. Wow! She officially has plenty to do! Then it was finally time to eat all the treats. Cotton Candy, kettle corn, caramel apples and of course Ava's donut cake.

Ava had requested one ponytail in a fishtail braid for her party. She loves fishtails!

She got that cute headband and insisted on wearing for the rest of the party!

Ava has never really liked cake and she has always loved donuts so we opted for a donut cake instead.

The party guests! We are so glad everyone could make it and it sure made Ava feel special.

This was about twenty minutes after all the kids had left. Eric was such a big help, I couldn't have done it with out him. He wasn't thrilled after he saw this picture but I thought it was pretty fitting for the busy day he just had. We were both so glad that that night was our turn to go out on a date!

Valentines Day

We LOVE this holiday! These couple of weeks are always crazy and this year was no exception. We did make time for a little fun on Valentines day. Ava had fun choosing what she would give her friends. I absolutely love Lincoln schools, they are among the top school systems in the nation. But sometimes they are kinda weird. The kids aren't suppose to bring "food", aka candy for valentines day (or birthday)! WHAT!?! So her options were slim but she went with glow sticks for her class. Our job was to make something for her to put the valentines in. She loved putting stickers all over her container, and was pretty proud of how it turned out!

After school we made little presents for dad. They both thought it was pretty fun to put their hands in paint for their gift. I had them each write things they love about dad, which were pretty funny and wrote them around the heart. I made a little 10 things I love about you card. It was a scratch off and both Ava and Eric enjoyed scratching off each heart. Unfortunately for us Eric has a late class on Tuesdays and doesn't get home til about 7:30. So we were left to make our usual heart shape pizza by ourselves. The kids always love helping in the kitchen. And dad made it home in time for the heart shaped brownies and milk. The kids were so silly blowing bubbles in their milk and making quite large bubbles! It was a wonderful Valentines day together.

A little Valentines heart! She loved it and asks for it all the time now.

Checking out everything she got. She was so sweet to share with Dresden and even gave him a Spiderman pencil which he loved!

Dresden thought his bubbles were pretty hilarious!

8 Year Anniversary!

Yay for 8 years! We celebrated our Anniversary on Feb 12th. It was a Sunday so we just went out the following weekend. We have started a babysitting coop again so it worked out perfect. Thanks to the Nehrings for watching our kids. We aren't to exciting when it comes to going out, plus living in Lincoln Nebraska doesn't help! Don't get me wrong we love it here just not a whole lot to do! :) We tried a new restaurant, Old Chicago Pizza and it was delicious. Then we just walked around and did some shopping.

I love you Eric and I am so thankful for the last 8 years. Thank you for all your hard work in your education and for the time you take to take care of us as well.

Stacy grabbed a picture of us before we left!

Lost in Fun

We decided to call some friends and go to Lost in Fun a few weeks ago. It's a bunch of indoor play grounds, swings, a giant foam pit, and two bounce house's. Ava has been wanting to go for a while because it's right by our house. They had so much fun playing with friends and it was great to get out of the house! Dresden was super sweaty by the end and even took a little nap after. You pay for an all day pass so we went back later that night so Eric could watch.

The good stuff

We finally got some good snow! And it actually happened on the weekend so Eric could play with the kids. He got himself some snow boots and the kids some sleds and played outside for a couple hours. I was freezing so I just took pictures from the garage! Plus I don't have any snow boots so I couldn't go out even if I wanted to.

They were both in heaven and loved helping shovel the drive way. There was so much snow and it was still coming down as they were shoveling. Eric made a little hill for them to use their new sleds on with all the snow from the drive way. He also took them across the street where there are a couple big hills to slide down. Ava could sled all day if we let her.

The snowman worked alot better this time around. They both had a blast playing with daddy and being in the snow. I think Dresden's favorite part is eating the snow.

I had the difficult job of potty breaks! It takes a long time to get through all those layers and Dresden has to pee alot! :)


making snow angels

Ava had to go back out there with some food coloring to give the snowman some hair!