Sarah Avery is 3!

The last couple of weeks have been full of birthday fun as we have celebrated our little three year old.  We had a family party of her actual birthday and then, last Saturday we had a little petting zoo set up in our back yard.    The weather has been beautiful and we made memories I know we will treasure forever!   Here are the pictures.....

The day before the big birthday, the girls and I made cupcakes.   While part of me is SO READY for school to start, the other part of me wants to grab them in a big hug and never let go.    Spending this summer with them has been such a joy.   

Birthday breakfast........a strawberry cupcake!

The girls spent part of their day finishing a puzzle we had been working on.   

Until this crazy guy came home from work.   

After her favorite dinner of hot dogs and mac and cheese, it was time for cupcakes and singing.  

She seemed to grow up over night and loved every single minute of the birthday attention.   

Mimi and Poppy called right as we were opening presents, so they got to "be there" when SA opened her gift from them.   It was ballerina pjs that she wears every night.  

Susannah gave her sister the sweetest card.

These two have become such good friends this summer.   They fight of course, but they love each other and play together so much more often than they fight.   It makes my heart so happy to watch.   

After presents were opened, they immediately got to work on the new puzzles grammy sent. 

And SA made some important phone calls on her new toy phone.  

Although our house guest, Honey is still her favorite toy.  

Before we knew it, Saturday had arrived and it was time for the birthday party to start.   We were worried the weather would be super hot, so we started at 9:30.   

It turned out to be a picture perfect day though, blue skies and cool temps. 

The backyard was all ready for the guests to arrive.....both human and animal.  ;)

SA was so pumped.  

And so was big sis.....

The petting zoo arrived a few minutes after the kiddos.  

They brought baby chicks,

bunnies,

A crazy-haired mama chicken,

and baby ducks.  

This is Sarah Avery's friend Lexi.   She lives next door and these two played with the baby animals the entire party.   

Susannah said they baby ducks were her favorite, even though one pooped on her.   

After one last snuggle with the animals, it was time for cake!

And presents!

Her little guests were so sweet and made little cards for her.    We all had such an amazing morning and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and playing with all the new toys.   

This week, Susannah has been spending her mornings at soccer camp.   She was a little nervous her first morning.  But as usual, she was super brave and had a great time.  

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We've also been working on her summer reading project this week.   She is doing her project on "Little House on the Prairie."

She looks so grown up with her running shorts and new running shoes.   I'm so proud of her, but my heart aches when I realize how fast time is flying.  

And this little one is growing like crazy too.    She is so proud of her new back to school haircut. 

And has gotten really into the dress up clothes this week too.   

Sarah Avery, you bring so much light to our lives.   Daddy, Susannah and I are so proud of the way you have learned and grown this past year.   Your vocabulary has exploded and you are killing it with your pottying!   Your love for animals is so sweet to behold.   You love playing babies, working puzzles, and playing anything with your big sister.   You give the best and tightest hugs and you love to run with Honey and Susannah in the backyard.   And your laugh will brighten the day of anybody lucky enough to hear it.  Thank you for completing our family.   Our hearts and lives are full because of you!   We love you to the moon and back one million trillion times.   Happy 3rd birthday!!

"Tennessee, Tennessee......There ain't no place I'd rather be"

This week we returned to Alexandria after spending a couple of weeks with family and friends in East Tennessee.   We had wonderful weather and enjoyed soaking up lots of quality time with old friends and beloved family.   Here are the pictures:

One of the highlights of our visit was meeting seeing our baby cousins......this is AJ and he is adorable.    

The girls were so excited to give him the little tool set we brought him. 

He wasn't sure how he felt about the big girls....

The were cute, but they were rowdy too.  ;)

As per tradition, the girls loved helping Grammy water her flowers.  

And we spent lots of time exploring at the park behind Grammy's house.   We even saw this bunny one day.   

And lots of butterflies.  

Grammy took the girls to the Disney store and let them pick out a toy and a nightgown.   They were so pumped for this!

We checked out the riding toys afterward.   Some very smart person placed all of them right outside the Disney Store.  

We spent another day at a Nature Preserve in South Knoxville.   They had this adorable natural playground.   

The girls had a ball here. 

We also spent lots of time with Grandmama and Jim.  

I'm so grateful that the girls get to make memories with Grandmama.   

We discovered a couple of new playgrounds.   Susannah gave Grammy a panic attack at this one.  

One day we drove up to Dandridge to meet our newest family member.   Elijah was one week old and absolutely precious.   

Susannah found my "Little House on the Prairie" collection and started plowing the the first book in the series.   She and Jim enjoyed some afternoon reading time together.

Grammy took lots of time off and the girls loved every single minute of their time together.  

Sarah Avery even broke her no napping rule and settled in one afternoon on Grandmama's couch.  

Grandmama gave the girls their first biscuit making lesson.   

They loved it so much, we made them two nights in a row.   

Both of the girls love Jim, especially SA.

We kept another one of our fun Knoxville traditions with a pool party at Ms. Betty's.   These girls have been visiting each once a summer since they were babies.   

And the four of us have been friends for 30 years!   30 years.......hard to believe but so true and so special.  

Fun in the sun.   

My two oldest friends in the world. 

On our last day, I remembered to take a 4 generations picture.   It wasn't well planned so we are squinty and hot.   Having all of us together is such an incredible joy though.    

 We ended our trip a little differently than we had originally planned because we needed to go to Atlanta to visit one of the bravest women we know, Shoo Shoo.    Shoo Shoo is at Emory University Hospital waiting on her new heart and we are so proud of her.    .  

We brought along some things to brighten her day and remind her of all the fun she is going to have as Shoo Shoo 2.0 .

We also snuck her some contraband....... her favorite lemon oreos and ginger-ale.

We spent the afternoon hanging out with her in her room before heading to Lagrange to pick up her dog Honey.   Honey is going to live with us for a while.   The girls are just as excited as you would imagine.

On Sunday, our friends the Cleavelands were kind enough to skip church and feed us lunch while Peter spent another morning with Sarah Beth at the hospital.   Sweet Julia shared all her toys and took us to her neighborhood park.  It was lovely.   Thanks guys!

We left Atlanta after lunch and headed for Charlotte where we stopped for a rest at the Embassy Suites.   It was a great call.   We swam and had room service dinner before hitting the sack to get ready for our second day of driving.   

And then we were home and these two cousins were reunitied!   

And Sarah Avery is so happy to be back at her "meadow house."

Grammy, Grandmama, Jim, Aunt Susan and Uncle Andy, Betty, Bob, Lyndsey and Nick and all the other friends and family who made our visit so special.........Thank you!   We love you and miss you all already!    But now we have a new school year coming so we are busy preparing.   Only two more weeks of freedom!   Lots of first day of school pics will be coming soon.