Happy 2nd Birthday!

It is official...we have a full blown 2 year old on our hands!!  Last Sunday Avery turned 2 but it seems as though we have been celebrating for much longer than that!  Due to a family picnic (see below) we had to do Avery's birthday party a week before her real birthday.  Good thing when you are 2, the actual date doesn't matter- only cupcakes!

We invited all of our friends with kids and had a nice little backyard party this year.  We served all of Avery's favorite foods- hot dogs, fruit, and cupcakes!  Grandma even brought a pinata for the kids to beat on before a big kid had to break it open!

We had not 1, but 2 pools for the kids.  Thankfully, it divided up the littles from the bigs!

Yes, Avery likes to swim with her clothes on sometimes....

 I did say sometimes!

You would think this plate of food falling would be from a kid.  Think again.  I will not mention names.

And of course there were presents!

 And cupcakes.  (Did you notice that her clothes came back on?  This was the pattern all day!)

And then they came back off!

 Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes!

Some even enjoyed the cupcakes like it was their birthday!  This kid is awesome and loves cupcakes!!!  :)

Then it was pinata time...

We are so thankful for all our friends who were able to help us celebrate!

Then the following weekend we traveled to my family reunion on my dad's side.  This year it happened to fall on Avery's birthday.  Talk about celebrating with the ones you love!  Saturday night we got to my parents house around 6:30, ate dinner and put Avery down around 9:30.  She has slept in the toddler bed a couple times before and has had no problems since I sleep in the bed next to her.  I went to bed about an hour later and fell asleep around 11.  Then, it started.  At 11:30, Avery crawled into bed with me...no problem.  We tried to snuggle, didn't work.  We tried to go back to the toddler bed, didn't work.  At 1am, we were still trying to get Avery to go back to sleep.  Then we went to the basement to the bigger bed.  At 3am we were still trying to get Avery to go back to sleep.  At this point, Dave and I have not slept yet either.  Avery remained awake, and VERY alert, until we made her cry it out at 5:30 in the morning!!!!  Someone sure knew it was her birthday!  She managed to get in about 4 hours of sleep before we had to leave for the picnic.  Dave and I (thanks to my parents) managed a couple hours of sleep as well.

Overall, Avery managed quite fine.  There were lots of people celebrating with her, loving on her and of course Lucas was there to run around with.  By 2:00, she was done and we drove the 2.5 hours home with a sound asleep baby, er, toddler, er, kid(??) in the back seat.

See...she looks miserable, right?

Brownies from Grandma

 And cookies too.  Anything to keep her happy on her birthday!

Ready to play a game with the other kids.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!  We love you so much and are so proud to be your mommy and daddy.  You have brought us such joy in two years and you make us so happy every day.

Keepin' Busy

Outside of our visit from Auntie Mara, we have been keeping busy with many other things!  I feel so incredibly lucky to have the job I have.  Not only do I love what I do, but I also get 3 straight months to spend with Avery!  I thought I would share some of our favorite pictures from the last few weeks!

Children's Discovery Museum

Brookfield Zoo with Auntie Ashley and the Antfellners

Avery loved this one little fish tank in the penguin house because it had a Nemo and a Dory!!

Avery's first cab ride in Chicago!  Yikes!

Millennium Park

She wasn't so sure about the Bean at first.

Then she just wanted to hug it!  :)

I love this sign!!  (Even though I am guilty of putting ketchup on my hot dogs at times!!)

Avery has also found a love for finger painting!

And we even got a visit in with Gigi!!

Fun with Family

Last week, Dave's sister, Mara, and our two nieces were in town and stayed with us for a week!  It was so much fun and Avery really loved playing with her cousins.  Last year, she wasn't really aware of them being here, nor was she very much fun to play with!  We took many pictures because we know that it will be another year before we see them again.  


The girls loved playing outside in the sprinkler.  I think that we ended up outside and soaked every night!  

They also played hide and seek...Avery is really good at this game!

And of course, when family is in town, there is always time for treats!  The girls helped me make a banana cake and they licked their plate clean...literally!!

While Mara was here, we went up to visit more family in Ottawa.  Dave's aunt and uncle were nice enough to let us crash their house and pool!!

Grandpa and his girls!!  I love this picture!!

We also took a trip to a local dairy farm.  They make all their own cheeses and you can pet the animals.  Avery loves going here because she can pet the baby cows!  :)

Mara was here over the 4th of July so we had some of our friends over to celebrate.  We even had a slip and slide!  The girls helped us make red, white and blue cupcakes which were a huge hit!

Then it was off to the fireworks-

Trevor had had enough with the fireworks- too bad the girls weren't finished with him!

Of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some great pictures of the girls while they were here!  I love how these turned out!!!

Thanks for visiting Barr family!  We can't wait to see you again!!