Little Miss Ava turned 5 on the 19th. It's so surreal thinking Nate and I have beenparents for 5 whole years. My oh my... the time has flown! Everyday I look at Ava and am amazed at how grown up she is and just how darling she is. She is so compassionate and sensitive... Heavenly Father definitely knew I needed her. :)
For Ava's 5th birthday, I wanted to do a little more than I have in years past. I think 5 is a big milestone birthday, and combine it with the fact that I'm due pretty much any day and we won't be going out for awhile, we spread her birthday over several days.
On the 18th, we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkins. Ava was very specific with what she wanted. It had to be dark orange and tall and long... yep, those were her specifications.
On Friday (Ava's actual birthday) we ended up sending Nate on a surprise overnight fishing trip, so we made her birthday a girls day.
(On a side note... Nate deserved to go on a little man adventure to Seaside to go fishing. It was the last available weekend before the baby comes, so I collaborated with a couple of his friends and we totally surprised him! There will be more on that later, though...)
So for our girls day, we went to the movies and saw "Hotel Transylvania". It was only Ava's 2nd time going to the movies and Halle's first time going, so it was quite an adventure. We don't ever go to the movies, so it was a real treat!
After the movie, we headed to McDonalds. It's fun going on Ava's birthday because they have their Halloween buckets for the kids meals.
Ava has also spent many hours riding her new bike! She has been learning to ride without training wheels, and I'm sure she'll have it down in no time. She's been wanting a bike forever, and I had her convinced that she needed to ask Santa Claus for one. Well, she was super surprised when she got it for her birthday!
Then, on the 27th we had a friend birthday party for her. She wanted a Halloween costume party and only wanted girls to come. I have a rule that she can only invite as many friends as her age, so this year we had to pick 5 friends. 3 of them couldn't come, so we had a little party with just 2 girls, but it was great because they just wanted to play. We decorated some foam pumpkins and had a pinata (another one of Ava's requests) and ate cake and ice cream. Nothing major, but it made Ava's day. She also wanted a spider cake... as we spent time looking for cakes, she specifically wanted a spider cake and she didn't want it to be cute. She wanted it to be scary looking.... Well, we comprimised and found a cake that she liked. I thought it turned out pretty well. :)
While there are moments that Ava drives me crazy, I would honestly be lost without her. She is such a big helper, and she has amazed me with her ability to help me out. When there are days when I need to lie down and just rest, or when I need her to pick up something because I can't bend over anymore, she is my special helper. She is very eager to mind and to please Nate and me.
Ava is very smart and has an amazing ability to learn songs pretty much after the first time she's heard it. She knows the first 5 Articles of Faith because we sing them at night. She loves to sing and I can often hear her making up her own songs. Ava loves to go to Primary and loves to get picked as the Reverence Child or to get "mail" which means she's either giving the talk, scripture, or prayer the following Sunday. She really takes to heart the teachings of the gospel. One night, we were reading the scriptures and we were reading about how we can pray and ask Heavenly Father if the things we are reading are true. I stopped reading and told Ava that she can pray to know that the gospel is true, and know for herself... she looked at me and said, "Mom, I already have. I know the gospel is true. It makes me happy." She knows she can pray when she is sad or needs help, and her prayers are becoming more and more personal.
She is so darling, and I can't wait to see what the next 5 years bring!
She is so big! And so cute!
ReplyDelete