The main focus of this week was party prep for Avery's tailgate on Saturday, making for a very quick and busy 5 days + 1 birthday + 1 exhausted day to catch up on it all!
On Wednesday I was supposed to have an appointment to go to, but I found out right before leaving that it was canceled. Since I'd put the boys in daycare anyway, I used the morning to get some things accomplished prior to going to pick up my little monsters. After getting some things done in the house, I headed out to the garage where I painted a banner for the party and then worked on the Growth Ruler that I've wanted to make for YEARS. ...that's right, years. When Asher was a baby, I bought a piece of oak to make this ruler and gave myself a goal to have it completed no later than his 1st birthday. I couldn't decide what the best way to make it was though so the wood sat in our garage for a very long time. Since then I've been gifted a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine so I knew how I wanted to make it, but needed to find the time. As the years passed I gave myself the goal of Avery's 1st birthday and again I failed. Then, I finally gave myself the goal of his 2nd birthday and while it is not 100% finished it is very close. I'm hoping to maybe get it finished this weekend (2nd weekend of October as I type this). We shall see...
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| My oak board with the (spray painted) stencil that I made in illustrator and cut from vinyl on my cutting machine. It worked great...I have many more projects in my future! |
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| The end result...Now I just need to varnish it and hang it up! |
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| I almost ran into this guy as I was working in the garage. Yuck! |
Later that morning, I headed out to get the boys and after naps we enjoyed a great afternoon together.
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| As working on his own "party decorations" a table mat for his kiddie table. |
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| Avery helping me crush crackers for our breaded pork-chops for dinner that night. |
After a very wet/rainy day, we were all ready for some time outside. After dinner it had cleared up, so Eric and I walked down to the park with the boys for a little fun before bed. You'd have thought that getting dark would have made the kids want to go home (especially since Asher doesn't even want to walk to the bathroom himself if the hall light and bathroom light isn't on), but getting them to leave was still a challenge.
After they had gone to bed, I worked on some more decorations for the party.
On Thursday night I continued the party prep by making football brownies. I had to use up three entire brownie mix bags from my Costco stock for this sheet of deliciousness and the boys were both quite excited to eat some of the scraps.
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| That's a LOT of Brownies! |
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| Completed Footballs |
Friday night, our party prep time was running out. We worked hard at home until bedtime and then after Grandma and Papa arrived, Eric and I headed to Meijer to get the rest of the food for the party.
Video: When It's All Quiet
Eric and the boys were working outside while I worked on cleaning up inside. After a few minutes Eric realized he hadn't heard or seen Avery in a while and set out to look for him. He found Avery behind the van hiding quietly playing with Asher's markers.
On Saturday it was Avery's 2nd Birthday!! How have two years gone by so quickly??!! With a party to prepare for that afternoon, I can't say it was a relaxing morning, but we did have a good time getting things ready and I was prepared enough for the event that I wasn't even stressed!
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| Asher, Grandma & the Birthday Boy watching cartoons. |
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| Eric putting the birthday boy to work. |
Video: Leaf Pile
When I was looking for ideas for the party, I saw a watermelon football helmet on Pinterest that looked pretty easy and very cute. Thinking it would be easy to do and knowing my dad would be at our house that morning, I asked if he would be up for the challenge. He accepted and took it to the next level making a Michigan helmet for our fruit salad!
For the party, Eric also had the idea of putting the Michigan game up on a "big screen" in the garage. He borrowed a projector from work and set out to find a way to set it up on Saturday morning. As he worked to find what gave the best result, the boys got to watch a life-size episode of Dinotrux!
Video: Dinotrux
Both of the boys thought the movie was awesome, but Avery couldn't get over the fact that he could touch them! :)
After the chaos of my little guy's 2nd birthday we were all pretty exhausted, and on Sunday morning Avery let us sleep in a little bit (7:00). That morning I woke up to Avery playing in his bed. He had woken up earlier but rather than yelling for me and pounding on his bedroom door as he typically does, he had collected every stuffed animal in his room and was tucking them all into his bed...so cute!
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| Avery with his buddies. |
Video: Avery & Co.
The rest of Sunday was most definitely a day of rest. We enjoyed a relaxing morning playing with all of Avery's new toys (& putting together the soccer goal which was no small feat!) and then followed it up with church and naps for all (even Asher allowed himself a small rest!).
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| Avery got lots of new tools, which Asher was VERY interested in! |
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| "Grammy, why don't you push me around in my bike for a while and help me collect all of the left-over party balloons to play with?" |
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| A Sunday morning surprise from Eric, thanking me for making our boys' birthdays special. It's always nice to be appreciated! <3 |
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| Checking out the pumpkins that Grandma and Papa brought for us to decorate with! |
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| Eric found a little friend. |
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| Avery checking out the creature. |
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| ...and showing it to Grammy |
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| More fun with balloons after church. |
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| Spying on the neighbors |
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| Our "Summer" Picture...on the first weekend of Fall. |
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| Avery quietly playing in his room after wake up from his nap. |
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| Such a handsome boy! |
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| This is how Avery tells me to stop taking pictures of him! |
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| Lots of new toys to play with, but coloring the random box is still the best! |
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