Happy Birthday Avery!

My little girl turned 4 years old today! She's been talking about her birthday party since, well, last year. And the plan for a while has been to have an "Ariel swimming party." We had a great time. We had 11 kids and 5 moms come over for a backyard pool/splash party.

This is the pull-apart cupcake cake I made. I used Wilton's blue and green color mist to make the airbrushed look on the cupcakes. I also made some of the sea shapes out of starbursts.

We had four pools set up in the backyard. Thanks to Heidi and Jen for letting me borrow theirs! We also had a double slip n slide, squirt guns, tons of bubbles, etc.

I also made an Ariel pinata with a balloon and some homemade paper mache. It turned out great. All the kids got to hit it twice before it finally broke.

Then we had some cupcakes, opened presents, and played with the stuff in the goody bags.

Oh and this below is my masterpiece:

I painted this Ariel face cutout and took pictures of most of the kids so they could be Ariel. I thought it turned out great. (I didn't freehand it by the way, just traced it and then painted.) The party was a success and Avery is having a great birthday so far!

Preschool Graduation

I forgot to bring my camera to Avery's preschool graduation a few weeks ago, but here's a picture of her in the graduation caps we made:

Of course Camy wanted to try the cap on too!
We had a great time doing preschool this year with Evie, Aden, and Tyler. We took turns teaching once a week so we each taught every 5 weeks, and on the 5th week we would do a field trip. We taught a theme, shape, color, number, and letter each week and did a lot of crafts and fun things. It was great for Avery to get used to a learning environment and social interaction.

First Day!

Avery and Merrick both had some "first days" today. They look a little nervous don't they?

Today was Avery's first day of her Summer Program "Get set for 4K" at her school she's going to start in the fall. She goes every day from 8:30-11:30am for the next four weeks. She was a little nervous at first but once she got her nametag on she gave me a kiss and said "See ya Mom!" and her teachers said she did really well. She looks so grown up!
Camryn and I had a nice three hour break at home together. I did my cleaning, she enjoyed playing with her toys without having to share them, and the time went by quickly.

And also today was Merrick's first day as an Assistant Buyer at Kohl's. Yay for a promotion! He's working in the Table Linens office, over the Decorative Pillows department. He'll also be doing the Window Treatments since Kohl's is going to start carrying those in stores soon. Quite a difference from Men's Dress and Casual shoes, but he's excited and I'm sure he'll be great. Here he is confidently walking into work this morning!

My Day and His Day

Yesterday I had a really good day with my girls. We spent the morning testing out a new slip-n-slide in the backyard (well, them - not me!), then they played inside while I made my first ever batch of homemade laundry detergent from this recipe. I also worked on some preparations for Avery's upcoming 4th birthday party, including beginning the first paper mache layer on a ballon pinata. Then to finish off the day the girls and I babysat for some friends who needed a night out, which meant I watched 4 kids ages 3, 2, 1, and 6 months for two hours. Avery was a great helper and we had a good time. I had a good and productive day!

Then, Merrick got home at about 9:45pm. He had spent the day a little differently. A few hours of work in the morning and then the rest of the long day was spent here:

Golfing. Yep, golfing at Whistling Straits. Which is where the PGA Championships will be this year. Pretty much the nicest golf course in Wisconsin! And he went with some of his Kohls coworkers and it was all paid for by the vendors. Free lunch, 18 holes, which took 5 hours to play, and the warmest day of the year so far. The whole course is right up and down the lakefront!! Lucky guy huh? I won't even tell you how much that place costs. Merrick has gotten really into golf since we moved here to Milwaukee and plays quite a bit each summer. This was SO fun for him!

Well, our days were definitely different, but we both had good ones so that's all that matters.

Say Cheese!

Yum

Check out this cake I made for myself for my birthday last month:

Chocolate Mousse Crunch Cake.

So. Good.