Ava's Fifth Birthday Party!

I'm not setting the bar too high for prompt posting, am I?

This year, we decided to change it up, and instead of having her party at our house or - like last year - the park, we took the party to Pump It Up! after experiencing a super fun party there over the summer. I'm hesitant because I feel like we have this big house and yard and so why would I want to pay to have her party somewhere, but this year, she asked to do it elsewhere, and so I bit the bullet and said yes. I was SO GLAD I did! We may have...overinvited. Each year this happens, where I assume that since her birthday is around the holidays, most of her friends won't be able to make it. WRONG. Always wrong. In fact, it's like since it's over holiday break, people are itching to have something to do, so despite having it on a weekday during the break, we had 32 children RSVP yes. THIRTY. TWO. While I was overwhelmed at the thought of hosting so many kiddos there, I was extremely grateful to not be hosting them at our house. Numerous times during the party I said to my husband and close friends, "Can you IMAGINE having this go down at our house?" Not only was it spacious and nothing in my house got ruined/destroyed/toys didn't get fought over, it was seriously a concierge experience. Pump It Up! took care of every little detail, and I just got to enjoy it and have fun with my best girl. I would highly, highly, highly recommend them to anyone looking for a good place for a party!

So, without further adieu, I present to you Ava's fifth birthday party:

Thank you so much to all the amazing friends and family who came out to make Ava's day so special! We had people join us from New York City, Los Angeles, and more - Ava was definitely feeling the love, and so were we. I couldn't ask for better friends <3 p="">

Ava is 5! FIVE, Y'ALL!

As of 12:27pm on December 28th (yeah, I know it was nearly six weeks ago at this point, but whatevs!), I've been a mother for five years. Half of a decade. I've been a mother for 16% of my life. 

Not only that, but Ava is five years old. She's been alive for (over) five years. It really is phenomenal to think that just over five years ago, there was a giant Ava shaped chunk of my heart missing, since it feels as though she's just as much a part of me as my leg or my lungs or my eyes.

At five, Ava is:

- 43 pounds

- 46" tall

- amazingly smart. She seriously blows my mind every day. About a month before her fifth birthday, Ava started reading! I've been working with her on sounding things out and putting different consonants and vowels together, and one day it just clicked! We got some of the BOB books for her to start with, and she read an entire one to me one day in the car. I may have teared up in the front seat.

- a talented gymnast. She's recently stepped up from her previous preschool classes to school-aged gymnastics, and she can do the beginnings of a cartwheel and a pretty decent handstand. She also tends to crush it on the bars and beam. 

- is still an amazing natural athlete. She can dribble a soccer ball, shoot the ball with the best of them, she's got a great arm, and the other day, when she hit the t-ball with the bat, she cracked the bat. SHE CRACKED IT. We're looking to get her into a little league team this season.

- has a great sense of style. It's not uncommon for her to wear multiple outfits a day, with dresses and tights with tennis shoes being her favorite look. She's definitely a girly girl.

- lately it seems her taste buds are changing, as she'll ask for one of her favorite foods (soup, chicken tenders, tacos/rice/beans, taquitos), and then not want to eat it, citing that it doesn't taste good. 

- has hair past her shoulders, and has been compared to Sofia the first. I totally see it now :)

- her favorite shows are Octonauts, Scooby Doo and Wow Wow Wubbzy!, and she's enjoyed watching Frozen a trillion times, as well as Harry Potter, Homeward Bound and The Sound of Music. 

- sings along in the car, and can be found singing often. It warms my heart to hear this. "Uptown Funk", the Mamma Mia soundtrack, and Taylor Swift's '1989' are amongst her favorite songs.

Happy, happy birthday, Ava! We love you like crazy.

...And Somehow It's 2015 All of a Sudden.

How have five weeks passed by since I last blogged? I was really doing well posting regularly there for a while. Clearly blogging didn't make the New Years Resolution cut, but I digress. I'm here now, though, and with five weeks of updates!

First things first, Ava is FIVE now! Holy smokes! How'd that happen? Didn't I just find out I was "unexpectedly expecting" the other day?! More on her party soon, but let's just say it was the best yet. Five's been treating her decently so far, too, from getting her ears pierced to starting karate to fulfilling a goal she's had for quite a while: moving up to the big girl gymnastics class! 

Ava's been taking classes at The Little Gym for quite some time, and while she's loved every second of it, she's been anxiously awaiting the time when she could move up to the grade-school level classes. She made that move last month, and today marked her third class as a "good friend". Her class is a combo class, with age groups spanning 5-12, which is absolutely perfect for her, since she's got quite a bit of natural talent when it comes to gymnastics. She's coordinated, ridiculously fit, focused - all things she didn't inherit from me ;) Anyhow, combining her natural propensity towards gymnastics with her love for girls older than her and challenging herself, and this class has been an absolute perfect fit. Even better, we love Ms. Kathryn, her instructor, and she's made a wonderful new friend in the class that's her same age and started the same day she did - they've become great friends, and her mom and I have too. The relationships we've made with the owners, instructors and classmates at The Little Gym is one of the many, many things I love about it there!

Jack has also started a new class this semester, having graduated from the "Bugs" class to the "Birds" class now that he's a bit older. His current age grouping is 10-19 months, which is wonderful, since he's smack dab in the middle, and able to learn from the older kids and be an example to some of the younger kids! We have one of our fellow bugs in our new class, too, so seeing a familiar face and knowing that our two little ones have a long-standing friendship already is wonderful! Jack LOVES his time on the big red mat!

He likes to take his skills home with him to practice between classes ;)

Ava has also started Tae Kwon Do, thanks in part to a seriously awesome Groupon at a local studio. She's really enjoying it so far, and loves how goal-oriented it is. She's already earned her headband from learning and reciting the oath:

My grandma (aka Nana to the kids) came to visit for a week, which was really wonderful. She was such a huge part of my childhood, and I absolutely love that my children are getting to know her and making memories with her as well! I feel so fortunate that they've got such wonderful family in their lives that want to be a part of it <3 p="">

We also had our sweet kitten Jasper pass away after just five weeks, falling victim to a terrible virus (FIP), and have since adopted a sweet little calico kitten named Charlotte. She turned four months old the other day, and she is AMAZING. Sweetest, most curious, Ava-loving kitten of all time:

Happy, happy new year! I hope that all of you are having a wonderful start to your new year as well!