Avery's Birthday Party

We had a great with family and friends for Avery's third birthday party. I let Avery pick out her theme. At first she chose Sponge Bob Squarepants (or as she says- "Bum Bob"), but then she saw Tinkerbell (or as she says- "Turningbell"). I was thrilled to find a pirate boat-shaped pool to add to the theme and had the older kids do a Treasure hunt to find the pool toys hidden behind the big rock in the backyard. I was worried that I didn't have enough other fun games to keep the kids entertained, but the pools and water toys along with the inside ongoing Wii games seemed to entertain kids and adults alike. I thought the funniest thing was that the kids didn't use either of the water slides as actual slides, but flipped them over and pretended they were boats. Overall, it was a busy day for Keith and I, but a great party, and we were happy to at least get a little time to chit chat with guests whilst keeping Avery happy and making sure everyone was fed and entertained: It took Avery a few minutes to accept that she would be sharing the toys and pools with friends:
Alex and Evan (children of Keith's high school friend J.P. and his wife Nicole) arrived first with another little boy they were babysitting:

Bradley, Emmy, and Olivia (the children of Keith's P.A. school buddy Steve and his wife Mindy) arrived a little later and joined in on the fun. Although this picture seems to capture Bradley about to be slam-dunking Alex in the head with the slide/boat:

Avery and Emmy enjoyed some girl talk in the slide/boats:

Brett says hello to Addie:

And as always, Grabbie Addie goest straight for his hat:

I put my sister Angela in charge of my camera since Keith and I were busy preparing lunch, and was privileged to get this nice self-shot photo of her and Scott:

Avery started to break down early on in the day, and Nana spent quite some time rocking and soothing her:

The past few birthday parties that we've taken Avery to, she was overly fussy the entire time, begging for cake, until once the birthday cake came out and she got to have a piece- then she was perfectly happy, agreeable, and content. So, based on her fussy behavior here, I broke down and decided to just go ahead and get the birthday cake part of it out of the way even though we hadn't finished cooking lunch, hoping that that would cure her fussiness:And sure enough, that seemed to be the needed boost in Avery's mood:Keith slaved away on the grill cooking fajitas while I focused on making sure the kiddos were happy with nuggets, hot dogs, and juice: And it was hot but at least bearable for the adules to hang out a bit on the porch (seen here from left to right- J.P., Keith's cousin Mark, Lee Lee and Addie, Emmy, and her teasingly strict dad, Steve):

Lisa's sister, Linda (cousin Mark's mother), was also able to come down from Dallas for the party- she was the first to discover that Addie's first tooth had finally broken threw. Addie bit her finger earlier that day, and Linda commented on how sharp her tooth was. I went to check it out, and sure enough, there was a little bottom tooth poking through her gums:

Lisa and Linda's youngest brother Don also came by with his two youngest kids- Aaron and Anna- while his wife Michele stayed home to plan for their daughter Amy's high school graduation party that was going on later that day:

And then gift opening time:

Like mother, like daughter- I think this picture now shows me what Keith means when he complains about my criticizing looks and the fact that our daughter seems to emulate them as well:

I was actually really impressed with Avery's manners- she made a point to personally look up and say thank you to everyone after opening up their gift, even the guests who had already left and weren't there to hear it:

Addie was pleased to get a hold of one of Avery's gifts and take part in the birthday gift fun:

After the gift opening, we let Avery indulge in another one of her favorite passtimes- letting birthday balloons go and fly away in the sky. Avery seriously asks "Can I take it to the sky?" everytime she sees helium balloons. So when Don suggested this activity, we decided to throw environmental responsibilities to the wind and had fun letting all of the remaining kids count to three and watch them all float off together:

As the pary wound down, Avery enjoyed sharing some of her new toys with Addie:

And then enjoyed them on her own:

In the meantime, Addie not only enjoyed watching Avery play with her toys, but watching the Wii game going-ons as well:

And once the ten-year-old guests were gone- the Dynes guests got to take over the Wii entertainment- it's always amazing to be able to find a fun toy that can entertain all generations:

And before they left, Nana captured a few fun poses of Avery enjoying the new comforter and bed sheet set that Nana and Papa bought for her:

Nana's final shot- the mot-possibly, most-adorable photo I have of Avery to date: