What a DECADE!

Our little Avy Baby turned 10 years old this Friday! What a great decade it has been having her in our lives.

Here's our (Slade is helping me) Top Ten reasons Avy is fantastic:

1. The girl is creative. And in a creative way. Just give her random things and her ideas will be NO WHERE near the box!

2. Avy is friendly and enjoys being with people. She has an inclusive streak about her that we hope will continue with her.

3. She enjoys being active: soccer, lacrosse, skiing, bike riding.

4. Avy LOVES to laugh!!! And laugh she does. A beautiful, contagious, infectious laugh.

5. Recently she has learned the art of saving money. It is so refreshing to see the restraint from what she "needs right now" for something in the future.

6. FASHION. In the sense that "fashion" is not "mainstream".

7. Singing is a joy for Avy and follows in her grandpa's footsteps for singing about anything.

8. Avy values her library card. She frequently asks to go and enjoys reading.

9. Avy is a compassionate and caring person. So much so, that she has become a vegetarian. No kidding. And no exceptions since September. She feels for those little chickies and cows.

10. Caring part 2: she was the most excited when asked about adding kids to the family.

We look forward to the next decade and know she will be an incredible adult!

We love you, Avy!

Crush x 3

Funny how this was only two months ago and they all have changed since then.

Time

is marching on. . .



Sawyer started junior high today. Gym uniform, algebra, locker combination, homeroom, and parental figures MILES from the school. He is most excited that school doesn't begin until almost 9:00 am. He plans to snooze longer than us all.




Avy and Kennah are both at Candy Lane this year and were happy to let me drive them to school. Tomorrow (and all future rain-free days) they plan to ride their bikes. No small task since their school is in another city. But Slade prepared them well this summer so it's time to see if they can do it.

According to Avy

there are 3 main food groups:

the bubbles

the jellies

and

the LOVES

100% Correct

This afternoon as I sat working, Avy listened to books on cassette tape. One was a native American version of Cinderella. Avy asked for clarification of the moral, something along the lines of having a good heart is beautiful. I explained when a person is kind and nice, they have a special inner beauty just like being attractive on the outside.

She looked at me and said, "I have both."

I chuckled at her insight. She is both honest and accurate.

momma said there'd be days like this . . .

... and I hope there are MORE!

The kids practically LEAPED out of bed this morning. They laughed all the way through breakfast. May the magic of the first day of school last!

Retirement . . .

. . . has its perks.

Grami may have retired from teaching school (too bad for the educational system), but she was willing to come teach art camp this week (so lucky for us.) It was fantastic!

color

Avy's second art class was yesterday. We talked about how color communicates. There were two crafts. The first one ended up taking a lot longer than I planned because the correct glue was lost on the way down stairs (still don't know how) and we had to use superglue as an alternative. But the girls (and I) had a lot of fun designing rings.

In the second project we took 16 colors to describe a mood, place or thing. I love how it ended up. I love that everyone has different things that are significant to them (for example, Christmas Tree, banana split, summer swimming, Great Wolf Lodge, chocolate chip cookies, etc.) And even those interpretations will vary from person to person.

Summer good times continue.

NOT corporate America

5 minutes ago, this was the scene in my workplace:


H: "Avy, you must clean the paper and crayons off your floor."

A: "You are not like other moms!"

H: "I assure you, Avy, other moms ask their kids to clean up their rooms."

A: "No they don't! They are . . . . . . . NICE!"


Boy, there are times I think working for "the man" isn't so bad.

Way TOOOO Easy

This morning on my daily stroll through blogland (hey, it gets the creative juices flowing) I stumbled onto some cute paper dolls and then stumbled away without bookmarking it under my catch-all, "random ideas."

No big deal, until an hour later I mentioned it to Avy and she was SO excited. Then I had to try to find my way back. Luckily a friend reminded me of the handy-dandy history button. Wah-la, there it was.

And with a few printing clicks, I reached bliss.

Not for my crafting needs. But Avy cannot get enough creative outlets. In particular, she LIVES to cut. I have never seen someone cut so much. Paper, clothes (yes, clothes ON her body), fabric packed away in the attic, anything.

I knew she'd like to cut the dolls, but I had NO ideas she'd do it for 6 hours. We had a marvelous afternoon "working" side by side. "Mom, I can't believe I have paper dolls. At Fred Meyer they are $10! And we just had to print them!" (Spoken with the giddiness of Christmas Eve conversations.)

Now she is happily sorting them and distributing them into properly marked bags.

Why didn't I think of this YEARS ago?!

And now my morning "habit" has been justified.

8 is GREAT!

Our little "baby" turned 8 yesterday! Life wouldn't be the same without her. Here are 8 great reasons why:

1. No one else can keep themselves up past bedtime like Avy! (And she is so darn cute when she's trying to curl up with us in our kid-free hours.)

2. Only Avy draws thank you cards with pictures at the drop of a hat. Actually, Avy draws anywhere, anytime with ANYthing the leaves a mark. We love our artist!

3. Avy has a flair for fashion. You never know what outfit she'll dress herself in each day.

4. Avy loves to sing. To herself or anyone who will listen.

5. Avy lives in the moment. And to the fullest! (Clean out my backpack or lunchbox each day after school? No way, I've got other things to do.)

6. Avy is sweet. She has a very caring personality. She wants those around her to be happy.

7. Avy can LAUGH and be silly.

8. Avy has a talent for shoulder massages. Seriously, the girl has fingers that are way beyond her years!

We love her and are happy she is our little girl! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVE!

SOM

Last Monday Avy brought home a sealed envelope addressed to "the parents of Avy Watts." She's been around the block a time or two so she figured out that she was chosen as the Student of the Month for her class.

She dressed up Friday morning and made sure her hair was presentable and headed off for her day and eventually receive her award.

The theme was "cooperative." The funny thing is she has received the cooperative award the past two years. I guess she'd consistent in her behavior. (And being the baby of the family probably has something to do with it.)

Soccer Girl

Today was the first official soccer game of the season. Avy has improved much, which is so fun to see. (#13)













But, she still enjoys her sideline time.













It's always a question of which she enjoys more.

Ugly Party

Yup, you read it right. Avy's birthday party theme this year was UGLY. But, it actually, it turned out very, very cute. She's really been into her drawings and being an artist. So, I had the idea to let her (and Kennah) design their own little creations and turn them into dolls. I guess, a version of Build-a-Bear, but in our home. And so the girls and I designed the shapes, Mimi sewed the shapes together and like that, we had a birthday party.

There was no school today, so Avy had 6 friends over. First we started with questions all about Avy. Hey, it's her birthday, why not give her some attention? Then, the girls with the most correct answers picked the body "shell" she wanted.

We entered the "operating room" and stuffed the dolls full of filling and a little red heart. Then they sewed it up and put a band-aid on for recovery. They named the dolls and filled out birth certificates. The babies rested in their "bassenette" baskets in the nursery while their moms enjoyed cake and ice cream. Avy opened her gifts and it was time to go home. It was really very fun. (If I had really been on the ball we could have sung lullabies or made a bigger deal out of stuff. But, you can only do so much, so it was what it was.)

And thus ends the 4th family birthday of 2008! Shew!

Help Wanted

After a visit to the dentist, we spoke frankly with Avy about her thumbsucking. The habit has been a tough one for her to kick. She does it when bored, scared, needs comfort or just out of plain habit. So basically, any time she wasn't in school.

When given the option of continuing to suck and paying for a device herself or stopping cold turkey for something of her choice, she wisely picked the latter. What did she choose . . .a dog! We thought it was a safe incentive and that we'd catch her at some point. But to our reluctant dismay, she has stopped. I guess we should be happy, but wish she had set her sights a little smaller. A package of markers perhaps? Shoot, 5 packages of markers. But why or why did we agree to a dog?

So save us from disaster and let us know if you ever spot Avy's thumb in her mouth! Please! The only solace we take in the dog is we didn't promise a pony!