Since birthday season is well underway (Haley in March, Trey in May, Avery in July), we figured it was about time to do some family pcitures. Of course, we don’t have time to go anywhere nice. But luckily, Julie was over a while back and was able to to shoot a couple of family pics for us. From the comfort of our own bedroom. 🙂
Avery is definitely the third child! We incorporated a birthday party into our plans to join my parents, Grandma Dee, and the Caswells at the lake for the Fourth of July. Luckily, my amazingly over-the-top crafty friend Angelina had a Minnie Mouse party for her daughter just weeks before, so I hit the jackpot in borrowing all of her Minnie Mouse decor for Avery’s party.
Avery loves Mickey and Minnie…mainly Mickey. She comes in to our room every morning to snuggle up and watch Mickey. She usually stays in bed watching while I start to get ready. A great plan!
The weather was great and we had a fun time spending time with family. We took rides on the boat, played with Toby (the dog), and enjoyed the fireworks in the middle of the lake. Haley and I loved getting schooled by Grandma Dee in playing Crazy 8’s!
Avery loved the balloons and the cupcakes the most. She got tons of attention and probably didn’t notice it was her birthday because she gets tons of attention every day! I am so proud of my sweet two-year old BABY! She is the cutest thing, is so full of life, and cracks us up at every turn with her facial expressions and personality.
Avery is almost fully potty trained and is now in a big girl bed- she was the first and only Simons baby to train herself to crawl out…it is hilarious too! I can’t believe how fast she is.
We left the lake a little early to get home to our own lake celebration! Garner Lake does a great fireworks display too so we loaded the pirate ship and set sail!
Proud to be an American! Where at
least I know I’m free!!!
Free to do what’s right. And free to do what isn’t. By my standards. Or by God’s standards.
Lord, help us this day to do what’s right by your standards. They’re the only ones that matter.
**special thanks to Heather Hamm for the photos!
Trey has been EXTREMLY into superheros lately. In fact, every night when we put him to bed, we lift him up and “fly” him in. He picks whether he’s going to be superman (arms straight out), batman (arms back) or spider man (one arm out shooting a web). We toss him into bed and he hits face first. And laughs with delight. I think if I tried the same I’d come up with a skinned nose and a sore back.
Last month we celebrated Trey’s birthday. And he’d have no other type of party than a superhero party. Laura did an AWESOME job on the party preparations. It all started with her great idea for birthday invitations. Of course, I lost the final version, but a draft of the invite is below. What could have been a simple gathering of friends at the park turned into a treasure hunt for cape making supplies, a cape making party and a celebration that even a superhero would envy. In fact, a “bad guy” even showed up to steal the capes. Luckily, there were some water squirters that the kids were able to use to run the bad guy off.
All in all, a great birthday celebration for a kid that’s a superhero in my book.
One thing I’ve always had a dream of doing is coaching Trey’s T-ball team. My dad was always involved in my baseball activities. In fact, I don’t think there was ever a time that he wasn’t the coach. In fact, I literally have expressed worry to Laura in the past. Worry that I might not be able to either get off of work or be in town to coach. I’m extremely blessed to have the opportunity to be the coach of the team.
That said, this group is like herding cats! We’ve got one 3 year old and the rest are 4/5 year olds. It’s the vast majority of the kids’ first time to play ball. We literally started the first practice showing them which hand thier glove goes on and learning the difference between home plate and first base. And after just 3 practices, it was time for the first game.
Now ‘game’ is a term that you can use loosely with this age group. There are 4 innings, everyone bats, no one gets out. So essentially, all games end in a tie. Very rarely does anyone hit a ball outside of the infield. VERY rarely. As in…it’s only happened twice in the 3 games we’ve played. So, we bunch all of the kids up in the infield. And when the ball is hit (many times about 5-6 feet), there’s a mad dash to get it, a brief argument over who should get it, and a haphazard throw to a first baseman who typically isn’t paying attention. Like I said, like herding cats. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Here are a couple pictures from their first game.
Yeah – No updates in months. Â Sooo, let’s ease back into this with a couple of photos from Father’s day. Â These kiddos make me happy to be a dad…fo sho.
HaydenAndLaura.com 