The Avery Family Blog

Spring Has Sprung

Here are a few pictures of our family. As you can tell, Spring has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest. The daffodils are blooming and the tulips should be showing their colors in the next week or two. In the meantime ...

 

Nicole eating an after-dinner lollipop. She must have eater all of her dinner like a big girl!

 

Manivanh and Andrew in the car after shopping for groceries.

Nicole and Andrew taking it easy on a lazy Sunday morning. 

 

Andrew

  

Digging

  

And playing

  

With Daddy's cars

  

The End! 

2 + 2 = 4

This evening just before bathtime, Nicole told Mommy, "Two plus two is four!" Manivanh followed up with a few, simple addition problems. Nicole answered them all correctly until she got to "10" and then she ran out of fingers. Pretty cool,huh! Especially since we've never really practiced math skills other than counting to a hundred. We do, however, like to play "Brain Quest" before bedtime, and maybe this is partly responsible for her sudden interest in math. Nicole is also very good at puzzles, mazes, and all kinds of pattern recognition.

Nicole in Olympia

Nicole is 5 Years Old!

Nicole turned 5 years old on Friday. She's been planning her birthday since the day after she turned 4 years old! We had a small party on Friday so she could have a big party with her friends from pre-school on Saturday.

Nicole picked out the colors for her birthday cake. She said the icing was great but generally avoided the cake as it is more of a filler. 

Nicole and her friends from preschool and one friend from the neighborhood. Cousin Avery was asleep in the car with Uncle Jonathan and Andrew was asleep upstairs. 

The kids had dino-nuggets, egg rolls, potato chips, veggies, fruit, and capri suns fruit drinks. Hhhmmmm yummy! 

Mommy checking in on the party from the kitchen.  

We played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. Even Mommy and Daddy had to play!  

Mommy had a little trouble finding the donkey.  

But she managed to put the tail almost in its right place.  

Nicole got lots of nice presents including a Barbie car from her Grammy in Texas. Thanks, Grammy!  

She got some Barbie clothes from Aunt Lindsey, too. How did you know Nicole's Barbie dolls needed new clothes?   

  

The mommies got together for a group picture. 

Miss Upside Down

Do you see anything wrong or out-of-place in this picture? That's right, I didn't think so!

Happy Halloween

Wishing you a Happy Halloween - Sleeping Beauty and Chicken Little 

Green Mac 'N Cheese

The crazy thing is, I think this was my idea!

Election 2008

In about a month, the country will elect a new president, so this seemed like a good time to ask Nicole who she likes for president, Barack Obama or John McCain.

Daddy: "Nicole, who do you like for president, Barack Obama or John McCain?"

Nicole: "Barack Obama."

Daddy: "Why do you like Barack Obama?"

Nicole: "Brocolli."

Daddy: (pause) "Brocolli?"

Nicole: "Yeah, Brocolli. Barack Obama and brocolli are different, but they're almost exactly the same." Unlike George Bush Sr., Nicole loves brocolli.

Daddy: "Well, uh, that's a pretty good reason to like Barack Obama, then, isn't it?"

Nicole: "Uh-huh."

Nicole also likes the way "Barack Obama" rolls off her tongue. His name is much more fun to say than "John McCain".

Princess Nicole

She Shoots! She Scores!

All season long, Nicole has been saying that she would score a goal during one of her soccer games. This didn't seem likely as Nicole usually tried to avoid the swarm of kids who followed the ball from one end of the field to the other.

Finally, something must have clicked in Nicole's brain because she started practicing "power kicks" with her Scooby-Do ball in our garage. The last game of the season was on Friday, and she played like I've never seen her play before. She scored two goals and had one assist. Way to go, Nicole!