Happy Birthday America, and Ava!

What a weekend we’ve had…First, 4th of July. What a fun holiday. I love the yearly celebration of our country and what is better than family, friends, good food, and fireworks? The weekend started off with a neighborhood parade that featured our local astronaut who just returned from the Space Station. There were lots of bikes, kids, flags, and candy! I think Ava got more candy than she collected on Halloween.

After that, it was off to our neighborhood celebration, complete with clowns and balloons and food!

In the evening, we watched the fireworks from down the street. Ava stayed up with us and LOVED every minute of it.

After she went to bed, we snuck in and planted a bunch of balloons in her bedroom so she would wake up to balloons on her birthday. I plan on making this a tradition because it is such a fun thing for them!

The birthday celebration included the big presents of a bike and fish tank, along with a “Bad Cat” cake. About 2 months ago, when I first mentioned to Ava that her birthday was coming up, she told me that she was going to have a “Bad Cat birthday cake” (a character from one of the bedtime stories that she loves). I thought she would change her mind, but she held her position on this one and never wavered. Luckily, my Mom can make great cakes. She stepped in and created the perfect Bad Cat Cake. So far, she has made every one of Ava’s birthday cakes (or at least corrected the mess that I have attempted, first birthday example).

So, now my little baby girl is 3 years old. No longer a toddler! She starts preschool this fall and somehow I realized this weekend as I watched her pedal around on her big girl bike that time will just go faster and faster. Soon, my shy sweet little girl will be doing her own thing and won’t be interested in me helping her catch bugs and lizards, or dancing in the middle of the living room, or practicing catch with our big red ball. She might not like cuddling up to have me read to her since she’ll be reading to herself. She’ll be able to push herself on the swing and color all the pages in her color books, and she won’t be asking me questions like “Why don’t we have fireworks every night?” since she will realize that I really don’t have all the answers. All that made me want to grab her off the bicycle and lock her in a complete mama bear grip…impossible to escape.

And, if you are still reading what is the longest post ever, you now know why everyone here at our house needs a good long afternoon nap to recover from our hot dogs, candy, cake, ice cream, fireworks, presents, and fun filled weekend.

Happy 4th of July!