Happy 8th Birthday and First Communion, Crunchy!

Yep.  I call Avery Crunchy.  No idea why, but I do. 

As with every other month of May, the first half is dedicated to planning for and throwing Avery parties.  This year?  We added First Communion to the mix!

Her birthday weekend started off with Opa and Grandma coming into town!  I picked them up at Logan and we had some time to kill before Avery would be done with dance, so Josh and Alex met us at the Boathouse for a drink on the water.  It was a great way to start the weekend...

Avery's birthday was on Sunday this year, which also happened to be Mother's Day.  We typically would have had her "kid party" on Saturday, but instead, we celebrated her First Communion!  She did a great job and looked beautiful.  After the ceremony, they had a reception at the school and then we all went to lunch at the Mooring in Newport.  The service was terrible, but the company and the food were good.  I think that Avery had a good day and enjoyed everyone being there to celebrate.

The next day was her actual birthday and Mother's Day!  To celebrate both, we were having the whole family to our house later that afternoon, so I had to spend most of the day prepping for that.  Which was fine, because that gave me and Grandma some time to hang out and prep, just the two of us while Josh and Opa took both kids mini-golfing and out to lunch. 

The party was great.  BBQ Chicken and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake were on the menu, per Avery's request....all of which turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Grandma and Opa stayed for a few more days after Avery's bday, which gave us time to head to Rockport, MA for the day!  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't all that great - a bit cold and rainy, but luckily the rain held off while we walked around and went to the beach to look (and find!) seaglass.  As always, it was a fun trip going to see the spot where Opa grew up going to visit his grandparents.

We had Avery's friend party the following weekend at the place where she does Gymnastics.  Nearly all of the girls in 2nd grade were there and I think that everyone had a good time.  It took a bit for Avery to come down off of the high and to believe us when we said that not every month of the year would be devoted to her.  I'm pretty certain she still doesn't 100% agree with that theory, but we're working on it...

 

Overall, I'd say that between Opa and Grandma's visit, First Communion, Rockport and 2 birthday parties, this girl had a rather successful and social week....