Happy Birthday, DJ!
For DJ’s birthday, we decided to go check out a newer apple orchard. His birthday was 2 days before school started so it was also a fun way to end summer break. We headed up to Jeter Mountain Farms, which was a gorgeous orchard and wedding venue. We of course had to test their donuts but the girls said Skytop’s are better. We’ve now tried 3 other orchards and none can beat Skytop’s donuts. We decided not to pick apples but did enjoy their field of pick your own zinnias and sunflowers. The girls also loved their playground area. It was a fun way to celebrate the birthday boy and the end of summer.
Summer Highlights
Here are some random highlights from my phone from this summer that didn’t really fit into other posts.
The girls have both figured out how to take pictures with the iPad or my phone so I am constantly finding random pictures of them on my phone….usually making silly faces.
Sookie and Winnie are loving life together. It took Winnie a little while to really start to play with Sookie. It almost seemed like she was afraid she would hurt Sookie when she was really little. It took a few weeks for them to adjust to life together but now they are best friends and play all the time! Sookie is slowly learning boundaries with her play because Winnie lets her do anything (except take her food…that’s the only time she’ll growl at Sookie). We are working on teaching Sookie that you can’t bite and play dirty. But it is so fun to see them play and be best buds.
Sookie is such a cutie but she is a mess. She is constantly stealing shoes, socks, stuffed animals, bathroom trash, etc. We keep saying we forget what life with a puppy was like because the time when Winnie was a puppy seems like a black hole because we had a 1 year old baby at the same time. Sookie got spayed this summer and had to wear the donut of shame. We decided to wait to get her groomed until after she healed from getting spayed to be able to even out where they had to shave her, which meant she got super shaggy. She got so shaggy she had enough hair on top of her head for a little ponytail…something she was not a fan of. Zoe and Sookie are really developing a bond because Zoe knows that Sookie will eventually be her sleeping buddy. She started playing a game with Sookie where she lays on the floor and hides under the blanket while Sookie lays down on top of her. Zoe giggles the whole time they play together. And this summer she discovered a fun new toy…balloons. She is so cute when she plays with balloons and surprisingly she plays for a while before she pops them.
One evening this summer we looked outside and saw the most beautiful double rainbow!
DJ and I were able to take 2 dates over the summer. The first was to the Monet and Friends exhibit at Biltmore, which was so cool. Impressionists are my favorite artists and it was so cool to see their images projected in the immersive exhibit. Then we were able to see Hamilton again when it came to town. It was just as good as the first time we saw it!
Zoe found a way to make the most of the rainy days we had this summer. As long as it wasn’t thundering, she wanted to play outside in the rain some. Ava is growing so much these days! And Zoe requests having her picture taken more and more these days, which I am happy to oblige.
Zoe decided to use her Christmas money to buy a new doll this summer. This doll is amazing. Her name happens to be Zoe (so she is referred to as Zoe doll) and the creator is a Black woman who wanted to create a doll to promote a positive image around Black hair. You can wash and style the doll’s hair and Zoe is now a little more willing for hair day since she can choose a style for her and Zoe doll. On one of the days Ava had her last camp, I took Zoe to try to find some crocs at the consignment stores since she outgrew her’s. I realized as we were out that we didn’t have time to go back home for lunch before we needed to pick up Ava so we headed to Panera. I decided to take a picture of her because I realized it was one of my last days to spend just the 2 of us before she heads off to kindergarten.
It was a busy summer with camps and swimming but it was a lot of fun. Now we are all ready for school!
1st Day of Dance - Fall 2022
We are excited for Zoe to start another semester at Dance Without Limits. Now that she is in kindergarten, she’s moved up to the next level of classes (and dress code). Back in the spring, they let everyone try a week of dance for free to see what class the kids wanted to sign up for in the fall. Zoe tried jazz, hip hop, acro (basically tumbling), and ballet. To our surprise, she chose ballet. So far she loving her ballet class and she looks so cute in her new leotard. We can’t wait to see what this little ballerina does this fall.
Ava is 10!
I have no idea how Ava is double digits already! Every year seems like she is getting so old but man this one feels like another huge milestone. I feel like the first big milestone was when she turned 5 and it felt like she was suddenly a big kid. Now that she is 10, she really seems so much older. She is about to start her last year of elementary school. The time is just flying by so fast!
Ava had her well child check and she is right on track and very healthy. Her stats were:
Height - 57.5” - 87th percentile
Weight - 89.4 lbs - 82nd percentile
That height helped her reach a big milestone as she no longer needs to use a booster seat in the car. She probably could have ridden without it before now but we prefer to max out the law/recommendations to be extra careful when it comes to car safety.
As usual, I can definitely see how much she is growing in her clothes. She is wearing size 10/12 clothes and size 4 or 4.5 shoes. I think she’ll be in size 12 jeans this year, mainly for the length. Some tops that I bought for the fall are size 12.
So I asked Ava the same questions that I’ve asked her for the past several years on her birthday. I love being able to compare her answers each year and to really get an idea of what her favorites are each year. So, I’ll let Ava tell you about her life at 10 (in italics), with some extra details added by me.
How old are you?
I’m 10
What is your favorite food?
Pizza
Ava’s favorite foods still really haven’t changed much over the past few years. She also still loves chicken tacos, chicken pot pie, lasagna soup, eggs, pancakes, waffles, chicken tenders, mac and cheese and black bean burgers. The past few years she has been able to eat lunch for free at school and her favorite days are the nacho days, especially the tater tot nacho bar. Now that she is getting older, she likes to be able to fix her own food. She can scramble her own eggs and makes her own oatmeal most every morning for breakfast. She really wants to learn to bake after watching a lot of baking shows on TV.
What is your favorite color?
Light purple
Ava still loves all things girly...pink, purple and glitter.
What is your favorite show?
KC Undercover
Ava discovered this show when she had some time with Zoe not at home. She doesn’t have a chance to watch much without Zoe so she loves it when she can watch shows that are more her age like this. She also loves to watch the Descendants movies when Zoe isn’t home. When they watch shows together they typically watch something like Trolls, Spirit, Home, Karma’s World, or Lego Friends. Ava also really started getting into the baking competition shows, which Zoe will agree to watch sometimes as well. Ava loved the Disney Bake Off, Baking Impossible and Is It Cake. When she was giving me ideas for her birthday cake she started listing off all these options and I said she needed to stop watching the baking shows because that was way beyond my cake decorating skill set, haha.
What is your favorite toy?
Princess barbies
Ava is starting to outgrow most of her toys but she still loves her Princess Barbies. She loves imagining adventures for them and creating new outfits for them with fabric scraps or anything she can find to use. Speaking of creating, Ava is also still obsessed with anything crafty. She is always happy when she can draw, cut, glue and create. This summer, she attended one art camp at a local art collective and she loved it so much we signed her up for their after school art program. We also utilized some space in our basement for a craft area for the girls where they can go and create and not have to worry as much about the mess.
What is your favorite song?
Show Yourself
Ava still loves music and sings all the time. Her favorite music is still probably anything Disney but especially Frozen 1 and 2, Encanto and Descendants. Broadway musicals are another popular choice like Newsies, Wicked, the Wiz or the Broadway version Frozen. Ava also loves Toby Mac, Colony House, Jamie Grace and Lauren Daigle. I created a random playlist for the girls with music ranging from 90s music to Disney channel hits to movie soundtracks like Trolls or Despicable Me to the Beatles to James Taylor and she still loves to listen to that a lot.
What is your favorite book?
Star Friends
This is a series of books that Ava discovered at the book fair, I believe. She bought one of the books and absolutely loved it so she is on the hunt for the rest at either the library or book stores. Ava still loves to read and flies through books so fast. We are always getting a huge haul of books at the library. She and DJ recently started going to the used book store in town and sell books and get new ones. Book stores of any kind are her happy place and she would spend hours looking through the books if we’d let her. Her favorite genres are fantasy and mystery.
What is your favorite restaurant?
Guy Quesadilla Mexican
This answer hasn’t changed in the past several years….the girl loves any Mexican restaurant. She loves to get the chips, salsa, cheese dip, refried beans and a cheese quesadilla. Some of her other favorite places to eat are Swamp Rabbit Cafe, Tupelo Honey Cafe, Tropical Grille, Sidewall Pizza, Chick-fil-A, and Papa Johns.
What is your favorite outfit?
Light jean Shorts and pink tie dye shirt
Ava still loves clothes. She is very particular about what she wants to wear these days as she is getting older so it is harder to just buy things for her that she will like. But She does love to go shopping and loves it when I buy things online for her to try. She isn’t as much into dresses and skirts as she used to be but she does still wear them a good bit. She definitely prefers shorts/pants now. I think most of the girls in her class wear shorts or pants instead of dresses so she wears dresses less and less these days. I definitely miss the girly girl in dresses every day but finding older kid clothes is fun too. It is crazy to me how much the styles are like the things I wore in middle school! I remember my mom saying the same thing about styles when I was in middle school and high school…guess the styles always come around again.
Where is your favorite place to go?
Disney World
No big surprise that this answer hasn’t changed since the past 2 years...it is the happiest place on earth. We were so excited to FINALLY be able to go back to Disney for spring break. It wasn’t back to 100% normal there yet but we at least didn’t have to wear masks in the heat and we got to interact with the characters, even if it was from a distance. Although now that things are pretty much normal there again, we are all dying to go back but that is going to have to wait. Ava loved our trip in the spring although she did admit that she didn’t like that she was too old to truly believe the magic of it all. We told her that is part of growing up but even as you get older you can still appreciate the magic.
What is something special to you?
My family
This was a super sweet answer that I wasn’t expecting. I was expecting her to say something tangible but she said her family and that really meant a lot. I think she was including her extended family and her birth family in that answer, not just us and Zoe. She truly loves everyone in her family so much!
What is your favorite thing to play?
Monopoly Deal
Ava loves to play this game and is getting really good at it. She beats us quite often. She also loves playing Uno, the regular board game Monopoly, Disney Monopoly, Princess Yahtzee Jr and Disney Spot and Find. She has really mastered her bike and loves to ride it around the driveway and our yard. She loved being able to take it on the local trail for a ride with DJ on her birthday. Ava recently decided she did not want to take ice skating lessons anymore. She still has her skates and says she wants to go and skate just for fun but doesn’t want to continue with the lessons. She wants to focus her time on chorus at school and the after school art program. Ava enjoyed playing basketball this year as well. I think once it cools off she will get back out and practice in the driveway with DJ. We recently got a trampoline for the girls as well and that has been fun entertainment for them.
Who are your friends?
Anahi, Maisy, Ella, Nora, Emily and Marislay
Anahi, Emily and Marislay are friends from school. Ava and Emily have been friends for a while. They weren’t in the same class this past year but we are hoping they will be this year. Marislay was in Ava’s class a few years ago and they played some then but didn’t really get to know each other until this year because when Marislay first came to the school she only spoke Spanish. This year she was teaching Ava some Spanish words and Ava loved it! Anahi was Ava’s best friend this year. They had never met before this year but bonded very quickly. They even look like they could be sisters and have been mistaken for sisters at the park when we’ve met up for playdates. We are really hoping they will be in the same class this year because Anahi is such a sweet friend to Ava. Ella, Maisy and Nora are sweet friends from church. Ella and Maisy have been Ava’s best friends at church for years now. Nora was on her basketball team and they really hit it off as well. We love that Ava has several super sweet girls as her friends and we love watching their friendships grow.
What do you like to do with your family?
Play the board game Monopoly and go to Disney World and lots more
Apparently she had too many things she likes to do with us to list everything, which was sweet.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
An art teacher or a teacher
An art teacher makes a lot of sense for a future career for Ava. She loves school and she loves art. And she loves making a mess with crafts so being an art teacher and helping kids express their creativity would be great for her!
What is one thing you hope to do before your next bday?
I hope to learn to save my money well for things I really want
This answer surprised me but this is something we talk to her about all the time. She gets money for her birthday and Christmas. She also gets a high from shopping and has made a lot of impulse buys just because she loves to shop but then doesn’t use or play with the things she buys. We’ve talked a lot about thinking through your purchases before you spend your money and making wise choices. This is a good goal for her to learn this year.
What is the best thing that happened to you when you were 9?
We went to Disney World and got a puppy on the best spring break ever
We didn’t originally plan to get a puppy right after we went to Disney World but the timing just worked out that way. We joked that going to Disney and getting a puppy were like the 2 ultimate surprises for a kid and we were giving the girls both of those surprises. It was so fun to surprise them the morning we left with their Minnie ears and Disney gift cards at their breakfast spots. Then on the ride home, we gave them pictures of Sookie and told them we were picking her up the next day. It was hard to keep all those surprises in (I had things hidden all over the house for the trip and the puppy) but it was worth it to see their reactions.
Ava is still a very empathetic kid. We think this skill is going to really help her in life as she forms relationships. She cares so much about her friends and never wants to see them hurt. She apparently gives her friends advice on how to handle the girl drama they are dealing with. She still feels big emotions herself and is still working on learning the best ways to express her big emotions. Like I’ve said before, because of her big emotions, the girl is full of so much love for her friends and family - adopted family and birth family. She loves wholeheartedly and we are so thankful to be part of her love.
We truly cannot imagine the past 10 years without Ava. She is a huge blessing to our family. But, like I always say, that blessing comes from a huge loss. Ava is really processing her adoption and the love she has for her birth mom. The connection that they have is undeniable. That bond is there and it is strong and we will always honor that special bond. We love her birth mom so much and we hope that one day she can have even more of a relationship with this beautiful girl. We are so thankful to her birth mom for making such a difficult sacrifice in placing Ava with us. We never take our privilege of parenting her for granted and we look forward to what this next year has in store for our girl.
Happy 10th birthday, Ava Girl! We love you to the moon and back!!
All the Tie Dye Details
All of Ava’s party decorations came together with a trip to Hobby Lobby. It was made complete with the funfetti cake that she requested and the flowers in honor of her birth mama. It was so fun creating this party for our double digit girl!
Peace Out Single Digits
We celebrated Ava’s 10th birthday with her friends at our house with a tie dye party. It was a really fun party for the bigger girls. They got to tie dye a t-shirt and a tote bag. The girls had a blast creating their tie dye designs (that all turned out really well). They also jumped on the trampoline, played upstairs and did some fun games together. Ava wanted to just invite a few friends and had such a good time with her best friends from church and her best friend from school (and Zoe who thought she was a big girl like the rest of them). We are so thankful for these sweet friends who love our girl so much.
Ava Through the Years
I truly cannot believe how much that tiny baby girl that we met on July 11, 2012 has grown over the years. She is growing into such a beautiful young woman and we are so blessed to be able to watch her grow each year.
July 11, 2012 - Newborn
July 11, 2013 - 1 Year
July 11, 2014 - 2 Years
July 11, 2015 - 3 Years
July 11, 2016 - 4 Years
July 11, 2017 - 5 Years
July 11, 2018 - 6 Years
July 11, 2019 - 7 Years
July 11, 2020 - 8 Years
July 11, 2021 - 9 Years
July 11, 2022 - 10 Years
Happy 10th Birthday, Ava
How in the world is Ava 10 years old already??? I truly do not know where the past 10 years have gone. It blows my mind that it has been 10 years since we met that tiny baby in the hospital. This feels like such a huge milestone birthday for her. Every year she seems so grown up but hitting double digits truly feels huge. We had a fun day celebrating the double-digit girl! We started the day with presents. Zoe was so excited to give Ava the Isabella doll she picked out. We thought that was such a good gift idea, we decided to give Ava a Mirabel doll as well. Ava loved her koala shoes (see getting so big she gets excited about shoes for a gift) because koalas are her favorite animals. We also gave Ava a special necklace that came with 2 parts, one of which we will send to her birth mom. As Ava gets older she is really processing her adoption and missing her birth mom a lot. We wanted to honor that connection and give her something to share with her birth mama who we all love very much. Zoe had dance camp on Ava’s birthday, so while she was at camp DJ and Ava took a bike ride on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. I met up with them at Swamp Rabbit Cafe after I dropped Zoe off at camp and we celebrated with birthday popsicles. After we picked Zoe up from camp, we took the girls to Barnes and Noble so Ava could do what she loves most, shop for books. Then we had supper at Tipsy Taco. It was a special day celebrating our big girl.
Fairy Trail
Since we had our big vacation over spring break, we didn’t take a vacation this summer. But we did take a fun day trip up to Hendersonville. We went to Bullington Gardens to explore their Fairy Trail. The trail was so cute and the girls had a blast looking at all the fairy gardens and opening the fairy doors to see what was in them. Zoe was determined we were going to see a real fairy and was a little disappointed we didn’t find one but said they must be hiding and only come out when the people aren’t there. Now the girls want to create their own fairy trail in our woods.
Summer Camps 2022
This summer both girls got to take part in 2 camps. Zoe did 2 different camps at her dance studio again this year. The first camp was Frozen 2 themed and the 2nd camp was Princess themed. As usual, she had a blast with the dancing, crafts and especially the snacks. She made a sweet new dance friend, Aeryn at both camps and got to enjoy time with her friend Tallulah as well. We love the dance studio and they make it such a sweet experience for the kids!
Ava did one art camp at the TR Makers Co. The art camp was camp out themed and they spent their days doing art outside and using things like leaves to paint with. It just so happened to be the hottest week we had so far this summer but Ava had a blast despite the heat. The second camp she did was a camp just for adopted kids that her counselor created. It was such a special week for these kiddos to spend time with other adopted kids and explore all their pieces of what makes them who they are. The last day of camp was a time for the parents to join the kids for lunch and playtime with bounce houses. Ava made a really sweet friend at this camp as well. It was a such a good week for her to be with other adopted kids and she already says she wants to go again next year.
