Riley and Avery

We celebrated Avery's birthday yesterday. It was a blast. Avery still does not quite "get" unwrapping presents. Christmas will probably teach her. Rudi got her a cake on Sunday, since he works right next to the bakery. I asked him to take a look at the cakes and what they had, and he bought one instead. So we were under a time-crunch to have the party before the cake went bad. Also, he's only off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so those days are our only options. Avery loves the doll, and the doll clothes and cloth doll diapers we got her also fit her other dolls, so that's a bonus. She loves putting the doll in the cradle that Grandma and Grandpa got her and kissing the baby goodnight. The My Little Pony baby that Auntie Mina and Uncle Brendan sent was a big hit too. It's funny, the pony talks, and no matter what it says, Avery always says "no!" or "uh-uh!" She's such a mean mommy.

I've been pretty hard-core about not putting up decorations before Avery's birthday, which was another motivating factor for having her party a few days early rather than a few days late. We are going to Woodland Park to Pike National Forest next Tuesday to cut our own tree. Permits are $10 and you have to hike in and find a tree, cut it down, and drag it back to your car. Sounds like the stuff movies are made of. If the weather next week is anything like it's been this week, it at least shouldn't be too cold. I'll most likely wear Avery and Riley will just have to hike. Rudi might be able to carry her in, but he'll be dragging the tree out. If there's snow we might bring the sled and I can pull Riley while wearing Avery...

I'm having a really difficult time thinking of presents for Avery for Christmas. when I was wrapping presents, I found that we had several for Riley and only two for Avery, a My Little Pony playset and a book. I searched Oompa for literally days and could only find a puzzle, so that's on it's way. I did order fabric to make aprons for the girls, but that doesn't really help me even out the gifts, because I'm making one for each of them. Rudi got Riley a digital kids camera which she'll go ape over for sure. I've wandered around Toys R Us, Target, Walmart, and two independent toy stores and just couldn't find anything for her. None of the other doll stuff really fits with our parenting style (baby doll swings, car seats to carry the baby doll in, etc.). She loves the train set we have, but I bought it at a yard sale, so I don't think I'd be able to find accessories for it. Ugh, I just don't know.

I'm supposed to be studying for finals, so I'm going to go do that now. And wait for the pictures to load.