my girl: her beginning

our baby girl is turning 7 this weekend. it's so hard for me to believe that 7 years have passed. it seems like just yesterday she was born. after going through the thousands of photos we have of her, i have realized that 7 years has come and gone too quickly. i love my girl for who she is now, but i have to admit i truly miss my little, tiny baby girl i use to hold in my arms. i love you my girl avery. you are one of the very best things in my life. i am so happy to celebrate your 7 years and i can't wait to celebrate the rest of your life with you. here's a look at my girl in the beginning...

this is my girl in my tummy like 2 days before i had her

i thought i would put a pic of the mister in here too just to show her how young we look

no joke, this is how avery entered the world. she was wide eyed from the beginning

this was the picture we used for her birth announcement

avery ann

10.16.04 at 8:02pm

6lbs 4oz 20 1/2 inches

her first beach trip

her first halloween. our little chicken

my sleeping beauty

she's a daddy's girl

getting ready for swim class

first time going to the snow

mommy and my girl

i love this photo of her

camping at jalama

my girl turns one

our sweet little pumpkin

we love you avery girl. happy birthday weekend!

home schooling is cool: riley's apple orchard

a few weeks back our group traveled out to oak glen to visit riley's apple farm. every year they host a home schooling day and have lots of fun activities for the kiddo's. this year home schooling day was so popular they had to add on several more days to accommodate all the home schooler's who wanted to participate. (i love that this home schooling thing is catching on). it's about an hour and half drive for us to get out there, but it's a great drive and gets us out of our beach bubble. my girl loves this trip. she started asking back in july when we were going to go apple picking again and honestly, it couldn't come soon enough. here are a "few" photos from our day...

we sawed wood to use for the fire

the fire was used to boil water to make tea (see a few photos down)

we practiced writing with a quill pen and ink

pumped water

pounded and crushed leaves for tea

tasted it

she didn't like it. can you tell?

picked apples

washed them

threw them in the grinder

to make apple cider

that was put away in a cool refrigerator for us to enjoy at the end of our day

this sign was spotted by the mister

so, these two went walking

to look at this and buy some to take home. (yes, the mister strapped 2 pieces of cedar to the roof of our van)

we played in a creek

i love his chubby, bear paw feet

smudged our faces with dirt

panned for gold

recited our monthly poem

went on hay ride

ground some corn to make corn flour

and took a picture under an apple tree. just like the good ol' days.

gare: a photo sequence

LA natural history museum: gare and the polar bear