Avery's 12th Birthday

I am a few weeks behind, but at least we got California in writing!  And, really, it took me a few weeks to recover from that vacation, so maybe I'm actually right on track.
Avery turned 12.  I know.  Take a minute to let that set in.  I'm still trying to adjust to this new age of hers.  It has brought with it some new emotions (for the sake of her pride, I won't tell any stories), a new part time job called Young Women's, and a new ability to sleep in.  Seriously, this child NEVER slept in past maybe 8:00, and the week she turned 12 she started working towards becoming a teenager with her need for sleep.  She even slept until 10:00 one morning!  Big stuff around here.
It was Avery's year for a birthday party, and she chose to have a party with the theme of Red.  So everything we did had to do with red.  Cupcakes were red.

 Dinner was red (we are missing a lot of pepperoni pizza's on this table).

 Red candy in the goody bags.

The girls wore red (mostly) and ate their red food on red plates.

Then they went on a scavenger hunt and asked to take pictures of the red things that people found them from their lists (like red apples, red socks, red shirt, etc.).

They played a whole bunch of Minute to Win It games, using as many red things as we could.  In this one they are using Vaseline covered noses to stick cotton balls in red cups.

 Swinging pom poms onto their Vaseline covered noses.

 Unwrapping candy while wearing oven mitts.

Stringing apple jacks cereal onto pipe cleaner without using hands (although it looks like we had some cheaters)

Wrapping up people in crepe paper.

Throwing fire cheetos onto another's head that is covered with shaving cream (raspberry flavored, of course).

Eating cupcakes while waiting for parent's to come pick up.

It was a fun night, and I was surprised at how many ways we came up with to utilize the color in our fun!
Then it was her actual birthday.  She woke up to this from the Young Women's leaders.

We started swim lessons that morning, and then spent a pretty low key day together after that.  She had been eyeing this ice cream cake on Pinterest, so we gave it a shot.  It's a turtle, in case you can't tell...

We ended the night with this fun.

One thing that Avery had been looking forward to with turning 12 is doing baptisms for the dead.  We were able to take her during the week of her birthday.  It was such a neat experience!  It was a super happy parenting moment, to be at the temple with her.  She worked hard to find a name to take to the temple, and that was also neat for her.

Avery is really becoming a beautiful young woman!  It is so fun to see her grow up and blossom.  Dustin felt a little rejected today when Avery chose to sit with the young women at church (during 15 minutes of a combined meeting for the 3rd hour).  I assured him that this is a sign of healthy development in our children (some of our kids have been rejecting us for years...).  Overall, Avery still prefers to be with us over anyone else.  And it is lovely to have her around the house.  She loves to read, is awesome at school, has learned to play the violin like a champ, and has a beautiful singing voice.  She is responsible, organized and is getting really excited to start babysitting someone else's kids.  People keep telling us that time will fly, now that she is in Junior High.  I'd like that not to happen, if possible.  We are really loving this stage of our kid's childhood!  We sure love Avery!