Chinese New Year 2014 -- Year of The Horse!

We rocked it this year!!!

Thursday was prep night for school the next day. I had this amazing idea for treats since it was the year of the horse and they were nothing short of creepy!! Haha! Still yummy and still edible.

Ava was all about helping me until she asked me about a thousand times to lick the spoon. I kept telling her "not yet" and then she preceded to let John know I wouldn't let her help. Girl had no desire to help. She wanted the food. I did finally convince her to help a little. 

And yes, I let her lick the spoon, finally. 

Friday was so incredibly crazy. I didn't sleep well the night before because I had to be to work so early on Friday and I was afraid I would sleep through the alarm. Sigh. So after we got Ava dressed in her new shirt, I dropped off her and all of her goodies at school. 

My ride to work was super emotional. I passed the procession for one of the fallen firefighters and there were so many people lining the streets with flags. So emotional. Naturally, I bawled the entire way to work. :) Once I got to work, the craziness continued!  My boss was in charge of the quarterly recognition breakfast, which means I was in charge. Well, since it fell on January 31st, I had to do a Chinese New Year theme. It was awesome!! Here is a slide out of the presentation. 

We got so many compliments and people kept telling us how much they enjoyed it! Yea!!! I also received this sweet picture from Ava's teacher so I knew her day was going well.

The day continued craziness and ended on a sad note at work. I was mentally drained and needed some hardcore retail therapy. John got me a gift certificate to Target once we got matched with Addy so I could shop so Ava and I went shopping! We picked out a super soft blanket and a stuffed monkey for the new sweet girl. And also got Ava this awesome new shirt!

Ava was actually so fun at Target! She was a hoot!

Saturday was a fun day!!! We met a bunch of family and friends at a local Chinese restaurant to celebrate and have lunch! I brought a craft for them to do and they had a great time!

Thank you our friends and family who came out to celebrate!

After lunch we had some errands to run. Ava begged to go home with The Feather's. Everyone agreed and it was so nice to shop without someone asking me a gajillion times when I was going to be done. Haha! I went to go pick her up and this is what I found. My own little Asian Elsa. Haha!! I was cracking up!

Saturday night John had to work and I got a sitter for Ava and headed to The Bronze Boar with my mom and Tracy. It was so weird to be at a bar! I had two beers and was in bed by midnight. Perfection. I needed my beauty rest to gear up for our big Sunday celebration. Sunday we headed to Hong Kong, not that one, the restaurant. This was our big lunch with the other FCC families. Hands down, my most favorite day this year. The wonderful parents, the gorgeous kids, the fantastic company. Ava had a blast, we hardly saw her. If we did, she was dragging Emmett around by his hand. Although he didn't seem to mind. Every once in awhile, I would see her red hairbow flopping by! Haha!

Ava's pediatrician, Dr. Tracy, is also the Dr. for many of our FCC families. We decided this year to get a group shot of all of her kiddo's! How adorable is this??

Fascinated with the fish...

Two of my favorite little girls, Roz and Ella

We also had a great time playing with Connor and Katie!

Ava and Roz

And their true colors....Ha!

Another great new year in the books! Thanks to everyone from Ava's teachers to our awesome family and friends for helping us celebrate! Love you all!!!

A couple of updates:
1. Continued prayers for my dad. He is still having quite a bit of pain and Friday, they thought he may have a blood clot in his arm. They sent him home with instructions and what to watch for. So scary.

2. Grandma is home and still not right. She is so bruised (her shoulder is crazy!!) from her fall. She is still pretty sore.

3. And can I just say how awesome if felt to do things this weekend. We've put things off because it's always so cold or snowing thousands of inches. And I say this as we are supposed to get blasted again tomorrow. Haha!!

Have a great week!