29/52

29/52
Dancin' and Cruisin'

A portrait of my Avery, once a week, every week, in 2014

Yesterday was one of those magical summer days that made me wish it would never end. The weather around here lately has been heavenly, mild and sunny and perfect for a picnic so early in the day the boys and I did just that. We met up with some good friends, took a little nature hike in the woods and snacked on a blanket under a tree. After naptime, we headed out as a family to 'Dancing and Cruising in the Streets'- a downtown street festival that included bands playing on numerous stages, a car show, and a balloon artist that makes really good cows. It's like this festival was created for Avery! 

It brought so much joy to my heart to see how outgoing and independent Avery was all evening. He chose to have his face painted and sat like such a big boy while a mustache was painted on (he was a hit with the crowds!), bounced and slid down the inflatable slide fearlessly with the big kids, danced with his sweet reckless abandon and posed in front of a car for a photo (so much progress!) He had a blast! (his stone-face stare in the photos is him showing off his mustache, he was very aware that it was there and thought he was pretty cool ;)

At one point toward the end of our evening, Avery noticed his buddy Gage had a spider painted on his cheek so he decided he needed one too. My usually shy and reserved boy walked up to Justin for a ticket, walked over to the painting tent all by himself and found a girl holding a poster of available images to paint. He pointed at the spider, handed the girl his ticket and walked with her to the table to have the spider painted on. When it was finished he walked back over to us and was SO PROUD of his spider (I think he was the most proud that he had done the entire process all by himself!) Moments like this remind me just how big my sweet little boy is getting... it's sneaking up on me way too quickly.

After the boys were in bed, we capped the night off with a couple of adult beverages.

This day was exactly what I needed. :)