It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To....

There wasn't very much crying at this party! We had a blast at Ava's birthday barbecue! Everyone came over to eat and have a great time. We had a slip n' slide going for the kids and lots of great conversation for the adults.

I was pretty happy with how the cakes turned out. My friend, Sunny, saved the day by writing on the cakes for me, I just couldn't bring myself to do it for fear of ruining it. We had a cake for the party goers and a separate smash cake for Ava.

I was a little bummed because the night after Ava's birthday I went to my first cake decorating class at Michaels and learned a few things that I wished I would have know for Ava's cake, but oh well, there's always next year.

After we ate, Ava opened her presents. We have such great friends and family who gave her great gifts! We feel so lucky to have such awesome people in our lives. Ava did really well opening gifts, but we saved the last gift for Josh to open up. He has been begging for a Wii for so long now. I thought it would be fun to get Ava a Wii for her birthday, and have Josh open it and freak out! Well the Smart family had a better idea... why not put that the Wii was from them. When Josh opened it he didn't believe it was a Wii but just thought that they had used their Wii box to wrap another present in. He was so uncomfortable when he realized it really was a Wii. We may be good friends, but not that good of friends. He was a little relieved when I told him it was a joke. Thanks to everyone for all the great gifts, Ava has loved playing with them and they were all perfect!
After presents was cake time. We put Ava on a table outside and had all the kids gather around and sing her Happy Birthday, she totally knew that she was something special. She wasn't too anxious to touch the cake and when one of the kids tried to help, the tears started coming. We let the little kids pick at it for a minute to show her the ways and then it got a little crazy. We put Ava in the grass with her cake and went to cut the other one so everyone could have some. Ava sat in the grass the rest of the night, just playing with her cake. She had it everywhere, however, I don't think a single piece made it into her mouth. After everyone was gone and we were cleaning up, Ava continued to play with her cake she was so content just to sit in the backyard and entertain herself. She was just a smiling. Just as we were about to take her in and clean her up, she decided to put her thumb in her mouth and she realized that it was pretty tasty and tried the other hand. That was as close as we ever got.
It turned out to be a really special day. Josh and I were so glad we decided to celebrate a little bigger than we had planned. Everyone was so great to be willing to come and share in Ava's special day. We feel so lucky to have her in our lives and so lucky we have had such an amazing first year with her. One birthday down... many more to go!