Birthday Fun and Lots of Pictures

I mentioned in my last post that I would share more about Avery's birthday party later. Well, here it is with LOTS of pictures! For the first year of Avery's life, the sweet and talented Laurel at Eilas Photography has captured Avery's 1st year. When she mentioned doing a photo shoot at Avery's 1st birthday party, I was beyond excited. Thanks for capturing great moments of Avery's first year Laurel!

OK, on to Avery's birthday fun. Here is a picture of the birthday girl.

Here is the birthday girl and her little friend, Myla.

We had the party at Inside Out Play Park. It is a new play place in Franklin. Since it was new, I got a really great deal AND the people were so great and easy to work with. It was a great place for Avery's party. We were so glad to have family in town and a few of Avery's little friends there to celebrate.

I had so much fun planning and maybe went a little overboard. But I made Avery this little pink tutu for her special day.

Avery really enjoyed playing in the soft play area.

She very carefully explored her cake. She wasn't so sure about it and licked just a tiny bit of the icing off her fingers. Hopefully we have trained her well to eat her veggies. (One can wish, right?!) I just hope she doesn't love sweets as much as her mom and dad.

I think her favorite part was the birthday surprise. At Inside Out, they let the birthday girl/boy ride the 4-wheeler through the "park." She L.O.V.E.D it! As long as she keeps her girlie side, she can play outside with her dad.

I do NOT consider myself crafty, but I sure can borrow other crafty people's ideas. I found the cute Milk and Cookies theme idea at The Tom Kat Studio. Melinda, a crafty friend of mine, helped me brainstorm and stage this sweet 1st birthday party. I did make this burlap banner with some brown paint and stencils. It was easy. And if it was easy for me, you can do it too!

I also created the cake topper. You should have been a fly on the wall in Archivers when I walked in. Talk about feeling out-of-place. That was me. I am not a scrap booker either and was in there F.O.R.E.V.E.R just trying to figure out the perfect way to make the cake topper.

... and lots of Frappacino bottles later, we had a great place to put the milk. Thank you Matt!

Overall, we had a very fun celebration!

The Sweetest 1

Today was sweet little Avery's birthday. Look at this picture of her only a year ago. She was a tiny little one weighing in at only 5 lb. 13 oz.

Now look at her! She has grown so much over this last year.

We love her so much and can't imagine this past year without her. And, we are excited to see her grow and change over this next year. We had a fun celebration yesterday with our family and friends. I can't wait to share more about her birthday party later.