Avery's First Birthday

Avery's birthday was a great success. Paul's family came up for the occasion, and we had a few friends over. My Aunt Trish sent a gift a few days early, so we thought we would train her to open gifts. It didn't really work, because she was more impressed with small pieces of paper she would rip off than the big package. She ended up carrying the card around for the rest of the weekend.

I decided to make Avery a birthday banner so she can have it every year. It has my favorite fall colors (I'm so glad I have a daughter who was born in the fall!!) and was finished with some brown bias tape (Thanks, Cathy for finishing it up!!). In my continued effort to be more like Martha Stewart, I also made some pinwheels for decorations.

I made carrot cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing. Avery was not impressed. She kept twisting her face when she had the lemon icing and ate about half of her cupcake. But when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her, she started clapping and smiling at her audience. I think she realized this moment was for her.

Avery seemed fond of hugging on Killian, though he seemed more impressed with our niece Anna's paci.

Thanks, friends and family, for making our girl's day so special!!