Our Big Girl. I Refuse to Call Her a Toddler, Though.

Guess who turned 1 last week? Nope, not me. Nope, not Mr. Wonderful....Yes! It's Ava! Some people refer to 1 year olds as "toddlers". I can't bring myself to do it. After all, she doesn't toddle yet. I still have time!

We had a celebration with my side of the family over Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time of watching the Bird go through the rites of passage that come with a birthday for the first time. She was really excited about the wrapping paper and the gift bags, really confused about people looking at her and singing in a big group and entirely unsure about the frosting and cake. The party was resplendant with my sister's far superior birthday cake. I didn't try to compete last week with my birthday cake, but I did try a pretty easy cake. I'm not a baker, and I've never made a birthday cake before, but it was fun!

Ava was a pretty cool customer when it came to trying her birthday cakes. Here she is:

With the proud parents:

I used a paper pattern to cut the 9x11 cake into a number "1".

ps. if you buy Red Hots in the cake decorating aisle, they cost about 10x's more than if you walk two aisles over to the candy aisle. It's a crime, really.




And for your visual pleasure, my amazing sister's amazing bird cake. Holy confection perfection, Batman!