The Birthday Party Post

Although you may find this hard to believe in a few moments, I did actually choose very carefully the photos I wanted to include in this post (all 40 of them - seriously). So....if you want to continue, I commend you. If you choose your laundry, child, husband, dog, lunch is more important - I totally understand. To my Mom and Mom-in-law, however...hope you enjoy ;). 


I have been LOVING my new camera and I mean lurving! Every now and then (as in like maybe 2 times a month if I'm lucky) I get a few spare moments where my kids are cooperating and I can actually try to switch lenses or settings and get a more artistic or close up or basically a non-automatic function shot. On Avery's birthday party morning before I put her down for her AM nap I got some cute pictures of her playing in the sheers on the playroom sliding door....they are sweet:

The whole morning nap on the day of her party was a tad nerve wracking and I remember it being so with Kennedy's 1st birthday party too. You want to get that nap in so they can handle the excitement of the party, but truthfully I think she's getting close to merging to one nap so I really didn't know if she'd take a decent nap. The nap time was pretty good, but it was one of those naps when she woke up I could tell she needed more sleep but oh well - the birthday show had to go on and she ended up doing great! 


Here are some pics of the decor:

I made the cupcakes and icing and little toppers - I thought they turned out super cute (if I do say so myself ;). I really wanted to make her a little "smash cake" like I did for Kennedy but as I've been discussing on this here blog - I'm admitting more and more that sometimes my expectations...they are a teensie to high so cupcakes and cookies it was! 

I had these little cookies made by a local bakery that I've been super happy with for cakes so I tried her for cookies and seriously..look how cute these little owlies are!?

The play/party room. It took so much effort to get Kennedy to sit still, you'd think I'd asked her to eat raw spinach! 

All dressed and ready for the arrival of her party guests!

I got the girls little owl dresses from Etsy and the hair bows were made by a friend of mine who makes custom bows...I got very few pictures of Avery with her bow because she kept pulling it off (maybe because it was the side of her head: ha!). 

I love it when they match...so cute!

Nana and Pawpaw came from WV to attend the party...always a blessing to have them and the girls just ADORE them! 

Sadly their trip was a quick out and back in the same day but the silver lining was that Grandma was willing to make the trip with them. She's not been to Lexington since I met Tim so to have her here for Avery's party was incredibly special!

She lights up around the girls and I'm so thankful that my girls will sit with her and love on her - it's just one of my favorite things to be around and watch!

Outside of Tim's parents we had very few party guests. Again - I'm trying to manage my expectations and #1: our house is not very large and therefore isn't superb for entertaining #2: I really want the girls birthday parties to be about them and their little friends and not so much about Tim and I and our friends and therefore we invited Avery's two best buds: Hudson (from church and her Mother's Day out program) and Adalyn (Abby and Jonathan's little girl) and their parents. Here is a picture of Janet with Avery...Avery loves her some Mrs. Janet!

These two are honestly thick as thieves...whenever I go to get Avery at her MDO class - they are always right next to each other and are always hanging all over each other (kind of like in this picture):

Here are the three kiddo's!

Hayden is Hudson's big brother and I've posted pictures of his precious little face before - he and Kennedy love each other to death so it was nice she had her own little friend at the party too. 

Cupcake time!

I had to give Adalyn a fork before she'd even consider touching this cupcake...such a priss!

Just to prove she did eventually dig in and enjoy:

A family pic: 

I had to attempt a few more "bow shots": 

Our family and the Brock's 

and the Burns's

She wasn't as "into" gift opening as her sister was "into" helping but she was excited with her little gifts. A tea set from Aunt Abby & Uncle J: 

Bathtub crayons from Mom and Dad: 

a wooden Melissa & Doug pull frog (also from Mom and Dad) and she also got a bubble machine and cute outfit from Nana and Pawpaw (unfortunately my pics of those were less than stellar, but believe me when I say the bathtub bubble machine is QUITE THE HIT!)

We finally got Avery down for her second nap after guests departure and clean up - she was one tired little peanut: 

Her birthday party was so much fun and I'm so thankful for those that got to share in it with us. I have to admit I'm kind of glad it's past us just because they are a lot of work...birthday parties. I went all out for Kennedy's 1st and promised myself I would try to do for A what I've done for K so I did my best to duplicate the party planning efforts. K's birthdays have gotten more simplified as the years have gone by so I have that to look forward to with Avery :).