Avery's First Birthday!

Avery turned one year old on the Fourth of July!  (How did my baby get so old?  That year honestly flew by.)  She had no idea what was going on, of course, but seemed to enjoy the fun anyway.

We started the day with a few presents and then went to my Grandpa's for a big family party to celebrate America's birthday, and it was fun to celebrate Avery's birthday with everyone, too.

I figured that this would probably be the only year that I could get away with doing a Fourth of July theme for Avery's birthday since she has no say in it this year, so I made these cupcakes look like fireworks.

And I made her big "smash cake" 4th of July themed as well.  This thing was as big as a normal cake and I honestly didn't know how much Avery would get into it, but she definitely made it live up to its name.

She liked the fire on the candle but wouldn't help blow it out because she was more intrigued by the frosting that already got on her hand.

Our little family watching Avery dig into her birthday cake.

She had never tasted sugar before (other than the sugar that's naturally in fruits and such) so this was all very new to her.  She tried her first little bit and kept glancing at me to see if I was going to stop her from eating it.  I think she was shocked that I was encouraging her.

She ate some frosting but I think had more fun just smearing it around in her hands.

She was so generous and shared some with me and Joseph.

It didn't take long for her to really start getting down into it once she hit the actual cake.

She had a blast pulling it apart and spreading it everywhere.

This smash cake was aptly named.

Thanks for giving me a piece before it was completely demolished, Aves.

Sophie and her cousin Austin enjoyed eating cupcakes, swimming together, and playing together in the play room after all the fun.

We also let them do a few little fireworks for the 4th.  I figured they would probably be the only ones our family would see that day, and they were.  The big fireworks shows just start too late for these girls to stay up.  So we let them throw Pop-Its which they both loved.  Sophie is figuring out here that she can step on them to get them to pop as well.

We also did some sparklers, but they weren't that good and kept stopping half way through, so the kids thought they were cool for a little while but quickly got bored and were ready to go back to throwing Pop-Its.  We had a great 4th of July and a great birthday celebration of our Little Firecracker.  We love you so much, Avery Jane!  Happy Birthday!