My sweet little Ava Claire turned a year old on June 19th! I can't believe it's been a year already! She has been standing up on her own for a couple of months now. She took a couple of steps on her birthday and gets so excited when she does it! She's not fully walking yet, but it won't be long until she realizes that she has the ability to. She nods her head "yes" and shakes her head "no" when you ask her if she's hungry or if she wants more........and it's always accurate which is pretty hilarious! She has the sweetest little personality. She seems to be pretty laid back so far. She pretty much always wants her momma! (which makes me feel good and exhausted at the same time). She's still a great sleeper! She loves the water.....anything having to do with the water whether it be a pool, the bathtub, sink, or even the toilet! UGHHH!!! Yes, I said the toilet. I caught her playing in the toilet one day and was like, "GROSS, AVA!" She had water all over the floor and just looked up at me and smiled. She can crawl about 20 miles an hour----that's how she crawled away so fast and started her toilet splashing contest. Which brings me to the inspiration for her first birthday. I was just gonna make some simple cupcakes and then I thought about using her duck bathtub as a cooler and thought a "duck theme" would be great for her first birthday party since she loves taking baths. I used Bonnie's "Lucky Ducks" game as a table centerpiece where we ate and had random rubber ducks on the table. I found 2 books about ducks in Bonnie's bookshelf and used them as decorations also. I made a duck cake, lemonade with rubber duckies floating in it(brand new of course---not the ones with fungus in them in the bathtub.....HA!), "barbie cups", a vegetable tray, fruit skewers, bacon wrapped smokie weiners (courtesy of Memaw), monterey salsa, tequila-lime chicken wings (from SAMS), butter pecan grahams, snicker bar brownies(courtesy of Grandmother Parker)........I think that's it. Needless-to-say, we had plenty of food. Ava didn't care for her cake much; she just wanted the marshmallows around the cake (made to look like bubbles). The party was a success but I'm glad it's over. I just can't believe she's 1 already. Here are some more pictures from the party.
