Ava's 1st Birthday Party!!

Jeremy, Ava, D'Atra and I got home from Tenessee about an hour ago. I checked my Facebook account, ate a quick lunch (Taco Bell), and played with Ava and a few of her new toys. It is now time to update my blog!!!!! I almost don't remember how to do it!

Ava's birthday is on December 13th, but our celebration was held on December 17th, a Saturday. Our theme for the party was "CandyLand." I did not stick to the theme religiously. Instead, I chose two colors (Hot Pink and Orange) and worked around that with a few candy accents. Jeremy and I designed the invitations, my friend Peyton designed the cup stickers and the tags for the treat bags, and our church secretary, Janice, baked and designed Ava's birthday cake and smash cake. Both sets of grandparents were able to come to Tuscaloosa for the party, as well as one aunt, one uncle, one cousin, and numerous friends. We had such a great time!

Ava received lots of gifts from her guests:

• an Elefun toy (air comes out of an elephant's trunk and juggles balls in the air)-from Mom and Dad
• a tea set (from the Crowe family)
• a musical walker (from Aunt Berrie and cousin Chris)
• a microphone ( from the Moore family)
• personalized luggage, silver shoes, pink shoes, and black shoes (from Nana and Poppy)
• keyboard (from John Barrentine)
• piano (I can't remember who)
• VTech kitty cat 
• See and Say, black and silver outfit (from Gigi and PawPaw)
• a stuffed animal frog (from Nana and Pop)
• a black and silver outfit (from James Cole Bates)
• Two purple outfits (from Grannie Verannie)
• a gift card to Barnes and Noble (from the Richardson's)
• a cloth book (from Alisha Jaynes)
• a wooden block shapes set (from the Middleton's)
• a cabbage patch doll (from Granny)

Ava had such a great time at her party! Jeremy and I really had to open her gifts for her because she had no interest whatsoever (except to pull out tissue paper) We really enjoyed the time we could spend celebrating our little girl's 1st birthday!

The invitations

 The cake for Ava's guests was a two tiered, four layered cake crafted by Mrs. Janice Hubbard. The bottom two layers were vanilla cake and the top two layers where strawberry. Not only was the cake beautiful, it tasted great as well!

 Candy details

"A" for Ava!!

Ava's Smash Cake!

My mom mixing up one of the two punches we served. The orange punch was a gallon of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream mixed with two 2 liters of Sunkist. It tasted like Orange Dreamsicle. The second punch was a gallon of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream mixed with two 2 liters of Fanta Strawberry soda. It tasted "magically delicious," as one guest claimed! :) They must have been good because both punches were all gone at the end of the party! We also served rotel dip with tortilla chips and tostinos pizza rolls, but I did not get a picture of the table with everything on it.

 The table set-up was really nice! My mom is to thank for that. She stayed at the building and set up the tables while I made a mad dash to Wal-Mart to pick up last minute items.

Treat bags

 Gigi (my mom) & Nana (Jeremy's mom)

 "Bant B" otherwise known as Berrie (Jeremy's sister) and her new puppy, "Maximus."

 Poppy (Jeremy's dad) and Ava before the party started.

 Nana and Ava

 Nate Crowe standing patiently before the party.

 Mommy is impressed! Alisha Jaynes made this cloth book for Ava! I love it because it is homemade and because Ava cannot tear it up!

 Pretty wrapping paper and pretty bow!

 Opening the microphone from Maggie, Nathan, Avery and Eli!

 Woo-Hoo! Ava's Elefun from Mommy and Daddy!

 We marked the entrance with pink bows

 Lily Grace pets Maximus

Ava and Avery play together before the party

 One final shot of the beautiful smash cake before Ava tears into it!!

 1st tasty bite! PawPaw looks on in the background.

 Yummy!

 Messy hands!

Ava had strawberry cake all over when we finally pulled her away! We stripped her down to nothing and gave her a bath in the industrial sized sink in the kitchen of the facility we used. Everyone had a great laugh at Ava's smash cake session! What a wonderful 1st birthday!