all partied out

I want to thank several people who helped make Avery's party a lovely experience. My parents who always go above and beyond, my dad picked up the bounce castle and my mom iced all the cupcakes on Friday. My mom & Aunt W picked up food and set it out on Saturday and kept things refilled during the party. My sister-in-law (totally relying on you for the pictures, so no pressure!) took pictures while we opened gifts and ate cake so I was able to participate. My husband and dad mowed the yard and set up the castle. A few out of town friends arrived early so I put them to work on making a party hat for Avery & tying strings on balloons. And my mom, Aunt W, sister-in-law & brother-in-law cleaned up afterward while I played outside in the castle with Avery & Deran. It takes a village, people! Ha. Ha ha, get it?! Village People?! Okay that was kind of lame.



Seriously though, I have an amazing family and great friends and I appreciate all the help because it certainly does sound like I didn't do anything. :) And I kind of didn't. There were some things I'd spent a lot of time working on that didn't come together for the party and it was okay. I was stressed leading up to it about the house being clean, the decorations being finished, the candle being sewn on crooked on Avery's shirt, whether or not there would be enough food, and the list goes on. And you know what? Once people started arriving I found that I didn't care about any of it. My house was full of family and babies and craziness and it was fantastic!



This morning it was just the three of us again, plus a couple of pugs, and we watched the video (thanks T!) of the party as we played with new toys. Then we watched all the old footage from the past year. It's amazing watching Avery learn and grow. To see how deliberate her actions are now versus November when she would lay on the mat and try to kick her legs. Lots of reminiscing over this birthday week. Love, love, LOVE my baby girl!!