A Happy, Happy Birthday To You From Me

It seems that the longer you live, the more truth you find in cliches. At this point in our lives we're starting to see the truth in statements like "Time flies" and "The years go by fast." Case in point - it has already been an entire year since we were in the hospital looking at this face for the very first time:

That's right. April 3rd rolled around and now our baby has turned one. We wanted to keep the whole event pretty simple, but first birthdays only come around once so we wanted it to be memorable too.

The plan? Make it a day for Ammely. No work and all play (well for Mommy and Ammely - Daddy was nice enough to go to work even on a special day like this).

We set the scene.

And from the moment she woke up we did only things she wanted to do.

She got to lick the lid clean from Daddy's yogurt.

She got kisses from Daddy.

She had scrambled eggs for breakfast while watching Blue's Clues.

She took a shower - her preference over a bath. We tried to be fully ready for the moment when she would TRULY be one year old...at 8:50 a.m. We were close.

Once we finished getting ready we headed downstairs and played with our birthday outfit and our presents.

Then we geared up and headed outside for a walk to the park.

We weren't there long before she decided to assert her independence. After all, one year is practically an eternity - she is clearly grown up enough to go and play by herself. So she crawled away from me and our nice shady spot...hit the road....

...and only turned around for the briefest of moments...

...before taking off to find her own shady spot - with no more need to look back...

I guess she decided that she still loves me and values my company to some extent though.

We ate played with the leaves and the grass.

And playing is a very serious business...

We tried our hand at a few new things - like standing on feet.

She tolerated a couple of birthday kisses from her mommy.

And just had an all-around happy, clapping-worthy, good time.

 We packed it up again and enjoyed a leisurely walk home.

Once home Ammely played in the cupboards with the Tupperware while Mommy put the finishing touches on her birthday cake.

Shortly after that the Birthday Girl was ready for her nap. While she slept I threw a couple of things in the car, loaded her up and we headed off to meet Daddy for a picnic lunch.

That's right. The park happened twice in one day - birthdays are the best.

As could be expected, the lunch hour flew by quickly and it was time to get back in the car and head on home.

We started off the afternoon with a bit of coloring. I learned that my little Picasso has a process of her own. You must taste the tool you're working with...

...and THEN you may try it out.

Next, it's important to also taste the canvas you're working on.

And you have to get really up-close and personal with your subject.

And then...VOILA. A masterpiece. An exact likeness!

Once our creations were complete we headed on up to play with some toys.

And to read some books.

And to just get into some mischief and general shenanigans.

Give mommy the cute smile so she remembers it's your birthday and that shenanigans are allowed today.

We got reacquainted with Mr. Potato Head.

And spent some time familiarizing ourselves with our colors.

And spent a bit of time just being plain old silly.

We had a bit of applesauce and helped out our ol' pal Blue figure out a few more clues.

We practiced driving the car so we'll be prepared in 15 more birthdays.

We read one more story...

...and then it was time to take a break and regain some energy.

We woke up and fixed our hair. We took a couple minutes and played with our nursery book.

But only for a few minutes because somebody was a tad cranky after the nap...

...so we turned to music to lift our spirits....

....and when that wasn't fool proof we headed outside for a walk. Yup - outside THREE times in ONE day. Have I mentioned how great birthdays are?

At last Daddy came home and we headed out to get a birthday dinner. We headed into Chick-fil-A and our little girl her first ever Kids Meal. Grilled chicken nuggets, fruit, chocolate milk.

 

This was the first time she had attempted a straw in her first chocolate milk from her first kids meal on her first birthday.

That is one happy girl.

And two proud parents.

The best part of the kids meal? The prize of course!

And the best part of a kids meal on birthday? The free dessert!

We didn't let her have too much of that though because we were excited to get home and get on with the customary birthday traditions of presents and cake/ice cream.

Before all that though Daddy started a brand new tradition. Before her birthday we agreed that since Ammon didn't get to be with us all day, he would bring Ammely home a balloon. That way she could be excited about something Daddy did for her. However, Ammon didn't come home with just ONE balloon. Nope. He came home with TWO balloons.

Here I am thinking, Awww, Ammely has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger.
And while true, Ammon had a little something more up his sleeve than I knew about.
Watch and see the tradition of Daddy's birthday balloon begin...

How brilliant is that? He has such sweet, thoughtful ideas! (As proven by other things too, like the "Week of Love" in February). We're excited to see her (and other children that may come to join us) get excited about the balloon and what it may hold. Money? Tickets? Day out with Daddy? Only time will tell...

And she did get to play with her other balloon eventually.

Next up was presents. And this picture was just too good to not share...just look at that expression! She was not so thrilled about the birthday hat. But we insisted.

With a little help from Daddy and Mommy she got to open the good stuff.

Pretty new hair clips.

Jumbo crayons and a new book

And Aunt Tamzon, Uncle JT and Cousin Rori were super awesome and had given Ammely a present ahead of time for us to open on her birthday.

We LOVE it! Thank you thank you thank you! Doesn't it look great up too?

At long last, the time had come for cake. So we put the candle in, snapped one last picture...

...and then shut off the lights....

So she's not a big fan of being strapped to a chair in the dark while other people play with fire nearby. Who would be?

We were just hoping the next part would make up for it.

A little apprehensive, but prepared with her utensils.

She gently laid down her spoon on top of her cake...

...and took a small sample...

Mmmm...this IS good!

Then really dug in!

It was a success. And we who made this person and then helped to make her birthday a success thought we earned a few pictures with the birthday girl.

However, we ran into some aesthetic difficulties when Daddy's hat...well...as he put it..."Even my hat is receding!"

So a few laughs and a quick fix later we were able to continue the pursuit of a family picture.

At last...we got it!

Even Ammely celebrated with us over this victory.

All in all, I think she forgave us for the candle portion of the evening.

At least until the "getting hosed down after the cake" portion of the evening.
But that was quickly forgiven too.

It was a perfect day. It couldn't have gone better.

Happy Birthday Ammely. We're blessed to have your sweet spirit in our family and we're thankful to be your parents.