Ava's 1st Birthday

Ava woke up the morning of her first birthday and promptly toddled into our bedroom and broke a glass that was sitting on my nightstand. But the rest of the day was a bit less destructive...unless you count her demolishing the ice cream cake that some friends of ours from church brought over to celebrate the big day.


We went to a gymnastics center where they have "open gym". All three girls had a blast with their friend Addison. There was a long trampoline with mats on either side to run across and jump onto. There were balance beams of various widths and heights. Kayla was really good at those. They had all sorts of different shaped mats to climb onto and slide/jump down from. There were uneven bars and a huge foam "ball pit" (they were actually large cubes). There was a slide into the pit as well as a rope swing. All the girls loved the slide. Kayla and Addison were really into the rope swing. Elise tried it, but was a bit scared falling into the pit from a rope in the air. Ava liked sliding down the mats into the foam cubes. Here she is getting lost in them. :)


We had a picnic at the park on the way home. Then it was nap time for the afternoon. A couple who attend Mass with us came for dinner. He is a pilot, so with his schedule, we haven't been able to plan a get together until now. She was born in Poland; his parents were born in Poland. They told us many fun stories of meeting and their life together thus far. We had a wonderful time and hope to make another get together happen again soon. They brought Ava a gift and supplied small personal ice cream cakes for everyone. Ava got a double chocolate cake (as you could probably tell from the pictures). Iwona (pronounced Ee-vonna)was a natural with the girls. Kayla and Elise convinced her to join them in their reading tent for a few stories and they had a ballet lesson afterwards. It was a lovely evening.