Happy Birthday to Ava (Times Three!)

Today is our niece Ava's very first birthday. To commemorate this momentous occassion is a post about her birthday party, a throwdown that went down on Sunday. Lucky little thing that she is, we sang "Happy Birthday" to her three times (as you will see).

I couldn't get a smile out of her for anything! She's very serious about this birthday business...

The Gang

Eagerly anticipating the next event...

Swinging like the crazy monkeys that they are

Time for cake. But where's the birthday girl?

Here she is, coming in on her sweet wagon ride with her mama

We sang (Happy Birthday serenade #1 for those who are keeping count). Then it was time for Ava to dig in. What came next was a First Birthday first for me (and believe you me, I have been to many a first birthday). As opposed to eating it, Ava prefered to smush smuch smoosh the cake in her hands. Hey, to each their own, right?

(Note that there is none on her face! But she's make a lovely mitten accessory out of the cake.)

Cole of course enjoyed himself thoroughly. I think he begged, borrowed and stole his way to three cupcakes.

Back at the ranch...

After My Gym with the kids, the whole family (all 867,000 of us) decended upon the house for a proper Cuban throwdown. Meat, lots of meat, potato salad, Cuban bread, and a swarm of flies of course.

When it came time for cake, we sang ("Happy Birthday" serenade #2). But Ava's daddy had some trouble locating the video camera, so we had to do an encore for purposes of capturing the memories ("Happy Birthday" serenade #3). She did not complain. But I had serious money down that one of these kids was going to dive straight into the cake if we didn't serve it up soon.

These two little cousins are quite the buddies.

And with that, another one of us is another year older.

It'll probably be another five minutes before I attend another birthday party.

As you can see, we know a lot of kids.