Avery's 1st Birthday Weekend

We had a busy weekend celebrating Avery's 1st birthday and hosting family who came to take part in the festivities...Avery's Grandma Woods (Colleen's mom) flew in from New Hampshire.  Avery's Grandma Ball (Jim's mom), Grandpa Ball (Jim's stepdad), and Uncle Adam (Jim's brother) flew in from Missouri.

Avery's actual birthday was Saturday May 14th.  The party was on Sunday so we could do a 1-year photo shoot on UNC's campus on Saturday mid-day.  Once we get photos back from the photographer we will post them online.  We had some great shots of Avery; some great family shots with Jim, Colleen, and Avery; and some great ones of Avery, Colleen, and Colleen's mom (3 generations of ladies).

After we did the photography session, we walked along Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill to get lunch

We ate at our favorite place there, Carolina Coffee House.

Despite the name, it is a neat pub-style restaurant with a good beer selection!

Later that night we went to Goodberry's, a local chain of ice cream stands that sells frozen custard.  Turns out we went the next 3 nights in a row too, Jim's mom loves Goodberry's!

Avery really enjoyed her Grandma Woods feeding her some too, it probably helped numb her teething gums..

The next day of the party we started the day by setting up decorations

Then Avery looked out the window seeing how would be the first to arrive!

Including us, we had 29 people for the party.

We grilled up 4 types of burgers (Beef, burgers, turkey burgers, veggie burgers, and mahi burgers).  We went through all 28 of them!  We also had homemade pesto pasta (Colleen made the pesto from the basil in our herb garden), homemade white-bean salad, and veggies.  We made cup-cakes for dessert.

After we all ate, Avery sat down in her high chair for singing of Happy Birthday.

She clapped when we were all done!

Then she ate the whole cupcake by herself:

Afterwards she opened presents, all the kids there helped her open them up!  She loved all the attention

We can't believe our little girl is now over 1 year old.  The first year has gone so fast!!!

Avery Cruising

One week before Avery's 1st birthday she is cruising around the coffee tables, couches, etc.  She's also looking more and more like a toddler and less like a baby each day:

Making a mess with the magzines on the coffee table!!

She'll probably be walking soon, maybe for her grandparents visit next week! 

5K, SPRING DAZE ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL, GARDEN, AVERY LEARNING TO WALK

We've been really busy lately!  Yesterday especially...

We went to downtown Raleigh for the Run For Our Heroes 5k Race (Benefits the families of police officers killed in the line of duty).  It was a neat course, right through downtown, around the State Capitol building, then through Peace College, and back downtown for the finish.  We did it with Jim's cousin John who lives near us.

It was absolutely perfect day out for it, mid-70s and clear skies.  On our walk back to the parking garage, we passed by the City of Raleigh's building, and it was named the Avery Building... So Avery had to get her picture taken sitting up on the sign!

Then we still got home in time to do some yard sailing, still wearing the bib number from the race

After that we walked over to Bond Park where the Town of Cary was having there Spring Daze Arts & Crafts Festival

We wandered around listing to the live music on the different stages, checking out the art/photography, and having some food to eat too.  We had soy barbeque sandwiches , you'd never known the difference between real meat ones, they were great tasting!  There were litterally hundreds of booths, 4 music stages, and great weather too!  They also had a section for Earth Day there, Avery and Colleen got their picture taken

On our walk back home, Avery and Colleen posed for a nice picture in front of the lake in the background, people were out paddle-boating enjoying the perfect day out.

Then we went to Durham to meet our friend Tina and her husband for Sushi.

Later after that, Avery was showing off her new skills!  She is getting really close to walking now, she can cruise with her walker

We also got our garden going this spring, we got a lot of our plants at the Raleigh Farmer's Market.  We planted bell peppers, tomatos, squash, cucumbers and strawberries.

We also have an herb garden with basil, rosemarry, and chives.

We wish every day could be filled with so many fun things!  Too bad every day isn't a weekend...