Happy Halloween!

This is Avery's 2nd Halloween... but really the 1st one that we could actually enjoy and have fun with her!
We went trick or treating to "Aunta's" (my sister Sar) left a candy trail from the elevator to her Condo. Avery LOVED it! She took her time picking each candy up one by one. Then we went to Mike's parents. They had "special" cut out pieces of cheese for Avery. So thoughtful!
Avery's costume is just too cute! Oh, and she picked out her Halloween bucket all by herself too!

Mike and I dressed as nurses...yep... boring I know. Linda would not be impressed. Next year the dress up Queen will bring out the big guns again... duh, duh, duh.

HBD Avery!

Most people will say where did the time go,
I can't believe they are 1 already!
Well... we know where the time went,
and are glad to see this landmark!

We are blessed to have this sweet little girl in our family,
and look forward to many more birthdays to celebrate.
We wanted to keep it as a small family function. Avery will have the rest of her life to have Birthday parties with friends...
So we decided to be a bit selfish and enjoy this special day with close family.

Happy 1st Birthday Avery!
We love you!

She smothered the puppy with tight hugs... Her new favorite toy!

You're Number 1

Tomorrow Avery turns 1!!!

Avery will only be 1 once in her life! So this needs to be special! A special cake, for this special little girl.

Her bedroom, and some favorite toys are ladybugs. So, it seemed natural to have a ladybug cake!
We got a head start on her cake... juuust in case we needed to make a trip to DQ for a plan B.

Here's how we made it!

Iced and stacked 2 round cakes.
Then put it in the freezer for a few hours.

Mike did the first pink outline!

Filled in the pink icing, and white eyes!

Outlined the brown, and made circles.

Then back in the freezer for another couple hours...

Finally, the last layer of chocolate icing was filled in, and smoothed out.

It turned out pretty good!

I'm sure there's faster ways to do what we did!! This was a bit of trial and error, with ALOT of icing layers. It was a lot of fun to make! I didn't expect baking/decorating to be so enjoyable! After all that work, it just get's eaten anyways... Guess this year we don't need DQ ;)