Big Birthday: Bonk + Bash!

Ok. It's happened. Over and done with. Piper is now one year old.

Big sigh.

But what a day/week/month/year!

Piper's actual birthday was really great. Matt ended up having the day off, so we could all spend it as a family. That was so special. She might not have a first birthday like that again.

She had some birthday pancakes with yogourt for brekkie (big fan, it seems) and made a good mess. I snuck some sweet potato in them pancakes and they were quite yummy! Nice and sweet and a nice warm colour.

And at some point, Matt brought his little Laser sailboat out and was setting it up for fun, and we realized that maybe we should keep it up for the party on Saturday. That ended up being the best idea ever! The kids loved it! And it was a great conversation piece, to boot.

The rest of the day was pretty low key. Piper had a massive wipe out on the drive way, which gave her a nice scrape right in the middle of her forehead, but nothing to mark off the year with a good bump. She survived.

We chilled the rest of the day, got some work done and then went out to dinner with friends in the evening.

Turning one wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. There were a few times when I looked at the clock and thought "this time last year we were...". It was pretty amazing thinking about time time last year. So much has changed, so much has been learnt and so much has happened! Who could have ever thought we'd have a year like this.

Wow.

And then onto our party on Saturday! If you didn't know, we all have birthday's within a few days of each other (Piper May 13, Frances May 16, Matt May 19), so we just tossed all the parties together. Though, really, the party was really for Piper. Not nearly as many people would have showed up just for us. She is a pretty special girl.

She had a special dress that her aunty bought for her while she was having her surgery and I had been saving it for just such a special day. (I like to think that) Piper's favourite colour is orange, so it suited well. We love lots of colour. Even though she slept through a good portion of the party, it was still great.

Lots of food, friends, some family and an all around grand ol' time. I am so glad we chose to celebrate in a loose, come-and-go-as-you-please sort of way as we got to actually visit with a good number of our guests, which I don't think we would have got to do if it had a shorter timeframe. We had people show up just before 11am, and the last people left just after 12am.

Yeah. Good long partaaay! We loved it. I think I'll buy more burgers next year.

I made approximatly 1 zillion cupcakes and they all disappeared, so that was a success. And I didn't take any pictures of them. As it happens, I totally forgot to take pictures until about 6pm. Yeah. And I sometimes call myself a photographer. Gah. Ain't that always how it goes?

Then it was onto the weekend.

Oh- time travel back to Friday! Totally forgot to say that Matt and I went on our birthday date! We went to an awesome concert to see David Gray in Vancouver and we had such a good time. I couldn't stop smiling for hours and hours after. It was a whirlwind day, but so worth it. I am glad we opted out of gifts this year and just acted like a young, dating couple (no, we didn't act like teenagers. Too tired). Did I say it was awesome already? Well, it was so stinkin' awesome! We've got to do that more often. Maybe not on the same night as the Stars on Ice, as parking was a whopping $23. Not cool.

Here is a family picture of us, taken on Sunday, my birthday. I am now officially 25. Yes, I know that makes me sound like a baby, but oh well. So far, I like the number.
Check out that bump! And she is pushing through the world's biggest molar, too, so she was pretty cranky and really clingy and really soother-bound. That night was really rough. Oh! And then got her shots the next day. Oh my. The day after that, she actually slept all day on me. She spent at least 80% of her awake time of the day in the sling and the rest, we spent on the couch, napping. I have never seen her like that. I did manage to finish my book (finally completed the Twilight series. Yikes. Bane of my existence! Took forever to get through that last one, but I am now done. And I am slightly underwhelmed. Sorry Twilight-ers).
Special cuddle times. Few and far between. But I savour them all.

So, where exactly will we be next year? This year has brought so many changes and surprises, I really don't even dare to dream what this next year will hold. I can be certain that the adventure-o-meter will be way up there. But only time will tell.

Happy birthday family. I am so blessed to call you mine.

And here is a little compilation of Piper from 10-12 months. I had a lot of fun with this one. I don't think I will be making these movies every 2 months... but we'll see. Enjoy :)