They Say it's Your Birthday!

We started out Arista's birthday on Saturday by taking her to the National Zoo. It was a beautiful day outside, but the animals thought it was too cold. Most of them were sleeping but, luckily we were able to see a few.







To end our Zoo experience we bought some cotton candy. There was vending machine that made fresh cotton candy...how cool is that? Arista wasn't quite sure about it, so she fed some to Daddy. When she remembered how yummy it was, she went to town!











After the Zoo our friends Stan and Leah came over to meet Arista. They gave Arista 4adorable stuffed beanie babies. Her favorite is the pink and white polka dotted dog. Thanks Stan and Leah!!







Later that night Arista played with Grandma and Grandpa while I started making her birthday cake. Chris and I decorated, wrapped, frosted, and cleaned until 3am! It was totally worth it. I decided to go with a Rainbow theme, because Arista is our Rainbow baby.





We put Arista in her Ariel dress and took her downstairs to open her gifts. She was so excited to see everything.



Arista received many fun toys, clothes, books, etc. She had a blast playing with everything, and even got a little overwhelmed.





Arista wore her first birthday outfit to church, and everyone thought she looked adorable. After church Arista played with her toys and then we stripped her down to eat her first real dinner, spaghetti with meat sauce. She LOVED it!









Here are the cakes I made. Arista's own personal one was german chocolate with buttercream frosting, and ours was german chocolate with the pecan frosting. They were so much fun to make.





After a chorus of singing "Happy Birthday" Arista dug right into her cake. She enjoyed squeezing the frosting inbetween her fingers, and throwing it all over the place. She didn't eat much of it, but had fun playing in it.













The "aftermath"





We were mean parents and put her right into the tub afterwards, which she was not too happy about. After her bath she talked to Grandma Mary on webcam, and opened her main gift...a piano. It's a little upright piano, and she loves it. Even Chewy has been plunking a few notes on it as well.







After a long and tiring birthday Arista fell fast asleep. We were thrilled with how everything turned out, and are so grateful to all our family and friends who thought of her this day. Arista truly is our Rainbow after the storm, and we are so blessed to have her in our lives. Happy First Birthday Arista!! We love you!