Maddie & Evelyn: Evelyn's First Birthday

Well it is tough to believe but a whole year has gone by. Our little Evelyn Mae is turning 1!

Following in her sister and mother's footsteps, her birthday did not last just one day ... it lasted over a week! Nicely done, Evelyn. Pop Pop and Suze came in on Thursday night and had a lot of fun hanging out with their girls.

On Friday night, Maddie helped me start Evelyn's birthday cake. She helped with the design and was the overall supervisor - and taste tester.

The next day, we took PopPop and Suze (and Daddy for the first time) to Multnomah Falls. It was beautiful and we made it all the way to the top again!

Twins at the top

On Saturday night, we celebrated with cake, cupcakes and cake balls. I love making birthday cakes. Maddie's first cake was actually designed and created by Nana and Katie - it was a giraffe toy that Maddie just loved. I tried to think of what Evelyn loves the most and there really was nothing. Then we were at the park one day and, as I extracted another piece of mulch from her mouth, I realized ... Evelyn loves MULCH! With a little experimenting, it turns out the kit-kats can look a lot like mulch. This may not be the pretties first birthday cake ... but I guess it won't be forgotten.

Maddie told me how to decorate the other cupcakes (with Evelyn's other favorite things) - banana, peach, carrot, puffs, swings, and her blue bath toy. Maddie decorated the cake balls with LOTS of sprinkles.

Cheese!

Evelyn got a special cupcake with puffs on top ... and we let her go to town!

Then we opened some presents. Maddie was a VERY good helper and loved figuring out how all the presents worked. Someone has to test them out, right?

Tea party time

The next day was beautiful so we headed out to Cannon Beach again. Luckily the sun was shining and it was not too cold for October. The water, on the other hand, was FREEZING! Even Daddy called it that so you know it was really, REALLY cold!

Maddie was playing in the water so Evelyn wanted to go too. We kept trying to get her to walk and she just wanted to crawl. It had to be SO cold. This is her looking at me after repeatedly trying to get her out of the water.

It was only after Nick had taken all her clothes off that I realized the change of clothes was in the car! Naked baby at the cold beach!

Maddie can't get enough of the beach. She just loves it!

I bundled Evelyn up and she kept taking my sunglasses so I just let her have them in the end. This picture cracks me up!

We brought stacking blocks to the beach and had a lot of fun.

The next day was a perfect day, so Maddie decided we should go for a picnic. I knew the perfect spot. Nick said that the view from the top of Council Crest was supposed to be beautiful. He was right! It is the highest point in Portland and you can see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier on a REALLY clear day (it was not clear enough to see it but we could see the other 3). I got some cute pictures of the girls in the green green grass.

The next day (very full days!) we went to the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvy Island. It was a lot of fun and another beautiful fall day.

Maddie rode in the cow ride - too cute!

While Evelyn played on the haystack.

Maddie joined us when she was done. Such sweet sisters.

My silly little pumpkins.

Evelyn found something even more messy than mulch ... SAWDUST!! Woo hoo!

We found a zucchini ... pretty impressive.

Maddie and daddy went through the haunted corn maze. We all know that I get lost out in the open so Evelyn and I went and looked around.

Our little pumpkin

We go to get a pumpkin every year.

2009

2010

2011

(2012 we were bringing our own little pumpkin into the world so we missed a trip)

2013 - with both girls

Finally it was Wednesday and it was Evelyn's actual birthday! I was not going to make another cake but we needed something so instead, Maddie and I decided to make giant chocolate chip cookies and put icing on them spelling Happy BDay EVELYN