Little Hiccups: Happy Birthday Ava

Monday, 4 February 2013

Happy Birthday Ava

Today was Ava's 6th birthday. I can't believe that my oldest baby is 6 years old already!

Seeing as today was also Superbowl Sunday we celebrated her birthday yesterday with a party on our roof top. You may remember seeing it here.

Today had we planned to take Ava and Lola to Oakland Zoo as a birthday treat. We ended up having to put those plans off until next week due to track work on BART causing delays. Never mind. After such a busy day on Saturday it was nice to have a quieter day today. Ava unwrapped presents, we went for a bike ride, we played in the playground at Ava's school, we ate pizza from the Cheeseboard for lunch, we posed for some more photo booth shots and went out for Japanese for dinner. A nice day, even without all of the animals!

Photo booth fun for sisters

Here's a look at Ava's birthday...

Ava was so eager to open her birthday presents as soon as she woke up - which of course was much earlier than everyone else in the house would've liked to have woken up! She was pretty excited to receive a Password Journal from Lola and couldn't wait to set her voice password and start writing secret messages in it. Her first secret message? "My Mom stinks"! Thanks Ava. I'm not sure what's worse - the fact that I stink or that she called me "Mom"!

Opening presents with Lola

Ava's secret message written with invisible ink in her new password journal

Opening a present from Nana and Doug - new Peter Alexander pyjamas

Ava was pretty spoilt with some great presents - a Tocky alarm clock, Hotel Transylvania DVD, a brand new Mo Willems Pigeon book and of course her password journal which went everywhere with us today.

After a lazy morning we headed out on our bikes to Ava's school to play in the playground. We picked up a yummy pizza from the Cheeseboard (which was open for Superbowl pizza) and had a little picnic in the school yard. The girls had lots of fun playing in the "big yard" which is separate from the kindergarten yard that Ava normally plays in. Ava revelled in having the whole playground to herself which obviously never happens during school hours. Lola, with her fear of getting sand or bark in her shoes, stuck to riding her balance bike around and playing on the see saw near the edge of the playground. I really need to work out how to get her over her fear of sand and bark!

Swinging around

We played cops and robbers. Here is Ava the robber breaking out from her prison cell

I have the playground all to myself!

Getting the tyre swing all to yourself never happens on a school day!

When we came home we headed up to the roof for a few more photo booth shots. Lola had been ready for a nap when we took the photo booth shots yesterday at Ava's party so she missed out on the fun. I really wanted to get some shots of the girls together. The sun was getting pretty low when we went up onto the roof so the light wasn't quite right but I think we still got some pretty cute shots of the girls together.

Photo booth fun

I love my sister

Say cheese!

Happy birthday to me

As soon as the camera comes out, so too do the tongues!

For dinner we took Ava out for Japanese at nearby Zabu Zabu, here in Berkeley. Usually we would have sushi (prawn nigri are Ava's all time favourite) but this time we thought we'd try something different and ordered shabu shabu. Ava really liked helping to cook the meat and vegetables in the bubbling broth. I had been a little worried that Lola would try to help as well but luckily a bowl of edamame kept her distracted for quite some time.