First Birthday Festivities!

Maya got lots of great pressies for her birthday. Mommy and Daddy got her a couple fun board books. Grandma T and Grumpa got her some cute little ruffle-butt chonies! They also got her a cool collage of a bunch of pictures of Maya from her first year. I still need to get a frame for it.




Nana and Papa sent a package with three outfits in it. I cut the tape and let Maya open up the package. She had fun playing peek-a-boo with her new clothes! I am in LOVE with the little cupcake hoodie.




For her birthday, Maya and I went this morning and had our portrait done again by Dan Peebles. The guy is RAD. He's done Zsa-zsa Gabor and David Carradine's portrait. His style is intense scenes with occasional flashes of nudity. We definitely kept our clothes on. Still, the guy is amazing. I should have a couple of the best ones in the next couple days, after he does his editing. The best part is, it was FREE! He actually called me asking if we could come in. He's beefing up his portfolio, and wanted to do some experimental photographs with black and white. I wore black with polka-dots, and Maya wore her little skeleton outfit. I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

Next, we went home for lunch and a nap. When Maya woke up, we went to a local toy store called Up in the Air Toys. It was their 20th birthday, so they had cake, a jumpy castle, and a real live unicorn! How could we not go? We didn't get great pictures, but it was actually a lot of fun. That toy store is really cool, too.



Next, we headed to the zoo. It was Maya's first time going to the zoo. We would have gone sooner, but ever since Maya has been old enough to actually appreciate the animals and understand what she's seeing, it's been freezing cold outside. Well, we bundled up and had a great time! Most of the animals were over it. It was late in the afternoon, they'd long since eaten, and it was chilly out. The plant-life was all winter-y, but there was this really neat tree with fuzzy pods on its branches. We had fun petting them.


Flamingos!


The chimpanzees were out in full force, though. The baby even came up and tried to steal a Nutri-Grain bar from some lady. Too bad there was glass between them. It was really cute!




The most surprising even at the zoo was that the rhinos were actually doing something. They usually just stand there and aren't interesting at all. Today they were rolling around in the mud, and scratching their sides on the rock right under us. It was really neat.




When we sat down to rest for a minute, Maya found a nice pile of leaves to play in. It's sad, but I think that was her favorite part of the zoo.




We came home and chilled out for a while before dinner. Maya got a birthday face bath from Peanut. Gross. Maya thinks it's just a riot. Strange child. She must've gotten it from her Dad's side of the family!



After dinner, it was time for cake. I told myself I was going to personally bake the most amazing Pat the Bunny cake. It was going to be glorious! Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling it, and ended up getting her a little piece of cake at Whole Foods. Hey, at least it was quasi-healthy, right?

Maya was so sweet! At first she just picked at the berries on top, but then once she got a little frosting on her fingers she dug right in. She never really made that much mess, and only got a little in her hair. She also liked sharing her good cake with her Mama. When she'd had enough she let us know that she was "all done!" What a little sweetie!