: : Plenty of walking and exploring . . . 

As I was scrolling through my pictures for this post, I noticed there's a very common theme going on with us lately. It's feeling like summer is wrapping up and we're living like fall is a day away, I guess hoping to coax the seasons into changing.  

We're taking advantage of occasional rain showers to cool things down enough for us to enjoy an evening bike ride. 

I've been putting our oven to work roasting late summer vegetables and baking everything under the sun, including a massive fig tart.  

I've also been regularly working little-by-little to finish up some hibernating knitting projects, but after learning a new craft this past weekend, my needles have been temporarily replaced by a borrowed loom.  I can't tell you how gratifying it is to finish a scarf in under three hours.  If you ever get a chance to take a weaving class, do it! It's incredibly easy, and I doubt you'll ever regret learning how to turn yarn into fabric.  

And finally, Avienne has been learning so many new things lately. Walking is her biggest accomplishment of late, but she's also so close at perfecting her dismount.  It's so cute (and slightly terrifying) to see her spin around from wherever she's sitting to get her feet down first, then smile and clap with pride when they hit the floor. She's becoming a real toddler, and it's so bittersweet.

The weekend after Avienne's first birthday, we celebrated with a party at our house with friends and family. Our place is pretty small, so I was a little worried about how everyone would fit and if anyone would be uncomfortable celebrating in our cramped quarters. It was definitely cozy, but we managed to fit in and enjoy the company of friends and family all at once.

I started planning Avienne's birthday about a month in advance. I'm not really good at picking themes, so we thought it would be nice to have folks over for our favorite mealtime - brunch. I dusted off all of my crafting supplies and rediscovered my creative side when I set to work on the party invitations. I had so much fun making them, I even started daydreaming about having a greeting card business. (Maybe someday!)  We invited a handful of friends over who have babies, too, so we figured having a party at 11:00 versus later in the afternoon would suit their weekend schedules better.  In the end, I think it worked out pretty well for everyone.

I mixed up some fruit, bought a few Mexican pastries, croissants and beverages, but the breakfast tacos that my amazing mom whipped up earlier in the day were hands-down the highlight of our brunch spread.  You really can't beat homemade breakfast tacos in the morning.  After a grueling week of cake taste-testing, I settled on a vanilla and strawberry cake from Capital City Bakery.  It was pretty delicious, but next time, I'll order a much smaller one - we have so much cake stuffed into our freezer right now! Avienne had her own smash cake, too, but she hardly smashed any of it.  I think she may have had her fill of cake a few days before when she had her first cupcake.

It was a fun time, and I'm glad so many of our closest friends and family were able to spend some time celebrating for Avienne's first birthday.  Next year, though, I'm designating someone else photographer! These were the only decent pictures I was able to snap during the party.