It's been quite a month for festivities in Princess Marie of Denmark's royal household. As well as celebrating her own birthday on February 6, Prince Joachim's elegant wife saw her beautiful baby girl turn one on January 24. Little Athena Marguerite Françoise Marie is Marie's youngest child with Joachim of Denmark. The happy couple, who wed in May 2008, are also proud parents to three-year-old Prince Henrik Carl Joachim Alain.
To mark the important milestone in the young princess' life, her proud parents released a set of images of their daughter to share with the world.Dressed in a pretty blue patterned dress, Athena looks absolutely adorable in the series of relaxed snaps.She has clearly inherited her mother's big brown eyes, which are beautifully captured in one picture as she stares directly down the camera lens. Another photograph shows her resting her little head with a favourite cuddly toy close by.Perhaps the most touching image though is one depicting both Athena and Marie. It shows mother and her daughter playing and laughing together on the floor, offering a glimpse of the beautiful bond shared between the pair.
This wonderfully unguarded moment also shows Marie at her most natural; as a devoted mother. As well as her older brothers - Joachim has two sons, Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix, from his first marriage - Athena will have a great many other play mates as she grows up.The Danish royals are a famously close family, and Joachim and Marie are very much ingratiated within the fold. Joachim's older brother, Crown Prince Frederik and his wife Crown Princess Mary are themselves parents to four children. Their twins, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine also celebrated a birthday in January; they turned two on the 8th of the month.Frederik and Mary's eldest child, Prince Christian is now seven, while his sister Princess Isabella will turn six in April.