Ethan's first birthday is rapidly approaching and this last weekend we had a birthday party to celebrate! My grand-parents Earl & Rae and my mom and Shane all flew out from California to join us for a Texas birthday party. It was such a nice blend of family from California, Texas and friends. We had the party at Ethan's Uncle Joel and Aunt Jenny's house in Austin (thank you guys), which provided us with a little more space to party! Larkin and Willa helped me decorate the house in Sesame Street themed decorations, they were so cute telling me exactly where they thought the decorations would look perfect. They really have an eye for it because the house looked amazing once we were finished. Jenny and I made a joint attempt at Ethan's cake (she did all the professional looking icing work) it was a giant cupcake and the top part was a replica of Cookie Monsters head with a chocolate chip cookie stuffed in his mouth! When it came time to sing "happy birthday" we told everyone that we had to sing softly because due to a trial run the night before (in celebration of great grandpa Earls birthday) we knew that if sang loudly he immediately starts to scream. I guess we should have figured because he is so scared of loud noises. As everyone started to sing he slowly started to twist his mouth as if he was about to start to cry but then pulled himself together (proof of the change to a big one year old) and decided it was great and ended up applauding everyone after the song was over.
Matt cut up a regular person size piece of cake and plopped it down in front of him on his high chair tray. At first he just sort of played with it. But after the cake touched his lips it was game over, he dug in. He devoured that piece. In fact at one point it looked like he was going to fall right over onto his cake from the amount of sugar he just took in. After he was done he threw one arm up in the air like "yah I did it." The rest of the party he spent playing with the balloons we got as decoration. They were pure entertainment for him and he kept hitting them and laughing. The girls helped us open his presents because he wasn't interested in ripping paper which surprised me, since he has pulled tissue paper, toilet paper among other things before. I think it was once he saw the first toy he got he zoned in on that because it was something new to play with. Overall it was a great party we had a lot of fun and were so touched that everyone came to celebrate this monumental occasion for our family. I think it is more of a celebration for Matt and I that we made it through the first year.
For the rest of the weekend and visit with my family from California we relaxed and had fun. We took Ethan to the pool at my grandparents hotel. He loved it. Matt was pushing him around in the water and he was splashing his hands and kicking his feet. He was even sitting on the edge of the pool and would fall forward into one of our waiting arms. No fear for this little guy. Each time he goes swimming he gets more and more comfortable its really cute. Later that night we had dinner at Bill and Gerry's and it was such a cheery atmosphere. It is so nice to have parts of the families together, that is one of my favorite things is to be around family. Matt and our little family definitely feel the love from everyone, thank you!
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| Cookie Monster Cake |
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| Yummy cake |
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| Party boys |
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| Yah I'm done |
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| Everyone enjoyed the blue cake! |
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| Ethan & his Great-Grandpa Earl & Great-Grandma Rae |
