Sep 14, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday Noah!


So the day as come and gone, but the memories will always remain. Noah's first birthday party was a hoot. Grandma Candy and grandpa Harold have a huge backyard and deck, so we asked to hose the party at their house. We had a great group of friends and family that joined us in celebration and everyone seemed to have had a good time. Noah hadn't taken any naps durring the days leading up to the party (mostly due to his new learned trick of standing up in his crib), so mom and dad were worried that he wouldn't enjoy himself. Then Noah surprised them with a two hour nap just before the party and he showed up full of smiles and excitement for everyone.

After much debate on the theme for the party, we opted to just go for a white, blue and green color scheme. The party was mostly for the adults and Noah changes his favorites on a regular basis anyway. We did get tons of balloons (one of Noah's constant favorites, he points at them and says, "Ba" every time we pass one in the grocery store). All the adults helped intertain the few older kids that we're there and passed babies around to give parents a break.

Mom spent a lot of time in the kitchen days before the big event, making food and baking 3 cakes. The meal was light being that it was in between lunch and dinner. The cakes we're my prized accomplishment. Oh for those that don't know, I don't bake, so this experience was incredibly stressful at first but I am very pleased with the result. We had 2 adult cakes, 1 vanilla, 1 lemon, both with peach glaze filling (homemade with peaches from a local farmers market) and creamcheese frosting (of course homemade as well). Noah's cake was a sugar free banana cake (it came out tasting like banana bread but the consistensy was very dense) with blue tinted creamcheese frosting. The decorations on the adult cakes was blue and green tinted fondant that I cut into different sized stars and circles.


Noah "Oooo'd" and "Ahhh'd" at the candles and danced while everyone sang but when it came time to eat the cake, Noah didn't quite know what to do. See, mom doesn't usually let us get too messy with food and as much as we love to feed ourselves, we still don't know portion control so gagging is a usual reflex when mom lets us have free reign with food.

Noah started with a poak with a finger, then he tested the texture with a whole hand, then mom plopped a big chunk of frosting on his nose and mouth and he seemed to enjoy the taste

Before you know it, we were diging in


Noah didn't get too far into the cake, it was just too dense. But boy did he enjoy the frosting.


When we were done, we went gave out kisses and shared some of our frosting with everyone

We had blocks, bubbles and toys for people big and small to play with.

.. It seems birthday parties bring out the little kid in all of us ..


Noah especially enjoyed all the fun bags and paper that everything came in.


The gifts were cool too of course


The party was short and sweet. There was a constant cool breeze that sent a few parents with little ones home early and when it started to look like rain was coming we brought the party to a close. That left a little bit of play time for Noah when we got home and then we were off to bed at our usual time without the crazy sugar rush crash we were expecting.

Sep 2, 2009

Wednesday Play Date

Every Wednesday we have a play date with Auntie Beth and a few other ladies with babies. The time is more for mommies to catch up but we try to visit new places and squeeze in some baby interaction. Noah is the oldest of the group but you would never be able to tell, everyone is at such a different stage of growth and milestone... We have tons of fun though, it's great to see them as they grow.


Here's the group (Izabella 6 months, Nathan 6 months, Alexander 9 months, Noah 12 months)


Alexander and Noah weren't getting along this time around, poor Noah was distraught


There's quite a love triangle between all the boys and Izabella, it's hard being the only girl




The Stroller Brigade