Celebrating Alden

We celebrated Alden on Friday night with cake, presents and a slip-n-slide. He did that whole fight-the-nap-when-mom-really-wants-me-to-nap-well thing that day. Such a phenomenon to me. He napped a total of an hour that morning, when usually he naps about 4 hours each day. So by 6pm, the birthday boy was starting to fall asleep. We quickly had to get the cake and presents so he would be awake for his own party! You can see his was a little zoned.

But it made for good snuggles all around! It was a super duper hot and muggy day. A heat advisory was even issued. So we spent half the party inside eating and then went outside for the cake and presents.

I love these two pics of Uncle Kyle and the girls finishing Alden's cake. Look at their faces...

My mom got him this soft tree stump full of woodland stuffed animals. The animals come out and you can put them back in the stump. Alden LOVES this thing and Ivar put it in his crib. So now every naptime and bedtime when I put Alden in his crib he sits up and gathers his stuffed friends telling everyone in a falsetto voice, "hiiiiii! hiiiiiii! hiiiiii!" I shut the door and he happily jib jabs with his friends until they all fall asleep.

And here you can see the very first picture of Ivar's new rabbit (bottom left). More on her later. But she is getting excellent care for Ivar. He is very diligent and is taking his rabbit responsibilities most seriously.

 I think my niece Sonna took this picture of Oma Zina, and I think it is so gorgeous of her! She and Lisa literally came from the airport, straight off a flight from Jersey right to the party. And she looks radiant.

 Mostly it was just good family time. I didn't have a theme. I didn't have a single decoration. We just ate and celebrated Alden. I made him a butter cake with cocoa-cream cheese frosting. It was delicious. And I made everyone else cream-cheese strawberry pie. That was important to me...that we have good desserts and that Alden have a little homemade cake.

We ended the night with a slip-n-slide and setting up the new pool Mimi and Papa got Alden. It was so steamy that night...perfect for getting out the garden hose.

So there you have it. Alden is One. What fun!