Birthday Joy

What a whirlwind! We've had quite the weekend celebrating Nathan's first birthday. My mom & dad (Lola & Lolo) came into town on Friday to help celebrate the occasion. We've spent the last few days seeing the sights (a VERY windy Gorge, winetasting, etc), eating great food, and playing with Nathan.



Thank you everyone for helping make his day special!



He received a Noah's Ark and Elephant pull toy from Mom & Dad, clothes from Lola & Lolo, college money from Grandpa, Grandma, Great-Grandmother, and Great-Granddad, French/English children's books from Aunt Leah & Uncle Steven, a dump truck from Aunt Ang & Uncle Bob, and kitchen toys from Aunt Amy & Uncle Mark. Fitting, given his penchant for hanging out in the kitchen. Maybe he has aspirations of star chefdom (and fleeing the papparazzi) or he just wants to be an expert bowl-licker.



Typical of most one year olds, Nathan had a lot of fun with his birthday dinner - his favorite spaghetti and a chocolate birthday cake.



I actually made use of some of my baking skills to make this:



Nathan's cake was originally going to be a simple butter cake with chocolate frosting which then morphed into a black forest cake. Seems simple enough...until I could not find birthday candles in the regular grocery store so I went to Michael's. Evil Michael's was my downfall; for hidden among the birthday candles and icing tints was a 3D Rubber Ducky cake pan, Nathan's favorite animal. I was a goner. Needless to say, the pan came home with me where I dug out my seldom used cake/cookie decorating supplies and went to town. It turned out pretty well and I had fun doing it but I still don't aspire to be a pastry chef. I'll leave that to Stephanie....