What a whirlwind of a weekend, but we had a great time celebrating Taylor's birthday. This might require a day by day rundown.
Thursday, July 10th (his birthday!): started the day with his favorite breakfast. Blueberry pancakes! I put a candle in it, but didn't even get a chance to light it before he had taken it out and started eating his pancake. I had to dig out the middle because the candle had melted into the pancake. oops! Took an early nap, which unfortunately was only an hour and a half instead of his normal 3 hour. Had lunch, then headed to Aubrey and Will's house for a play date. The kids were all playing in the pool and sprinkler mat. Taylor does this sucking in air loudly thing when he is excited, and did it every time we walked over to the pool. He loves water! He and Will played a round of golf, with the kiddie set of course. Then it was back home to meet up with the rest of the family. Thankfully he got a bit of a nap in before the festivities started. My parents and my younger sister Mary and her husband Rob (in town from San Diego), came over and we BBQ'd, helped Taylor open lots of presents, and watched him eat cake for the first time. He was so excited about it that he started licking the frosting off before the candle was even blown out. At one point he had picked up the whole cake and was trying to get it in his mouth. We all got pictures with the birthday boy, then it was time for bed. We sang Happy Birthday to my Dad later in the evening, and he was kind enough to share his cake with us, unlike Mr. Taylor.
Thursday, July 10th (his birthday!): started the day with his favorite breakfast. Blueberry pancakes! I put a candle in it, but didn't even get a chance to light it before he had taken it out and started eating his pancake. I had to dig out the middle because the candle had melted into the pancake. oops! Took an early nap, which unfortunately was only an hour and a half instead of his normal 3 hour. Had lunch, then headed to Aubrey and Will's house for a play date. The kids were all playing in the pool and sprinkler mat. Taylor does this sucking in air loudly thing when he is excited, and did it every time we walked over to the pool. He loves water! He and Will played a round of golf, with the kiddie set of course. Then it was back home to meet up with the rest of the family. Thankfully he got a bit of a nap in before the festivities started. My parents and my younger sister Mary and her husband Rob (in town from San Diego), came over and we BBQ'd, helped Taylor open lots of presents, and watched him eat cake for the first time. He was so excited about it that he started licking the frosting off before the candle was even blown out. At one point he had picked up the whole cake and was trying to get it in his mouth. We all got pictures with the birthday boy, then it was time for bed. We sang Happy Birthday to my Dad later in the evening, and he was kind enough to share his cake with us, unlike Mr. Taylor.
Birthday Breakfast
Devouring of the blueberry pancake
Mr. Blueberry lips
Showing Auntie Mary his new toy
Opening his big present
Not what he wanted, I guess
Playing basketball with daddy and Uncle Rob
Eating frosting with the candle still lit
Sharing a bite with mommy
Easier than with a fork
Birthday boy with Nana and Grandpa...
...and with Uncle Rob and Aunt Mary
"Don't even think about touching my cupcake!"Friday, July 11th: woke up a little earlier than normal to go for a boat ride on our friend Allen's boat. Rob was the first to jump in and initiate the wakeboarding, but he hadn't even been up for 30 seconds when the back of the boat started smoking. 10 minutes later and some elbow grease on Allen and Jason, the broken belt was replaced, and we were all thankful that a spare was kept in the boat so we didn't have to jump in and push the boat back to the house. Jason took his turn, then Mary jumped in and showed the boys how it is done. :) It was a beautiful morning, especially since we were the only boat on a perfectly glassy lake. Afterward we headed to a great breakfast place that Jason and I discovered in Bellevue. It is a little family owned pancake house that has been there for 50 years, and despite their huge popularity have never expanded. Thankfully we came on a day that the wait was only 15 minutes. Then it was home to take naps and clean up after the previous evening's festivities. Later we enjoyed some Thai food and Crockett at my parent's house.
Saturday, July 12th (the big party day): thankfully we had already brought a bunch of stuff to Allen and Sandy's for the big party, because our car was still packed to the roof. I had a check off list with all the things we had to remember: Pack N' Play for Tay's nap, baby monitor, sleep sack, CD player with bedtime CD, scissors, tape, decorations, sand castle stuff, food for Taylor, his cake, etc. Yes, the list was much longer. We headed out early and I dropped Taylor and Jason off at The Little Gym for their class. In the mean time I made quick stops at Target, the grocery store, and the party store to pick up balloons. My intention was to get it done fast enough so I could drop it all off at the Sander's first, but I was running late, so Taylor was nearly suffocated by all the balloons in the back seat of the car, and I snuggled with the huge volleyball set in the front seat. I'm sure we were getting crazy stares from other drivers but I wasn't able to turn my head enough to look. Once to the Sanders, I got Taylor down for his nap, then it was decorate and prep food like mad people. My parents, Mary, and Rob came early to help with the last minute stuff which was a huge help! Taylor of course decided to sleep only 1 1/2 hours, so he had some lunch before everyone got there.
Then it was time for the party! I think there was about 40 people there: church friends, family, friends from high school. The BBQ was going, and people just enjoyed the nice sunny day on the lake. Unfortunately I had a dyslexic moment when I was making the invitations and mixed up two numbers in the address. Two people found it by following the balloons, but my poor aunt and uncle were driving around for a while. My mom finally checked her phone and saw they had called quite a few times. They arrived just in time to get some food, then watch Taylor eat his cake. Well, let me back up. I had tried to tone down the frosting (he got a bad stomach ache from the cupcake) by adding half whipping cream. Well, when I tried to frost it (30 minutes before the party), it just ran down the sides of the cake and looked like a mess. Thinking quickly, I scraped it all off, then used the cream cheese/whipped cream/marshmallow dip I had for strawberries instead. Much thicker and worked like a charm. So when we presented him the cake, first of all there were 40 people staring at him. Second, the frosting tasted much different than the first time because of the cream cheese. Third it was cold because I had put it in the fridge so I wouldn't have the melting problem again. To sum it up, he could have cared less about this huge cake sitting in front of him. He got a bite of the frosting and his whole body shuttered. He ate a bit more when we gave him a spoon to use, but pretty much it went untouched. Ah well, what can you expect from at 1 year old.
Confused by the candle
Finally eating his cake (with a utensil of course)
Mommy with the birthday boy
San Diego friends Eli and Holly with baby Ethan
Katie with smiley baby Greyson
Grandpa and Taylor playing Foosball
Taking a sip of Aunt Luellen's water
The boat crew
Lucy and Andrew in their "boats"
Taking a nap in Miss Sandy's arms
Rousing game of volleyball
Tay's favorite thing: walking in & out of the water
Discovering sand, on hands & in mouth
Taylor's Sports Illustrated poseThe rest of the party was full of sand castle making, volleyball, pool, boat rides, and just hanging out and talking. It was great to have Taylor surrounded by family and friends on his big day. He even took a nap in Sandy's arms as she sat on the porch swing. We decided since he had gotten a bit on the crabby side that we would skip the big present opening and just take them home. I'm sure there were some disappointed people who wanted to see the big show, but it made for a much happier Taylor. By the time we cleaned up, got home, and got Taylor settled in bed, it was almost 9pm, way passed his bedtime. Big day for a big boy.
Sunday, July 13th: Taylor was dedicated at church along with his little buddy Andrew. We missed the last dedication by a few weeks, so we asked our pastor if we could do it that weekend while my sister was in town. It was such a special moment, as our pastor challenged us and the congregation as well to be teachers and examples of Jesus to Taylor. He reminded us that this did not mean that his salvation was secured by doing this, because that is something he has to choose for himself when he is older. But it is more like we are presenting him to the Lord and making a promise to raise him to know of Jesus and His unconditional love. Taylor did start to get a bit antsy as pastor Barry was praying, but for the most part it went well. It would have been much easier when he was just a baby, though.
After church we hurried home to get tired Taylor to bed, then as my parent's babysat, Mary, Rob, Jason and I went out together. We hit up the bowling alley which was completely empty (probably because everyone else was enjoying the beautiful day outside). It was great just to talk and hangout without the distraction of Taylor. I'm proud to say I won the first game, but then Rob stepped up his game the second round and blew us all out of the water, bringing the Honer team to victory. There was a Dairy Queen next door, so after we grabbed some ice cream (medium cookie dough blizzard with extra cookie dough for me!) and enjoyed the nice warm afternoon. Then it was back to the house to say our goodbyes as we would not be seeing them again before they returned to San Diego. It didn't hit me till a bit after they left that it would be another few months before we would see them again, then I got sad. I wish we were all still close together like we used to be, and we could hang out whenever, and Taylor would actually know who they are. Hopefully some day we will all be back together again. Whether that will be in Seattle or San Diego remains to be seen.
So that was the weekend. We just barely survived all the activities, but had so much fun being with family and friends and celebrating Taylor's first year. It really has gone so fast. I still consider him a baby, but really he is a little boy now. More on all his tricks later with the 1 year Dr appointment review. I'll add weekend pictures when I get a chance as well.
