Will's 1st Birthday!

On Friday, Will turned one! I can't believe that a year ago, I actually gave birth to a baby - amazing.  And he truly is such a happy & wonderful baby.

My mom asked Will if he wanted some chocolate, & he repeated "you want some chocolate?" (with a baby slur). It was hilarious - he was totally mimicking her.

Will w/ nana

Because Scott had school on Friday, we spent that day preparing for Will's party & celebrated with friends & family on Saturday instead.

Gail used to spend a lot of her free time decorating cakes, & taught me how to frost cakes/cupcakes, make decorating bags out of parchment paper, use the decorating tips, & manipulate the frosting on the cupcake with toothpicks & my fingers (I cleaned my hands thoroughly before doing all of this).

 Will kept crawling all over my legs while I knelt on the floor to decorate the cake (no the cake was not on the floor with me, I just needed to get down lower to see what I was doing, & my back needed a break from bending over the cakes for hours).

I wanted a Pirate Monkey & Lion theme, so I used the book, Hello, Cupcake! to learn how to decorate the lions & monkeys, & then added some pirate details.

Lions: w/ mini oreo eye patches

Monkeys with fruit-roll-up bandanas & frosting earings:

The yellow banana runts on the edge of the cake are 'crossbones': I had so much fun decorating these cakes - I never thought I was capable of doing something like this because I don't usually have the patience for it. It turned out so cute, & I'm really glad I could do something extra to make Will's first birthday treats & cake special.

The kids loved them, & even the adults were impressed (it's not normal for my dad or brothers to compliment the way cakes look, but they kept going back & looking at them to say how great they looked. And my niece has already requested princess cupcakes for her birthday). Aren't they fun? And they were so much easier to do than I expected.

We loved having so many people over to support Will, both our family & friends.

My sister(-in-law) Amy w/ Lily, & Timmy

Zach (also belongs to Steven & Amy)

Dennis & Scott

Lily & Carson were both fond of the cell phone.

Leslie & Sara

Ethan & Curtis

Will was all about the hugs at his party - he practically tackled Lily to give her a hug, & wouldn't leave Wes alone until he gave him a hug too (he's never tried hugging other kids before, so it was so cute when he started hugging his cousins).

Little cutie!

Parading down to the pinata.

My brother, Brad, bought fake-hair headbands for Lily & Sammie. I was so glad to catch Sammie pulling Lily's 'hair.' It's so typical of her - she's been doing this to Lily since she was a baby. I love these girls!

Will favored kicking the pinata to using a bat.

Zach was the one to finally break the pirate open & free the loot.

Lily, my dad, & Wes sitting in the grass while Dennis was all over the picture-taking.

Our little family.

Steven & Scott w/ Will: It really pays off to prepare good food for parties. I never plan enough ahead to do this, but with my mom's & Gail's help, I was able to put together a great spread: bread w/ spinach dip, bowtie pasta salad, a veggie plate, grapes, strawberries, little tuna & turkey sandwiches cut up for the kids - it was so good.

Timmy & Drew - they're such great friends & cousins.

Marching over to his cake.

He wasn't quite sure what to think about everyone singing "Happy Birthday."

He also looked kind of overwhelmed by the cake. What the heck was it for?

Will probably ate 3 bites of cake (& only because we put it in his mouth for him) & spent the rest of the time destroying it.

After cake, we all went on a mini hike on Mt. Diablo. It was a longer 'walk' than some expected, especially having to carry kids, but it was so beautiful. I wish I'd gotten some pictures - the leaves were changing to orange & yellow, the oak tree branches were arching over the trail, the moss on the rocks was such a bright, beautiful green, & we even saw deer down below the trail jumping across the small "stream" - if you can really call it a stream. It felt so good to get out & enjoy such a beautiful hike w/ everyone.

Some of our friends from back home: Tiffani, Leslie & Ben

Our little pirate: Happy Birthday sweet boy - We love you so much & are so grateful that you came to us!