JAMES' FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY

Today we celebrated James' 1st Birthday one more time, with a real party! Decorating was fun, and James thought the balloons were cool (as long as they were nowhere near his face):

Jay was SUPERDAD yet again today, finishing all the cleaning while I baked. Then he ran out and filled all the balloons, and picked up the pizza. We went with a baby dinosaur theme, and the orange and blue accents were intentional (Go Gators)! I think the finished product looked pretty good:

The lunch spread included cupcakes and cake (a giant cupcake), chips and veggies with dip (with dinosaur food, of course... the broccoli), "1" cookies, and "dinosaur eggs" (Easter candy):

Pizza makes a boy thirsty (and yes, he still drinks like this all the time):

Getting ready to pick his whole cupcake up and take a bite (just like last time):

Plenty messy by the end though... He ate all the cake, but left most of the frosting behind (on his shirt):

Everyone knows I LOVE cupcakes, and this is certainly the largest cupcake I've ever seen:

Here is James opening some of his gifts (following an outfit change, and a good face and hand scrubbing):He received some great books, a wooden xylophone (which he knew how to use immediately, thanks to some practice with Azure's), a set of 100 wooden blocks (and yes, I teased Al and Christina that I'd be thinking of them every night as I pick up those 100 blocks from around the house...), and some cute summer clothes (the "I love Mom" shirt being my favorite):

We didn't think to grab a photo before Jason and Amy and Azure left, but here are all the Dads and their boys: Stirlin and Coltin, Jay and James, Al and Will, and Ned and David. We ALMOST had them in birth order, but Will and David would have had to switch places):

Right after the Daddy Photo Shoot, as we were saying goodbye to everyone, James passed out on my shoulder. PERFECT timing! The 3 of us high-tailed it up to bed for a family snooze. Our son is so adorable:
There are 3 things I'd like you to take note of in the following photo (taken towards the end of James' 3 hour nap - we TOTALLY exhausted this boy today!)...

1. The boy is SMILING in his sleep (must have been dreaming about cupcakes, eh?)

2. He has his legs in a weird position (they were crossed through most of his nap)
3. His hair is crazy, as usual (Ned actually called it a "rooster" hairdo, which is quite fitting)

When we woke up, we realized that we had failed to wear the birthday hats during the party. Of course, we had to remedy that with a family photo:

It was a great day and we thank everyone who was able to attend, either physically or in spirit. Important times like these are extremely hard to be away from family, and having our friends help us celebrate this big milestone really made the day special. Thank you so much! We also really appreciate all the gifts and well wishes on James' behalf (not just today, but over the past week as well), and we are especially grateful to those of you who took the time to send James a letter for his treasure chest!

Of course, we must thank our birthday boy, who was a great sport today, sleeping until 7am, "helping" us finish the party preparations, and staying happy throughout his party even though he didn't get so much as a catnap this morning. You're a superstar little man!

So thanks again to all, and just one more time, all together now: "Happy Birthday James Henry!"