Asher's First Birthday Party!!

Asher turned a year on April 2nd.  We did a couple birthday things then (of which I will post next) but we had an actual birthday Party on Saturday with some cousins (several times removed, but who's counting. Family is family!).  I thought pictures would tell the story best:

He got quite the haul.  Far more than I expected, Jeff and I only got him a couple things.  Good thing, too, he was pretty bored with unwrapping stuff by the time we got to some of the clothes and the video. (It's okay, that stuff is more for Mommy anyway)  So, Thank You everyone!

This was my favourite part.  Not because it was cake, because honestly I made a better one, but because it was an awesome Pirate Cake. 

 

And here's Daddy in his paper pirate hat!

I picked up a little frog pool and put some balls in it for the kids.  Asher was especially grateful as he is still not really diggin' the grass.

He and his cousin had great fun throwing the balls out onto the grass.

Here's his other cousin all decked out for the wonderfully sunny day.

The boys had fun taking turns on Asher's new tricycle.  That bar on the back for Mom to push is absolutely brilliant.

Finished off afternoon with bubbles!!

Then inside for more cake.  We learned our lesson earlier and just gave him little bits of cake to eat with no icing.  He enjoyed it much more this time.

A little dazed after all that sugar.

It was nice to see Asher's toys being enjoyed by all the boys.

Getting to know the uncle-type cousins (technically everyone's cousins just removed to different degrees, I think we'll just avoid the confusion and call them aunts and uncles).

The aftermath.  I figure the bigger the mess, the better the time was had by all.  By the looks of things we all had a very good time.

So now my little man is a whole year old.  On the one hand I can't believe how time has flown and it must have been just yesterday that I was checking into the hospital not a mom, only to check out again a few days later, A Mom...and on the other hand, I can't quite remember what life was like before Asher was in it, he must have been here forever (I know it sure feels like I haven't slept through an entire night forever).  It seems like he has very suddenly grown up over the last couple of weeks.  Taking the stairs like a pro, eating more by himself, figuring things out very intently, throwing tantrums when he doesn't get his way, all kinds of fun stuff.  I look at his cousins, one two months older and one a year older and I can't grasp how much he's going to grow up in the next few months.  It's not that I want him to slow down, because I'm excited about seeing him discover so much more of the world, but I'm just worried that I won't be able to keep up, that I'm going to keep treating him like my baby boy and forget that he's very quickly leaving babyhood behind.  I have so appreciated the various mom blogs I've been following lately (C. Beth, Lisa, Liz, Christy, Maya's Mom, Anna, RR and Sci-fi Mama to name a few) and I'm always looking for more.  I love the little peeks at what's coming and also some of the insights into where I'm at as some of these mom's have little one's within a few weeks of Asher.  

I have more rambling around in my brain but it will have to come out later.  DH is waiting on the couch with some popcorn and Supernatural.  Aaaah, relaxation.