The big ONE

Well, folks, we made it. One whole year with our sweet Moo. Celebration was definitely in order--for all of us. It's a miracle any time we're given another year, but the first year especially. We're all kinds of grateful.

His actual birthday was on Friday, and Phil was able to be home most of the day, so we gave him his gift, a plastic Radio Flyer red wagon and pulled him around the driveway for a while. We even let him take his best stuffed friend Raffe on a wagon ride with him--a treat since Raffe usually stays in the crib. Based on this picture, I'd say he was a fan.

Then we headed to one of our favorite parks to slide, swing, play on the car-on-a-spring, and attempt a family self-portrait.

Did I mention this boy loves his daddy? Because he does.

We had his party on Saturday, and I prayed for good weather because we were having 30 people at a park and the rain plan was my house, which is a little too cozy for 30 people.

Side note: I used to make fun of people who had huge birthday parties for their one-year-olds, who wouldn't know the difference anyway. Chalk it up to one more instance where I eat my words about parenting. On top of having big families on both sides, we also wanted a few close friends to be there too; we wanted the "village" that helped us this past year to also get to celebrate with us.

Back to the weather, which was absolutely perfect--sunny, a little crisp, but not enough to even need a jacket. And no one else was having a birthday there that day, so we had the place to ourselves. Moo spent most of his time playing with trucks in the grass (no big surprise there). Despite his skeptical face in this picture, he really was having fun!

But he did stop to eat his birthday cupcake (big fan--thanks, Mimi!) 

And, of course open gifts. Here's one of his favorites:

I have lots of sentimental, I-can't-believe-it's-been-a-year-already kinds of thoughts, but for now, I'll leave you with one last picture from this morning. I love every single bit of it--especially the bed head. Like father, like son; those boys love them some cars.