It is a big day for our Logan! I cannot believe that he is actually a year old. The time has zoomed by. I will warn you that this will be a long post with lots and lots of pictures... When Jack had his first birthday, I made a cake from the Martha Stewart Baby magazine. Big mistake - I learned that 1) I don't like making cakes, 2) I am not very good at it, and 3) I felt like I had to make fancy cakes for my other kids, so I made a deal with myself that I would make a "fancy" cake for their 1st birthday, but not the rest. I had not decided on a theme for Logan's party until I saw a Martha Stewart kit to make these cute balloons in the clearance aisle at Walmart. They were too cute to pass up, so I decided that Logan's would have a barn yard babies party.
I also saw the 1st b-day shirt on clearance and had to get one. Totally not something that I would normally buy. He wore it all day long. It was clean all day long, and then he found and ate a crayon or two 1/2 hour before his party. Of course I had not taken pictures yet, so that is why the neck is a beautiful yellow-y/orange-y/slobbery mess.
I found some cute plates, cups, and other party stuff. We also invited our friends the Anderson's over to share in Logan's day. I was too dumb and tired to take pictures of them. I hate it when I do that, but my point is that I decided they would not like to eat a cake that Logan had put his hands in, so I also made Logan his very own mini cake. Here is the spread.
Before we ate cake, we let him open his presents. He got a few cute toys and some very cute outfits. Jack came shopping with me and picked out the mailbox in the picture. Logan loved it as much as Jack thought he would. Logan also loved the tissue paper and his giant ball.
Then we all sang Happy Birthday for the billionth time today (Sam sang it all day long and even spent a long time pretending that it was his birthday). Logan likes to be sung to.
We quickly traded the piggy cake with his own cake, and here are the action shots you have all been waiting for with play by play commentary by the proud mama.
1) Logan is not so sure about this strange item placed in front of him, plus everyone is staring and he has several cameras pointed at his face.
2) He tries a little lick of frosting, but still does not trust that anything good will come from this.
3) Mom gives him a bite of the chocolate. The genetic preference for chocolate is STRONG.
4) Ohhhh, he gets it now. The classic 1 year old cake smash!
5) But wait, is this a trick? Did anyone really think that a whole chocolate cake would be enough to keep Logan in his high chair. Do not estimate Logan's desire to remove himself from a highchair!!!! (and oh crap...I forgot his darling hat, but I think it is too late for re-staging. I will stick it on now and pretend like it was there the whole time)
6) Yes, there are more, but trust me it will be worth it. Sam gets into the game. He tortures Logan with a party blower. Logan tries to kick Sam out of the way (do you hear quite music playing "Love at Home" how about "Kindness begins with me"?).
7) This is my only child to actually crawl on top of his high chair and put his feet into his cake!
8) I decided we were done with the cake, and put it on the table. Logan decided that we were not done with the cake. This is the last picture I got before we stripped him and put him into a bathtub of water that was quickly filled with soggy floating cake. YUMMY! Logan remained in a giddy sweet sugar high for the rest of our evening while Jack and Sam acted like maniacs to get some attention placed back on them (lovely).
Happy Birthday to my sweet baby boy. I love you!
We spent a wonderful Saturday morning hiking Tubbs hill in Coeur d'Alene. This is about 7 miles from our house. It has been a while since I have been there, and it helped me remember why we love this place. I wish I had a tape recorder to capture all of the things Jack and Sam said. Jack packed 3 plastic bags (because I wouldn't let him have 5) in his pocket in case, "you know we find some bugs or a scorpion that we want to look at and enjoy for a while before we put them back..." He didn't find cool bugs or a scorpion, but he is pretty sure he found some dinosaur teeth or maybe they are just rocks, some petrified wood (also maybe a rock), an arrow head (probably just another rock), and a fossil (yep, you guessed it another rock). Sam won the contest of hilarity when he crouched down and gasped. Then he said, "Mom look what I found. It is a leaf!" or later when he got all serious, held out his hand, and said, "well, this is a rock." How about when he said, those are not dogs mom, they are "wolf pups". My favorite is when he told Tyler and me that we were super heroes because we saved him and Jack from falling. He also exclaimed that the last time he had been there was when I was in his tummy. (the kid hears everything!) They also loved exploring caves (or cracks in rocks, but there might have been a bear - maybe... or a squirrel, but probably just a rock). Some how I got to carry all of the dinosaur teeth, fossils, arrow head, and HEAVY rocks back to the car in my back pack. One baggy was used to keep a tiny buttercup flower - that ended up in my back pack too. Logan loved riding in the Kelty pack, and was apparently very comfortable. 
